Our last installment featured firsts from Eric Clapton ("Happy Xmas") and the assembled Monkees with a heavenly host of writers ("Christmas Party").
The latest batch of stocking stuffers features Emmy/ Grammy/ Oscar winner John Legend under the production aegis of Raphael Saddiq with Esperanza Spalding and Stevie Wonder helping trim the tree on "A Legendary Christmas."
Vocal group Pentatonix turn the holiday into their cottage industry this year with their fourth Christmas release in four years. "Christmas Is Here!" is all standards ("Up On The Housetop" "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen") arranged for their mellifluous voices.
Finally, it's the voice of Christmas Past from William Shatner.
With those dramatic recitative pause-laden versions of favorites like "Jingle Bells" and "O Come O Come Emmanuel" accompanied by a list of musicians from across the spectrum (Henry Rollins, Rick Wakeman, Joe Louis Walker, Iggy Pop, and Judy Collins).
For Sweat, the veteran R&B is back with his 13th studio album. At it since 1987, Sweat continues as the consistent soul man bringing a sweeping, soulful, chill brand of Urban Adult that throws back to his New Jack Swing days ("Who's Ya Daddy" with Teddy Riley and Tank) and also maintains his balladeer status.
Tom Yorke's first film score is a real mountain to climb. First, his Radiohead mate Jonny Greenwood has cornered the market on wild avant-garde scoring.
An Oscar nominee for "Phantom Thread," Greenwood's thrilling score for "You Were Never Really Here" proved he still has not peaked yet. Second, the original score for the Argento horror classic from Goblin remains one of the most revered and emulated scores ever. So, Yorke wisely goes his own way. "Suspiria" finds a happy medium between his piano-led balladeering ("Suspirium") and the haunting, minimal side of his underrated solo album "The Eraser." "Suspiria" is still mesmerizing especially when he mixes his ethereal voice with noise.
Julia Holter
Aviary
[LP/CD](Domino)
Laura Gibson
Goners
[LP/CD]
Oh PEP!
I Wasn’t Only Thinking About You
[LP/CD](ATO)
2018 continues its female dominance with this triumvirate of releases. Holter's fifth album is best described as "organized chaos." From its thrilling orchestral beginning, Holter continues to defy gravity by multi-tracking her voice above her abstract arrangements of trumpet, violin and even bagpipes. Over the massive pair of CDs, "Aviary" is a thriller of interwoven songs that eschew language in favor of the sound of words. Laura Gibson goes the other way on "Goners" carefully assembling her words and using the silences between to a swirling, shifting (from ballad to barrelhouse) portrait of love and the world at large. "Goners" merits far more than a single listen in passing. Finally, the Australian duo Oh Pep! could be the next First Aid Kit. "I Wasn't Only Thinking About You" hangs itself upon the brisk harmonies of Olivia Hally (the Oh) and Pepita Emmerichs (the Pep.) Billed as "Folk/Pop," Oh Pep! are at their best when they reach for Pop. The string-laden "25" is gorgeous, "Hurt Nobody" builds masterfully to a majestic chorus. "I Wasn't Only Thinking About You" (what a great title--by the way) is a stellar American debut.
THROWBACKS THIS WEEK
BAUHAUS - In The Flat Field/Mask/The Sky's Gone Out [LP](Beggars Banquet)
Just in time for Halloween, three reissues of lost Bauhaus. Out of the jaws of Post-Punk, the British quartet took it deeper and stranger with their unknowing Goth creation. Peter Murphy's poetic lyrics and dominant baritone. Daniel Ash's nerve-jangling guitar. David J. and his brother Kevin Haskins as the rhythm section swiftly switching between the brute force of punk and laid-back, rubbery almost Dub textures. 1980's "In The Flat Field" establishes their promise of both brutality and beauty ("Double Dare", "Dark Entries" and "Terror Couple Kill Colonel.") 1981's "Mask" eases on the accelerator to accent songwriting ("Hair of the Dog" one of their most underrated songs and "Dancing" a spiky, pogo-ready snippet of song) mixing darkness and Dub. 1982's "The Sky's Gone Out" was to herald their commercial arrival, but felt less urgent than its predecessors even though Ash's guitar work was moving out front. A year later, the band would record without Murphy who was ill with pneumonia and find their own path to success illuminated as Love and Rockets. Bauhaus's influence would continue well after their sudden split in 1983, as Love and Rockets would hit the Top 5 with "So Alive" in 1989. Murphy would notch a #1 Modern Rock single with "Cuts You Up" in 1990.
GUADALCANAL DIARY - 2 x 4 [CD](Omnivore)
The Eighties were kind of Southern college rock bands. Following the success of the B-52's and R.E.M. anyone in the vicinity of Athens could possibly find a deal. Marietta's Guadalcanal Diary, while lumped in with the scene, remain one of those lost groups who influence hangs over music today. Started for a party, Guadalcanal Diary took the long, upward path to mild success. After making their own video for "Watusi Rodeo," they were in the final five competitors on MTV's Basement Tapes contest. Ironically, while they did not win the prized record contract from the show - they earned a multi-record contract from the same label starting with 1986's "Jamboree." A year later, College Rock bands started breaking through, so Elektra did their best to push Guadalcanal's earthy, emotional cascading rock to audiences. "2 x 4" could have been that album. Murray Attaway's resonant voice carries many of the songs, especially their should-have-been a hit "Litany (Life Goes On)." This was some of their best writing about Southern culture and its impact. Behind the high-jangle of Jeff Walls and the low rumble of Rhett Crowe and John Poe, "2 X 4" remains a hidden gem in the jigsaw of Southern Alternative rock.
