Billy Woods – History Will Absolve Me [Backwoodz 2012]
If you couldn’t tell by the album title and cover art, Woods is the son of a Zimbabwean Marxist, based in NYC. As such he’s got stories about being the foreign kid in school, colonialism and post colonialism as metaphors for the music industry, and a weed song that’s also a breakup song – it’s Afrofuturism that’s only a decade down the line. His flow (barked way in front of or behind the beat in a dusty baritone) and his technique (fragments of vignettes and food that don’t build traditionally) take patience and a discerning ear to wrap your brain around. And even though he’s a depressive he commands dread and paranoia much more than mere woe-is-me sadness. For an hour and some change I’ll take it as a resume, but there’s a quality of seriousness that can get in the way of the euphoric connection that tells me I’ve fallen in love with a record. 3.8/5
(“Frozen Sunlight”, “Blue Dream”)
Tyler the Creator – Don’t Tap the Glass [Columbia 2025]
Man sets out to make a dance record and mostly succeeds with heavy helpings of 1980s sounds. My favorite line is when Pharrell accuses the youngins of not talking to their accountants. 3.5/5
MIKE – Black Soap [Lex Records 2018]
Mush Mouth son of immigrants is depressed but warm in his NYC life. 3.4/5
Tyler Childers – Snipe Hunter [RCA 2025]
In his clear and even boyish sounding new voice you can hear clear traces of the workaholism that many addict musicians turn to as they fight the boredom of sobriety. And with a newly muscular sound a la Rick Rubin he’s got much more rock n roll in his country, which is a move many a band have made previously that’s failed. Storyteller beefs up sound, loses emotional nuance MANY SUCH CASES! But on his longest LP to date Childers has some real ironic expression going for him; he juxtaposes being at the bottom rung of upper class while still a dedicated hunter (those feral hogs are no joke) and, being that he’s now a successful touring act, the good ol’ boy tales of eastern Kentucky vs the travels of that good ol’ boy around the world. Does it make you cringe a little when he emphasizes the word “fucking”? Does the spirit feel moved when a young man finds an older woman he can’t stop thinking about? Was that koala pretty cute? Is keeping out of the pills good advice? For me, E) All of the above. 4.2/5
$ilkMoney – WHO WATERS THE WILTING GIVING TREE ONCE THE LEAVES DRY UP AND FRUITS NO LONGER BEAR [Lex Records 2025]
As a persona $ilkMoney is a number of things that don’t necessarily contradict each other. He’s violent in a slapstick way, filling bars with so much rhythm and aggressive consonants that it’s like the Kool Aid Man keeps breaking through your walls while you have sleep paralysis. He’s of a particular strain of Black nationalism that these days has been crammed under the umbrella term “hotep”, only he’s also got a god complex. And he postures as both a preacher and mystic, a glowing eyed wizard dressed in a Spencer’s brand wizard rob adorned with the kind of tacky psychedelic images you’d find in a college freshman’s dorm. And he raps really really well over atmospheric vaporwave beats that only emphasize his jokes; “doo-hickey”, “Doug Dimmadome”, “Jonathan how could you??”. His answers seem to be; stay woke and believe in the post-ironic. 4.2/5
The Mountain Goats – The Life of the World to Come [4AD 2009]
As Darnielle’s gotten older he’s done the thing that a lot of writerly types with violent inner conflicts do, which is learn to accept and forgive. No devout Christian, he uses biblical passages that neither you nor I have time to bother looking up to frame piano-forward short stories on death, religion, and rediscovery as method of release. They’re good-to-great, not eminently as quotable as his previous work, but no less pleasant. 3.8/5
Stevie Wonder – Fulfillingness’ First Finale [Motown 1974]
As smooth as ever but not nearly as earth shattering, it seems the man now known as Stevie Wonder has chosen to settle down on this one, focusing on lost love more than trying got win her back and a vague sense of death, but remember this guy took a log to the face Final Destination style and lived to tell about it. So being able to compose and reflect on this level is no less than a miracle, it’s why he condemns Nixon and praises his God and it’s why he focuses on distance. How many songs have “Go” in the title? How many have to do with leaving or miles? It’s the kind of realization on the inevitability of death that a lot of men have in their 20’s when the invincibility of youth finally slips away to reveal a vast expanse of existence still in front of you. Not all of them can make it sound this pretty though. 4.0/5
Open Mike Eagles – Dark Comedy [Mello Music Group 2014]
More of the same, funny, intelligent, self-deprecating, but so much more blue and with so much Radiohead in it you’d think he was trying to tell us something. 3.6/5
Bob Vylan – Bob Vylan Presents: The Price of Life [Ghost Theater 2022]
Like most leftists, much better to digest when giving comprehensive and understandable steps to improve life and community, instead of just rage rage rage. 3.5/5
(“Health is Wealth”, “GDP”)
No Joy – Bugland [Hand Drawn Dracula Records 2025]
Vibes first New Age shoegazers muscle and psychidelicalize up their sound so it sounds like 1997. 3.2/5
Cosmic Hero 