I Have Impeccable Taste
Dispatch from Q1
With March in the rearview, it’s that time again! Last year, I shared my favorite albums every quarter of 2024 (here are Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4) before reflecting on my faves of 2024. I still listen to my favorite albums of 2023 on repeat.
I check out singles, but I’d just as soon wait for the album to drop. EP’s make sense, I suppose, if an artist runs out of money or passion for a project. Look, I’m an album guy. A crusty, old, gray-bearded album guy.
As I’ve said in these pages before, I don’t aspire to be a music reviewer or critic. Not one doggone bit. I just want to share new music that makes me feel perfectly alive, despite the desperate disquietude manifested by the daily reminders that none of us are immune to the sheer inhumanity of humanity. Back in the day, I would have made a tape for you, my dear reader, scrawling the track titles on the J-card of a Maxell XLII-90.
Those days passed us by. But my impulse to share stays strong. I share albums because I hope, like I really really hope, that the music I like brings you joy, or at least an ephemeral escape.
If such an escape sounds alluring–and girlfriend, how could it not?–join me on a journey with the Rose City Band. On Sol y Sombra, Ripley Johnson (the dude from Wooden Shjips) pours some sun-drenched psych-Americana, a blissful mix of cosmic country and jammy rock. The album floats effortlessly between dreamy pedal steel, warm acoustic strums, and hypnotic grooves. There’s a golden-hour vibe, a sunset glow.
Sol y Sombra is unhurried, basking in open-ended instrumental passages that highlight Johnson’s knack for melodic guitar lines and lowkey psychedelia. Tracks like "Chasing Rainbows" and "Slow Burn" shimmer with gentle optimism, while the title track brings a touch of melancholy. In short, there is Sol (sun) y Sombra (shadows). Now touring Europe…
There’s some sol y sombra on Austin-based soul revivalists Tomar and the FC’s new drop, Soul Searching. Led by powerhouse vocalist Tomar Williams, the album channels the spirit of vintage R&B while keeping the vibe contemporary. Soul Searching searches through Southern soul influences, reminiscent of James Brown, Otis Redding, and a dab of the Dap-Kings. The FCs’ airtight instrumentation—driven by gritty guitar riffs, swirling organ, and a hot horn section—creates an irresistible groove that feels both timeless and urgent. Put your boogie shoes on, press play on the opening track, and get lifted. It doesn’t slow down until track 6, which is full-throttle Otis Redding.
I dig David Earl’s organ playing on Soul Searching. Longtime readers know I’m a total sucker for the Hammond B3 organ (I even wrote a love letter to the B3). So when I saw the name Sven Hammond popped up in my new releases feed, I took the bait. Winner winner funky chicken dinner! It’s a Dutch funk band, rooted in the B3. Their 2025 drop, Cosmic Gold, is drippin’ with grit. Turns out these dudes have been jamming together for almost 20 years with a dozen albums under their collective belt. They play together expertly. It’s tight, but there’s freedom in the groove. It rings of Soulive. Galactic. But you still feel old school Booker T and the MG’s energy. Sven Hammond is news to me. Good news indeed. Y’all were looking’ for some good news? Yer boi delivers.
It’s worth staying in the groove here because some British-funk legends dropped a new one. A band composed of nine Black British musicians, all of whom immigrated from the Caribbean as children, Cymande released three hot albums in three straight years in the early 1970s. They got traction in the US (they were the first British band to headline the Apollo in NY) and toured with top acts. However, they struggled against a bigotry in the UK music industry, resulting in their work being largely overlooked. So the band disbanded (there’s a new documentary film about their journey). But hip hop acts like De La Soul sampled them generously so they became like gold for record diggers, leading to a comeback album and tour. I’d not heard of them until they dropped Renascence earlier this year. I’m sold. I have tickets to see them in Berlin–where I’ll surely be surrounded by crate-digging dorks and CannaClouds–before they play Royal Albert Hall. I sure do love a comeback story.
Back withe a new one, The War and Treaty, the husband-and-wife duo of Michael and Tanya Trotter, just released their fourth studio album. Plus One is heavy on country (it opens with "Love Like Whiskey") and church ("Can I Get an Amen?," which touches on Michael's experiences with PTSD from two tours in Iraq). What makes the album seamless is storytelling, pure and simple. Beyonce’s foray into country music was fine. Much (maybe too much) was written about the intersection of identity politics and Cowboy Carter. True artists with genuine stories, The War and Treaty seems actively disinterested in genre or other boundaries. They lean hard into what moves them. With this, they move me. They were on my shortlist for fave albums of 2023 and I’m thrilled to have them back in my ears.
Also in the realm of no concern for boundaries, Bartees Strange continues to defy genre with his third studio album, Horror. He effortlessly careens from spitting bars to shredding guitar solos. I’m not always dialed into lyrics and I fear I might be too much of a literalist to “get” it, but it seems he's grappling with personal anxieties and social injustice, sometimes in the same breath. There are a couple anthemic tracks, some of which sound like The National. The production value of this album is bananas. The mix is legitimately perfect. He did an album release listening party at a record shop in Berlin. I popped by. It was too crowded and I was two decades older than everyone there, so I bounced. But age be damned, with a little luck, I’ll see him live in Berlin soon enough.
For various reasons, some more predictable than others, I’ve relied on music to lift me these days. So I’m grateful to have discovered this albums. There are a handful of Q1 releases that I really dig but didn’t make time to summarize. All are worth a listen!
Honorable Mentions from Q1: Neal Francis, Return To Zero Ben l'Oncle Soul, Sad Generation Early James, Medium Raw JD Clayton, Dirt Roads of Red Charlie Crockett, Lonesome Drifter Lucy Dacus, Forever Is A Feeling Jason Isbell, Foxes In The Snow
Don’t think I’m unawares that this list is a bit of a brodeo. Q1 of 2023 was quite the opposite. Not sure what to make of that. But as far as music is concerned, 2025 is off to a splendid start. Aside from music, 2025 is, well, be careful what you listen to.
Love,
DL
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