Young Thug/Bloody Jay - Black Portland: 8.5 (high A-)

Free mixtape. Printed out and put on shelf.

Jinx Lennon - Past Pupil Stay Sane

:-| [Incredibly long and somewhat irritating, like that drunk at the bar that won't pipe down but does occasionally make a great point that sticks with you.]

Jinx Lennon - Magic Bullets of Madness to Uplift the Grief Magnets: 7 (B+)

My wife says he sounds like a leprechaun, which I found to be hilariously true, and then had a hard time thinking of him as anything other than an aggro street-poet leprechaun. But the album is good, for those who like anti-folk, folk-punk, or whatever you want to call it. This one's a notch better than its co-release [Past Pupil Stay Sane] because it's got Clinic on it.

KRS-One - A Retrospective: 4 stars

Orchestra Super Mazembe - Mazembe @ 45RPM Vol. 2: 4 stars

 

A hair less good than Vol. 1. Download only.

Mahlathini & Mahotella Queens: Paris-Soweto: 7.5 (high B+)

 

# [mbaqanga] [Not sure why Christgau refers to this as "live," since there doesn't seem to be anything live about it. And he claims it's his "go-to" Mahlathini? But he never noticed it wasn't live? The liner notes even name the studio it was recorded in. Weird. In any event, I owned this once upon a time and sold it back after alot of hand-wringing trying to understand his "A" grade. It's a fine album.]

Hallelujah Chicken Run Band - Take One: 8 (A-)

So out of print, so fast, despite being so good. Can't find a reasonably priced CD, so I guess I'll have to skip it. [Re-issued so I bought it.]

Terry Allen - Lubbock (on everything): 3.5 stars

I don't know, maybe it's 4 stars -- I'm not a reliable evaluator of country music. Not going in the collection anyway.

David Bowie - Blackstar [honorable mention]

:-) [I have every Acclaimed Music top 100 album except this. I continue to believe that people over-rate this because Bowie released it in conjunction with his death, so it hits home for people harder than the music actually warrants. Many listens (7-10).]

Various Artists - L'Afrique Danse (African 360.126): 8 (A-)

Solid late '70s soukous. Those are the artists in large print on the cover. Three songs written by Koffi Olomide. Random download on Global Groove. Used vinyl way too expensive.

Jimi Hendrix - Blues: 3.5 stars

# [blues rock]

Various Artists - American Honey: 4 stars

 

A mishmash of older country and country-ish songs, alternative music and currently obscure mid-Western rappers. It doesn't totally gel but hangs together well enough. Download only, but won't print at this level.

Vieux Kanté - The Young Man's Harp: 3.5 stars

 

Very traditional Malian acoustic ngoni music. A little too traditional for my tastes, call me a philistine.

Le Super Biton National de Segou - Anthology: 4 stars

Trying to get a handle on this group's discography is challenging. They put out two albums in 1977 on the Mali Kundan (Mali Stars?) label. Both have the same title as this, and the same image and graphics, the first one being blue like this one and the second one being orange. Well, I guess those two are technically self-titled and this one is called "Anthology" because it has all the songs from the orange one and all the songs except two from the blue one, "Garan" and "Babu." I've listened to both of those missing songs on YouTube and can see why they were left off to keep this at a single CD. To complicate matters further, there is also a later release called Belle Epoque that is the orange album with an epic 15 minute track from the blue one added on ("Nyangaran Foli"). They also have a release called Afro Jazz du Mali from 1986 which I will review shortly.

Shoes - Present Tense/Tongue Twister: 3.5 stars

Please see immediately prior post for the details on this one. Also listened to Elektrafied once, which contains both of these, plus Boomerang.

Shoes - Black Vinyl Shoes: 7.5 (high B+)

 

I used to have a copy when it was very rare, but eventually sold it back to fund other purchases because I was never really into it. I might re-buy a physical now that it's back in print, if it wasn't one of those "buy it straight from the band for $20 shipped" jobbies. It's not worth that to me.

Issa Bagayogo - Sya: 3.5 stars

 

Nice mixture of typical Malian instrumentation and some modern electronic sounds. Not hugely compelling overall but still interesting. No real physical copies available, so it's not going in the collection. Might not anyway, but it makes the decision easier.

75 Dollar Bill - WOOD​/​METAL​/​PLASTIC​/​PATTERN​/​RHYTHM​/​ROCK: 7 (B+)

# [experimental; import] Vinyl-, import CD-, and cassette-only. REPETITIVE/DRONING/VELVETY/AFRICAN/VOICELESS/OKAY

Youssou N'Dour - Senegaal Rekk: 3.5 stars

The latest in music distribution: Not really available except as a stream on YouTube, with grainy, off-size images also findable. Sounds alot like his other work.

Bunny Wailer - Hook, Line & Sinker [honorable mention]

Breaking protocol in honor of Christgau's major over-rating of this one.