Free I absolutely love their albums Fire and Water & Highway, so it's no surprise that Free's self titled album is also fantastic. Free are really expectational among all the boring Blues Rock bands of the late 60's/early 70's. The amazing band chemistry shines on every track, with such natural feeling performances. There is so much space in the music, with minimal studio trickery. Paul Rodgers was an incredible vocalist, with a smooth voice that never feels put on or try hard. Paul Kossoff's guitar is so great. This album has a lot of low key songs, making for something very enjoyable to put on. "Trouble on Double Time" is such a highlight, along with "I'll Be Creeping" and "Songs of Yesterday". Free is totally awesome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJY8vGbZ7V8 Kero Kero Bonito,
Civilization I was a bit annoyed with how long it took Kero Kero Bonito to make another album after Time 'n' Place so I wasn't overly interested in the two Civilization EPs. That said the culmination of this project, even if it's only 27 minutes, is pretty damn good. This is their most interesting production for sure, with so many great keyboard bits and glitchy elements. Sarah's vocals are buried in the mix and it's a bit hard to pick out the lyrics, but it works for the style. All seven of the songs are great, with "The Princess and the Clock" being my favorite Kero Kero Bonito song...ever. The lengthy finale "Well Rested" is quite good, along with "21/04/20" and "When The Fires Come".
I haven't listened to Bonito Generation and Time 'n' Place a whole lot after their release years, but if I get my hands on this record it will certainly be a go-to for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncBPcx4RdbE Evelyn "Champagne" King,
Smooth Talk Talk about underrated! Man, this was a super good Disco album, every song is excellent and catchy. Evelyn's voice is so great, I absolutely love her style and these upbeat fun songs. "Nobody Knows" is amazing, "Smooth Talk" is amazing, "I Don't Know If It's Right"...the whole album is great! I cannot believe I've never heard of her until now, because this is just great music. I only found her music because I wanted to hear what Ice Cube sampled for "You Know How We Do It". It's actually a great transformative sample, taking bits of Smooth Talk's last song "The Show Is Over" and creating something new from it. Anyway, this album is great and it deserves more recognition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4pmJAHhw88 Marvin Gaye,
Let's Get It On It's hard to look past the title track, it's a pre-Internet meme song. Everyone knows those first few guitar notes, even without knowing the artist. But it's only the first track on this incredible album. If you think this just a set of songs for getting down then "If I Should Die Tonight" proves you wrong. It's such a striking, powerful song. It stirred up a strong emotional reaction from me. All these songs have such a great tone and instrumentation. The strings add so much and Marvin's vocals...nothing needs to be said there. "Distant Lover", oh my God man. Let's Get It On is just as good as What's Going On. I need to get this record as soon as I can.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKoLUnPf1uM Adina Howard,
Do You Wanna Ride? Decent listen, not so great as an entire album but there are some good songs here. "Freak Like Me", "My Up and Down" and "Baby Come Over" are great. I enjoyed the vibe of the album, I pretty much like anything with this 90's R&B sound. There are a lot of guest spots, which I didn't really like, though the other vocalist in "You Don't Have to Cry" adds a lot of life to the track. Adina has a nice lower vocal tone, she doesn't do anything too crazy vocally until the ending fireworks on "Horny For Your Love". I don't think I'll listen to this entire album again though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szOkY3o91Pc Phoebe Bridgers,
Punisher Everyone talked about this album online when it came out, but I was never interested in listening to it until now. I got it right away, and realized the appeal of her music from the first lines of "Garden Song". Her lyrics are full of specific details and individual expression. I thought that was the strongest aspect of the music. The album is somber, moreso than what I usually like, but her voice was so relaxing and the production was so good that it made it enjoyable. I really love the instrumentation, tracks like "Savior Complex" have such great subtle layers. "I Know The End" is the most striking track, with it's big build up. The scream at the end, wow. Naturally, I liked the upbeat songs like "Kyoto" and "ICU" the most but honestly this whole album was great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw0zYd0eIlk Haru Nemuri,
Shunka Ryougen The main event of the day, Haru Nemuri's new album Shunka Ryougen!
Haru really amazed everyone with Haru to Shura a few years ago. It was an incredible album with such a unique sound and powerful expression. Since then she's released a steady flow of singles along with a great mini album, Lovetheism which expanded her style. Recently it was fun to see videos of her short American tour where she performed with such high energy. Stage diving, climbing on things and even performing on the bar and merch table for one show. It's safe to say I was excited for this album, and oh boy did it deliver.
Shunka Ryougen is a natural evolution, taking elements from Haru to Shura and Lovetheism while going even further, especially with the emotional deliveries and unpredictable compositions. This is such a varied and interesting album. I can't get enough of Haru's vocals. I love her sarcastic sneering on "Old Fashioned" and the totally raw, straight from the soul, screaming on the title track. "Never Let You Go" is just classic Haru, with a completely unexpected break where things go crazy. I can say something good about every track, it's just an awesome album.
"Souzou Suru" has the line "TOUCH MY YES", a sure reference to Seiko Oomori's "Dogma Magma". That made me really happy. My other favorite songs are "Heart of Gold", "Shunrai" and "Who the f*ck is burning the forest?". The new version of "Kick In The World", complete with a screaming chorus, is amazing. It's so nice to hear Haru's sound progress, she is really one of the most exciting artists out there right now and this album is something I'm sure to listen to a lot. The spirit of Rock 'n Roll is alive and well in artists like Haru Nemuri. This album makes her one of the
greats for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUYt68m49h4 Seiko Oomori,
PERSONA #1 Though I have been a massive fan of Seiko since Tokyo Black Hole, the "she can do no wrong" phase ended with Kusokawa Party, an album that missed the mark with it's second half. I was very skeptical of her latest studio album Kintsugi but it turned out to be fantastic! I was also enjoying ZOC until Katy left the group early last year. Then Seiko released "Rude" which I honestly think is one of her worst songs. I basically stopped following her in 2021.
But the "TOUCH MY YES" line from Haru's album made me want to listen to Seiko's latest project. Upon hearing the first seconds of title track, I fell right back into things and was instantly along for this fun crazy ride. PERSONA #1 is a self cover album where Seiko does her own versions of songs she has written for other artists. This includes one of my favorite J-Pop songs of the last from many years, "LADY BABY BLUE" originally by The Idol Formerly Known As Ladybaby, among other great tracks. Even though "Mugen Climax" was already on kitixxxgaia, this new version couldn't be anymore different. It's a pretty fun album with some fun styles. It naturally doesn't have the flow and feel of a Seiko album, but as a sort of compilation it's good. I'll just pretend "Rude" wasn't tacked on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guwxVcKNYMM