Capsule review: The Meters - Fire on the bayou (1975)

They can get in the pocket, now they can't get out. (first listen)

Capsule review: Motorpsycho - Here be monsters (2016)

No monsters, Motorpsycho reassemble their familiar tropes. But with peak results. Confident masters. Surely the next best thing to diving into the unknown. (20160829)

Capsule review: Stephen Malkmus - Jicks picks Vol 1: Quiet music festival 20150627 (2016)

Merry pranksters growing old. Plundering their Pink Floyd and Carpenters albums. Have a cigar?

Capsule review: Big star - In space (2005)

Can't remember when I last played their '70s albums, but this one goes on all the time. Razor sharp opener 'Dony'. Then skip through a 3 song Posies reunion (no thanks). Arrive at an 8 song late period Chilton crash course in American music from R&B to disco, audibly created on the spot. Thrilling.

Capsule review: Alex Chilton - A man called destruction (1995)

Chilton starts late career hot streak spanning solo albums, Big Star and Box Tops reunions. All just fronts for the best rock'n'roll stylist of his (late) age. 'What's your sign girl' - my jam.

Capsule review: Sam Cooke - Keep movin' on (1963-64, 2001 released)

Just hitting his stride right before the end.

Capsule review: Alex Chilton - Live in London (1980)

He had just the ticket for punk rock, but his plane arrived a couple years late.
A shambles and badly recorded. So, more coherent than his contemporary records. Like Flies On Sherbert songs particular favorites in these versions.

Capsule review: Gene Clark - Roadmaster (1973)

Came out in the Netherlands exclusively then disappeared, which is sort of the same thing. Clark at his most gorgeous and melodic.

Capsule review: Lou Reed, John Cale & Nico - Le Bataclan, Paris, Jan 29 1972 (1972)

Amiable livingroom folk versions from the decadent three. Reed effortlessly tossing off gems, old and new. Cale strangely slipping into comedy ('The biggest, loudest, hairiest group of all'). Nico opens up a chasm that engulfs the audience. No follow-up.

Capsule review: The Creation - Our music is red with purple flashes (1966-68, released 2015)

Skip the stuff about painters and synesthesia. Remember them for monster 'How does it feel to feel' (and 'Making time'). There's no logical explanation for a song like that. Pure feel. Thicker than air.

Capsule review: Chin up Chin up - This harness can't ride anything (2006)

When post-rock doesn't work.

Capsule review: Mahavishnu orchestra - The inner mounting flame (1971)

Why do I keep burning myself on fusion? Lots of mounting, ridiculous fire.

Capsule review: Chastity belt - Time to go home (2015)

'I've made choices / with no reason', and this record's just one. I may wonder if 20 years ago this sort of thing was somehow more charmed, but good choice nevertheless.

Capsule review: Frankie Cosmos - Zentropy (2014)

10 singer-songwriter sketches in 17 minutes. Speed psychology. 'That's why you like me and I don't.' Ramshackle, giddy backing, check. Still just a little cutesy. 'Buses splash with rain' a highlight. 'I could be thrilling if you are willing to overlook a few things.' She's got the right idea.

Capsule review: King Crimson - In the court of the Crimson King (1969)

Immediately after King Crimson's performance at Chicago's Kinetic Playground on Saturday, gangsters burnt the club to the ground. Iron Butterfly, the group who were playing with King Crimson, lost all their equipment in the fire, while Crimson themselves lost a mellotron. (Record Mirror, 15 nov 1969)

Capsule review: Lula Côrtes & Zé Ramalho - Paêbirú (1975)

Heathen ritual of the elements conceived on ancient Indian archeological site, 'maybe even the presence of aliens'. Stunningly hermetic, and percussion jams.

Capsule review: Elton John - Captain fantastic and the brown dirt cowboy (1975)

Psychiatrist: 'Elton, have you considered writing down your issues in a diary?'
Elton: 'I know, I'll get Bernie to do it!'
On a wave of success artists invent these origin stories for their fame and fortune, as if their vocation was pre-ordained. But a night on the tiles with Long John Baldry is a poor narrative construct. Life should have gifted Elton something grander, monumental. The Ben Hur of self-help.

Capsule review: Jefferson airplane - Bless its pointed little head (1969)

With a muscular sound, physical where the studio albums are psychedelic breakfasts, this may just be the gateway I need to finally get into the airplane. ( first listen)

Capsule review: Alex Chilton - Top 30 (1977-93, 1997 released)

I could never figure out how Chilton remains charming while setting fire to the studio. But he does. Random highlights from Sherbert to Clichés, though you need the original records to make sense of it. If that were a possibility.

Capsule review: Jim O'Rourke & Loren Connors - Two nice catholic boys (1997, 2009 released)

Two friends with electric guitars wandered out on stage... Noise ensued. Repeatedly.

Capsule review: Hall & Oates - Abandoned luncheonette (1973)

A rich girl's Brewer & Shipley. Fuckin' 'She's gone'! Superb singing, '70s Laurel Canyon patented incessant acoustic guitar strumming. (first listen)

Capsule review: Dan Black - [Un] (2009)

Damn, that's some good cheesy synthpop anthems. Waferthin melodies, sung blankfaced into Fisher Price mic.

Capsule review: Terry Callier - What colour is love (1973)

I always thought it was pink, but Terry sings it black and blue. That's why he's the artist, I guess.

Capsule review: Alice Coltrane - Universal consciousness (1971)

Wow, so this is what everything at the same time sounds like.

Capsule review: Fence - The winding (2016)

Fence songs are never linear. The winding, indeed. Drift in and out of fragments. Takes a deceptive while to figure out. Here grooves run free. At times the rhythm section find themselves on a tightrope with no recollection how they got there. A good place.

Capsule review: dEUS - What we talk about (when we talk about love) (2006)

dEUS' last old style EP single is more grasping in the dark. The title track may be the fullest realization yet of Tom Barman's electro JJ Cale aspirations. Slinky. But three alternate versions only teach us: 1. its seductive groove is a studio creation (FM acoustic radio version), 2. Barman enjoys long vacations in Spain ('Sentimientos, quando hablamos de amor'), 3. remixes are the lowest form of wit (Untitled remix No 1). I had my suspicions all along.

Capsule review: Margo Guryan - Take a picture (1968)

Sometimes a man needs his slightly jazzy, 60s pop chanteuse mother figure to tell him everything will be alright. 'What can I say to make the bad things go away?' ('What can I give you'). Invite me for tea and I know I'll make it through.

Capsule review: Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - How I long to feel that summer in my heart (2001)

Gorky's always worked best in small doses. Got it just right on 2001's The Blue Trees EP. After they beefed up the sound with strings on this majestically humble heartbreaker. Fabulous for one LP side. By the second side I no longer care.

Capsule review: Gilberto Gil - Realce (1979)

Musica Populeira Brasileira smoothed out in the late '70s like they switched from ice cream to soft ice. Gil is no exception but his gift is melodic invention, and he carries it through. Makes me smile, but no more, Gil. (first listen)

Capsule review: Euros Childs - Chops (2006)

A sketchbook, but it's alive. Giddy, silly, 'Donkey island'. I want to sell my house and follow this guy to lala-land. 'No animals were harmed in the making of this record,' the sleevenotes claim. They may have chuckled.

Capsule review: Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Sleep/Holiday (2003)

Sleep.

Capsule review: Gastr del sol - Camoufleur (1998)

Hidden gem in the O'Rourke oeuvre. Find the record, then find the gems on the record. An intellectual band. But beautiful.

Capsule review: Cat power - The greatest (2006)

Beyond the Dave Grohl cameo. It hurts when your cult hate makes it and with a pretty good record too. (first listen)

Capsule review: Flaming lips - The soft bulletin (1999)

Turning point. Now boredom serves as existential catalyst. You can smear fake blood and sing 'Over the rainbow' with a gong, but you still got to serve somebody.

Capsule review: Donald Fagen - The nightfly (1982)

Concept album about singing into an expensive vintage microphone.

Capsule review: Flaming lips - Hit to death in the future head (1992)

Great ballad, called 'You have to be joking (autopsy of the devil's brain)'. (first listen)

Capsule review: Patsy Cline - 12 greatest hits (1960-63, 1988)

I get a time shock when she sings 'I've got the records that we used to share' on 'She's got you'. People had record collections in 1936? Oh wait. She could've bought a Dylan album.
Hard to untangle the myth from the records, but just her voice spells heartbreak.

Capsule review: Four Freshmen - Graduation day (1951-56, 2007 released)

Fabled harmony sound resembles smudged lipstick. There is such a thing as progress in art. Fully superseded by Wilson-Wilson-Wilson-Love-Jardine. (first listen)

Capsule review: Cher - 3614 Jackson highway (1969)

Cher, what have you been ruining yourself on for all these years since this wonderful album? Did it hurt when you threw it all away?

Capsule review: Free design - Heaven/Earth (1969)

Now this is where the weird twee starts. (first listen)

Capsule review: Free design - The best of (1967-72, 2001 released)

After a long week of working on their meticulous harmonies, family band Free Design would join their congregation in putting up barns.
Mostly fascinating to hear where 17% of the Stereolab sound comes from. (first listen)

Capsule review: Four seasons - Second vault of golden hits (1966)

When Frankie lets loose on 'I've got you under my skin', you really feel the phrase hit home. Who calls a candy coated roller skate ditty 'Opus 17' anyway? Scarily serious. Otherwise it's all 'Candy girl', 'Walk like a man' and 'Big girls don't cry'. What can you make of that? (first listen)

Capsule review: Four seasons feat. Frankie Valli - Gold vault of hits (1965)

What are you gonna listen to between '63's Golden Hits and '66's Second Vault Of Golden Hits? The Four Seasons take bubblegum scarily serious. I always picture four guys in old man's sweaters taking orders and Crewe and Gaudio grinning maniacally holding piles of dosh. Respect. (first listen)

Capsule review: Parquet courts - Human performance (2016)

Flypaper for '90s indie fan survivors hoping this ain't the end of history yet. Then they hit a groove like 'It's gonna happen' or 'One man no city' and I swoon. It's a legacy only the skinniest shoulders can carry. And damn, I hope they pull it off.

Capsule review: Nemo - Popmusics (1995)

Throwaway gold from inner Limburg slacker that could be you. Could be me. Popmusic's what it's all about. Noise from the basement. 

Capsule review: Solomon Burke - Soul alive (1983)

'Are you with me?!'
'Gee, Solomon, I just wandered in here.'
'Are you with me?!'
'I'll give it a try.'
'Are you with me?!'
'Guess so.'
'Are you with me?!'
You're kinda getting into my personal space.'
'Are you with me?!'
FUCK. OFF. SOLOMON. BURKE.
Solomon Burke is a selfish lover.

Capsule review: Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's lonely hearts club band (1967)

Paul McCartney eats the Beatles. Harrison the vegan option.

Capsule review: Robbie Basho - Seal of the blue lotus (1965)

Maybe it's monday morning, but this has little of the mood its title and cover wonderfully suggest. It's just a guy and an acoustic guitar, I guess.