New music this week from Johnny Marr, Stanley Simmons, Wishy, Basement Alchemy, Meshell Ndegecello, Karina Rykman, Tinted Windows (I'll explain), Lime Garden, Drink the Sea, Victoria Monet, James McCartney, Stevie Wonder (again, I'll explain) and much more. Enjoy!
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Okay, let's start with the great news - the new Johnny Marr album is the best work he's done since he led The Smiths into conquering the world. "The Age of Everything" isn't quite a masterpiece, but holy hell it's got some really good songs on it. I added several to the radio station and I had already added the pre-release singles.
The Stanley Simmons album is about as good as I had hoped. The offspring of the leaders of Kiss are great vocalists and their harmonic work is up there at the Simon & Garfunkel level. They also have a keen sense of who they are and there's a fun attitude you can hear in the songs.
This week's opener is by the band Basement Alchemy, and their new album "introverse" is a solid effort. I think that "how to have a good day" is a great opener even if it is the third song on their album. Has to make you wonder what comes before and after it though, doesn't it?
I have to address the one band I added whose album was released 16 years ago, Tinted Windows. Their self-titled debut album turned out to be their only album and I missed it completely, along with most of the world and that's a shame. Taylor Hanson (Hanson) on vocals, James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins) on guitar, Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick) on drums and Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne) on bass. An honest-to-feedback supergroup of power-alt-pop and boy do they sound like it. Letting Iha be the guitarist in charge really frees him up to do his thing and no matter what you might thing, the Hanson brothers can sing. Schlesinger was a great songwriter and many of us in the music community still feel the void left when COVID claimed him in the early days of the pandemic. I could have picked any some from the album to add to the station and settled on two.
Meshell Ndegeocello has released an album called "Synonym" and it's an album of remakes and an album of duets, which makes for some really interesting takes on songs you know. She performs Dolly Parton's "Islands in the Stream" with Chaka Khan, Temple of the Dog's "Hunger Strike" with Willow, Human League's "Don't You Want Me" with Cat Power and so on. Some of these songs have been transformed into something completely new, and it's worth checking out.
Karina Rykman's "Late Checkout" is a noisy yet solid pop album that goes in unexpected directions at times, and is a standout in the "too much reverb" crowd that seems to occupy all of music as of late. It easily rises above most material of the like.
You know what no one is talking about? The fact that Stevie Wonder released 4 previously unreleased tracks from the "Songs in the Key of Life" sessions. It's been 5 decades since that amazing album and even the man's castaway songs are leagues above most of what you hear today. Of course I had to add a track from it.
Finally, for those of you who listen to the radio station, you might know that I put the week's playlist on repeat starting at 12:00am until 10:00pm, when my show 10 at 10 plays. If you listen to music there this week you might catch, right after Stevie Wonder, a live track by Lake Street Drive of The Jackson 5's
I Want You Back" that they played at the Newport Jazz Festival this year. This is a radio exclusive for my channel: you can find it of course of YouTube but nowhere else. It's a fantastic version.
I Want You Back" that they played at the Newport Jazz Festival this year. This is a radio exclusive for my channel: you can find it of course of YouTube but nowhere else. It's a fantastic version.
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No cheap shots this week. I admit that it can be draining to keep up on the news these days. I'm working on a song about it I hope to have out before the end of the year.
But because I love you, allow me to introduce you to the "Triple Threat" that is Jackie Evans, who we have featured on the station before and will again:
