Odds & Ends 098
Jessie Ware: What's Your Pleasure?
The kicks she gets from flirting, memories, and contractual obligations for future affection are real if indirect, though I kind of liked her better when she was boring—it seemed principled (“Save a Kiss”, “Remember Where You Are”, “What’s Your Pleasure?”)
Chubby and the Gang: Speed Kills
12 Britpunk miniatures in 25 minutes, which is time enough for a Hammond, a couple of deep breaths on the title track, a ton of tomtom rolls, and a heartfelt tribute to the Grenfell Tower victims—an excellent specimen of a style I sometimes (wrongly) think I’ve heard enough of (“The Rise and Fall of the Gang”, “Pariah Radio”, “Speed Kills”)
Matthew Shipp: The Piano Equation
Yet another solo Shipp album, strong when he takes Monkism to near-perpendicular angles, maybe even better when he’s rigorously lush all by himself (“Land of the Secrets”, “Swing Note from Deep Space”, “Cosmic Juice")
Vibraphone-heavy globojazz sextet with active drumming, Cuban sax and trumpet to play off the tunes apace, and the willingness to freak out every now and then (“Fast Lane”, “Edificio 17”, “Sound”)
Chad Matheny: United Earth League of Quarantine Aerobics
Great union singalong, good metric system song, good “no one understands”, and a dinky one I don’t like as much, which of course is one that gets repeated en cuatro idiomas (“The Ballad of HPAE Local 5058”, “1.5-Meter Blockade”, “Hey, Where Did You Put My Stimulus Check?”)
Lee Ranaldo & Raül Refree: Names of North End Women
Not too much guitar, heavy instead on oddball instrumentation from marimba to ancient tape loops, at times sounding quite Paul Simon, a comparison not lessened by the effortless-seeming melodies: pleasant! (“Humps” (Espriu mix), “The Art of Losing”)
April: Da Capo
Not the most original record of its title, but a good example of its species with its nonsense and/or avant-garde titles like “LALALILALA” or “YOU.zip” made flesh by semi-surprising textural, structural, or quasi-hah-improvised hooks every couple of bars; plus there’s no 19-minute jam on the B (“Doll”, “1,2,3,4”)
Rudresh Mahanthappa: Hero Trio
If you think the ultimate goal of jazz is personal expression, this could easily end up high on your list; otherwise you might ask if we really need a herky-jerky decon- then reconstruction of “Ring of Fire”—I can’t say we definitely don’t (“I Can’t Get It Started”, “The Windup”)
Bob Dylan: Rough and Rowdy Ways
After a strong start I zone out, and when something catches my attention after that, it’s only because it’s bad about a third of the time, and that’s as much as I’d reasonably expect these days from our greatest undead song-and-dance man (“I Contain Multitudes”, “My Own Version of You”)