Axl's Catch Groove

My introduction to Chappell Roan was a recent headline that she “slayed it” at New York’s Governors Ball Music Festival on June 9, 2024. I had no idea who she was. Then, my daughter texted me to ask if I was familiar with Roan. My daughter’s interest in Roan was that she was being elevated to a bigger stage at Bonnaroo (which she was attending). It became clear that Roan was a rising star. It was also clear that her small-town girl queer coming-of-age perspective really resonated with audiences. That motivated me to listen to The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess to witness the hype.

Upon first listening to the album, I heard Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish, TSwift, and Olivia Rodrigo in the production and performance. My knowledge of contemporary pop divas is limited, so I don’t know how original Roan is, but sonically, it sounds pretty derivative of those pop divas. That being said, this is a fun album, and based on what I have seen online, Roan is outstanding live. On repeated listening, what came out was how great it was lyrically and from a storytelling perspective. As a male cishet senior citizen, I am pretty clueless about LGBTQ+ coming-of-age. The more I listened, the more impressed I was by Roan’s stories, and I felt like I was getting an education. She wrapped her stories in a fun pop sheen, which made it even better – she is a legit pop star with a vision.

So, who is Chappell Roan? I am summarizing from Wikipedia: She is 26-year-old Kayleigh Rose Amstutz from a small town near Springfield, Missouri. Roan is not an overnight sensation. She signed a contract with Atlantic in 2015 and released some singles and an EP, but there was not enough traction, and she was dropped by Atlantic in 2020. She secured the faith of producer Dan Nigro – who is a big deal. He has produced and co-written songs for Sky Ferreira, Kylie Minogue, Caroline Polachek, Olivia Rodrigo, and Conan Gray. He won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album for producing Sour (Olivia Rodrigo breakout) in 2021. He signed Roan to his Island Records imprint Amusement. He co-wrote and produced this album. Over the last few years, Roan returned to the game with independent singles (that appear on this album). So, the point is she is not a rookie. The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is her moment. Her post-album single, “Good Luck, Babe!” is her first big hit and is raising the profile of The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (more about that new hit in the postscript below).

The album is a concept album of sorts, even though nine of the fourteen songs were released as singles between April 2020 and the September 2023 release of this album. At the very least, the album has a narrative arc. In an interview with Teen Vogue, she said:

“It is the storyline of a girl who moved from a small conservative town to a city and had an awakening of this world she never knew existed… Which includes queerness, which includes heartbreak, which includes falling in love, which includes the city and clubs, and it’s the world of Chappell Roan.”

The album opens with “Femininomenon,” a song about an online relationship gone sour and the female narrator’s frustration with men as lovers. Roam addressed the made-up word “femininomenon” in a Reddit thread:

“ummm no man could literally get me off (stilll the case ^e^) and my cowriter and i were just messing around and made up the word haha! it’s so weird“

Sonically, “Femininomenon” is a little too “High School Musical” for me. It is the weakest track on the album; it only goes up from here. Looking online, this song plays better live than on the recording.

“Red Wine Supernova” – I assume the title is a reference to the 1996 Oasis hit “Champagne Supernova” (which is one of those meaningless phrases that sound cool – per Noel Gallagher, the song’s writer, “It means different things when I’m in different moods”). After the frustration described in the last song, the narrator is having fun and more fulfillment in a lesbian relationship.

“After Midnight” is a goody-two-shoes having fun being a freak in the club. It has a wonderful disco groove.

“Coffee” is Billie Eilish-esque sonically. The song is about the wrong idea of getting together with an ex—even if it is just for coffee.

“Casual” is my favorite song on the album. It is a power ballad that perfectly describes two people in a relationship who are not on the same page: the man thinks it is “casual,” and the woman believes it is love. In the end, the woman figures it out:

“I hate to tell the truth, but I’m sorry dude you didn’t
I hate that I let this drag on so long, now I hate myself
I hate that I let this drag on so long, you can go to hell”

“Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl” is sonically pure Lady Gaga. After the last song, our heroine will not make the same mistake on the next dude (or a dude at all).

“HOT TO GO!” was the final single released about a month before the album’s release. It sounds like Olivia Rodrigo’s pop punk. It is Roan’s cheerleader fantasy.

“My Kink Is Karma” is a kiss-off to an ex and sounds like a Taylor Swift song.

“Picture You” – The melody reminds me of Radiohead’s “Creep.” Lyrically, the song’s narrator is masturbating in front of a mirror while fantasizing about a female love interest.

“Kaleidoscope” is another song with a Billie Eilish vibe. The song describes the complications of “just friends” becoming more (even without “crossing the line”). Roman uses a kaleidoscope as an analogy for this situation:

And love is a kaleidoscope
How it works, I’ll never know
And even all the change
It’s somehow all the same
Turn it to the left and right
Colors shinin’ in your eye
And even upside down
It’s beautiful somehow
It’s never just a shape alone
Love is a kaleidoscope

“Pink Pony Club” sounds like a Lady Gaga anthem. The song is inspired by West Hollywood’s iconic gay bar, The Abbey, which features male and female go-go dancers and regular drag shows. It is Roan’s queer anthem about a safe place to wave your freak flag. This was the first single in this album cycle and got her much attention – her biggest hit before the new album and “Good Luck, Babe!“

“Naked in Manhattan” captures the first moments of a new crush and, more specifically, the transition from heterosexual to homosexual relationships. The small-town girl is in the big city:

In New York, you can try things
An inch away from more than just friends

Per Genius.com, “California” was composed during the pandemic lockdown while Roan was quarantined in her hometown. She had returned to Missouri from California after her career had tanked (sacked by Atlantic and her indie single “Pink Pony Club” was underperforming). The story is from the perspective of our heroine failing in California and knowing it is time to hightail it home. The song has a sense of resilience vs depression. Spoiler Alert: our gal will make it despite this setback. I don’t fully appreciate the challenge of being queer in Rednecksville (although Roan has taught me a lot with this album), but “California” is the most profound and most revealing track on the album.

“Guilty Pleasure” sounds different from the rest of the album. It starts as a quiet acoustic ballad and then explodes into a disco/rock jam. It is catchy AF, and it shows off Roan’s pipes. Lyrically, this is the story of a hot relationship. I once was young and went to discos—this would have been a banger under the mirrorball.

Although this is a collection of singles, the song sequence is so brilliant that it has become a concept album. I have also buried the lede: Roan can sing! Well done, Chappell Roan!

Postscript: Roan released a new single (not on this album) this past spring, “Good Luck, Babe!” It is her first big hit. It was number 77 on the Billboard Hot 100 upon release and peaked at 16. More significantly, it is in the top 10 on Spotify.

Sonically, Roan sounds like she has found her sound (this was hinted at in “Guilty Pleasure”): epic pop rock. Lyrically, it is an intriguing breakup song: the narrator has been dumped because her lover can’t handle their queer relationship. The narrator is pissed – treating her lover’s abandonment for heterosexuality as infidelity. The song has a clever ending – it slowly deflates like a hot air balloon. Her voice is wonderfully dynamic – Gaga would be proud.

You have to have a hit if you want to be a star—with “Good Luck, Babe!” Chappell has a hit! In addition, she now has three of The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess songs on Spotify top 50 thanks to “Good Luck, Babe!” too.

It has been six years since Vampire Weekend’s last album, Father of the Bride – an eon in pop music. That album is my favorite; it brought a jam band aesthetic to their sound. Only God Was Above Us is a taut but adventurous indie-rock sound that harkens back to their first three albums with a twist: it is noisy (distorted guitars, squawking saxophones, busy arrangements, etc). It is unquestionably a Vampire Weekend album with Ezra Koenig’s distinctive vocals, clever lyrics, and baroque pop sound. It is a grower; the first few listens to the album did not impress, but it revealed itself around the fifth time through the album.

The music critic Steven Hyden has declared that with Only God Was Above Us, Vampire Weekend passes his five-album test: “…you look at their discography, and you judge whether they have put out five consecutive ‘great’ albums.” The five-album test is Hyden’s method of judging if an act is Hall of Fame worthy – although a Hall of Fame act can still get there without the five-album test. I agree that Vampire Weekend is a Hall of Fame act, and Only God Was Above Us cements that status by being both the epitome of the Vampire Weekend catalog and a step forward – it is the perfection of Vampire Weekend.

“Ice Cream Piano” sets the tone for the album’s sonics. The intro is quiet, yet a distorted guitar is boiling in the background, and at about the one-third mark, the song explodes. The lyrics speak to our crazy times. The song’s narrator declares: “You don’t want to win this war ’cause you don’t want the peace.” Our world today is filled with chaos mongers, where disruption is the goal, not a solution. The narrator’s response to this chaos reacts with a clever homophone (not their first use of this device – see “Diane Young” off of Modern Vampires of the City) of the song title:

“In dreams, I scream piano, I softly reach the high note
The world don’t recognize a singer who won’t sing”

I scream piano means “I scream softly” (“piano” being a musical term for playing quietly vs. the instrument). Quietly screaming seems like an appropriate response to our crazy times.

“Classical” is a “classic” example of Vampire Weekend’s ambition. Sonically, it is a combination of indie rock and jazz. Lyrically, it is a meditation on class conflicts and, specifically, how elites prosper at the expense of the lower classes. The narrator begrudgingly accepts that this has become the norm, that is classical. By “classical,” the narrator means “…regarded as representing an exemplary standard; traditional and long-established in form or style” (per New American Oxford Dictionary). It is “classic” Vampire Weekend that they would refer to class issues as classical.

“Capricorn” is a vignette on a “December Capricorn” (someone born in late December, but most of their first year is the following year). This appears to be an analogy for someone who is disconnected:

“Too old for dyin’ young
Too young to live alone
Sifting through centuries
For moments of your own”

Sonically, this is a guitar distortion-focused song.

Musically, “Connect” combines synth-pop, baroque, and jazz—chaos that doesn’t work on paper but works on the ears. Lyrically, the narrator complains they can’t connect with their love interest despite standing on top of a big city (assume NYC) infrastructure that is all about connection.

Vampire Weekend was famously formed at Columbia, and the assumption is that the band was made up of WASPy, wealthy, and privileged kids. Ezra Koenig, the driving force and songwriter of Vampire Weekend, is a New Jersey Jew from an intellectual white-collar family – not poor, but not Ivy League either. “Prep-School Gangsters” is a bad memory of having to come of age around rich WASPy kids. In the chorus, the narrator gets to the heart of the matter:

“Call me jealous, call me mad
Now I got the thing you had
Somewhere in your family tree
There was someone just like me”

“The Surfer” has both a David Axelrod acid jazz vibe and is Beatleesque – a fantastic soundscape. I am not sure what the song is about, but I guess the narrator observes a homeless person who once had a bright future but is now hopeless.

“Gen-X Cops” has an excellent New Wave rock sound. Vampire Weekend are Millenials, and Generation X is the generation before Millenials. The song appears to be about how each generation judges (mainly in a negative way) the other generations around them.

“Mary Boone” is a New York art dealer and collector born of working-class Egyptian immigrants. The song’s narrator connects with Boone’s life story: a critical and financial success in the big city from a humble background.

“Pravda” opens with a classic Vampire Weekend guitar riff—part Afro-Beat and part Bach. That riff reappears throughout the song, a pretty cool juxtaposition with the lyrics that tell the story of Russian immigrants.

“Hope” appears to be about US politics. The narrator acknowledges that there is a lot to be in conflict over but hopes the anger can be overcome by letting go of the conflict.

Overall, this is an excellent album. It is not significantly different from the rest of their catalog, but it distills what they do best. This would be a great introduction to the band. I am seeing Vampire Weekend this summer and trying to imagine how they will pull off the elaborate arrangements live. They did a couple of songs on SNL (see clips above) and pulled it off sonically, but visually, they fell flat.

I was intrigued when I heard that rapper André 3000 would release a flute album. The Outcast was a hip-hop act I was actually into. They were artsy yet pop. When I first listened to New Blue Sun, my first reaction was that it was ambient jazz without hooks – a snoozefest. I have been listening to the new Kamasi Washington, and there is a track that André 3000 is on, and I dig it. Per Kamasi’s website:

André 3000, perhaps rap’s finest stylist, whose guest verses are coveted by all, offers up his very first flute feature on “Dream State.” A song about moving on from struggle is an apt contribution from an artist searching for freedom. “Andre is connected to music in a way that’s inexplicable, and he still has that same magic on the flutes,” says Washington.“That honesty, and that trueness to his spirit is there.” When he showed up to the studio with a bag of flutes, Washington and his bandmate and fellow Fearless Movement composer Brandon Coleman invited him to jam. Together, they found the song on the first pass. “We’re not easy musicians to swim around with. We moved kind of fast and free, and he was just with us,” says Washington.

So, that had me returning to New Blue Sun. Given the excellent performance of “Dream State” on the Kamasi album and Kamasi’s story of the making of that song, I felt I owed André 3000 flute album a second look – plus I am a flute player.

Listening to New Blue Sun with more open ears, my revised take is still ambient jazz without hooks. However, it is not a snoozefest. It is pretty cool music. It is engaging if you give it a chance. It is the kind of ambient music that can be enjoyed both passively (background music) and actively (full engagement with the music: no distractions with a quality playback rig – or at least good headphones).

So, what does it sound like? There is a lot of synth, percussion, and flute (both organic and with electronic manipulation). It is mostly quiet, but there are occasional swells. At times, it invokes the ambient side of Pink Floyd. But most of the time, it is narcotic jazz, that is, slow-motion jazz.

I can’t imagine being in a New Blue Sun mood often, but I appreciate André 3000’s experiment. It is just not my thing – I need my music a bit more caffeinated.

I saw this album on the 2024 Record Store Day release list and have known of saxophonist Kenny Garrett via his time in the final Miles Davis band. He continued a solo career post-Miles, but did not followed it. This RSD 2024 blurb caught my attention”:

“For more than three decades, saxophonist Kenny Garrett has been on the forefront of the most adventurous and creative collaborations in jazz, having performed with generations of innovators such as Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard and more. The living legend charts yet another path in his illustrious career with the release of his first ever electronic album, an avenue to explore new sounds.”

“…his first ever electronic album” – I wondered what that would sound like, so I immediately went to my streaming service (Tidal) and listened. I fell for it immediately, and it shot to number one on the RSD 2024 vinyl record wish list.

The album’s back story is that Garrett and Mikhail Tarasov, AKA Svoy, are long-time collaborators who live close to each other in New Jersey. Per Garrett in a Stereogum article:

“Svoy was living, literally two minutes from me, and we just started collaborating,” Garrett said. “He would show up with his computer in my living room, and he would just have some music and didn’t have a melody, and so I would just listen to it. It was really relaxed. And I would just kind of create a melody and play off the top, just like that. Or he would come up with a melody and then I would hear something and say, well, I think we should do this. It was always like he was painting the canvas. But then I would say, ‘Why don’t you write me a song like what I did with Miles’… or I would say, ‘Write something like this, and then I’ll create a melody,’ or he’d send me something. I’d say, ‘Well, let’s change it a little bit here,’ you know, so it was just direction, but at the same time, just trying to be open.”

Garrett says in the Stereogum article that Pharoh Sanders’ final album with Floating Points (an album I love) was an inspiration.

“[Svoy] did a great job allowing that space for me to kind of create. And that’s what I’ve been trying to do for years. I’m still waiting to collaborate with other people [who were] writing some music with me in mind, you know, and let’s see what happens. Pharaoh did a record like that with Floating Points; I would love to have done something like that, but a lot of times people don’t know what you can do, so they never would call you for things like that. But I hope after this situation, people will be open to trying — ‘Oh, let me call Kenny Garrett. We could try something here or try something there.’ I mean, I’m just really trying to continue to grow as a musician and try things, you know?”

Side A opens with “Ascendence.” The song starts with a synth riff, then a backbeat, and Garrett’s imitation of Miles Davis’ raspy voice counting off. This is followed by a Garrett sax solo over a synth and electronic drum foundation. The song would not have sounded out of place on one of Miles’ final albums (which had hip-hop and what we call today EDM influences). An AllMusic review summarizes the track perfectly: “Garrett spirals to Svoy’s digital buzz and grind like John Coltrane plugging into the Matrix.”

The title of the next track, “Miles Running Down AI,” is a play on the Miles’ Bitches Brew classic “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down.” In Jazz Blues News, Garrett said the track answers the question: “What would Miles sound like if he played Coachella?” The Garrett track doesn’t sound like the Davis track – the Garrett track is hyperactive, whereas the Davis track is wonderfully lethargic. But the song indeed invokes the spirit of Miles Davis.

“Transcendence” opens like a trance—a simple electronic drum beat and melody on a synth that then transitions to Garrett’s sax. This song reminds me of the mid-70s Weather Report.

“Divergence Tu-dah” mixes a hip-hop groove, nonsense vocals (the “tu-dah” in the song title), and a highly processed sax.

Side B opens with “Ladies,” a percolating Garrett soprano sax solo over a bed of electronica.

“My Funny Valentine” turns a jazz standard (a regular song in Davis’ repertoire) into an electronic masterpiece.

On “Convergence,” Garrett crafts a playful melodic alto sax Svoy’s hyperkinetic beat. The song fades out with a Svoy scat vocal. This is the most accessible song on the album – start here if you are not willing to commit to the whole album.

The ghost of Miles Davis hangs over this album both in the sound (late period Miles) and in the experimentation (combining electronics and jazz). I experienced the late period Miles (which I define as 1981’s The Man With The Horn through 1992’s Doo-Bop) in real-time. I was grateful to have new Miles material then, but I didn’t appreciate it. Recently, I have gone back to that period and now love it. Garrett and Svoy’s concept of a Miles-inspired combination of jazz sax with electronica works is inspired – it sounds fresh but also honors the past. As for the album title, I guess Garrett and Svoy are daring artificial intelligence (AI) to create an album of this quality – they have set a high bar for AI to exceed.

Pop queens (Bey, TSwift, etc.) were releasing bloated pop albums this spring, but Billie Eilish overshadowed them by releasing a taut 10-song pop masterpiece. First, it is an ALBUM, and it demands to be listened to from start to finish (just like the old days). That is a tall task to ask in our short attention span age, but at least put it on while making dinner (it is an appropriate sub-45-minute length). Second, it is an evolution in sound, lyrics, and, most of all, Billie’s singing. The sound is lush: Billie and Finneas sound like they have escaped the bedroom and found a studio. Finneas is the new Daft Punk, but more talented – he does it all himself! The lyrics sound like the musings of a young adult vs. a teenager. Billie has not abandoned the whisper, but she has expanded the palette. Third, it has bangers. There are so many earworms here. I can imagine songs like “LUNCH” in a club, “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” in a prom scene in a coming-of-age film, and “THE GREATEST” rocking an arena show.

I will stake my measly music-head reputation on the line and say that the new Billie Eilish album is a pop masterpiece and one of the year’s best new albums. I am not saying that it will have any significant cultural impact or that anyone other than her hardcore fans will care about this album in a month, just that it is excellent, and I want everyone my age to hear it. I hate that people my age (65) think there is no significant new music. Granted, nothing significantly new has occurred in pop music since I graduated from high school in 1977, but that doesn’t mean great new music isn’t being made. This album should appeal to open-eared and musically adventurous boomers. Please listen!

When Billie Eilish came on the scene, she was hard to miss. She had big hits with an original sound that was catchy as hell (Nine Inch Nails Lite). She was a teenage pop star not manufactured by a corporation – she was a SoundCloud artist with a huge hit (”Ocean Eyes”). Visually, she was goth-lite androgynous. I didn’t take her seriously as I assumed she was just another teenybopper pop star (not my first time failing to grasp the significance of a young pop star – sorry, Taylor). But when Andrew Marshall became her touring drummer, I had to give her a second look. I knew Andrew through my son. Andrew was in a Chicago band (whysowhite) that my son managed. Andrew is a talented drummer and had played in several up-and-coming groups and solo acts, so I assumed he wouldn’t just take a gig for the payday – Andrew must think Billie had something. Giving “the kid” a second chance, with more open ears, I realized that she was a generational talent. By the second album, I realized she and Finneas were evolving talents. They have developed even more on HIT ME HARD AND SOFT – this is their best album.

HIT ME HARD AND SOFT is a fitting title for Billie Elish, as her music has hit hard (bangers) and soft (quiet vocals and bedroom arrangements) since the beginning. On this album, Billie and Finneas have distilled that combo to perfection.

Billie is no stranger to being the victim of fat shaming, and she has been brilliant in her retaliation to people who judge a girl/woman by how she looks and, more specifically, by how thin or fat she is. On her last album, she said: “Would you like me to be smaller, weaker, softer, taller?” In the new song “Skinny,” she says:

“People say I look happy
Just because I got skinny
But the old me is still me and maybe the real me”

This opening track sets the stage for the new sonic palette. It starts out with mellow instrumentation and the classic Billie breathy vocal. But in the song’s second half, Billie’s vocals increase in volume and intensity – she is really singing! The song ends with a string section outro and a drum machine transition to the next song. Overall, the music is very sophisticated.

“Lunch” sounds like a hit. It has a mature theme: comparing sex to the noon meal:

“I could eat that girl for lunch
Yeah, she dances on my tongue
Tastes like she might be the one”

Eilish told Rolling Stone magazine in a recent interview that writing “Lunch” was part of her exploring her sexuality: “That song was actually part of what helped me become who I am, to be real.” Billie has come out as queer in that article, and this is her anthem. The song is sexy, and I love Finneas’ Euro-disco bass.

According to genius.com, “Chihiro” is based on the 2001 Oscar-winning film Spirited Away. The film follows a girl who “learned to face her fears by developing a heightened understanding and appreciation of life.” The song has a relaxed trip-hop vibe.

“Birds of a Feather” is one of my favorite tracks on the album. It is a gorgeous slow dance – this could be a Sade song. The song presents a new Billie voice – a more conventional pop vocal, yet she retains her signature floatiness. Lyrically, it is a traditional love song: “Birds of a feather, we should stick together…But if it’s forever, it’s even better.”

“Wildflower” is another favorite. It is a beautiful-sounding ballad with an acoustic(ish) arrangement and an excellent vocal from Billie. It tells the story of the narrator comforting a woman who has just experienced a breakup only to have the narrator admit they are having a relationship with the woman’s ex.

“The Greatest” is a power ballad that starts with Billie’s breathy vocals but soars at other points in the song. Lyrically, the narrator juxtaposes bravado with unrequited love. I can’t wait to hear this in concert.

“L’Amour de ma vie” means “the love of my life” in French. This is the opposite of unrequited love: the narrator says:

“I was the love of your life, mm
But you were not mine (But you were not mine)”

The song has an almost jazzy vibe, and I could easily imagine someone like Amy Winehouse covering it.

“The Diner” takes the perspective of a stalker over a creepy beat. It is the one song on the album that is not autofiction.

“Bittersuite” is a clever homophone of bittersweet. The narrator is trapped in a hotel suite and can’t engage in the world – I assume because of their fame. The song is constructed like a little pop suite with two distinct music pieces woven into a single song. Even within the second section, there are multiple musical components. This is an example of the evolution in musical complexity that Billie and Finneas have accomplished on this album.

“Blue” is another multi-part suite. The song’s first half has an upbeat pop sound, but the second half has a sadder and more atmospheric sound. The second section has a unique bridge and string outro. Lyrically, it borrows lines and ideas from the rest of the songs on the album. It is a reverse overture—summarizing the album rather than setting it up. Clocking in at nearly six minutes, it is the most complex song on the album.

Billie and Finneas have accomplished a remarkable feat: introducing themselves to the world via the internet with their bedroom productions a decade ago and gaining traction with viral hits, releasing a successful and stunning debut, avoiding the sophomore slump with an even better second album, and now releasing their best album: HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. Each step has been a step forward. They have become a mainstream pop act without compromising their integrity. Billie speaks authentically in an inauthentic genre. Most importantly, they have released an ALBUM (demands to be listened to as a whole) filled with earworms that demand to be listened to.

I was blown away when I first heard Kamasi’s The Epic in 2014. I loved his big tenor sax shredding over bold arrangements (a 10-piece jazz band augmented by a 32-piece orchestra, 20-member choir, and various vocalists). It had a retro soul jazz vibe but was also uniquely Kamasi. His subsequent albums were more of the same. Live, Kamasi and his band were loud and aggressive – a stark difference from the recordings. I craved Kamasi to release an album that was not more of the same and that caught some of the live magic. Fearless Movement delivers something new and captures the live magic by being a “dance album.” But Kamasi is way too clever to be obvious; his version of a dance album, per his website, is:

“When people hear that I’m making a dance album, it’s not literal,” Washington says. “Dance is movement and expression, and in a way it’s the same thing as music — expressing your spirit through your body. That’s what this album is pushing.” Kamasi continues: “The kind of music I make is not necessarily associated with dance, even though I feel like the more expression in the music, the more it can inspire you to move.”

On my first listen, I moved: head bopping, foot tapping, body swaying, etc. I was not dancing but moving (dare I say fearlessly). This is my favorite Kamasi album since his debut. It is everything I have hoped for in a Kamasi album. I just saw the band live on the tour supporting Fearless Movement, and after seeing several of the tunes live, I liked the album even more.

If you are unfamiliar with Kamasi Washington, he comes from an L.A. jazz fusion collective called the West Coast Get Down (WCGD). For the WCGD, “jazz fusion” is not jazz-rock or jazz-funk of the late 1970s or jazz-lite of the 1980s but jazz hip-hop. One of Kamasi’s resume builders was that he appeared on Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 masterpiece To Pimp a Butterfly. The WCGD was/is a collective of young musicians (although they are not so young anymore as they are in their 40s) credited with reviving jazz fusion and making L.A. the focal point for what many consider a renaissance for the genre’s mass appeal. Some of the key players are Thundercat (bass), Terrace Martin (multi-instrumentalist and producer), Miles Mosley (bass), Tony Austin (drums), Ronald Bruner Jr (drums), Cameron Graves (piano), Brandon Coleman (keyboards), Ryan Porter (trombone), Patrice Quinn (vocals) and the guy with the most name recognition: Kamasi Washington (sax). All of these characters have been on Kamasi Washington’s albums and in his live bands. For example, on the Fearless Movement tour, the Kamasi band is Tony Austin on drums, Miles Mosley on bass, Brandon Coleman on keys, Ryan Porter on trombone, DJ Battlecat on everything, Patrice Quinn on vocals, Rickey Washington (Kamasi’s dad) on flute and soprano sax.

Fearless Movement (the album) has the usual Kamasi/WCGD collaborators and some new faces: DJ Battlecat, BJ The Chicago Kid, Andre 3000 (in flute mode vs. rapping), Coast Contra, George Clinton, and D Smoke.

Note: The song sequences of the vinyl LP and the digital stream are different—I will follow the vinyl sequence in this review.

Side A

“Lesanu” opens the album with a prayer in Ge’ez, the language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible, per Kamasi’s website:

“‘Lesanu’ is a dedication to a friend of mine who passed away, and a moment to give thanks for my path,” Kamasi says. “Being a father means the horizon of your life all of a sudden shows up. My mortality became more apparent to me, but also my immortality — realizing that my daughter is going to live on and see things that I’m never going to see. I had to become comfortable with this, and that affected the music that I was making.”

“Lesanu” is a powerful song that mixes 60s bop with some acid jazz elements. Cameron Graves (piano) and Kamasi (tenor sax) give impressive solos. The tune sets the stage for this to be a kick-ass album.

“Asha the First” (Ft. Ras Austin, Taj Austin & Thundercat) is a song credited to Kamasi and his young daughter. Again per Kamasi website:

With touring on pause, they spent her [Kamasi’s daughter] early years together listening to Washington’s favorite records by John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Eric Dolphy. “I wanted to show her all of the best music,” he says. And one day, at just shy of two years old, she came up with a melody. “We were playing around on the piano, and she just kept playing it over and over again,” he says. That tune became the song “Asha The First.”

In concert, Kamasi tells the same story above but adds a demo of what he first heard from his daughter. The song’s recording has a beautiful Thundercat bass solo – which is more like a guitar solo in that it is super melodic. Kamasi follows with a righteous tenor sax solo. The song also features a rap from Coast Contra (Ras and Taj Austin, the twin sons of West Coast rapper Ras Kass).

“The Visionary” (Ft. Terrace Martin) is a short song that provides a transition from Asha to “Get Lit.”

“Get Lit” (Ft. George Clinton & D Smoke) amalgamates Clinton’s P-funk, hip-hop, and jazz. It is a beautiful jam and one of my favorite songs on the album. I hoped to hear this song live but assumed it could not be duplicated in concert without Clinton and D Smoke. However, Kamasi had a great idea for the live show: turn over the recording to DJ Battlecat and let him remix it live and show off his DJ prowess—it worked great.

Side B

“Computer Love” (Ft. Brandon Coleman, DJ Battlecat & Patrice Quinn) is a cover of a 1986 Zapp song. The original was a classic mid-80s quiet storm synth-pop-funk. On the recording, Kamasi turns it into a gorgeous ornate jazz ballad. Vocalist Patrice Quinn has been part of Kamasi’s Secret Sauce since day one, and she is the featured vocalist on this track. This is her best vocal on a Kamasi album. In addition to Quinn, some kind of wind synth solo transitions into a face-melting Kamasi tenor solo. Live DJ Battlecat was the more prominent “vocalist” in the love show via a voice box.

“Dream State” by Kamasi Washington & André 3000 is an instrumental musical conversation between André 3000 (on flute) and Kamasi. I have listened to André 3000’s flute album, and it doesn’t do much for me, but this collaboration with Kamasi really works.

“Interstellar Peace (The Last Stance)” sounds like the instrumental soundtrack of a science fiction movie. In concert, this became a showcase for Brandon Coleman (the tune’s composer).

Side C

“The Garden Path” sounds like classic Kamasi—it would not have been out of place on any of his previous albums. Dontae Winslow (trumpet) and Ryan Porter (trombone) provide great solos.

“Road to Self (KO)” is one of my favorite tracks on the album. It opens with a cool synth solo, then segues into piano before swelling into the full ensemble. Kamasi takes a solo (with some nice echo effects). The solo starts gently and then gets wild —a bit of jazz psychedelia. After Kamasi, Miles Mosley takes his turn on bass. Mosley’s solo also goes psychedelic with some wild bass bowing (almost an electric guitar sound). A drum solo is next (it is unclear if it is Tony Austin or Ronald Brunner Jr.). Finally, the full ensemble comes together to take it across the finish line.

Side D

“Together (ft. BJ the Chicago Kid)” is a gorgeous ballad featuring the intertwined vocals of BJ the Chicago Kid and Patrice Quinn. It also has a nice Ryan Porter trombone solo.

“Lines in the Sand” features vocalists Dwight Tribble (another long-time Kamasi contributor) and Patrice Quinn. It has a nice McCoy Tyner-like solo from Cameron Graves (I assume).

“Prologue” was the teaser single for the album. When it was released, I knew this would be a great album. In the spirit of Kamasi’s “dance record” concept, it is a cover of an Astor Piazzolla song. Astor PiazzollaIla is the legendary Argentinian tango composer. Washington and the band deconstruct the tango and remake it into Kamasi Washington music. It is a highlight of the album and was the finale of the live show.

Fearless Movement is my new favorite Kamasi Washington album. At 86 minutes, it is a relatively short Kamasi album, which helps – it is more digestible. I like how it more deliberately incorporates Kamasi and the WCGD’s hip-hop influences. As mentioned, witnessing this material live has only enhanced my appreciation of the album.

A note on the vinyl edition of the album, it sounds great and is a quality pressing. The cover art is well-executed and tasteful. The credits are well documented (unlike those on Tidal, which are impossible to follow). As noted, the album sequence is different for the vinyl version vs. streaming – I assume this was a practical issue of how to fit the songs on four LP sides vs. artistic choice. The album is pressed in red (sides A and B) and blue (sides C and D). The physical album is a reminder of the pleasure of physical media – holding an album cover, reading credits, and being forced to engage with the music by getting up and flipping a side every twenty minutes or so.

Don’t Forget Me is Maggie’s third proper album (she has had several EPs and demo compilations). Each album is a step forward, and this is her best. Her debut, 2019’s Heard It in a Past Life, had great singles but was not a cohesive album. It fused a folkie singer-songwriter groove with EDM in a natural way. Her second, Surrender (2022), felt like an album; it was a cohesive whole album. Surrender sounded more mature and self-assured, it had an 80s New Wave rock vibe. On Don’t Forget Me, Rogers has found the Maggie Rogers sound: a soft rock guitar-forward production and an updated version of a 70s singer-songwriter vibe. There is a quiet confidence in Rogers; she sounds comfortable as a pop star – or, as she says in a recent profile in Vogue regarding Don’t Forget Me:

“This is what I sound like when I’m just breathing.”

“There are so many different memories woven into the tapestry of this record, from across the span of my 20s. I’m turning 30 at the end of April. This record does feel in many ways like this really woven memory blanket of this long span of my life.”

Vogue 4/12/24

Per the pre-release hype, the songs poured out of her, with the help of co-writer Ian Fitchuk in a week. This kind of explosion of creativity was new to Rogers, as was the collaboration with Fitchuk.

“Rogers wrote most of the record with the producer Ian Fitchuk. They met in Los Angeles in 2019, when Fitchuk was there for the Grammy Awards. (He was a co-writer and co-producer on Kacey Musgraves’s “Golden Hour,” which won both Album of the Year and Best Country Album.)”

From The New Yorker published in the print edition of the April 15, 2024, issue, with the headline “The Modern Pulpit.”

The music on the album is generally upbeat, which is an intriguing contradiction to the mostly pensive lyrics. The lyrics of the bouncy opening track, “It Was Coming All Along,” are melancholy: Mom is getting ready to sell the family home, the narrator is approaching thirty, and feeling the weight of adulthood when the heady days of her early twenties don’t seem that far away. But it is not chronic: “…a honey shade of blue…But I know it won’t last for long.”

The confidence I hear in the album is highlighted in “Drunk,” where the narrator says:

“I’m drunk, not drinkin’
Lost in wishful thinkin’
‘Round and ’round and ’round and ’round and ’round it goes
I can hear them whisperin’
Call, but I’m not listenin'”

On her last tour, Rogers would introduce “So Sick of Dreaming” as “a story that my friend told me about someone being sorta shitty.” The narrator tells the story of a loser boyfriend and how the narrator is tired of dealing with this situation and dreaming they will somehow get better. She is ready to move on.

In the context of a rock song, “The Kill” tells the story of lovers who are not on the same page. Ultimately, the couple “were just wasting time.”

“If Now Was Then” is a beautiful song about regret and “what if?” The conclusion is that no matter what, you can’t fix the past.

“But if now was then, I would get out of my head
I would touch your chest, I would break the bed
I would say the things that I never said
Oh, the things I’d do, oh, if now was then
But you can’t take it back
But you can’t take it back“

“I Still Do” is a piano ballad in Carole King’s style. Rogers even has some King vocal mannerisms. Despite losing a failed relationship, it was worth it – no regrets.

“‘Cause love is not a debt you pay
It’s not something you can give away
Love is not the final straw
But it’s always a reason to risk it all”

“On & On & On” is the most impressive vocal performance on the album. Lyrically, the narrator warns their ex-lover to move on: “Yeah, you better run.”

The narrator of “Never Going Home” is conflicted; they have fond memories of early in the relationship, but know the spark can’t be reignited: “…you kept me waiting…now I’m never, ever going home.”

“All the Same” is a piano and acoustic guitar ballad with a heartbreaking sound and lyrics to match:

“And still you wish for one more kiss
A moment’s bliss from a lover you’ve always known
Ooh, so it goes”

Maggie sticks the landing with the final and titular track, “Don’t Forget Me.” When this teaser single came out in early February, I was stoked that Don’t Forget Me would be a good album, and now, hearing it, Maggie has delivered. The song has a great musical hook and is the best song on the album. Like many of the songs on the album, it has a lot of conflicted emotions: disappointment she has not found “the one” offset by an admission that she is not ready to settle down anyway. She accepts that the next lover likely won’t be the one and is ok with that.

“So close the door and change the channel
Give me something I can handle
A good lover or someone who’s nice to me
Take my money, wreck my Sundays
Love me ’til your next somebody
Oh, and promise me that when it’s time to leave
Don’t forget me
Don’t forget me”

With Don’t Forget Me (the album), Rogers states that she is a pop star who will be around for a while and can be considered with the great 70s singer-songwriter who paved the way for her. This is an excellent roll-your-car-windows-down and sing-along summer album.

Vinyl Note: After several days of streaming Don’t Forget Me on Tidal (24-bit/96 kHz), I picked up the vinyl LP. The high-resolution stream sounded great, but the vinyl (Dogwood Green Edition) enhances the album’s organic sonics. It’s an excellent, clean pressing.

Like all things Taylor Swift, this new album has gotten a lot of press. Typically, the critical consensus is positive for a new Taylor Swift album. The reviews for The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology (TTPD for short) are not overly negative but are not the usual fawning praise. So, for Taylor, this is a flop. The biggest complaints are the length of TTPD (31 songs and a little over 2 hours), the firehose of recordings that have been released over the last few years (new albums, re-recordings, bonus material, etc.), and overexposure (The Eras Tour, Travis, etc.). Some people are suffering from Taylor fatigue, but I am not. I was looking forward to this new album, following all things Taylor on social media, and was stoked when TTPD turned out to be double the length of what was initially marketed.

There is a difference between a Swifty and a Taylor Swift fan. A Swifty knows every word to her every song and is a collector of every nuance of her life (boyfriends, exes, slights, etc.); that is, they are obsessed with Taylor Swift. A fan likes her music and performances but falls short of obsession. Although I consider myself a musichead, there are no artists I am obsessed with in the same way as a typical Swifty. Bob Dylan comes the closest for me, but I have learned over the years that I am a mere piker compared to how obsessed one can become with Dylan (he has Swifty-like obsessives). I don’t look down on Swifties; I am jealous of that level of enthusiasm for an artist or band. I am merely a Taylor Swift fan.

As a mere fan, I am not in a position to fully excavate this album. I cannot speculate which songs are about Joe, Matty, or Travis, and I don’t care. My approach to a musician who writes in an autobiographical (autofiction) style like Taylor is to assume the narrator of the songs is a character and not concern myself whether the narrator is the artist or the subject of the song is a famous person. I am minimally interested in the gossip of decoding fact from fiction in a song. I am here to enjoy the story, the sonics, and the performance.

My first reaction to TTPD was that there is a sonic sameness that would get tedious over 31 songs and two hours. In addition, it was a sonic rehashing of the folklore, evermore, and Midnight’s eras: Antonoff’s atmospheric synth noodling and Aaron Dressner’s pop-folk and piano ballads. None of the songs stuck out as bangers. Lyrically, it is a breakup album. I don’t have an issue with the breakup songs/albums as the breakup trope is often effective (as in the best of an artist’s catalog – see Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks), and Swift is the master of the breakup trope. My first reaction was: “Don’t hate it; it is just meh.” Taylor Swift has enough goodwill with me that I felt obligated to give it more time to breathe.

I have had more time with the album, which is a grower (an album that gets better with each listen). The sameness of the sonics has faded, and I hear the uniqueness of each track. Granted, there are no new sounds here, but I have yet to tire of Jack Antsnoff and Aaron Dessner’s sonics. I find their collaboration with Swift to be the perfect cocktail. I now hear bangers. The main album (tracks 1 – 16 released first and are on the physical editions) sounds like finished tracks, whereas some of the second album (tracks 17-31) have a demo feel.

The songs have clever lyrics and exciting stories. Swift shares various moods and attitudes: resignation, sadness, anger, vengeance, wistfulness, etc. There are several targets: exes, fans, a new boyfriend, skeptics, and critics – most intriguingly, the artist herself. Unlike the third-person narratives of folklore and evermore, TTPS is first-person autofiction. I know enough Taylor gossip to guess which songs are about Joe vs. Matty, but I am trying to avoid the gossip and take the narratives at face value. I find the storytelling engaging.

I don’t have a problem with the length. It is a bit of a brain dump, and I am sure that if Taylor had constrained herself to ten songs and had more crisp editing within songs, this would be considered a more substantial album in the Taylor canon. I prefer to hear TTPD as a raw and meandering album. I would rather hear the “bonus material” now, in real-time, vs. how most artists do it via an anniversary edition a decade or two into the future.

I am enjoying TTPS even though I don’t find it a masterpiece. It’s an exciting and entertaining work by Swift, one of my lifetime’s most successful pop musicians. Like all greats, like my beloved Bob Dylan, even the flops are intriguing. TTPS is, at the very least, fascinating.

One of my favorite albums of 2023 was Margo Price’s Strays (released in January). I was delighted in October of 2023 when she released a sequel, Strays II. The sequel has the same vibe as Strays and comes from the same Jonathan Wilson-produced sessions. I am a huge fan of Wilson (both as a performer and as a producer). Most songs from both albums were written by Margo and her husband, Jeremy Ivy. Strays II has the same psychedelic late 70s classic rock feel as its predecessor. Although it is retro, it sounds fresh.

Strays II was marketed as an expanded re-release of Strays. It was promoted with three “acts” of songs. “Act I: Topanga Canyon” was released on August 22, 2023. “Act II: Mind Travel” was released on September 14, 2023. The complete Strays II and “Act III: Burn Whatever’s’ Left” was released on October 13, 2023. The vinyl edition of Strays II was released in January of 2024. Despite how it was marketed and promoted, Strays II is not bonus material or leftovers. Everything on II is as good as I – I slightly prefer II.

My elevator pitch for Margo Price is that she is a female Tom Petty, and both Stays albums have Mike Campbell as a guest musician to legitimize the Petty comparison. Campbell was Tom Petty’s guitarist and co-writer. He was part of Mudcrutch (a Petty side project), the most recent touring version of Fleetwood Mac, his current band, The Dirty Knobs, and he is a session ace extraordinaire.

The album opens with the titular song, per Price:

The title track is the story of how my husband, Jeremy [Ivey], and I met and fell in love in Nashville two decades ago. I wrote most of the words and Jeremy wrote the chords and melody. It also reflects how we have always tried to stay true to who we are as people: “Love and pain it comes in waves but it was quite enough in those early days, we were wild as wolves my darlin’, we were strays.”

Pitchfork

“Closer I Get” feature Ny Oh. Ny is a New Zealand folk singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. She is the lead singer of the band Neon Gru and has toured with Harry Styles as a multi-instrumentalist. She is the perfect backup vocalist for Margo. Per Margo, the song was:

…originally meant to open this double album with the line, “Being alive costs a lot of money but so does dying.” I’ve always thought it was unfair that the moment we are born, we immediately start racking up debt just for existing. This song was conjured from the ashes of our initial psychedelic trip—sometimes your perception and depth of field changes depending on where you’re at in life.

Pitchfork

“Malibu” is my favorite song from the whole project. This song has a solid Petty vibe. In addition to Campbell, the song also features Jonathan Wilson and Buck Meek (Big Thief). Per Margo:

“Malibu” was written with Mike Campbell in his Malibu home after Jeremy and I had driven through the canyon fleeing a forest fire to get my guitar from our Airbnb. I had the start of the song and brought it to him looking to finish it out. I wanted to write something with a country funk/Bobbie Gentry feel, a good long rambling story about the minutiae of the day, like “Ode to Billie Joe.” Mike added the long “California” yodel and the bridge and was exactly what the song needed. My favorite line is, “Love and grief are a package deal, the more you have, the more you feel.

Pitchfork

“Black Wolf Blues” – per Margo (from Holler)

“I love how these songs came together. ‘Black Wolf Blues’ in particular, Jeremy started writing the words from my exact point of view – he found myself reflecting on my ancestors, my grandparents (Paul & Mary Price) and their love and how it grew despite the drought and the loss of their farm. I wrote the chords and the melody and helped finish the verses and chorus. Even though it has a sweetness and a nostalgic way about it, there is a looming darkness – the wolf who’s been watching and weaving his way like a stray throughout the entire album. Look for him. It’s like an invisible plague hanging in the air, it’s the man in the suit and tie who’s lying to you through his straight, white teeth. He hides in shadows”.

“Mind Travel” is a psychedelic – per Margo (from Holler)

“…one of the more lyrically strange songs I’ve written. Jeremy and I wrote it in South Carolina. It’s pretty much beat poetry on drugs with a back beat – it was influenced by having an out of body experience on psilocybin. We both had some pretty incredible breakthroughs about accepting death and just reckoning with how fast it’s all going. It’s okay to be reflective and remember the past as long as you don’t get stuck back there. This part of the trip is where you learn to be satisfied with the present”.

“Unoriginal Sin” (feat. Mike Campbell) – per Margo (from Holler)

“The psychedelic journey continues down the blurry rabbit hole of time and space. We were lucky to have Mike Campbell co-write a dark rocker called ‘Unoriginal Sin.’ Working with him on some of these songs was like having a master class in songwriting. Sometimes there are dark corners you haven’t explored for some time, but it does some good to clean them out”.

“Homesick” (feat. Jonathan Wilson) has a Beatleseque vibe. Margo uses the term “homesick” for a feeling vs. place.

“Where Did We Go Wrong” sounds like a long-lost 1970s soft rock hit—a bit country but leaning more toward pop. It’s gorgeous.

“Burn Whatever’s’ Left” is a fantastic ending to the album. A psychedelic vision of death that declares:

“Strike a match and start again
Lock the road, from either end
Build me a house for memories I’ve kept
Then burn whatever’s left”

Margo released a six-song live Strays EP as part of Record Store Day Black Friday 2023. The performance was an in-store show at Grimey’s in Nashville on Strays I album release day (1/13/23). The vinyl is pressed on sangria marble vinyl. Grimey’s famously commissions murals on its outdoor wall to promote new albums. Although I am disappointed at how short this live album is, it is great to hear the road band playing the material. I saw Margo and the band in Phoenix in February 2023 at the Cresent Ballroom, and they were fantastic. This live EP is a beautiful souvenir of the live show. Unfortunately, this Record Store Day vinyl is the only way to listen to the EP.

Strays II is bundled with Strays I on streaming services: