Parquet Courts, Wide Awake!

Parquet Courts, Wide Awake!

The Brooklyn band delivers an inescapably political and ideologically direct album here. The first three songs are unrelenting and sometimes abrasive, with Andrew Savage often forgoing melody entirely, shouting proclamations in an unabashed intellectual’s vocabulary. The urgency is unyielding, until at track 4 we take a wild left turn into rich harmonies and psychedelia (!!!) and suddenly the record opens up, in many new directions, as though the band is satisfied its message has been received and can now enjoy themselves and explore. From then on Wide Awake centers on agile, punk-tinged indie rock that makes this band great, but each song takes it in an untried new direction. Highlights: “Almost Had to Start a Fight / In and Out of Patience,” “Tenderness,” “Normalization”

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Richard Thompson, 13 Rivers

Richard Thompson , 13 Rivers Richard Thompson — 13 Rivers Arguably the most consistently engaging artist of the last 50 years, Richard Thompson continues to write deep, dark folk-rock songs with an acerbic wit married to a soft, calm wisdom. This new album isn’t widely divergent from his established catalogue but miraculously Thompson, who was already a guitar hero in the 1970s, still manages to grow as a guitarist and sound fresh. Working highly intricate riffs into the undergirding of each song’s frame, he also solos on every song and as usual, his virtuosity remains connected to the music, always moving the songs forward rather than grandstanding. Plus, Thompson’s one of a kind voice only deepens in resonance over time. Highlights: “Trying,” “O Cinderella,” “Bones of Gilead”

Courntey Marie Andrews, May Your Kidness Remain

Courntey Marie Andrews, May Your Kidness Remain This young old soul sings simple songs of timeless wisdom that could have been delivered in any genre; Courtney Marie Andrews has chosen folk-country stylings with some indie pop flavorings. The Phoenix-born Andrews has a voice that rings out clear and sonorous and heartfelt, and leaves the twang to the guitars. The first two songs are sheer perfection and at least half the songs approach it; she’s at her strongest when she’s extolling the core virtues of her message — love, kindness and self-awareness. Highlight: “May Your Kindness Remain,” “Lift the Lonely from My Heart,” “This House”

Don Kipper, Seven Sisters

Don Kipper , Seven Sisters This seven-piece world music collective plays “the traditional music of northeast London,” by which they mean music from the ethnic communities that thrive there. Turkish, Romani, Klezmer, North and West African, Greek and Macedonian music (and probably others) share the stage, each taking moments in the spotlight and then often weaving together in combinations. The band’s third album features a mixture of originals and traditional songs of various heritage. The band displays quite a range, with slow-build epics and chorus-y folk songs featuring the intoxicating vocals of lead singer Dunja Botic, to high every, whirling, up-tempo instrumentals like the record’s climax, “Gambrinus,” that sound remarkably tight for songs in which there is so much going on. Other highlights: “Welcome,” “Min Orkizese”

Album Reviews by Stefan Wenger

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