Voxtrot – “Dirty Version”
This song’s been haunting me lately, asking me to listen to it every night. It’s a slow, gorgeous ballad – the B-side on the self-released, out-of-print 7” for the equally great, rocking but melancholy “The Start of Something.”
Jimmie Dale Gilmore – Jimmie Dale Gilmore (Hightone)
In my alphabetical journey through my CDs I’m still on ‘G.’ But this 1989 album is a real beauty. More traditional in sound, and not as philosophical in lyrical content as Gilmore would get later, it’s nonetheless intimate and soulful, with great versions of his own classic songs (“Dallas,” “Beautiful Rose”) and those of others (Butch Hancock’s splendid “When the Nights Are Cold”).
Northern – Your House and Mine (Northern)
A quiet country album with a real ghostly presence to it, plus lyrics with a universal, everyday-life quality.
The Glass Family – Sleep Inside This Wheel (I Eat)
This Texas rock band’s debut is a great example of using the album format to the fullest. It’s an album with themes and movement, an album that works well as one whole entity.
The Like Young – Six at Midnight (Tight Ship)
A spare, pretty recording of six pop songs from the ‘50s and ‘60s, captured late at night.
The Online Romance – “Hey Abraham” 7” (Recursive Delete)
A nice little dose of catchy orchestral pop, walking a pleasurable line between being mysterious and open-hearted.
Stereolab – Fab Four Suture (Too Pure)
I’m just getting into my review copy of the new Stereolab album (out in March), but so far I’m enjoying it very much: it has a dense, kaleidoscopic, carnival-like sound.
Belle and Sebastian – If You’re Feeling Sinister: Live at the Barbican
You’d expect a live recording of a studio album, played straight through, to be superfluous, but this one is not. They’ve grown more confident as a live act since the original album came out, and broadened their sound, which makes this a intiguing and enjoyable listen.
Dark Days (NR)
A fascinating documentary, from 2000, about homeless people living in an abandoned subway tunnel in NYC.
OT: Our Town (NR)
Another great documentary, this one from 2002, focused on a Compton high school’s attempt to put on the first play their school has performed in decades, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town.
