AllMusic Staff Pick:
Tiger
We Are Puppets
They may have been too weird for Brit-pop, but Tiger’s roaring take on indie-rock bristles with fuzzy guitars, call-and-response vocals, unconventional hooks and pounding rhythms that still sound fresh nearly 30 years after their debut album was released.
- Heather Phares
AllMusic Staff Pick:
Stevie Wonder
Fulfillingness’ First Finale
After the righteous anger and occasional despair of the socially motivated Innervisions, Stevie Wonder returned with a relationship record: Fulfillingness’ First Finale, released 50 years ago today. The cover pictures his life as an enormous wheel, part of which he’s looking ahead to and part of which he’s already completed (the latter with accompanying images of Little Stevie, JFK and MLK, the Motor Town Revue bus, a child with balloons, his familiar Taurus logo, and multiple Grammy awards).
- John Bush
AllMusic Staff Pick:
Various Artists
Down from the Mountain: O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Sounding almost like an all-traditional country episode of “A Prairie Home Companion,” the guests (including Alison Krauss, Dan Tyminski, the Whites, the Fairfield Four, and the Cox Family, among others) amiably exchange songs on-stage, reveling in the atmosphere of warm country, bluegrass, and blues music. Highlights include two non-traditional tracks from Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, whose earthy compositions fit in seamlessly with the time-honored traditional songs, and Emmylou Harris’ contribution “Green Pastures” (which originally appeared on Roses in the Snow, her own Americana revival album from some 20 years earlier).
- Zac Johnson
AllMusic Staff Pick:
Robyn Hitchcock
Jewels for Sophia
Released 25 years ago today, fans celebrated the return of original Soft Boy Kimberley Rew on two tracks for the first time in 18 years, and Hitchcock also commandeered a squadron of reverent co-conspirators in other cities to make a good LP into a first-rate one. Three-quarters of the Young Fresh Fellows along with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck are unmistakable on a trio of Seattle-recorded tracks, especially “Elizabeth Jade.” Elsewhere, guitarist Tim Keegan of Homer reprises the sidekick color-man role he played in the film, and who wouldn’t want Grant Lee Phillips and Jon Brion to sit in on some L.A. sessions?
- Jack Rabid
AllMusic Staff Pick:
Clifford Brown
The EmArcy Master Takes, Vol. 2: The Singers Sessions
The 2012 Clifford Brown three-disc anthology The EmArcy Master Takes, Vol. 2: The Singers Sessions collects all of the tracks Brown recorded with vocalists Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, and Helen Merrill during one magical five-month period in 1954. All of these sessions are now considered classic recordings and landmarks in the careers of each singer, as well as legendary trumpeter Brown.
- Matt Collar
AllMusic Staff Pick:
Brinsley Schwarz
The New Favourites of Brinsley Schwarz
With their final album, released 50 years ago this month, Brinsley Schwarz turn in their most pop-oriented record, filled with infectious gems like “The Ugly Things,” “Trying to Live My Life Without You,” and “(What’s So Funny ‘bout) Peace, Love and Understanding.”
- Stephen Thomas Erlewine
AllMusic Staff Pick:
A Girl Called Eddy
Been Around
Though she turned up on some compilations, television syncs, and the odd print interview in the interim, this was the first album in 16 years from Erin Moran’s retro-pop project. With the aid of producer Daniel Tashian (the Silver Seas) and collaborators including “the” Paul Williams and the Watson Twins, she constructed affectionately nostalgic arrangements for her already ‘60s-styled song blueprints. Far from mere '60s pastiche, the album offers entries like “Jody,” which suggests the sophisti-pop of Prefab Sprout, and “Someone’s Gonna Break Your Heart” recalls '80s Pretenders, and not only due to Moran’s oft-noted vocal resemblance to Chrissie Hynde.
- Marcy Donelson
AllMusic Staff Pick:
Neil Young
On the Beach
On On The Beach, released 50 years ago today, the barbs were mixed with humor and even affection, as Young seemed to be emerging from the grief and self-abuse that had plagued him for two years. But the album was so spare and under-produced, its lyrics so harrowing, that it was easy to miss Young’s conclusion: he was saying goodbye to despair, not being overwhelmed by it.
- William Ruhlmann
AllMusic Staff Pick:
The Blackbyrds
The Blackbyrds
This amazing album, released 50 years ago this month, is the product of six full-time Howard University students taking the direction of department head and jazz great Donald Byrd into the Fantasy Studios along with the aid of production wizard Larry Mizell. The result is some of the finest groove-oriented jazz music ever recorded.
- Robert Gabriel
AllMusic Staff Pick:
The Country Gentlemen
The Complete Vanguard Recordings
In this era, the group featured future bluegrass luminaries Doyle Lawson, Ricky Skaggs, Mike Auldridge, and Jerry Douglas alongside the established legends guitarist/vocalist Charlie Waller and banjo player Bill Emerson. With talented artists like these, it comes as no surprise that the music is top-notch – the thing that really sets these recordings apart is the fact that the band was choosing to perform songs by decidedly non-bluegrass musicians such as John Prine, Gordon Lightfoot, Paul Simon, and Kris Kristofferson, and still managing to transform these progressive songwriters’ works into down-home stomps.
- Zac Johnson
AllMusic Staff Pick:
Mr. Bungle
California
Four years after Disco Volante, Mr. Bungle returned with California, released 25 years ago today, which immediately distinguishes itself from its predecessors – it’s probably their most heavily orchestrated record to date and their most melodic overall, as well as the least dependent on rock styles. That’s certainly not to imply that this is a tame or immediately accessible record, nor that Mr. Bungle has suddenly gone sane.
- Steve Huey
AllMusic Staff Pick:
Lalah Hathaway
Lalah Hathaway
When Lalah Hathaway’s self-titled debut album came out, there was reason to believe that she might evolve into one of the top female R&B singers of the 1990s. Donny Hathaway’s daughter certainly had a lot going for her – a big vocal range and plenty of charisma, passion, and charm to go with it. She doesn’t always have fantastic material to work with, but when she does, the results are quite memorable. The producers/songwriters who really do Hathaway justice include Angela Winbush on “Baby, Don’t Cry” and “I Gotta Move On,” and Andre Fisher on “Smile” and “Somethin’.”
- Alex Henderson
AllMusic Staff Pick:
Mississippi Fred McDowell
Live at the Gaslight
Recorded on November 5, 1971, Live at the Gaslight stands as the final recording of Delta blues legend Mississippi Fred McDowell. The bottleneck guitarist was 67 years old when this album was cut, but his voice and playing show no signs of age and his passion and conviction seem to have strengthened with the years.
- Zac Johnson
AllMusic Staff Pick:
Jimmie Lunceford
Lunceford Special: 1939-1940
This marvelous collection gathers Lunceford’s great Vocalion-Okeh and Columbia sides from 1939 and 1940 (the early war years), with meticulous track-by-track annotation and a concise historical essay by Bob Waldman. The infectious vocal performances of trombonist James “Trummy” Young (“Tain’t What You Do,” “Ain’t She Sweet,” “The Lonesome Road,” “I Want the Waiter (With the Water)”) are classic, as are the airtight arrangements of Sy Oliver, Eddie Durham, Will Hudson, and Billy Moore, Jr.
- David R. Adler
Before the sounds of the 1980s became a staple of indie music, there was Clor, whose lone 2005 album pays homage to tightly wound new wave with melodies that could have been composed on graph paper. The band teeters between catchy and off-kilter as ably as their influences, but the wit and heart they bring to this style is entirely theirs.
- Heather Phares