It’s Bud Powell New Vinyl Thursday at The Vinyl Underground at 7th Heaven. Check out this week’s list of new vinyl arrivals:
Ace Frehley – Origins Vol. 2 (Indie Exclusive)
Ani DiFranco – Ani Difranco
Alt-J – The Dream (Clear Vinyl, Indie Exclusive)
Adia Victoria – A Southern Gothic
Weekly Reviews:
Like many people of color born in the American South, Adia Victoria is both proud of and conflicted by
her heritage. When the pandemic shut down Victoria’s normal avenues for inspiration, she began
mining her childhood journals.
Victoria roped in some big names to assist on her third album, A Southern Gothic. T-Bone Burnett
produced and Jason Isbell, Margo Price, Kyshona and Matt Berninger all help Victoria weave her
tapestry of life below the Mason-Dixon line.
Things are never as they seem in Victoria’s world. “Whole World Knows” opens with a pastor delivering
a sermon, an idyllic scene shattered when Victoria reveals the preacher’s daughter is a heroin addict
shooting up during the sermon. “Troubled Mind” continues the story, this time from the daughter’s
point of view. The lyric read like an old spiritual: “Been troubled by much, Lord/The devil and such,
Lord/I made some mistakes, Lord/I had junk in my veins, Lord.”
The sound of A Southern Gothic places Victoria in the company of roots legends Rhiannon Giddens and
Anderson East. Burnett cradles Victoria’s character studies in banjos, slide guitars, homemade
percussion and guitars, both electric and acoustic.
A Southern Gothic is bookended by “Magnolia Blues” and “South for the Winter.” In both songs, a
Southern woman is stuck in the North for winter, longing for her home. There are no easy answers or
feel-good endings on A Southern Gothic. Don’t be surprised if Victoria’s searching doesn’t start some
similar questions within the listener. -Joel Francis
Bud Powell – Time Waits: The Amazing Bud Powell
Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up There (Boxed Set, 140 Gram Vinyl, With Booklet, Deluxe Edition)
Bastille – Bad Blood
Bastille – Doom Days
Beach House – Once Twice Melody (Silver Edition)
Billy F Gibbons – Hardware
Bo Burnham – Inside (The Songs) (Gatefold LP Jacket, Coke Bottle Green Clear Vinyl, Indie Exclusive)
Beastie Boys – To The 5 Boroughs
Bob Marley- Legend
Carl Perkins – Carl Perkins: The King of Rockabilly (Sun Records 70th Anniversary)
Charli XCX – Crash (Gray Colored Vinyl, Indie Exclusive)
Cowboy Junkies – Black Eyed Man
Cowboy Junkies – Pale Sun Crescent Moon
Childish Gambino- Awaken My Love
Cigarettes After Sex – Cigarettes After Sex
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram- 662 (Purple Colored Vinyl)
Dream Theater – Lost Not Forgotten Archives: Train Of Thought Industrial Demos (Gatefold LP Jacket, With CD)
Deftones- Ohms
Durand Jones & The Indications- American Love Call
Duke Ellington & John Coltrane – Duke Ellington & John Coltrane
Weekly Reviews:
The autumn of 1962 was a busy but fruitful time for jazz legend Duke Ellington. In August, Ellington
spent a day recording with saxophone legend Coleman Hawkins. The following month, the Duke
recorded the legendary Money Jungle album with bass player Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach.
Just over a week later, Ellington was back in the studio again, this time with John Coltrane.
The pairing of a horn player known for his sheets of sound with a pianist who came up through the
Cotton Club in the big band era might be difficult to imagine, but the legends find a delightful amount of
common ground.
The seven-track album opens with a beautiful reading of Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood.” Coltrane
taps a deep well of emotion in Ellington’s melody as the Duke provides tasteful, insistent prodding on
the piano. While the duo never top this moment on the rest of the album, that doesn’t mean the other
half-dozen songs aren’t a joy.
For his lone composition to the album, Coltrane pulled out “Big Nick,” a number he recorded earlier that
year. Both recordings have nearly the same ensemble, save Ellington sitting in for McCoy Tyner on the
later date. This number provides Coltrane’s most abstract playing, but as expected, Ellington has no
problem keeping up. The saxophonist is more restrained and wistful on a lovely reading of Billy
Strayhorn’s “My Little Brown Book.”
Ellington brought two new compositions to these sessions. The Duke is barely heard on the calypso
“Angelica,” which essentially becomes a duet between Coltrane and the strong but understated
drumming of Elvin Jones. The cheekily titled “Take the Coltrane” doesn’t have much in common with
Ellington’s earlier hit, but it does serve as a nice conversation between the two maestros.
Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, the album, may have caught the two deities in different directions in
their respective careers, but one would be hard pressed to find a more enjoyable release in either man’s
catalog. -Joel Francis
David Bowie – Hunky Dory (2015 Remaster, Picture Disc Vinyl)
The Dip – Sticking With It
Weekly Reviews:
The Dip is a seven piece neo-funk/ soul ensemble from Seattle, Washington.
All the member met while studying music in the jazz department at the University of Washington. The Dip’s drummer and cofounder Jarred Katz explains how the band got its start:
“A lot of the music that we were studying was pretty challenging and we would hold concerts every quarter. It was pretty experimental, weird, avant-garde stuff that was really great to study but it was really hard to get friends out there. So we thought it would be really fun to get something going for parties, just to have a jam group.”
The band’s name is inspired by the Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings track “The Dap Dip” (and its dance move).
Katz is very upfront about the band’s influences,
“There’s a lot. Sharon Jones, Charles Bradley, Lee Fields. Obviously those guys for sure. Any of the legends, like Al Green. St. Paul and the Broken Bones, or Alabama Shakes, groups like that.”
After two successful self released albums, the first of which was recorded in their practice space with just a handful of mics, The Dip have just released “Sticking With It” their first album on the Dualtone label.
The album opens with the gritty “Paddle To the Stars” that could pass for a long lost Wilson Picket track that addresses the many uncertainties of courtship.
Affairs of the heart are an on running theme for “Sticking With It.” The song “Sleep On It” is a classic R&B crooner about the practice temperance in the early stages of any new relationship.
“Anyway” is another old school do-wap track complete with angelic backups and floating string that contains one of the albums more quotable lines:
“And here comes the part
Where you break my heart
And we could try to make amends
But you’d just do it all over again
Anyway, anyway”
“Vacation,” not to be confused with 80’s hit by the Go Go’s, has a sing a long chorus that any hard working stiff or post pandemic survivor can relate to, while “Real Contender” conveys the feelings of salvation that can often accompany finding “The One.”
Side two of of “Sticking With It” expands into to more political territory while maintaining metaphors of the heart.
This record could be the start of a beautiful Spring! – Major Matt
Frank Zappa & the Mothers – Live At The Rainbow Theatre
Frank Zappa & the Mothers – Live At Fillmore East, June 1971 [50th Anniversary]
Golden Earring – Moontan (Limited Gatefold Expanded & Remastered, 180 Gram Vinyl, Clear Vinyl)
Gil Scott-Heron – Free Will
Juice Wrld – Fighting Demons
John Patton – Soul Connection
John Coltrane – Giant Steps
Keith Richards – Main Offender (Red Colored Vinyl, Limited Edition)
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Infest The Rats Nest (LIVE) (US Fuzz Club Official Bootleg, Red Colored Vinyl, 180 Gram Vinyl, Gatefold LP Jacket, Indie Exclusive)
Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City
LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
Laura Nyro – Eli & the 13th Confession
The Mars Volta – Landscape Tantrums – Unfinished Original Recordings Of De-Loused In The Comatorium (Colored Vinyl)
Milt Jackson – Milt Jackson And The Thelonious Monk Quintet
Moon Duo – Mazes (Pink Colored Vinyl)
Mad Season – Above
Mac Miller – Swimming In Circles (Deluxe Box Set)
Metallica – 5.98 Ep – Garage – Garage Days Re-revisited
Michael Jackson – BAD (Picture Disc)
Miles Davis- Bitches Brew
My Chemical Romance- Life On The Murder Scene
Mötley Crüe – Greatest Hits
Nico Gomez – Soul Of Samba
Outkast – Speakerboxxx / The Love Below
PJ Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project
Patti Smith – Horses
Pinegrove – Cardinal (Black, Digital Download Card)
Pinegrove – Everything So Far (Digital Download Card)
Pink Floyd – The Later Years (1987-2019) Highlights (Gatefold LP Jacket, 180 Gram Vinyl)
Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher
Prince – Purple Rain (Picture Disc Vinyl LP)
Place to Bury Strangers – See Through You
Weekly Reviews:
Twenty years after their formation, the New York City-based rock band continues to sound vital and
energetic even as they explore new wrinkles in their sound. See Through You, the trio’s sixth album,
reimagines Joy Division as a shoegaze band, with dark atmospherics flanked by walls of guitars.
At 13 songs and 53 minutes, See Through You is a journey best enjoyed in one sitting. Sarcastic album
opener “Nice of You to Be There for Me” sounds positively jolly next to the noisy nightmare “I’m Hurt.”
As guitars grind against each other against an insistent electronic pulse, singer Oliver Ackermann hovers
dispassionately above the cacophony, his voice drenched in echo, recalling the late Joy Division
frontman Ian Curtis.
At the other end of the spectrum, “Love Reaches Out,” shines with hope across a bassline that recalls
Joy Division’s post-Curtis days as New Order. Other high points include the punky “Broken” and the
emotional tour de force “My Head is Breathing.”
Backed by a new rhythm section – the husband-and-wife team of Sandra and John Fedowitz –
Ackermann is relentless, baring his soul with an intensity that makes the listener pause to consider that
the musical bedlam on the album is a harbinger of an actual apocalypse. -Joel Francis
Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Queen – Greatest Hits
Rex Orange County – Who Cares? (150 Gram Vinyl, Gatefold LP Jacket, Poster)
Ray Wylie Hubbard – Co-Starring Too (Green Clear Vinyl)
Red Garland – Solar
The Raincoats – The Raincoats (Remastered, Anniversary Edition)
Radiohead – Kid A Mnesia (Gatefold LP Jacket, 3LP
Summer Walker – Still Over It
Sade – The Best of Sade [180 gram Vinyl]
Santana – Blessings And Miracles
Son House – Forever On My Mind (Black & White Colored Vinyl, Indie Exclusive)
Steve Vai – Inviolate (180 Gram Vinyl)
Sonic Youth – In/ out/ in
Swamp Dogg – I Need A Job…So I Can Buy More Auto-Tune (Pink Colored Vinyl, Digital Download Card)
Tears for Fears – The Tipping Point (Green Colored Vinyl, Lithograph, Indie Exclusive)
Weekly Reviews:
Tears for Fears is one of the most successful bands to emerge from the MTV generation, second wave, British Invasion of the early 1980’s.
I had the benefit of seeing them live at Memorial Hall back in the day and it was a truly memorable experience. Their soaring melodic choruses mixed with new wave synth and jazz influences, peppered with the occasional world rhythm dance beat, gave rise to some enormous hits of the mid to late 80’s.
Songs like “Shout,” “Everybody Wants To Rule the World,” and “Head Over Heels” from their 1985 multi platinum selling album second album “Songs From the Big Chair” were standards in the soundtracks for many middle class American teens.
But after the relatively successful third album, “Sewing the Seeds Of Love,” things started to go (as they say in England) a little pear shaped. Through the process of creating and recording the album the band struggled to redefine their sound as well as their work methods. In the end the Album was reported to have cost a 1 million dollars to produce. Soon after its release TFF primary songwriters Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith spit and would not work together again for over a decade.
Orzabal went on to produce two more albums without Smith. In 2013 The two attempted to work together again along with a batch of younger artists at the request of their management. The results were mixed and ultimately failed to produce a complete album but some of the tracks from these sessions served as the foundations for 2021’s release of “The Tipping Point.”
After a successful reunion tour in 2019-20 the the duo decided to revisit and rework the album.
It’s been eighteen years since their last release and luckily “The Tipping Point” seems to have picked up at the best place where the band left off. There’s even some age appropriate growth.
Track one, “No Small Thing,” starts off like a traditional folk ballad that slowly evolves into a more signature stretching, cinematic, sound scape.
Track two, the title track, is a more layered synth driven track inspired by the death of Orzabal’s wife in 2017.
“Long, Long, Long Time” is a classic soul influenced TFF track featuring Smith on lead vocals, that breaks down to beautiful chorus sung by British singer songwriter Carina Round.
“My Demons,” a techno influenced dystopian piece, conveys the real song craft that make this musical collaboration so special. With each new chorus there are different sounds, different movement, but still enough familiar repetition to mine the pop gold that this band has flowing through their blood.
The album closes with a slightly reworked, previously released, space aged love song “Stay.” One can almost feel the prom corsages be crushed up against slow dancing prom couples as they sway under smoky spotlights.
If you ever long for those more in innocent days, when 80’s new wave bands with big hair and loosely draped apparel ruled the airwaves and teen films like The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles were what was playing at the movie theater down at the mall, this one might be right up your alley! – Major Matt
The Weeknd – Starboy
Weather Station – All Of It Was Mine (Limited Edition, Colored Vinyl, Anniversary Edition)
50% OFF ALL Red Tag Clearance Vinyl – Thursday, March 17th ONLY!
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Enjoy the music and we will see you soon. Your loving Vinyl Underground at 7th Heaven staff:
Sherman, Gordon, Cat, Matt, Dylan, Doyle, Heather, Greg, Dave and Lain
