Albums of the Week for 3/25/24

Amazing week of new releases

Mar 25, 2024

This past Friday was probably the single strongest week of new music out this year. A bunch of records I’ve really enjoyed, across the gamut of genres, but with a really strong showing for Folk/Americana/Country in particular. I genuinely thought about choosing multiple new releases, or having the Wildcard pick be something from this past Friday - but I ultimately stuck with one that I have yet to listen to and is probably being hailed as the mostly highly received and perhaps the album of the year for many publications.

But we had incredible stuff from Julia Holter, Sierra Ferrell, Charlie Parr, Magic Tuber Stringband, Waxahatchee and many more. Every time I try to step further from recent stuff, a week like this comes through and just totally blows me away. I’ll be playing catch-up with the week for a few more, likely!

Hey! Hope you checked out the first part of my new series - The Kevin Hardcore 100. It’s obviously different from a lot of stuff that I cover here typically (though, I don’t know if there is a TYPICAL). It’s going to be a lot of fun to go through and even if you KNOW that Hardcore music isn’t something you are interested in, you might something just on the outside that Kevin has given me and find that you love it. Reach out if you want follow-up or some recommendations.

Life is finally getting a bit busy as we move fully into Spring. There is a chance that this site takes a dip, but I keep coming up with some new ideas I would like to implement, so we shall see what happens!

On with AOTW!

Thoughts on Albums of the Week from 3/18:

Dwight Yoakam - This Time

You know what? Dwight Yoakam might be the single most consistently good musician of the last 40 years. Looking at his catalog (and I haven’t listened to EVERYTHING - but there’s a thought!), he really doesn’t have any bad records that I can think of, something that ratings on various websites sort of back-up. Not every one of his records is a massive critical darling and they probably aren’t all transcendentally great (if any), but especially his first 6 albums are all varying degrees of GREAT, and many of his albums in the 2000s are excellent as well. He’s a country legend that somehow to me doesn’t seem like a legend. He’s one of the best country songwriters ever, one of the best singers ever and hell, he’s also one of the best actors. This Time is amongst his biggest albums - though I certainly wasn’t a country fan when it came out and have no real understanding of how things were IN 1993. This is just a special record. It’s more mainstream and maybe a little more polished than his previous 4 records, though it still does maintain the traditional/honky-tonk feel that really made him a star in the 80s. There are elements of pop-rock and blues here too, but really - this is a record to just blast on a sunny day. It’s a ton of fun, it has heartbreak, it’s excellently produced. Really good stuff from one of the best to ever do it.

Four Tet - Three

Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet, on the other hand, is not necessarily what you would call “consistent” - though once again, you really can’t point to any of his many releases as being outright bad. He experiments wildly, from ambient soundscapes to jazz to rap remixes to collaborations to microhouse and techno to working with Fred Again… and Burial to well, basically any electronic genre imaginable. And at this point, having been a fan for about 20 years, I’m comfortable saying he’s my favorite electronic producer of all time. That’s to say he has more releases than anyone ever that mean a lot to me. I remember hearing Rounds for the first time the week it came out and have loved it for 20 years. I remember rushing to the store to buy There is Love in You after sampling an early leak of it because I needed to have it in high quality and see the cd-art. I love Pink, I love his Madvillainy remixes, and yo….I love this record. Four Tet is back doing more downtempo, quieter, almost “throwback” IDM stuff on this release and it is honestly such a comfort to me. I love his outward, heart-on-the-sleeve, dance music, but the more abstract synth stuff he does where he builds a calm mood over multiple tracks before ripping it open for some faster-paced stuff is really just why I love him. A true album and one of my absolute favorites of 2024.

Eric Carmen - Eric Carmen

I really did not know what to expect from this. I do unabashedly love Eric’s previous band The Raspberries, as they were sort of a gateway into “Power Pop” for me (and I’m sure, many). However, knowing a few of his solo songs (of course, “All by Myself”), I really expected this to just be cringe-worthy melodrama…and it is. BUT, there are also some amazing songs on here. Opener “Sunrise” is honestly one of the coolest, best progressive pop songs I’ve heard from the era - equaling anything McCartney or Lynne did at the time. The production is a LITTLE muddled, but it’s such a fun song. The song right after “That’s Rock n Roll” is embarrassingly bad though, and that’s sort of how you can think of the album - really great McCartney and Bowie influenced pop music mixed in with stuff that is a little…much. I honestly had no idea the 1970’s Bowie influence was SO strong in his solo work, but some of these tracks legitimately feel like they could be Ziggy castoffs. Anyway, it was a fun album and maybe I’ll check out more solo Carmen in the future because there are some WILD album covers, but I don’t really expect anything to be stellar. RIP sir.

Albums of the Week for 3/25/24:

Album #1 - This Week in History

Los Lonely Boys
Los Lonely Boys (Epic) (released 3/30/2004)
Morbidly curious about the release that contains my least favorite song of the 2000s.

Album #2 - Recent Release