This week, the music is for wandering. The sounds are easy, propulsive; songs to make you look and listen. Music is often thought of as it’s own entity, transcendent from place. But, every song or album depends on where you are when you’re listening. Think of these albums as an extension of your mind — they are the thoughts running through your head on a day, a moment, a walk, a drive.
We begin in Brazil with Quinteto Ternura, which translates roughly to “tenderness quartet.” And, the music is tender, with harmonized vocals and a precious quality. But, those are always juxtaposed with samba rhythms and soul-jam baselines. There is an airiness that gives way to movement; the album takes you where you want to go.
Perhaps where you want to go is a tour through Americana instrumentation. If so, Bhuta Kala is a great place to start. Funky, wide baselines, cosmic-funk synth over orchestration and a voice that says, asks, again and again, “maybe it’s better, maybe it’s better?” The albums sweeps through R&B, shoegaze, twang, indie-pop, funk, psych — a wandering of it’s own kind through the music of youth. It’s questioning. It’s still searching.
Searching continues in Lw Kan, partly because there is almost nothing about the album or the artist online. As far as I can tell, El Shab Arrab hails from Egypt and the album was released in 1993. This is what the internet will tell you. But, what the album will tell you is: dance. The tracks blend modern eighties with traditional Arabic sound, resulting in a something that feels both familiar and completely new.
We’ll stay in the realm of familiar with Lou Rawls, an absolute institution. Frank Sinatra once said that Rawls had “the classiest and silkiest chops in the singing game.” There is no silkier album than this. “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine” is easily one of the best songs of all time. If you’re inviting someone over for dinner, put this on. It won’t fail you.
To end, we internalize those feelings of love and pleasure in Jenny O.’s Spectra. The album is an ode to early rock ‘n’ roll, but in Jenny O.’s own way, with her own rules. It is psychedelia, but also a love letter. It is new wave, but also an opinion. The sound comes back to itself again and again, like an experiment returning to its control. It is warm and luminous, a light in a room.
Enjoy.
The playlist is here.
Monday
Quinteto Ternura - Quinteto Ternura (1974)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Tuesday
Bhuta Kala - Meernaa (2023)
Bandcamp / Spotify / YouTube / Other streaming services
Wednesday
Lw Kan - El Shab Arrab (1993)
Spotify / Other streaming services
Thursday
All Things in Time - Lou Rawls (1976)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Friday
Spectra - Jenny O (2023)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Pair with:
Roscoli’s cacio e pepe. This place is supposed to be one of the best Italian spots in New York right now and I’ll never say no to roman-style pasta.
Pizzicante bianco. You cannot go wrong with sparkling Italian wine. The bubbles in this pair well with the creaminess of the cacio and together they are the perfect pair.
This profile of Sharon Olds. “She will show you that all the rooms are interconnected, that the door to joy is the door to sorrow, that it has been one big room all along.”
This unbelievable duck candle holder. My jaw dropped when I saw this. I’ve never seen a candle holder so cool.
This glass petal vase. I’ve been saying for years that hand blown glass is the next ceramics and here we are.
Nike cortez sneakers. I know that everyone is doing sambas right now, but I still have my decade old cortez sneakers that do just fine. Maybe I watched too much Forrest Gump as a kid to ever give them up.
Thank you, thank you.
Have a great week.