Orquesta Akokán: 16 Rayos (Daptone)
The date of the recording session for the second album by Cuban/American ensemble Orquesta Akokán says 2019, but the spirit of this music resonates back at least 60 years. This group, led by singer/composer José “Pepito” Gómez, gets as close as any band could to echoing the sound of vintage Cuban party bands. There’s no modern trappings to their work, and it doesn’t feel like they use any up-to-date recording equipment as this new album was recorded in glorious mono. It helps that this group is stacked with seasoned players, including Roberto Vizcaino Guillot, a percussionist who served time with Chucho Valdes; pianist Michael Eckroth, a historian of early Cuban music; and Pablo Milanés’ musical director Germán Velazco. These folks know the swaying, horn heavy sound of the island instinctually and they all treat these compositions with such respect and love. You can continue to mourn the end of the Buena Vista Social Club if you want. I’ll be over here celebrating the young hotshots keeping Cuban music alive in the 21st century.
Black Sabbath: Technical Ecstasy – Super Deluxe (Warner)
According to bassist Geezer Butler, 1978’s Technical Ecstasy was “the beginning of the end” for Black Sabbath as the band struggled to deal with a legal battle between their former manager, the shifting tides of rock music and their own demons. “[The] music was suffering,” Butler told Guitar World, “you could just feel the whole thing falling apart.” Out of that entropy came one of Sabbath’s most fascinating albums. Recorded in Miami, Ecstasy found the band further steering out of the darkness of their previous work with the help of a keyboardist and an openness to softer textures. It has become one of the more divisive entries in the Sabbath catalog, a feeling that is not going to change with the release of this massive boxed set. It’s an interesting collection that includes a remix of the album by Steven Wilson that gives the quieter material some breathing room and tightens up the heavier tunes. Start there and then move onto the live album. Sabbath continued to bring the fury in concert and this set is a great example of that. The more tempered approach to the music on Ecstasy bleeds over onto classics like “War Pigs” and “Children of the Grave” with eye-opening results.
Vince Guaraldi: It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown/A Charlie Brown Christmas (Craft Recordings)
The chatter about vinyl these days mainly centers on how hard it is for indie labels and artists to get their records made in a timely manner. Pressing plants are overwhelmed with big ticket releases, many of them connected to Record Store Day, and stuff like these two new additions to the growing catalog of Peanuts-related records. For as much as I celebrate the music as a fan of Vince Guaraldi’s cool jazz and its nostalgic connection to these vintage TV specials, I question the need for a pumpkin-shaped record on orange wax and another release of the Charlie Brown Christmas music in a silver foil sleeve. I worry that soon the bubble will burst and stores are going to be stuck with dozens of copies of these records that they can’t unload. But I’m also not going to lie and say that I didn’t have a blast spinning both of these as I shuffle through my living room like Joe Cool.
Robbie Williams: I’ve Been Expecting You (UMC/Island)
Early in his solo career, Robbie Williams has understandably worked to prove his worth beyond the scope of the boy band that made him a star (Take That). The first two albums on his own did that by embracing the sounds of Britpop, the dramatic cheek of artists like the Divine Comedy and a touch of neo-psychedelia. It’s a formula that Williams, with the help of his regular co-writer Guy Chambers, damn near perfected by his 1998 album I’ve Been Expecting You and which the U.K. public embraced entirely resulting in a #1 album and two #1 singles. The remastered re-release of this album and his debut are really the first time both have been widely available in the U.S.—a welcome development for my fellow pop nerds. At least on the one record we were sent to review, it sounds marvelous on vinyl with this master adding some foundational oomph to the recordings that the original CD stifled a bit.
O.V. Wright: A Nickel and A Nail and Ace of Spades (Real Gone)
How does an artist with a strong soulful voice and backed on his album by some of the best musicians in Memphis—all under the direction of producer Willie Mitchell—wind up slipping through the cracks of the R&B scene of the ’70s? That question has plagued me ever since dropping the needle on the reissue of O.V. Wright’s 1972 album. This album is every bit as impactful and funky as the work Mitchell and the same players did with Al Green, and maybe better thanks to the growl that runs through Wright’s vocal performances. Head right to the pleading album closer “Don’t Take It Away,” on which he bemoans the loss of a love with remarkable power while the Hodges brothers grind away at a tempestuous groove. Real Gone’s resurrection of this little stunner is hopefully just the start of a reappraisal of Wright’s career, which ran from the mid-’60s through to his untimely death in 1980. The man deserves his laurels.
Violent Femmes: Why Do Birds Sing? (Craft Recordings)
Making its North American vinyl bow just in time for its 30th anniversary is the fifth album by the angst-ridden folk-rock trio Violent Femmes. And not a minute too soon. Everything the group has done has been unfortunately measured against the brilliance of their debut album. The pure truth is that their catalog since 1983 has been just as strong and varied and interesting. Why Do Birds Sing? is another high water mark for their creativity as the group kept true to their old timey roots while working in their many other musical influences: power pop, new wave, punk, and jazz. The record is a more complete package in that way, giving the folks obsessed with “Blister In The Sun” just enough rope to hang on to while their longtime fans more layers to dig through on dense tunes like “He Likes Me,” “I’m Free,” and “Hey Nonny Nonny.” If you’ve never spent any time with the Femmes, my suggestion is to start here and work your way backwards. The experience is far more enriching than getting stuck in one spot.
Booker T. & the M.G.’s: The Complete Stax Singles Vol. 1 (1962-1967) / The Complete Stax Singles Vol. 2 (1968-1974) (Real Gone/Stax)
A question that often gets debated by my fellow vinyl collectors is: What records would you buy for someone who was starting their journey as a music fan? What essentials would be in their starting kit? My answer has changed and evolved over the years, and today, I think it would include both of these double LP collections of all the singles Stax Records released by their incredible house band Booker T. & the M.G.’s. This is the evolution of soul and R&B music through the ’60s spread across eight sides of vinyl, with the lean sound of early singles like “Green Onions” and “Soul Dressing” giving way to the shaggy influences of psychedelic rock, folk and the greasy music of the Muscle Shoals crew on later cuts like “Sugarcane” and their cover of “Something.” The M.G.’s absorbed them all and made them their own with style and hip-swinging joy.
Teddy Pendergrass: Life Is A Song Worth Singing (Vinyl Me, Please/Sony Music)
In 1978, Teddy Pendergrass was still emerging from the shadow of his previous gig as the vocalist for Harold Melvin & the Blue-Notes. “I hope people don’t expect the same sound that I had with the group,” the singer told reporters at the time. It didn’t take long for listeners to realize that as his first two solo albums, including this treasure, embraced the silken sound of Philly soul and disco. It was the perfect vehicle for his knee-buckling baritone. Pendergrass applied a layer of sweat to each track that evokes a base animal response from the listener. This is music meant for dancing or romancing. Through this careful reissue by Vinyl Me, Please, which includes fascinating liner notes from scholar Melissa A. Weber, the album feels as bountiful and indulgent as eating fresh fruit while lounging on a feather bed wrapped in satin sheets.
V/A: True Romance Motion Picture Soundtrack / V/A: Even More Dazed & Confused (Real Gone)
The demand for vinyl pressings of cult movie soundtracks is still going strong if the release of these two records is any indication. The collection of songs put together to back up the action of the Tarantino-scripted True Romance feels almost incidental to what’s on screen. Beyond the tiny bits of Hans Zimmer’s score that wind up in the mix, the rest are a motley bunch of country, rock and Euro house tunes that do nothing to evoke key moments from the film in question. That’s, at least, what the second soundtrack release connected to Dazed & Confused gets right. Much like the still-popular Guardians of the Galaxy soundtracks, this selection of ’70s tunes serves the dual purpose of giving classic rock fans a quick and dirty collection to turn to in the pre-Spotify era and it does draw up warm memories of Richard Linklater’s love letter to his teen years. Ideal gifts for the cinephiles in your life that have just started out collecting vinyl.
Charles Bukowski: Reads His Poetry (Real Gone/Takoma)
Originally released in 1980 by guitarist John Fahey’s Takoma label, this LP is as the title says: L.A. writer Charles Bukowski reading some of his poems to an appreciative and combative audience in 1972. And if you’re familiar with the man’s work, you know what means: sordid tales of sex, booze and dyspepsia read in a droll cadence. The continued canonization of Bukowskl’s work is something I wrestle with often. He had an undeniable talent for poetry and prose, but it has also created generations of wannabe hacks that think the ticket to literary success is a carton of cigarettes and bottles of cheap hooch. Which is why the reissue of this released on vinyl dubbed “ashtray,” “wine red” and “vomit” feels like an unnecessary celebration of Bukowski’s worst habits, or making light of some serious addictions that he gave himself over to, and lightly winking at his acolytes who are doing the same.
V/A: It’s A Good, Good Feeling: The Latin Soul of Fania Records (The Singles) (Craft Recordings)
Concord Music’s absorption of the catalog of famed Latin music label Fania Records has been a wonderful thing. With their guidance, albums by greats like Willie Colón, Celia Cruz and Héctor Lavoe are back in circulation. And it allows them to undertake fun projects like this collection of singles from Fania’s rich history. This double LP release is a surface scratch in comparison to the CD version, which boasts 89 tracks. But even this 28-track sampling feels vital for fans of Latin soul and boogaloo, and those listeners exploring these genres for the first time. Many of the marquee names are represented (Colón, Ray Barretto, Bobby Valentin) but there are just as many rare sides like Larry Harlow’s “Mess Around,” Orchestra Harlow’s take on “Grazin’ In The Grass” and Joe Bataan’s jaw-dropping version of the theme from Shaft. This is merely a jumping off point. Make a deep listen to all four sides of this collection and then go explore Fania’s history. There’s much for you to learn.
North Americans: Going Steady (Third Man)
Originally released in a short vinyl run of 100 copies, Going Steady, the third album by Patrick McDermott’s ever-evolving project North Americans, represented a turning point. Previous work under the name was far more abstract—sound art from a digital interzone where wonky computers and modular synths are controlled by a gaggle of slowly dying androids. As the colorful R. Crumb/Dr. Seuss-inspired artwork of Going, and its follow-up Roped In, reveals, McDermott either found a nice stash of John Fahey bootlegs to sift through or better drug connect. The synths are still humming in the middle distance but they are joined by primitive acoustic guitar melodies, strings and some nicely groovy electric guitar work. This is the music that could have happened had Doug McKechnie been left alone to play his intended opening set at Altamont or Ned Lagin had continued touring with the Dead.