The Retrographer, Issue 114 (May, 2 0 2 4)

Sam Wilkes, Craig Weinrib, Dylan Day, Ben Seretan, Jackie West, The Bird Calls, Jessica Pratt, Sam Gendel, Arooj Aftab, Chocolate Genius Incorporated, L’rain, Oso Oso, Megan Thee Stallion, and more!

Author

Charlie Kaplan
June 03, 2024

Sam Wilkes, Craig Weinrib, Dylan Day, Ben Seretan, Jackie West, The Bird Calls, Jessica Pratt, Sam Gendel, Arooj Aftab, Chocolate Genius Incorporated, L’rain, Oso Oso, Megan Thee Stallion, and more!

The Retrographer, Issue 114 (May, 2 0 2 4)

Bulletins

  • I’m not covering the Kendrick/Drake beef because, despite the massive popularity of “Not Like Us” and “Like That”, I don’t think either artist did particularly good work in their strenuous and admittedly captivating efforts. I freely admit to being a minority opinion. I liked “Mr. Morale” but not nearly as much as Kendrick’s prior work; I really liked Drake’s albums in the first half of the 2010s but has since gotten bloated. I don’t think either of these artists are doing their best work lately and the sturm und drang of this conflagration threw off a lot more heat than light. There wasn’t a single moment of the potency and revelation of “The Story of Adidon”, let alone “Ether”, “Hit ‘Em Up”, “Dre Day” and the like. This thing was fun and flashy but not that great.

Ten Songs for May, 2 0 2 4 | Listen to these songs on Spotify and YouTube

“When I Can Read My Titles Clear”, Sam Wilkes, Craig Weinrib, and Dylan Day – Over Weinrib’s metronomic playing, Day and Wilkes weave a soulful and private devotional over this hymn, fluttering like birds on wing on a bright new Sunday morning.

“Bend”, Ben Seretan – Interesting how Seretan vacillates between two disparate modes: pensive, the placid ambient of Cicada Waves and the stirring, heavenward professions of Youth Pastoral and this, his latest work.

“Ethereal Nature”, Jackie West – West’s voice is comfortable and quiet; dreamlike but not somniferous or soporific. The hypnosis of her fingerpicking and Adam Brisbin’s serpentine pull-offs on lead guitar suggest ascension to another plane, unreal and indeed ethereal.

“Metronome Song”, The Bird Calls – At Sodomsky’s release show, he said this was his favorite song he’d ever written, which is saying a lot for someone with dozens of albums. Finishing an album of heartbreak and reassessment, we too can “take comfort in the process of always kind of figuring it out.”

“Better Hate”, Jessica Pratt – Her generation’s melodist nonpareil, Pratt continually finds impossible novelty in simplicity. That said, the greatest joys here are adventures in harmony, brought into sharp relief by interlaced baritone sax outlining the visage of a brilliant chorus.

“MILTON SUITE”, Sam Gendel and Sam Wilkes – Wilkes’s second appearance today. His third collaboration with Gendel as a duo (“The Doober”) is every bit as vibey as its predecessors. Of special note is Wilkes’s facility with chords, and a coda that introduces, for the first time across any of their releases, guitar.

“Zameen”, Arooj Aftab and Chocolate Genius Incorporated – Aftab is perhaps most comfortable in stillness. Her voice rising and searching free, high above a spare landscape where meter and tempo mean little to her.

“Green”, L’Rain – Taja Cheek has a penchant for finding color notes in chords; the unique note in a melody that shows how the underlying harmony has changed. Her voice lofts on the wind, sitting suspended in the billowing airs that blow through the song and sweep it away.

“all of my love”, Oso Oso – Jade Lilitri’s ear for melody takes a ride on the merry-go-round, spinning round and round, up and down, explaining that a rolling stone gathers no moss, and please don’t pull the trigger.

“BOA”, Megan Thee Stallion – It’s impossible to mention this song without mentioning its delightfully gory and fun music video. Megan is relentless over a Gwen Stefani sample attacking 2024’s version of Twitter fingers, begging the horde to keep that same energy.

MONTHLY

#105.5 “Country Life in America”

#105 August, 2023 | “Rockaway”

#104 July, 2023 | “Gas Station Bathroom”

#103 June, 2023 | “Talkin’ French” 

#100 March, 2023 | The Feelies, “The Good Earth”

#99 February, 2023 | Judee Sill, “Judee Sill”

#98 January, 2023 | Pink Floyd, “Meddle”

#96 November, 2022 | RIP TOM PETTY

#95 October, 2022 | Cannonball Adderley, “Cannonball Adderley's Fiddler on the Roof”

#94 September, 2022 | Sheryl Crow, “Tuesday Night Music Club”

#93 August, 2022 | D’Angelo, “Live at the Jazz Cafe, London”

#92 July, 2022 | Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “Southern Accents”

#91 June, 2022 | George Harrison, “Living in the Material World”

#90 May, 2022 | The Wild Tchoupitoulas, “The Wild Tchoupitoulas”

#89 April, 2022 | Joni Mitchell, “Taming the Tiger”

#88 March, 2022 | Young Thug, “Barter 6”

#87 February, 2022 | Stephane Grappelli and Stuff Smith, “Violins No End”

#86 January, 2022 | Nas, “God’s Son”

#84 November, 2021 | Milt Jackson with the Thelonious Monk Quintet, “Wizard of the Vibes”

#83 October, 2021 | For Against, “Coalesced”

#82 September, 2021 | Pat Metheny, “Bright Size Life”

#81 August, 2021 | The Chicks, “Fly”

#80 July, 2021 | Allen Toussaint, “Southern Nights”

#79 June, 2021 | Novos Baianos, “Acabou Chorare”

#78 May, 2021 | One Direction, “Four”

#77 April, 2021 | Bob Dylan, “New Morning”

#76 March, 2021 | Ty Dolla $ign, “Free TC”

#75 February, 2021 | Ghostface Killah, “Fishscale”

#74 January, 2021 | Minnie Riperton, “Minnie”

#72 November, 2020 | Sufjan Stevens, “Seven Swans”

#71 October, 2020 | Common, “Resurrection”

#70 September, 2020 | Herbie Hancock, “Thrust”

#69 August, 2020 | Special Issue

#68 July, 2020 | Cam’ron, “Purple Haze”

#67 June, 2020 | Jorge Ben, “A Tabua de Esmeralda”

#66 May, 2020 | The Meters, “Rejuvenation”

#65 April, 2020 | Eddie Kendricks, “People… Hold On”

#64 March, 2020 | Thelonious Monk, “Solo Monk”

#63 February, 2020 | Cat Power, “Moon Pix”

#62 January, 2020 | Yusef Lateef, “Eastern Sounds”

#59 November, 2019 | Frank Sinatra, “In The Wee Small Hours”

#58 October, 2019 | Steely Dan, “Gaucho”

#57 September, 2019 | Bonnie Raitt, “Streetlights”

#56 August, 2019 | Daft Punk, “Alive 2007”

#55 July, 2019 | John Coltrane, “Interstellar Space”

#54 June, 2019 | Big Pun, “Capital Punishment”

#53 May, 2019 | Paul Simon, “Rhythm of the Saints”

#52 April, 2019 | Dirty Projectors, “Rise Above”

#51 March, 2019 | Kate Bush, “The Sensual World”

#50 February, 2019 | Sonny Rollins, “Next Album”

#49 January, 2019 | Sade, “Diamond Life”

#47 November, 2018 | Curtis Mayfield, “There’s No Place Like America Today”

#46 October, 2018 | The Blue Nile, “Hats”

#45 September, 2018 | Lucinda Williams, “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road”

#44 August, 2018 | Aretha Franklin, “Amazing Grace”

#43 July, 2018 | Teddy Pendergrass, “TP”

#42 June, 2018 | Dennis Wilson, “Pacific Ocean Blue”

#41 May, 2018 | Bobby Brown, “Don’t Be Cruel”

#40 April, 2018 | Amy Winehouse, “Back to Black”

#39 March, 2018 | Q-Tip, “Kamaal the Abstract”

#38 February, 2018 | Miles Davis, “In a Silent Way”

#37 January, 2018 | Beck, “Sea Change”

#35 November, 2017 | Slum Village, “Fan-tas-tic Vol. 1”

#34 October, 2017 | Steely Dan, “Two Against Nature”

#33 September, 2017 | Baaba Maal and Mansour Seck, “Djam Leeli”

#32 August, 2017 | Billy Joel, “The Stranger”

#31 July, 2017 | Big Daddy Kane, “Long Live the Kane”

#30 June, 2017 | Janet Jackson, “Control”

#29 May, 2017 | Steely Dan, “Aja”

#28 April, 2017 | The O’Jays, “Back Stabbers”

#27 March, 2017 | Wire, “154”

#26 February, 2017 | Professor Longhair, “New Orleans Piano”

#25 January, 2017 | Elvis Costello, “Live at the El Mocambo”

#23 November, 2016 | Erykah Badu, “Mama’s Gun”

#22 October, 2016 | Donald Fagan, “The Nightfly”

#21 September, 2016 | Aretha Franklin, “Young, Gifted, and Black”

#20 August, 2016 | The Dave Matthews Band, “Under the Table and Dreaming”

#19 July, 2016 | Clams Casino, “Instrumental Mixtape II”

#18 June, 2016 | James Brown, “Love, Power, Peace”

#17 May, 2016 | Ali Farka Toure & Ry Cooder, “Talking Timbuktu”

#16 April, 2016 | RIP PRINCE

#15 March, 2016 | Prince, “Prince”

#14 February, 2016 | Big L, “Lifestyles Ov Da Poor & Dangerous”

#13 January, 2016 | Bill Evans, “Live at the Village Vanguard”

#11 November, 2015 | Donny Hathaway, “Live”

#10 October, 2015 | Paul McCartney, “McCartney”

#9 September, 2015 | Talk Talk, “Laughing Stock”

#8 August, 2015 | B.B. King, “Live at Cook County Jail”

#7 July, 2015 | Miles Davis, “Filles de Kilimanjaro”

#6 June, 2015 | Joni Mitchell, “Hejira”

#5 May, 2015 | Kanye West, “The College Dropout”

#4 April, 2015 | MF DOOM, “Operation: Doomsday”

#3 March, 2015 | Bruce Springsteen, “The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle”

#2 February, 2015 | Eric B. and Rakim, “Paid in Full”

#1 January, 2015 | Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers, “L.A.M.F.”

 

ANNUAL

 

DECENNIAL

 

THEMED