Turn It Up - 10/14/2024

Earworms, obsessions, recommendations

It’s a new week, so we’re back to share some things we’ve been listening to. Charles goes first, then David, and a bunch of reading recommendations at the end.

MC Lyte – “To Rock the Mic”/ “1-5”/ “Make a Livin’” (from 1 of 1, 2024)

What a time for hip-hop elders. I’ve talked recently about the new albums from Juicy J and LL Cool J, both of which are returns to form and vibrant statements of continued purpose. And now MC Lyte offers her contribution, a stunning album (her first in a decade) that finds the artist an undiminished powerhouse. As with Juicy and LL, MC Lyte considers personal and cultural terrain in a way that feels neither sappy nor sanctimonious, with her popping, husky-voiced flow dropping knowledge over tracks that draw from the best of several decades of New York arrangements. I cheated a bit here and picked three songs, but the suite of “To Rock the Mic,” “1-5” and “Make a Livin’” isn’t just the album’s centerpiece, but a perfect demonstration of how well she balances message and method throughout 1 of 1. It’s a seamless mix, both musically and thematically, as the Roots-referencing “To Rock the Mic” slides into the block-rocking lessons in “1-5,” which then settles into the bluesy affirmation of “Make a Livin’.” It’s compelling, smart, and – best of all – deeply pleasurable. One of the best albums of the year, from one of the best of the last fifty. And counting. – CH

Hayes Carll and the Band of Heathens – “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” (from Hayes and the Heathens, 2024)

Hayes Carll and Band of Heathens make several good decisions with this cover that becomes an unexpected highlight of their very fine collaborative album. The first is choosing the song itself: The Proclaimers’ big U.S. hit maintains all its sturdy joy over three decades later. The second is breaking the verses down from the original’s clipped march to a slippery Little Feat-recalling groove that allows Carll to slide around twangily while Heathens Ed Jurdi and Grady Quist relish the song’s call-and-response harmonies. The third is keeping the chorus as it was, roaring back with the anthemic punch that made it such a favorite in the first place. And the fourth is realizing that the song’s simple, significant pleasures (“da-da-la-dah!”) offer a perfect climax and catharsis for their agreeably scrappy party. – CH

Lukas Nelson – “I Shall Be Released” (from Better than Jail, 2024)

The new benefit album Better than Jail, which supports organizations working to reduce the negative impacts of the carceral system, is a couple levels more successful than the norm for these projects. Artists ranging from The War and Treaty to Bonnie Raitt to Old Crow Medicine Show take on well-known prison songs, and a few versions – Steve Earle’s blazing “I Fought the Law,” Raul Malo’s bouncing “I Got Stripes” – rank with the better takes on these canonical songs. Best of all is Lukas Nelson’s spare reading of “I Shall Be Released.” Accompanied only by his own acoustic guitar, Nelson delivers a soft and intimate version of Bob Dylan’s mournful prayer. It’s heartrending and delicate, with Nelson floating through the melody with the easy informality that his father Willie has made such a trademark. Nothing against the old man, but I’m not sure he could do better than his son does here. A striking performance that makes me hear an old song in new ways. – CH

Joy Clark – “All Behind” (from Tell It to the Wind, 2024)

“I’m taking my lamp, I’m taking my bike,” Joy Clark assures at the beginning of the restless “All Behind,” “I’m taking my plant, gonna raise it right.” This specificity of detail, especially when delivered in her resonant alto, characterizes Clark’s remarkable debut album, a gorgeous collection that brings the New Orleans-based singer-songwriter into musical conversation with everyone from Sade to Sarah McLachlan, with fellow southern alchemists like Dionne Farris or Indigo Girls as particular touchstones. The swirling “All Behind” is an aching breakup song, but it’s also a testament of perseverance and new opportunity. “I got so much life to give, and you can’t take it anymore,” Clark promises in the soaring bridge. With a graceful, piano-based arrangement as moral support, Clark’s journey is only just beginning. The same can be said for this exciting young artist, who has announced her presence with Tell It to the Wind in the same forceful and expansive fashion. – CH

Pharrell Williams (feat. Tyler the Creator) – “VIRGINIA Boy” (remix) (from Piece by Piece: Music from the Motion Picture, 2024)

To coincide with his new documentary, Pharrell Williams has issued a soundtrack that doubles as a decent introduction to his work as producer and lead artist. He’s also added a few new songs, which I assume appear in the film, and the best by far is this brief, clattering gem. Pharrell returns to Neptunes/N.E.R.D. mode with a bit of self-mythologizing that places our hero in his physical home of Virginia and spiritual origins in the spaceways. Accompanied by fellow alien Tyler the Creator, who embraces the bonkers energy, Pharrell promises to bring the “Martian D.N.A. for that ass,” repeating “that ass” more times than you need but not as many as you’ll want. Williams has always worked best for me when he sounds like he’s relishing the playful precociousness of his many sonic inventions. And, while “VIRGINIA Boy” is only a minor entry in that deep catalog, it’s one that I’m happy to include. – CH

Fancy Hagood – “Ever Really Ready” (from Ever Really Ready ep, 2024)

Fancy Hagood’s debut, Southern Curiosity, was one of the best albums of 2021—and among the most singular I’ve heard this century. With piano-driven power ballads, masses of choirs and strings, full-throated emotionalism set to theatrical melodies and sharing stories of coming out and coming home—I can’t recommend it enough. The tracks that Hagood’s been teasing this year ahead of his sophomore album, American Spirit, settle for more familiar singer-songwriter sonics. “Ever Really Ready,” for example, is closer to straightforward guitar-and-drums Americana. More plain and less Fancy, let’s say, but a standout all the same thanks to the power-pop in that bass and acoustic strum, to a smart, catchy lyric about the way love reinvents, and to Hagood’s arms-open-wide tenor, which remains singular no matter the setting. – DC  

Mr. Smoke – “Rodeo” (single, 2024)

Sometimes, you just gotta give it up to an algorithm. After listening several times to Daniella Carter’s soul-rocking Charley’s Pride: A Tribute to Black Country Music, I started being directed to the funky Memphis soul of PC Band, particularly their fantastic collab with Tito Jackson, “Wuda Cuda Shuda” (I recommended both early last month.) And that led me to Mr. Smoke, aka Brian Smith. Smoke’s a smooth and funky southern Alabama soul man who, like a next-gen Bobby Rush, specializes in singing about fucking and moving a grown-ass dance crowd. “Rodeo,” where he invites his cowgirl to ride him like she’s a bronco buster, is not a subtle piece of work but its country line-dance-ready groove and Smoke’s sexy rasp get the job done. Save a horse, ride Mr. Smoke. Not his first rodeo. – DC

Brooks & Dunn (with Lainey Wilson) – “Play Something Country” (from Reboot II, 2024)

This tweaked “Play Something Country” improves on the chart-topping original almost straight across the board. Granted, that line about not wanting “to hear somethin’ thumpin’ from the city” is as ugly as ever—and as stupid: I mean, both versions thump pretty damn hard and were recorded you know where. On the other hand, rhyming that anti-“city” complaint with an anti-“P Diddy” one hits way better in 2024 than in ’06, and the new Eliminator groove soups things up, too. Wilson, one of modern country’s best singers, more than keeps up with Dunn, who’s hard to keep up with, and for the next couple weeks anyway, their howling-at-the-moon “Wa-ooh-hoos” come with bonus seasonal spice. As Lainey instructs at the kickoff: “Turn it up.” – DC

Luther “Guitar Jr.” Johnson – “Doin’ the Sugar Too” (from Doin’ the Sugar Too, 1984)

If folks still remember “Guitar Jr.” Johnson these days, it’s probably because he did a stint with Muddy Waters in the seventies. Before I really knew much about Waters, or the blues at all really, I remember Johnson playing the old Blue Note club in Columbia, MO, and being taught firsthand that the blues was party music and that great blues guitarists could be great rhythm players in addition to soloists. He and his band, the Magic Rockers, inspired me to dance, by myself in public and among strangers, for sweaty hours at a time. The title track to his best solo album, Doin’ the Sugar Too (on Rooster Blues Records), turns forty this year and remains a touchstone for me. Never heard it? You’re welcome. – DC  

Yasmin Williams – “Malamu” (from Acadia, 2024)

“Malamu” is the perfect closer for the genre-disassembling Acadia, the guitarist Yasmin Williams’ latest full-length and one of the best albums of the year. The way she stacks her guitar parts—acoustic picking, then bouncy electric rhythm lines, then electric squall—is impressive while never feeling showy. Marcus Gilmore plays all over the kit but keeps steady time as Williams and saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins trade solos that veer toward noise before landing on joy.  – DC

Recommended reading:

-Will Groff goes to a Jason Aldean concert, for Rolling Stone

-Wesley Morris on the late Cissy Houston, for New York Times

-Marissa Moss talks to Chase Rice, for Rolling Stone

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