Yolocamba Ita - Revolutionary Songs of El Salvador [placeholder]

Impossible to stream or download anywhere (at least at this time). I did manage to patch 7 out of 8 of the individual tracks together into a playlist on YouTube. I could only endure this once. If I got the right tracks, it's acoustic folk war songs of some kind. Very acoustic and very folk.

Bobbie Nelson and Amanda Shires - Loving You: 7.5 (high B+)

# [country/duets] I'm with Tom Hull on this one: "Nothing wrong with the Bobbie Nelson/Amanda Shires album, but doesn't strike me as a big deal either." [Ended up buying it after all, given I'm a big fan of Amanda Shires. I should probably up the grade one notch to 8 (A-), but I can't bring myself to do it.]

Ray Parker Jr. - The Other Woman: 8 (A-)

Here's the saga with this one: Had a nice vinyl copy which I unloaded in a period of trying to "thin the herd." Normally, that's where I would let it lie. However, since this has been remastered on CD with some very tasteful (of course, look at that guy!) bonus tracks, I went for it. I consider Christgau to have given this an 8.5 (high A-) in my system (top 10 of the A- range for his year-end list in any event), which is better. Another reason why I rebought it. Plus I really do like the packaging.

Ry Cooder/Mick Jagger/Charlie Watts/Nicky Hopkins/Bill Wyman - Jamming with Edward!

:-| [What to say? Half-decent jamming and farting around? File under The Rolling Stones. I of course have a hard copy, because it's the Stones]

Yo La Tengo - Extra Painful

Just a note to note that I have it in this version too (kept the original, pure version as well) I'm not going to bother grading the Extra Painful disc.

Scritti Politti - Cupid & Psyche 85: 7 (B+)

# [twinkle pop] [99% sure I owned this once]

Ray Parker Jr. - Greatest Hits [1982]: 8 (A-)

I have the 1982 version, with 10 tracks on vinyl (which was never reissued on CD domestically), where it will stay. The 1993 version, issued only on CD, appears not to have been remastered, contains 14 tracks, and subtracts "The People Next Door" while adding the following (which I obviously played three times):

"Ghostbusters"

"I Still Can't Get Over Loving You"

"Jamie"

"Girls Are More Fun"

"Christmas Time Is Here"

Here is the cover of that one:

Raydio - Raydio: 8 (A-)

Have this on used vinyl, which I bought long before it was reissued on CD and where it will stay.

Various - Opika Pende: Africa at 78rpm [placeholder]

Single listen, but it's such an epic compilation that I wanted to cover it. Exclusively folkloric.

Ace of Base - The Sign: 7.5 (high B+)

# [dance] [My better half has a physical of this. Contains most of their non-US debut, Happy Nation, and, taken I think together with that one's sales tallies, it's one of the top 100 selling albums of all time.]

Caetano Veloso - A arte de Caetano Veloso: 7.5 (high B+)

# [best of; tropicalia]

Alison Krauss - Now That I've Found You: A Collection: 7.5 (high B+)

# [best of; country/bluegrass]

Kimya Dawson - My Cute Friend Sweet Princess: 7 (B+)

# [anti-folk] [De-shelved in 2022]

Kimya Dawson - I'm Sorry That Sometimes I'm Mean: 7 (B+)

# [anti-folk] [De-shelved in 2022]

The Moldy Peaches - The Moldy Peaches: 8 (A-)

Probably more of a 7.5 (high B+) # [anti-folk] to me, but upped a notch out of deference to Hull and Christgau.

El Michels Affair/Black Thought - Glorious Game [honorable mention]

:-)

John Fogerty - Centerfield: 7 (B+)

# [roots]

John Fogerty [a/k/a The Blue Ridge Rangers] - The Blue Ridge Rangers: 7 (B+)

# [roots]

Bar Italia - Bedhead [EP]: 7 (B+)

Vinyl-only

Ultramagnetic MC's - Funk Your Head Up: 7.5 (high B+)

Very possibly an 8 (A-), and only marginally lesser than their third. But so deeply OOP that it's ridiculous.

Ultramagnetic MC's - The Four Horsemen: 8 (A-)

Finally found a nice copy for a semi-reasonable price.

Preston School of Industry [Scott Kannberg] - All This Sounds Gas: 8 (A-)

Deluxe edition is digital only, but has 15 (!) bonus tracks, not otherwise sold separately. Although I liked them and played them many times, I won't be physicalizing them.

Yoko Ono - A Story: 7 (B+)

More than a third of these tracks (4) are included on other releases (Season of Glass and Double Fantasy). Given that, the grade, and the fact that hard copies are going for around $50-$75, I'll skip it.

The Durutti Column – Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say [EP]

:-|

Preston School of Industry [Scott Kannberg] - Monsoon: 8 (A-)

The digital-only deluxe edition of this comes with 6 bonus tracks, 5 of which are on the Australian CD entitled The Furnace Sun [EP]. I would buy that, but people are asking too much. It looks like this:

However, 4 of them are on the Caught in the Rain EP, which is selling for cheaper, so I got that. Please see separate review of that.

Spiral Stairs [Scott Kannberg] - We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized: 7.5 (high B+)

Deluxe edition has two bonus tracks, which are also available as a reasonably-priced 7", which I therefore purchased (I may have gotten the last one):

Rene and Angela - Street Called Desire: 7.5 (high B+)

Pharoah Sanders - Message from Home: 7.5 (high B+)

# [jazz]

Alex Chilton - Black List [EP]

:-|

Killah Priest - Forest of the Happy Ever After: 7 (B+)

# [spoken-word] Upped from neutral. Not really music - let alone hip hop. More of an extended spoken word piece with some fairy-tale musical elements in the background.

Hanini/Rachid Baba Ahmed - Maghreb K7 Club - Disco Singles Volume 2 [EP]: 7.5 (high B+)

Digital/vinyl-only [okee brah]

Spiral Stairs [Scott Kannberg] - The Real Feel: 8 (A-)

I also listened to the 4 bonus tracks on the streaming-only "deluxe edition" of this (there was also a short "answering machine message" type track which I will ignore):

"Hey Folk Singa"

"The Moodist"

"Dreams They Guide Us"

"Did Anyone Ever Tell You You Are a 10,000 Maniacs Song"

The first two were on a separate 7" packaged with some (all?) vinyl editions, but was not sold separately. "Dreams They Guide Us" was on a split 7" with The Long Winters. The last one is digital only.

One Inch Punch - Tao of the One Inch Punch: 7.5 (high B+)

I'm kind of a Justin Warfield fanboy. Am I the only one? At least I admit it. Not sure what to call this. Electro? In a class by itself, and totally overlooked as far as I can see.

Stephen Malkmus - Stephen Malkmus: 7 (B+)

The National - Laugh Track: 9 (A)

I think this is the best thing they’ve ever done. But it took me many plays to come to the view that, at one hour, it’s overlong. Three of these 5 minute songs should have been left off, in my view, which would have bumped this up to masterpiece or near-masterpiece for me.

The Mountain Goats - Jenny from Thebes [honorable mention]

:-)

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Hypnotic Eye

:-|

Alexander O'Neal - [Hearsay] All Mixed Up: 8 (A-)

This comes in several different versions. All of the US/UK releases, except the US 1989 vinyl pictured above, have several repeat songs, instead of just the one on the above ("(What Can I Say) To Make You Love Me"). There's very little I find more irritating than repeat songs. So I bought a near mint copy of this on original vinyl for $10 shipped.

Change - Miracles: 7 (B+)

# [disco]

Corook - Serious Person (Part 2) [EP]

:-| [Digital-only] [4 listens] [They has managed to have a confusing catalog, even though they has released very few things, which is quite an accomplishment.]

John Phillips - John Phillips (John, the Wolf King of L.A.) [honorable mention]

:-)

Various - From Dakar to Cuba: Swinging to the Rumba: 7 (B+)

[a/k/a De Dakar a Cuba on Danse la Rumba] # [classic rumba; multi-artist comp]

Guided by Voices - Earthquake Glue [honorable mention]

:-)

Roxy Music - The Complete Studio Recordings

Just a note that this is the configuration in which I have their studio albums. A beautiful box set for a ridiculously good price (less than $7.50 per album). I have yet to listen to the 2-disc "extras" set.

Roxy Music - Manifesto: 7.5 (high B+)

Roseanne Cash - 10 Song Demo [honorable mention]

:-) [Definitely love me some Rosanne Cash though]

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Kaleidoscope [honorable mention]

:-)

Roxy Music - Siren: 8 (A-)

Roxy Music - Country Life: 7.5 (high B+)

Blood Orange - Cupid Deluxe: 7 (B+)

# [r&b]

The Klezmatics - Woody Guthrie’s Happy Joyous Hanukkah: 7 (B+)

# [klezmer; holiday]

Heatmiser - The Music of Heatmiser [honorable mention]

:-) [Listened to this as part of the 2023 reissue, and grade relates only to The Music of Heatmiser [EP] cassette from 1992 with six tracks and the “Stray” single on Cavity Search, which also had “Can’t Be Touched” and “Wake.” I skipped the previously unreleaseds, demos, and live tracks.]

My Bloody Valentine - You Made Me Realise [EP] [honorable mention]

:-)

My Bloody Valentine - Feed Me with Your Kiss [EP]

:-|

Napalm Death - Scum

:-|

The Jungle Brothers - V.I.P. [honorable mention]

:-)

Front Bottoms - You Are Who You Hang Out With [honorable mention]

:-)

A. Savage - Several Songs About Fire [honorable mention]

:-) [4 listens] [He deigned to issue this one on CD, but it ain’t as good. This one gets very much better in its last few tracks, which is probably when Christgau woke up from his afternoon nap and stuck a full A on it.]

Big Audio Dynamite - Tighten Up Vol. '88 [honorable mention]

:-)

Isaac Hayes - Black Moses

:-|

Sufjan Stevens - Javelin

:-|

L’Orange - The Mad Writer [honorable mention]

:-) [digital-only]

Caetano Veloso - A Foreign Sound

:-(

Caetano Veloso - Caetano Veloso: 7 (B+)

# [tropicalia]