The Retrographer, Issue 117 (August 2 0 2 4)

Tony Vaz, Alena Spanger, Adeline Hotel, Nala Sinephro, Sabrina Carpenter, Moses Sumney, Market, Magdalena Bay, Horse Jumper of Love, Elkan, youbet, and more!

Author

Charlie Kaplan
September 09, 2024

Tony Vaz, Alena Spanger, Adeline Hotel, Nala Sinephro, Sabrina Carpenter, Moses Sumney, Market, Magdalena Bay, Horse Jumper of Love, Elkan, youbet, and more!

The Retrographer, Issue 117 (August, 2 0 2 4)

Bulletins

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

“9 Lives”, Tony Vaz and Alena Spanger – An instant entry for song of the summer and year. Vaz and Spanger are perfect opposites, perfect complements, perfect accomplices in making a singular song.

“Whodunnit”, Adeline Hotel – Dan Knishkowy’s music is always luminous and somehow, across albums where he sings and albums where he doesn’t, autobiographic, close to the chest: “You were a planet in my ribcage / now I’m orbiting you with grace.”

“Continuum 1”, Nala Sinephro – On its predecessor Space 1.8, Sinephro described endlessness through the vastness of the cosmos; On Endlessness, space twinkles around her as tinkling arpeggiators and infinite arcs of strings stretching far into the expanse.

“Don’t Smile”, Sabrina Carpenter – This song stands out on Carpenter’s otherwise concupiscent and uninhibited debut for its mellowness and melancholy, a vibey duality that sets her in a light worth exploring.

“Vintage”, Moses Sumney – Sumney has a truly singular instrument: A voice with seemingly infinite range, command, and dynamism. Past records have dipped into mainstream R&B here and there, but never with the fulsomeness displayed here.

“Apple”, Market – Nate Mendelsohn possesses a rare and distinct lyrical proclivity to unspool whole songs in a single, continuous thought; like a panic or a reverie; a mental tangent that engrosses you but, once you pull your sopping head out of it, you can barely explain.

“That’s My Floor”, Magdalena Bay – Mercurial World was an objectively brilliant album, packed with relentless bangers and a musical worldview somewhere between Grimes and NIN. Imaginal Disk continues the trajectory but lets it get a little weirder (while no less hooky).

“Snow Angel”, Horse Jumper of Love – Shoegaze, emo, slowcore, and a host of other dysthymic 90s genres are finding new purchase in a new generation. Every gliding riff carries within it the darkness of an inner life obscured but until just this moment.

“Dub for Funny Cats”, Elkan – In the timeless yet undefeated practice of underpromising to over-deliver, this Dutch producer sets the listener up for buzzy frivolity and instead drops a hypnic synth loop over half-time drums that might better soundtrack a slow-motion heist scene in a Guy Ritchie movie.

“Nurture”, youbet – Nick Llobet’s mastery of melody and gentle, angelic voice almost seem to belong in another time; that time, whenever you, the reader, think classic music was still written. Unless you know (and can hear) that it’s still here now; That it’s eternal.

MONTHLY

#116.5 “Cloudburst”

#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