Album Review: Cole Swindell- Stereotype

Kenny G’s warbling on seasonal melodies wafted from a neighbor’s open windows on an unseasonably warm Christmas five months ago.  I was glad to learn of the household’s apparent admiration of the saxophonist’s interpretations of material like “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” and “Silver Bells.”

It’s going to be 80 degrees at 5 p.m. this Friday evening.  As in summers past, I’m likely to hear plenty of classic rock (Journey, Led Zeppelin, REO Speedwagon) and blooze (Joe Bonamassa, Marcus King, Stevie Ray Vaughan) blasting from speakers balanced on coolers in nearby backyards and driveways.

Yet the dominant sound on my suburban block is contemporary country (Jason Aldean, Eric Church, Carrie Underwood).  I’ve favored crossover reggaeton on my patio during the pandemic (J Balvin, Bad Bunny, Karol G), so neighbors will likely be surprised when I place Cole Swindell’s new album on repeat tonight.

In no small part because my heart skips a beat every time my life partner sings along with Swindell on radio hits like "Single Saturday Night", I’m unironically enamored with the aptly named Stereotype. Songs including "Heads Carolina" are what I call “White Claw country.“ The formula is delicious. Fitting in rarely felt so good.

The Top Kansas City Albums and EPs of 2021

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Kansas City is a small town.  Even so, my version of Kansas City is vastly different from the place many of my music-minded peers call home.  Rankings of 55 of my favorite recordings released by artists from the Kansas City area during the first 42 weeks of 2021 follow.  A handful of highly praised albums didn’t make the cut.  The omissions aren't personal.  I simply prefer the titles listed below.  Additionally, several albums by prominent locally based musicians are slated for release in the final weeks of 2021. 

The Top 25 Kansas City Albums of 2021

1. Behzod Abduraimov- Debussy Chopin Mussorgsky

My review.

2. Pat Metheny- Road to the Sun

My review.

3. Steddy P- SOS: Toxic

4. Mac Lethal- Winter Heartbreak II

My review.

5. Pat Metheny- Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV)

My review.

6. Blackstarkids- Puppies Forever

7. Flooding- Flooding

My review.

8. Hermon Mehari and Alessandro Lanzoni- Arc Fiction

My review.

9. Verploegh and Baker- Singles

My review.

10. Samantha Fish- Faster

11. The Count Basie Orchestra- Live at Birdland

My review.

12. Liam Kazer- Due North

13. Hxxs- Channeler

14. Steve Million- What I Meant to Say

My review.

15. Tech N9ne- Asin9ne

16. Silicone Prairie- My Life on the Silicone Prairie

17. GI Gizzle and Rich the Factor- Don't Take This Personal 2

18. John Armato- The Drummer Loves Ballads

My review.

19. Melissa Etheridge- One Way Out

20. Riley Downing- Start It Over

21. Cheli Davis Smith Trio- Composite

My review.

22. Florian Arbenz, Hermon Mehari and Nelson Veras- Conversation #1: Condensed

My review.

23. Lucy Wijnands- Sings the David Heckendorn Song Book

24. Sara Morgan- Another Nail

25. Milkdrop- Thirty Eight

The Top 20 Kansas City EPs of 2021

1. Bummer- Dead Horse

2. Blob Castle- Music for Art Show

My review.

3. Big Water- ...And I’m All Out of Sh*t to F**k Up

4. The Greeting Committee- Dandelion

5. Baby and the Brain- BrainBaby

6. Rachel Cion - Wanted!

7. Rich the Factor- Mobbligated

8. Alber- Journey

My review.

9. Stik Figa- East of MacVicar Ave

10. Quiet Takes- San Fidel

11. Alyssa Murray- Half & Half

12. Sarin Reaper- Demo

13. Maal and Tom Richman- Grass

14. Cuee- Gospel

15. Lauren Anderson- Love on the Rocks

16. Connor Leimer- Like My Mind

17. Andy McKee- Symbol

18. Rory Fresco- Born Hero

19. Edison Lights- Shake This

20. Such Lovely People- Great Distinction

The Top Ten Kansas City Reissues, Reimaginings and Compilations of 2021

1. Kevin Morby- A Night at the Little Los Angeles

2. Mike Dillon- Shoot the Moon

My review.

3. Mike Dillon- 1918

My review.

4. Merlin- Electric Children: The Final Cut

5. Rich the Factor- Streets vs. Commercial: 100 Song Collection, Part 1

6. The Wild Women of Kansas City- Live at Pilgrim Chapel

My review.

7. Kansas- Point of Know Return: Live & Beyond

8. Danny Cox- Young and Hot: Live at Cowtown Ballroom

9. Whiskey Boots- #1

10. Vitreous Humor- Posthumous

Last year’s rankings of Kansas City releases are here.

Gigs, Gimmicks and Geegaws

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Running errands in a car without bluetooth capability (oh, the horror!), my life companion and I resorted to fiddling with the radio.  We settled on the oldies station that dominates radio ratings in Kansas City.  Hits by the likes of Hall & Oates, John Mellencamp and Madonna were featured in an all-’80s Memorial Day weekend promotion.

I fussily complained that having completely absorbed the songs decades ago, I was incapable of deriving even a modicum of pleasure from listening to them for the umpteenth time.  I waited a millisecond too long to reply after the love of my life asked if I felt the same way about her.

She wasn’t mad for long.  She knows humans are infinitely more complex than static pop songs.  Unlike, say, Men at Work’s infuriating 1981 hit “Down Under,” even the most circumspect person constantly undergoes significant changes.  I may be disinterested in glorifying the past, but I’m a sucker for gigs, gimmicks, revisions and makeovers.

I’d be first in line to fork over twenty dollars to catch Men at Work at an area nightclub tonight.  And while the experience they offer is inherently inferior, live albums also hold enormous appeal to me.  I’m genuinely impressed by Point of Know Return: Live & Beyond.  The souvenir of Kansas’ 2019-20 tour, the prog-rock behemoth’s new album is far better than anyone could reasonably expect.

Can’s Live in Stuttgart 1975 is a more astounding surprise.  Five extended instrumental jams occupy the preposterously esoteric realm in which the Velvet Underground and Weather Report overlap.  Yet my favorite new live release is Celebration, a 2019 collaboration of two avant-garde stalwarts.  Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer and American percussionist Hamid Drake veer between violent cacophony and joyous swing as if the two styles are compatible.  (They are.)

A significant portion of Moby’s success derives from his knack for conjoining styles most listeners consider incongruous.  I disagree with classical traditionalists who suggest the signing of Moby by Deutsche Grammophon is crass.  The famous yellow seal may have lost a bit of luster in the classical powerhouse’s recent crossover bids, but I’m completely sold on the string-laden version of Mark Lanegan’s “The Lonely Night” pairing Lanegan with Kris Kristofferson on Moby’s Reprise.

The vitality of Moby’s classical venture is a mild surprise, but the weakness of K.D. Lang’s Makeover is a bitter disappointment.  Creating dance remixes of several of the stellar vocalist’s most beloved tracks seems like a can’t-lose proposition.  Yet ecstatic jubilance is never attained.  Maybe I’ll feel differently should I encounter the St. Tropez Mix of “Miss Chatelaine” on a personalized oldies station 30 years from now.

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The rapid expansion of my concert calendar is exciting.  Yet all but a few of the most compelling tours are skipping the Kansas City area.  I whined about the inability of improvising musicians to draw crowds in this town at Plastic Sax.

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Spotify’s latest customer engagement effort insists Karol G is my top artist at the platform. That’s cool, but if the tagging process in classical music wasn’t so byzantine, Spotify’s bots would correctly cite Richard Wagner as my most-streamed artist.