Semipop Life: Brokered conventions

Dudu Pukwana, Lil Wayne, Haim, John Anderson, and more!

Sep 20, 2020

Tracks 1 to 10 are P(h)ukwana's 1968 debut album, catchier-than-the-norm conventional South African jazz. The leader plays alto with his usual exuberant tone, whoever his tenor is—likely Ghanian Teddy Osei, apparently no one wrote these things down—tries out voice-like variations in volume, and Bob Stuckey’s organ often plays a prominent role, keeping the harmonic structure intact. The previously unreleased tracks 11 to 18 or 19 (depending on whether your edition includes sixteen seconds of backmasking) include outtakes not obviously inferior to those that made the cut, as well as vocal recordings from the following year for some theoretical pop audience—sometimes the best kind of pop audience, depending on the theory—featuring ringers from Fairport, in case you ever wanted to hear a 19-or-20-year-old Richard Thompson mimicking mbaqanga licks at a level of skill that would mark him as someone who could get work. Pukwana’s tunes withstand multiple uses, so you won’t mind Mongezi Feza repeating the six-note trumpet motif of “Pezulu” through three iterations.

Grade: A (“Pezulu” (acetate extended), “Sibuyile” (take one), “Izulu Liyaduduma”)

Broken Shadows: The Tower Tapes #2: Broken Shadows

This newish superish group features longtime sax sparring partners Tim Berne and Chris Speed teaming with the Bad Plus’s other two in Ferrara, Italy. I don’t know harmolodic deep cuts well enough to ID compositions, but the results are very Ornettey when they’re not Hemphill-y: so essentially like any number of Berne etc. projects. The alto, tenor, and occasional clarinet tones complement each other fittingly, Reid Anderson’s bass sounds more inspired than I ever remember it being, and the ensemble as a whole keeps its avantisms rooted in the blues. Twelve Euros may seem like a lot for a download they didn’t bother to split into tracks beyond “First Set” and “Second Set”, but the physical of the group’s other release is only available as part of a $400 box set; the value for money here seems more reasonable.

Grade: A MINUS (“Second Set”)

Lil Wayne: Funeral

I resisted this for a while, thinking it was too long, which at 24 sonically un-unified tracks it is almost by definition. But the rapping is at a disunified 2007 mixtape level through track 14, and even after that there’s a sprinkling of boffo lines and his second-greatest lasagna reference. It’s still strongest at the beginning, with emotive rhyming of the album title, his special relationship with Mannie Fresh renewed, and his not-too-high-except-in-that-sense Martian falsetto touching down for long enough to devour space rocks. The hot stretch survives his and Adam Levine’s crooning by capturing fleeting glimpses of Weezy’s insecurities and deepest fears, such as not having a pool. Best since No Ceilings? I don't remember No Ceilings, so best since Tha Carter III?

Grade: A MINUS (“Mama Mia”, “Bastard (Satan’s Kid)”, “Funeral”)

Zam Groove

Zambian-born sometime jazz drummer Michael Baird has recorded and released a trove of his birth country’s music on his SWP Records label; these seven tracks by four artists provide a sample. It starts with a classic slice of guitar pop in the Harry Smith sense from the Lipa Band; there’s more from them and their less hyper fellow Barotses the Libala Band later. Octogenarian Crispin Mutanuka’s silimba (xylophone with gourds) music may be less familiar to those who haven’t immersed themselves in old Hugh Tracey recordings, but try to work out how he gets those polyrhythms with two hands and be impressed. The kalimba-backed songs by the much younger Mufrika Edward, a singer “in the Cewa tradition” with a respectable number of social media followers, are so well-hooked and enthusiastically sung you can see why, per his Insta, the Latvians love him.

Grade: A MINUS (Mufrika Edward, “Galimoto”, Libala Band, “Musipili”; Libala Band, “Masholi”)

K. Michelle: All Monsters Are Human

Liberated from major label money, the finest R&B vocalist of the era can still afford a selection of big-a-few-years-ago producers, whom she instructs to turn the Auto-Tune up a quantum or two. Yet she still sings like she’s reading from her diary, or perhaps the internal logs of a particularly amorous GPT-3. Her great strength remains her willingness to commit to a concept—a post-breakup song called “Table for One”? You bet she’ll sing about her “full plate” and the “fork in my life” with sufficient impetus to add a bunch of broken glassware to her bill. Lastly, note how she and City Girls and Kash Doll, from different points on the mobility curve, reinforce each other’s desires for strong, weed-smoking men who also happen to have extreme wealth. It’s just insurance.

Grade: A MINUS (“Table for One”, “Supahood”, “That Game”)

Chapel of Disease: And as We Have Seen the Storm We Have Embraced the Eye (2018)

One of the best death metal joints of the era, a bit post- but not too much. Laurent and Cedric Teubl divide the guitar work as only brothers can, by which I mean that whichever one is the rhythm guitarist gets bullied into staying in his lane while even the drummer gets to show off. What sets this apart is, no really, the lyrics, which, while not exactly Goethe, genuinely capture the anxiety and angst that draws non-edgelords to death metal subject matter in the first place. When Laurent growls “am I worthless of life” one syllable at a time, it's sehr Romantisch.

Grade: A MINUS (“Song of the Gods”, “Null”, “The Sound of Shallow Grey”)

Haim: Women in Music Pt. III

If the understated irony of the album title has you worried they’ve been hanging out with Columbia grads too much, “The Steps” reassures us their strengths and limitations have barely evolved since 2013. Its chorus octave leap is potentially one of the hooks of the year, yet they neither fully integrate it into the song (they expend it on the last syllable of “understand”) nor go full fjuck-meaning Max Martin melodic math (they weaken the impact by following it up with a “me.”) So it ends up merely the best song on a good album that sometimes threatens to be more when, per the writing credits, Ariel Rechtstaid is around to remind them and Rostam what actually popular music sounds like. In this respect, tacking on last year’s singles doesn’t hurt.

Grade: B PLUS (“The Steps”, “Now I’m in It”, “I’ve Been Down”)

John Anderson: Years

He can still bend a note like nobody’s business, to the extent that producer Dan Auerbach has to make sure Blake Shelton doesn’t have too much to do on the duet, in case Gwen Stefani wants to be First Lady one day. The writing is years-tears basic, but wasn’t that good enough for Marquee Moon? In any case all the pros involved are capable of getting across the primary point: he’s old but not dead yet, which this year is sufficient cause for celebration. Auerbach’s production wavers between retro-softness and solo-filled grandiosity, which does result in some awkward transitions, but the imperturbable Anderson is as wild and blue and free as ever.

Grade: B PLUS (“Years”, “I’m Still Hangin’ On”, “Tuesday I’ll Be Gone”)

Semipop Life