Okay, look, this is the July review. And yes, it’s September. Perhaps the August review will make it out before the end of the following month? We’ll see. Meanwhile, whatever month it is, our search for the 21 best albums of 2021 continues!

If this is your first time here, I’m listening to new releases each month, sorting them into categories, and then I’ll do a final shakedown to get the best 21 after the year ends. If you missed previous months, you can find them here:

( January February March April May June )

This is one of three music-related blog series I’m doing this year. We’re at the halfway point of my ongoing review of critic’s choices for the best albums of the 2010s, and my final installment on my reviews of the 20 best albums of 2020 is here.

Before we go on, a quick note about the three categories:

Yes– These are the albums that, based on my initial listen, are in definite contention to be considered for the 21 best albums of the year. As of the end of July, this list is up to 140 albums, so, you know, it’s going to be a brutal reckoning at the end.

Maybe– These are albums that had definite strengths, but about which I have some reservation. I’ve noticed over the years that sometimes “maybes” linger, so I’m giving them a category just in case.

No– These albums are not in contention. Some of them deserve discussion, though, which I note.

And with that, we better get going, because I listened to 95 new releases in July. So there’s a lot to get through!

Billie Eilish, Happier Than Ever– Her smoky vocals and sharp emotionally complicated lyrics are in top form here, and the music works well with it, be it low-tempo piano cords, waves of electronic shimmer, or smooth beats. A worthy entry, all the way around.

Chet Faker, Hotel Surrender– This alter ego of Australian musician Nicholas Murphy brings a piece informed by electronica, R&B, and 70s flourishes, with a nice spare power, clean production, and some interesting musical, vocal, and lyrical twists. It’s really good, doesn’t sound like everything else I’ve heard this year, and also threw in a Star Trek reference. So, you know, that’s it for me.

Cookie Kawaii, Vanice– Oh my gosh, I love this! Apparently, she’s a Jersey club DJ who broke out on Tik-tok. There’s a2021 story for you. And here she’s delivering electronic dance/hip-hop that’s pure catchy fun, and is smart and coming from a unique point of view.

Dave, We’re All Alone in This Together– Dave is a British hip-hop artist, who turns out to have fierce and intelligent vocals and lyrics, delivered on a nuanced and subtle musical background. His songs deal with the personal and with social issues, and sound authentic and powerful in each vein.

Jodi, Blue Heron– Stripped-down, plaintive, vaguely melancholy. Offbeat and vulnerable lyrics and vocals, with a lurch that is reflected in the music sometimes too. In all, it’s really affecting despite its low-key tone.

John Glacier, SHILOH: Lost for Words– She (this London-based artist, despite the name, is a woman) delivers a disorienting tapestry of beats, music and vocals, informed by a left field hip hop sound and a strong, personal lyrical narrative. A great, low-key gem.

kolezanka, Place Is– Musically and vocally a swirling incantation, with the sweetness of melody, but the surprise and sometimes bite of musical experimentation. Kolezanka is the debut solo project of Kristina Moore, an Arizona native and current New York City resident who is a veteran of several indie bands. You can tell she’s learned her craft well along the way.

Ledisi, Ledisi Sings Nina– Ledisi is amazing, and the Nina Simone source material is great as well. So we have a solid basis, and from there the vocal performance is top-rate, the lyrics are smartly updated, and the musical delivery is in a swinging jazz style that’s a delight.

Los Lobos, Native Sons– Los Lobos is here paying tribute to their roots with a dozen covers of artists from Los Angeles that have influenced them. Multiple genres and eras from the 40s to the 80s get a  turn, in fitting with the band’s own eclecticism. As both a love letter to LA, and a tribute to their influences, it’s pretty effective. And as a showcase for the band’s 40+ years of craftsmanship it’s smooth and powerful.

Lucinda Williams, Lu’s Jukebox, Vol. 2: Southern Soul – From Memphis to Muscle Shoals– Part of the “jukebox” series of Lucinda Williams covering favorites. The source material for her covers here is great stuff. And she covers it well- her strength in terms of musical approach and sensibility fits it so well.

Mega Bog, Life, and Another– The music is acoustic with hints of jazz, flamenco, brill building pop, brittle noise, unusual vocals (sometimes quirky, sometimes whispery, sometimes discordant) and smart, off-center lyrics. It puts me a bit in mind of Laurie Anderson, Lydia Lunch, and the musically sharper side of Ani DiFranco. overall, the whole thing sits on the fine edge of charming and challenging, and that’s a great fence to straddle.

Molly Burch, Romantic Images– Musically and vocally, this sounds like its title-bright and lush with romance. A lot of the songs here felt familiar, in that “this is that song I used to like!” kind of way. One of the songs specifically pitches the joys of nostalgia too, so I think she knows what she’s doing.

Patrick Paige II, If I Fail Are We Still Cool?– The title of this is so charming I was pulling for it on that basis alone. As it turns out, his flow is smooth, the lyrics are sharp, clear and positive, and the production and sampling is spare and off-center (jazz, video game sounds, synth sound effects all make an appearance) in a way that drives everything along. There’s even a framing motif of an airplane flight that actually works with the theme of striving for personal uplift!

  

Rose City Band, Earth Trip– Country inflected indie with a warm hazy feeling. It reminds me of a certain vein of Neil Young and CSN&Y, but with a contemporary flourish. This turns out not to be an accident as guitarist Ripley Johnson apparently aims for this space in his projects. Just a delightful listen the whole way through.

Sault, Nine– I listened to Sault’s two 2020 releases as part of my review of the critic’s top twenty albums for that year. Darned if they weren’t both excellent, and this is too. Sault is an anonymous British hip-hop collective that mixes influences from electronica, hip-hop, and classic soul in a dizzying and skillful way. The musical side alone would be a treat, but then they have sharp, lucid, and uplifting lyrics and vocals on top of it.

Sonny & The Sunsets, New Day With New Possibilities– It started off sounding like moody and atmospheric acoustic folk with country flourishes, then got weirder and funnier from there. It reminds me of the attention to solid musicianship married with intelligent lyrics and a big sense of humor that Camper Van Beethoven had. Also more than a hint of Jonathan Richman. And it turns out they’re a San Francisco band, so no wonder I like them!

The Go! Team, Get Up Sequences Part I– So fun and energetic- it mixes full on indie rock in a synth/bedroom pop vein, 80s-flavored hip-hop, and what sometimes sounds like high school band practice. This the 441st new album I’ve listened to this year, and nothing else sounded like. And not many were as delightful either!

The Wallflowers, Exit Wounds– So, I’m from the 90s musically, thus I’m going to be interested in the Wallflowers based on lingering love for their 1996 album Bringing Down the Horse. Also, I’m a huge Bob Dylan fan, so I’ll always be curious about what Jakob’s up to musically on that basis. The good news for me on both fronts is that, without ever sounding derivative, he does remind of his father, and he continues to have his 90s gift for incisive lyrics, and a way with melody within solid rock structure. This album works, start to finish.

Tones and I, Welcome to the Madhouse– This Australian singer-songwriter delivers dance music as madness. The opening is cheerful and truly unsettling. Subsequent tracks are more conventional but still have a lot of intelligence emotional bite and surprise twists, unusual flourishes to both the music and the lyrics.

TORRES, Thirstier– Hello, is this a guitar wall of sound? With pleasing outbreaks of dynamism? And smart heartfelt lyrics delivered via lackadaisical yet powerful vocals from a frontwoman? I am practically required by law to like this combination. The album even has an ending that feels like an honest-to-goodness ending! TORRES is Mackenzie Ruth Scott, and I approve her message.

 

Wavves, Hideaway– Great lo-fi ringing indie rock from this San Diego band. Callbacks to 50s/60s rock, garage rock, the rockier side of 80s alt. Male and female vocalists trading off too, which you don’t hear nearly often enough. If you’re like me, this may restore your faith in the anarchic appeal of real rock.

Willow, Lately I Feel EVERYTHING– This was much rockier than I was expecting. Mostly rocking from a young Taylor Swiftian kind of direction, but full of attitude and musical verve. And sometimes coming in from metal and even Bikini Kill territory, with R&B and hip-hop dashes along the way. Well done young Willow!

Yola, Stand For Myself– Rich, sparkling, full, R&B. This British soul artist’s voice is a force, and musically this has a modern classic sound from all kinds of Soul/R&B directions. You’re in good hands from start to finish.

Maybe

• Andy Bell, Another View  -This is not Andy Bell of Erasure, but Andy Bell of shoegaze pioneer Ride. Let me tell you, this makes it difficult to search for. An electronica album by a shoegaze pioneer, well, I thought I was in trouble. But it turns out this is one of the livelier and more interesting electronica rides of the year!

• Attacca Quartet, Real Life– One source described this as “classical crossover”, and I can see what they mean. A classical quartet goes for a spin that, while instrumentally still classical, has the flavor of rock and electronic dance music. It’s lively, powerful, and feels like it understands the spirit of rock, which I often wish rock still did. Call me crazy, but despite/because of the unusual genre approach, I think it could be a contender!

• Barenaked Ladies, Detour de Force– They’ve never been less than really fun, and it’s still true here. Some of it feels a little by rote, but other tracks really stand out, and it’s impossible to find anything bad in this album. So I’m not sure it reaches “out of the park, best of the year” status, but maybe?

• Bleachers, Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night– Headed by very in-demand songwriter Jack Antonoff, Bleachers at times sounds like new wave, at times sounds like Springsteen (no accident, they’re both from New Jersey and Bruce even appears on one of the tracks), and their album is full of songs about yearning for rising above. The only thing that bumped it off of “yes” was the decision to end on two very muted low-key tracks in a row.

• Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, 662– You know who’s got it going on as a genre? Contemporary blues. This album is muscular, electric, skillfully played. It falls prey a little too much sometimes, maybe, to production slickness, but really it’s pretty excellent. I wish rock would learn this lesson and be unafraid to produce unapologetic genre music.

• Dusted, III– I kept thinking this was too much in a muted acoustic vein musically and vocally, but the emotional complexity, intelligence, and bite of the lyrics kept winning me back. Well done, Canadian indie rock band! I’m telling you, Canada is where it’s at!

• Dave McMurray, Grateful Deadification– A jazz fusion great makes an album of Grateful Dead covers. How’s that for an album concept! My 80s alt teen self would have been aghast at two of the great enemies- Jazz and the Dead- being combined, but my more nuanced adult self thinks this take on it often works surprisingly well.

• G Herbo, 25– There’s some great song structure work here and powerful clear flow, but it does tip into the autotune school of hip-hop on some tracks. Also, the subject matter and personality behind it is often quite interesting and revealing, but it dips into gangster cliches. On the other hand, he also questions these same tropes, and expresses a yearning for rising above it. And as it goes on, this actually increases.

• Laura Mvula, Pink Noise– Starts off with those nice sharp metallic beats from the 80s, and strong vocals. It has a late-80s soul/R&B feel, also informed by jazz, and the dub/Caribbean influence often found in British soul/R&B(which makes sense since she’s British). I wonder about the dated feel, and it’s a little more produced than I often like things, but it’s such a fun mix, and her strong presence carries it through.

• Marisa Monte, Portas– I’m not really up on my Afro-Brazilian pop/jazz artists, but she seems like a really good one! On the one hand, it’s not Portugese’s fault, but I don’t understand a word of Portugese. On the other hand, this is so engaging and charming. So maybe we average out at “Maybe”?

• Prince, Welcome 2 America– This posthumous album is from unreleased 2010 sessions, but darned if they don’t fit 2020/21 weirdly well, which is one sign of his power. It’s lyrically, vocally and musically for the most part subtle but tight, and full of the utopian themes were one of Prince’s classic preoccupations. This isn’t the most innovative thing he’s ever put out, but it is eerily resonant of our moment.

• Rodney Crowell, Triage– A country music veteran who helped kick start the neo-traditional movement in the 80s. This outing is often very personal and introspective (fueled both by the influence of the pandemic, and a nerve disease he has developed). The only reservation is that the music and lyrics sometimes go for an almost cliche standard, but he always sound sincere, and affecting. Some good covers, and his originals bring to mind Neil Young and Bob Dylan, which is a pretty impressive thing to have one’s originals do.

• Son Volt, Electro Melodier– When the principals of Uncle Tupelo went their separate ways, the way Jay Farrar went was to Son Volt, where he continued a sound rather like Uncle Tupelo’s. Which is great! The lyrics do tend a little toward the klunky side of topical here and there, in a way that was charming for an 80s underground band and isn’t as much now, but that’s about my only reservation.

• Taphari, Blind Obedience– A fun dynamic hip-hop outing, full of unusual musical, vocal, and lyrical choices that evoke a kaleidoscope of ideas and images. A little light/not always coherent, perhaps, for annual best. But maybe not!

• The Flatlanders, Treasure of Love– Founded in 1972, The Flatlanders were a short-lived country rock/outlaw country band, but the individual members went on to long careers harking to traditionalism, which has fueled interest in their reunions over the years. There are a few originals here, mostly covers. This sounds just like you’d expect based on that, which is a sort of a minus- is it too familiar?, but also a strong plus- it sounds timelessly classic.

• Tom Petty / Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Angel Dream– It’s a bit of a peculiar story. This album features songs from his soundtrack for “She’s The One” in 1993, but it’s not simply that soundtrack- it features some, but not all of the songs from it, and adds four previously unreleased songs from the same period. And it was released by his estate, so it’s official, and in, a way, a new album in its own right. The peculiarity is keeping it from “yes” for me, but it is such an excellent window into one of his most interesting and often overlooked periods.

• Towa Tei, LP– I do have a generational soft spot in my heart for Deee-Lite, so maybe I’m biased, but this album reminds me of how fun electronic music can be. How it can be clever, knowledgeable of and conversant with musical idioms and what makes a song work, weirdly electronic and futuristic sounding, high energy, and just joyful. It got just bumped out of “yes” by having an out-of-tone with the rest of it dreamy slow number at the end, but otherwise excellent. Thanks Towa!

• U-Roy, Solid Gold– A fitting send-off for a reggae veteran who is also often credited as one of the inspirations for the development of hip-hop. This album, completed in 2020 and then followed shortly after by the 78 year-old U-Roy’s passing in February of this year, is chock full of well-used guests, and  excellent songs with the particular spiritual-political charge and simultaneous joy of Rastafarian-inspired reggae. If not for two 15-minute versions of the same song in a row at the end, it would have been an automatic “yes”, but even that couldn’t fully defeat it.

No

• Alasdair Roberts/Volvur, The Old Fabled River– If you say “Scottish folk musician” to me, I’m well-disposed in advance. That being said, it was a little too all in one groove on the mellow side of folky to stand out. 

• Always You, Bloom Off The Rose– Lost 80s alt album of the intersection of synth and moody pop rock variety? It was very pleasant, but it got a little too into the sameness of its own grove after a while.

• Amaro Freitas, Sankofa– A Brazilian jazz album is bound to be a little borderline in terms of what I’m looking for, but, no stone left unturned. It was very nice, but in a too low-key, mellow way to really leave much impression.

• Anika, Change– This British/German musician, journalist and poet delivers electronic/dance music, but with a spare post-punk edge, high intelligence, and a somewhat unsettling lyrical and vocal presence. The best tracks are great, but it’s a little too inconsistent between the ones that really hit and and muted fade-to-background numbers.

• At The Gates, Nightmare of Being– Swedish death metal band, from the technical/orchestral side of metal, with a fair twist of thrash thrown in. The vocals are in the shouted school of metal vocals, but are clear enough to make out, which isn’t always the case with that school. Ultimately, I don’t know that it’s committing enough to one or the other of its sounds, or doing anything new or especially excellent enough to reach “best”.

• Blues Traveler, Traveler’s Blues– I like the inversion of the name. This album sees the band doing a variety of blues covers, which plays to their strengths. For a band fan, for a genre fan, it’s a very worthy endeavor but, though it catches fire on some tracks, for the most part it doesn’t rise decisively to the level of year’s best.

• Born of Osiris, Angel or Alien– Metalcore band from the Chicago area. Technically very proficient, it’s, well, a little shouty vocally, which largely prevents me from approaching it lyrically. The album picks up some of the worst habits of 2000s metal and hardcore, and even works in a little autotune.

• Cautious Clay, Deadpan Love– A hip-hop album, but one that leans very heavily in an R&B direction. Or vice versa? Makes some unusual choices, which is interesting, and the tone is very positive, but ultimately too all one tone.

• Charlotte Day Wilson, Alpha– A solid serving of smoky soul from a Canadian R&B singer. It’s well done musically and vocally, but sounds too much the same track to track. As a debut, though, it carries a lot of promise.

• Clairo, Sling– A kind of hazy 70s feel to it, her cool vocals and warm syrup of the swinging, even sometimes orchestral, music nicely offset each other. The tracks also have a strong individual identity. It was a real contender until it lulled out for a few too many tracks 3/4 of the way through. She’s worth keeping an eye on, though!

• Darkside, Spiral– A kind of discordant and spare album. Too often trending toward abstract/background.

• David Crosby, For Free–  David Crosby, of course, never sounds bad. And he doesn’t here either. It does have that “rock veteran makes album in 80s with slick production” feel though. I certainly wouldn’t tell fans of his to stay away from it, but it doesn’t get into “year’s best” territory.

• Declaime, In the Beginning, Vol. 1– Ah, the Oxnard school of hip-hop! Okay, maybe there’s not such a thing. It’s a solid album, but doesn’t really do anything special to stand out or rise above.

• Descendents, 9th & Walnut–  This album sounds like it could have been produced at any point in the group’s history from 1977 to now, which is both a strength and weakness. I don’t hear “best of year” here, but it does do what it does very well. And you have to admire punk’s ability to pack 18 songs into 25 minutes.

• Dot Allison, Heart-Shaped Scars– She got her start in electronic music in the 90s, and this is electronic, but in a strings kind of way, which, with her flowing wisp of a voice, brings to mind Celtic and new age music. Pleasant, but fades into the background.

• Durand Jones & the Indications, Private Space– I couldn’t decide if this was an early 80’s R&B sound I really liked, or a too-produced muzak/light-jazz 80s soul that I didn’t. Ultimately there was too much of the later for it to make it to yes for me, but enough of the former that it deserves mention.

• Emma-Jen Thackray, Yellow– Discordant electronica, surging jazz opening, spoken word poetry, then shifts into a jazz-inflected dance music with clever lyrics, but it gets a little too into the jazz easy listening vein after that.

• Foodman, Yasuragi Land– This electronica album is from Japanese DJ, Producer, and Painter Takahide Higuch. It’s interesting, but a little abstract and a little too all in one tone track to track to really stand out for me.

• Guardian Singles, Guardian Singles– Rock! Hi-energy, sunny rock! Every time I hear it again, I remember how much I’ve missed it. You know when a song ends and the feedback fuzz is still there? That’s good stuff. Unfortunately, it mushed up into undifferentiated low-key tracks at the end. Alas!

• Half Waif, Mythopoetics– The spare but powerful production-leans toward electronic/keyboard, plaintive slightly ghostly vocals, darkly textured lyrics. These are the strengths, and they are considerable, but ultimately too much of it just fades into the background of track to track similarity.

• Horsey, Debonair– For the majority of these tracks, this South London band sounds like a muscular out of control lounge singer, kind of like if “Helter Skleter” Paul McCartney played the sweet diddies of sweet diddy Paul McCartney. And then methed it out a step further. I loved it, until they decided to end with a long low-energy song followed by a meandering “Revolution #9” type style track. Album greatness squashed.

• Jackson Browne, Downhill From Everywhere– Like the David Crosby album, there really isn’t a version of Jackson Browne that sounds bad. And this doesn’t sound as “80s production” as Crosby’s album, though it does have traces of that. On the whole, it’s energetic and well done, and won’t do any Jackson Browne fan wrong, but doesn’t rise to his/the year’s best.

• Jam & Lewis, Volume One– This is the debut album of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, but of course their production work loomed so large in soul/R&B in the 80s and 90s that it’s hardly an unknown quantity. And that is maybe part of the problem here- it is, as one might expect, extremely finely produced. It’s also very familiar, and a little plastic feeling. There’s not enough of the dynamic or surprising here.

• Jeff Lorbe/The Jeff Lorber Fusion , Space-Time– There is, maybe?, a version of jazz fusion that I like. Maybe. This isn’t it, it’s practically muzaky.

• Jehnny Beth/Bobby Gillespie , Utopian Ashes– Sort of the post-punk version of a country duets album, featuring the front-man of 80s alt stalwarts Primal Scream and the vocalist of 2000s post-punk band Savages. The songs are well done, very fine in fact, but beyond some scattered moments here and there, the whole never really catches fire or raises above.

• John Mayer, Sob Rock– I like John Mayer, but only in a certain small dosage, so between that and the title, I was a little leery going in. Boy do I stand by that! Vapid lyrics, smooth soulless music, coupled with 80s-style production. Saints preserve us!

• John McLaughlin, Liberation Time– Based on its clanging electric opening, at first I thought that this might be the fusion album that I turned out to like. Then it started to go down the dark path of bubbly light and easy.

• King Woman, Celestial Blues– A thick, somewhat doomy, somewhat orchestral sound, with vocals that started out more in the yearning than the screaming category. But then, alas, got more screamy. If you’ve ever been a goth kid, there is good stuff here, but ultimately it’s kind of the same track to track.

• Koreless, Agor– Extremely minimal, even as minimal electronic albums go.

• Leon Bridges, Gold-Diggers Sound– Definitely a solid soul/R&B album, but a little too in the autotuned direction, and I never felt like it consistently rose above.

• Lucrecia Dalt/Aaron Dilloway, Lucy & Aaron– Well, they’re both experimental musicians, and this was very…experimental. Interesting, but a little too deliberately grating to be consistently listenable.

• Luminol, Midwife– An ethereal swirl of vocals and muted keyboard chords. The lyrical voice is quite interesting and strong, which makes the best tracks very affecting, but it doesn’t happen consistently.

• Maxine Funke, Séance– A folk-flavored outing from a New Zealand singer-songwriter. The songs are quiet, spare, and arresting. Ultimately too quiet to hold attention in a “year’s best” kind of way, but still very fine.

• Moin, Moot!– Some moody and menacing electronica, some wailing in the background, some muttered lyrics. At its best, it’s actually pretty compelling, but the best is unfortunately only every other track or so.

• Nancy Wilson, You And Me– This was a May release that I somehow missed! Over the years, I’ve slowly come to terms with not marrying her, and silently admired her too-often undersung guitar playing from afar. There are some great covers here, and the best items crackle. Then there are a few too many ballads/80s production numbers. Drop 4 tracks, and this might have been a “yes”.

• Ora The Molecule, Human Safari– This is more accessible than you might think upon hearing that it’s the vehicle of a Norwegian avant-garde artist. It sometimes feels a bit too abstract, and isn’t consistent/coherent enough for album “best”, but there’s some worthy material here!

• Paul McCartney, McCartney III Imagined– Not quite covers, but rather, a variety of artists doing remixes of Paul McCartney’s well-received album from last year McCartney III. Kind of like the Gray Album in reverse, and with a wider variety of artists working it (Beck, Phoebe Bridgers, and St. Vincent, among others, get in on the action here). It’s really quite fun, and was well on its way to being a “yes” until it ended with a low-energy 11 minute electronica track. There’s just no call for that. Alas!

• Peyton, PSA– A pretty, pleasant soul/dance album, with some pleasing cursing thrown in, but it never really sparks up.

• Piroshka, Love Drips and Gathers– The music by this supergroup composed of members of Elastica, Lush, and Modern English is surging and shimmering, and the  vocals have some verve to them. You can certainly hear the roots, and they’re good roots. It was really winning me over until it delfated at the end by having multiple slow/abstracts tracks in a row.

• Rey Sapienz & The Congo Techno Ensemble, Na Zala Zala– This was very interesting, with unusual beats, and at times almost grating. I do like African music, but this was too opaque between the grating quality and foreign language. It is certainly unusual though, and doesn’t sound like everything else.

• Rodrigo Amarante, Drama– Brazilian Singer-Songwriter, ultimately a little too world/jazz and in Portugese for me.

• Royal Canoe, Sidelining– I definitely feel like Royal Canoe is an appropriate name for a Canadian band. They don’t sound as canoey as you might expect, more like an electronic-informed indie rock, with lurches into and out of guitar rock and dance/disco mode. It didn’t quite come together consistently enough for me in terms of track by track quality and coherence to reach “best”, but it is fun and often interesting.

• Sennen, Widows (Expanded Version)– This re-masters the band’s original 7-song album from 2005 and adds 7 unreleased songs from that same era. It’s all a little too slow and fuzzy for me, without enough musical or lyrical hook to keep it moving from track to track.

• Snapped Ankles, Forest of Your Problems– A real solid post-punk outing, it would feel very at home on College Radio in the 80s. It was a borderline call, and it really is well done, but it feels so much like an archive item.

• Stimulator Jones, Low Budget Environments Striving for Perfection– The artist name and album name are both pretty great, though one shouldn’t judge by that. What it turns out to be is hip-hop flavored electronic music. It’s nice background music, and interesting, but too low-key/low-content to really stand out.

• Surf Gang, Surf Gang Vol. 1– The opening is less surf music than you might think, and much more psychedelisized hip-hop. After that it’s uneven- some very fun and unusual mixes, some autotuned dreck.

• Tangents, Timeslips & Chimeras– An expansion (like, really, more than doubling) of a 2020 release by an Australian band. This particular mix of all-instrumental deconstrcuted jazz and electronic is certainly interesting, but never really gets over the top in terms of being compelling.

• The Orange Peels, Celebrate the Moments of Your Life– This band originated in the Bay Area during the indie rock outburst of the 90s, and they’re still very good at what they do! They’re here with a double album, thick with melody, pop sensibility, and rock that recalls the 80s underground, the 90s, and a sunny dreamy side of the 70s all at once. The best material here is really great, but the double album sometime meanders and bogs down, which keeps it from coming together. More streamlined and they could have been a contender!

• Trees Speak, PostHuman– This instrumental album from an Arizona duo would have sounded very at home in a new wave or industrial dance club in the 80s. It does what it does well, but I don’t know that it does it “best of year” well.

• Twin Shadow, Twin Shadow–  Poppy-rocky, and fun, outing from this  Dominican-American singer-songwriter. Some 90s soul/80s alt feeling, a little dash of ska. It’s all very fine, but doesn’t feel to me like it consistently rises above and beyond to “year best” territory.

• Various Artists, Bills & Aches & Blues– A variety of artists cover songs from throughout 4AD’s catalogue in honor of their 40th anniversary. It seems like a promising setup, I mean I was practically raised by 4AD. And some of the covers are truly grand. Then some of them kind of fizzle out, or are of material that is itself very low-key. So it ends up being a little uneven.

• Various Artists, Changui: The Sound of Guantanamo– A box set documenting contemporary rural Cuban practitioners of the changui style of Cuban music (influenced by Spanish and African musical traditions and instruments, and an ancestor of salsa) compiled in support of a documentary. There are 51 songs, with a four hour run time. Given this sprawling range, it’s difficult for it to work as a coherent album, though this definitely can happen for something similar in more compact form (cf. Buena Vista Social Club). A fun window into a fascinating style, though.

• Vince Staples, Vince Staples– This hip-hop album is a little autontuned, a little one-tone musically and vocally. It’s a shame because the content is actually pretty good!

• YN Jay, Coochie Chronicles– The name might give you certain expectations. While it sometimes rises above, the content largely bears out these expectations. It could possibly get away with it with very clever or unusual flow or off-beat musical choices, but it doesn’t do either often enough.

And there we are, finished with July! Before the first half of September. So I guess that’s something? Now, I better hop on over to working on August now so we can catch up!