The Top Kansas City Albums and EPs of 2024 (so far)

The Top Twenty Kansas City Albums of 2024 (so far)

1. Willi Carlisle- Critterland
Feral folk.

2. Betty Bryant- Lotta Livin'
Plastic Sax review.

3. Behzod Abduraimov- Shadows of My Ancestors
Prokofiev, Ravel and Saidaminova.

4. Charles McPherson- Reverence
Plastic Sax review.

5. Waxahatchee- Tigers Blood
KC.

6. Ben Allison, Steve Cardenas and Ted Nash- Tell the Birds I Said Hello: The Music of Herbie Nichols
Plastic Sax review.

7. Logan Richardson- Sacred Garden
Plastic Sax review.

8. Danielle Nicole- The Love You Bleed
KCUR's audio feature.

9. Karrin Allyson- A Kiss for Brazil
Plastic Sax review.

10. The Kansas City Symphony- Brahms: Reimagined Orchestrations
Virgil Thomson’s arrangements.

11. WireTown- Kansas City
Plastic Sax review.

12. Scott Dean Taylor and Seth Andrew Davis- Infidels
Plastic Sax review.

13. Jennifer Knapp- Kansas 25
Reworking of 1998 milestone.

14. Alber- Lento
Electro-jazz.

15. The Hearers- elevators come undone
Grandaddy-esque.

16. Brian Scarborough- We Need the Wind
Plastic Sax review.

17. Jeff Shirley- Contigo
Plastic Sax review.

18. Michael Davidson and Ellen Sommer- Skybreak
Trombone and piano.

19. Christopher Burnett- Originals
Plastic Sax review.

20. Doubledrag- Alone With Everyone
Shoegaze.

The Top Ten Kansas City EPs of 2024 (so far)

1. Midwestern- Reflections
There Stands the Glass review.

2. Burning Bush Demo 2024
Exodus.

3. Drew Williams- Wobble
Plastic Sax review.

4. Rich the Factor- Souped Up Sofa
KC’s the town.

5. Eddie Moore- Aperture: Solo Piano Works
Plastic Sax review.

6. Nate Hofer- Decommissioned
Ambient steel guitar.

7. Rich the Factor- Souped Up Sofa 2
Midwest tygoon.

7. Little Miss Dynamite- Grow Up
Firecracker folk.

9. Scott Hrabko & The Rabbits- Other Cats, Other Bags: Vol. 2
Louche troubadour.

10. The Fun Guy- From the Attic to the Underground 
Garage rock.

Never Too Much: Playboi Carti and R.A.P. Ferreira

Screenshot of Komische Oper Berlin’s production of "Semele" by There Stands the Glass.

Two hip-hop albums I’ve listened to compulsively in the last several days have almost nothing in common.  Playboi Carti’s synthetic Whole Lotta Red is a decadent exercise in willful stupidity.  R.A.P. Ferreira’s organic Bob's Son: In the Garden Level Cafe of the Scallops Hotel resembles the extracurricular activities of an undergraduate teacher assistant in an elite university’s philosophy department.  I love ‘em both.  The loony idiocy of Whole Lotta Red is propelled by exhilarating digital beats.  And while the Atlantan’s lyrics are absurd, Carti possesses the flow of a futuristic jazz artist.  Ferreira actually is a sort of jazz artist.  Bob’s Son sounds like a J Dilla remix of a collaboration between Frank Zappa and the Last Poets.  Yet one element of Bob’s Son is disappointing.  A few of his raps about rapping- one of my biggest pet peeves- can be interpreted as insults of mumble rappers like Carti.  Why so reactionary?  My world is big enough to accommodate the wildly disparate work of both men.

---

I’m already backsliding.  Three days after concluding my opera-a-day marathon, I began watching Komische Oper Berlin’s production of "Semele", a remarkably saucy George Friedrich Handel opera I’d yet to see.  I was rewarded by the discovery of "Endless Pleasure, Endless Love" at the end of the first act.  Playboi Carti would approve.

---

I review The Standards, Vol. 1, the new album by the Christopher Burnett Quintet, at Plastic Sax.