Catching Up: Overlooked Albums and Songs of 2021 (so far)

Rather than compiling a conventional mid-year best-of ranking, I’m acknowledging albums and songs I initially overlooked or previously underappreciated in the first six months of 2021.  Many of the selections are obscure, but millions of people were tuned into songs and albums like “No More Parties” and En Contra De Mi Voluntad long before I caught up.

Top Ten Overlooked and Underappreciated Albums of 2021 (So Far)

1. Marianne Faithfull and Warren Ellis- She Walks in Beauty

Pure poetry.

2. Jaimie Branch- Fly or Die Live

Angry improv.

3. Lambchop- Showtunes

My review.

4. Susan Alcorn, Ingrid Laubrock and Leila Bordeuil- Bird Meets Wire

Hung up.

5. Jimmy Edgar- Cheetah Bend

My review. 

6. La Arrolladora Banda el Limón- En Contra De Mi Voluntad

Stupendous big band.

7. Silicone Prairie- My Life On the Silicone Prairie

Space junk.

8. Michael Wollny- XXXX

Progressive Euro-jazz.

9. Birds of Maya- Valdez

Unfiltered scuzz.

10. Elizabeth Chang- Transformations

Kirchner, Sessions and Schoenberg.

Top Ten Overlooked and Underappreciated Songs of 2021 (So Far)

1. Coi Leray- “No More Parties”

Curfew.

2. Moby, Mark Lanegan and Kris Kristofferson- "The Lonely Night"

Hurt.

3. Celeste- "Tonight Tonight"

Undeniable pop.

4. Karol G and Nathy Peluso- “Gato Malo”

Discussion on the In My Headache podcast.

5. Armand Hammer, the Alchemist and Earl Sweatshirt- "Falling Out of the Sky"

Crash.

6. Roman Alexander and Ashley Cooke- “Between You & Me”

Closing in.

7. Anitta- "Loco"

Crazy-good.

8. Ana Lélia- "Meu Cantinho"

Gentle breeze.

9. Cuee and Joel Leoj- “Ain’t Going Back”

Amen.

10. Sir the Baptist and Anthony Hamilton- "Jesus in the Ghetto"

Can’t tell Him nothing.

My previous monthly rankings of albums, songs, concerts and films 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.