When is an event record truly an event? When it is impeccably timed and written. The female supergroup (borrowing from the Highwaymen in more ways than one) truly put their individual talents together to rise as a group.
Brandi Carlile leads with a distinct, clear voice that rings like a bell ("If She Ever Leaves Me"). Around Carlile, when the voices of Maren Morris, Amanda Shires (both already raved about in these pages) and secret weapon Natalie Hemby join together in classic same-pitch harmony and then find its four-part counterpart ("Redesigning Women" and "Crowded Table") – the Highwomen are like nothing country or Americana music have experienced before.
BAT FOR LASHES
Lost Girls
(LP/CD)(Bat for Lashes)
Natasha Khan, the one-woman show that is Bat For Lashes, has previously pushed enough limits to pick up Mercury Prize nominations for three of her four albums.
Her first self-released album actually dials back the sense of adventure to cast her alluring pop in a very 80's sheen.
"The Hunger" is lit by dark organ and synth drums, while at its root sounding like Eurythmics or even Bananarama in a minor key. While the seductive "Kids In The Dark" would not sound out of place on "Stranger Things." Each of these 10 songs seems manicured to bring her some degree of chart success.
TINARIWEN
Amadjar
LP/CD)(Anti)
If you have never experienced the entrancing and uplifting Tuareg music of North Africa, this massive collective of Saharan and Malian musicians provide your starting point. Hypnotic droning guitar, a warm-yet-rugged baritone vocal, and tense polyrhythms ignite this electrifying band that have been together in some incarnation since 1979. Even when they collaborate with voices like Micah Nelson or Cass McCombs, the dense instrumentation connects with your soul. As they alternate between a gentle bounce ("Taqhal Tarha") and the more intense ("Kel Tinawen,") one feels their comfort with the deserts around them and how watching those shifting sands helps them communicate this emotion to the world at large.
REISSUES::
THE DAYTONIANS
Let Jesus Work It Out
(LP)(Everland)
Gospel music experienced a strange renaissance in the 1970s. As Urban music grew to embrace elements of Funk and R&B, Gospel caught up with bands like the thrilling Daytonians. Bringing together call-and-response choir elements and the sanctified build-up/breakdown feels as natural as funky bass lines and buoyant Blues grooves in this band's hands. Passed around by cognoscenti for years, "Let Jesus Work It Out" is back out since its small, private press run in 1977.
FAIRPORT CONVENTION
Meet On the Ledge
(LP)(Universal UK)
This is story of British Folk/Rock. While British Folk lived through its blossoming popularity in the early Sixties, many of its biggest fans decided to spike that punch with a little Haight-Ashbury psychedelia. Fairport (still playing today) survived loss and tragedy to pave the path for the continuous interest in both British Folk and even more traditional Folk music. "Meet On The Ledge" is dark and Dylanesque. While "Matty Groves" always feels transcendental in their hands, when those hands change from Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny's ("Who Knows Where The Time Goes?) to the late Dave Swarbrick's growing influence ("Wizard of the Worldly Game,"), you can hear British Folk leaping and bounding to where it is today.
