Each week, we choose an album we like and discuss it. There are no rules, so expect a good mix.
Album of the Week, 46: The Dreamweaver – Patrick Bartley’s DREAMWEAVER
Patrick Bartely might just be the most exciting alto saxophonist I have ever heard. I would even go as far to say that he rescued the instrument from a lifetime of me avoiding it. Despite my fond and foundational memories of school band, the ubiquity of alto saxophonists among my fellow bandmates had near enough…
Album of the Week, 45: Cheat Codes – Danger Mouse & Black Thought
This week, I’m digging into hip-hop, and one of the greatest collaborations to ever come from the genre.
Album of the Week, 44: Laugh ‘Till I Cry – Michael Kessler
This week, I am bringing forward an album that has reminded me, in the past two weeks since I first heard it, of the core purpose of music and its reason for existing in our lives. If I am being totally transparent, I have been getting bogged down recently in conversations surrounding AI music and…
Album of the Week, 43: Cymande – Cymande
For the second week running, we bring you a self-titled debut record for our Album of the Week.
Album of the Week, 42: One EskimO – One EskimO
One EskimO are a group that seem to have been left behind in the late 00s scramble, and I think it’s an utter shame. Here’s why.
Album of the Week, 41: Sunny Side Up – Paolo Nutini
This week, I’m taking myself back to one of the first albums to make me fall in love with music, from probably my first ever “favourite” musician. I’m heading back to 2009, when I was just a 7 year old boy, withPaisley-born singer-songwriter Paolo Nutini’s second album – Sunny Side Up.
Album of the Week, 40: All That You Can’t Leave Behind – U2
if I had never heard All That You Can’t Leave Behind, I am not sure that I would experience music in the same way that I do today.
Album of the Week, 39: Mama’s Gun – Erykah Badu
My Album of the Week is the second studio release from Erykah Badu – Mama’s Gun – released on the 18th of November, 2000, on the Motown Records label.
Album of the Week, 38: Marram – Matt Carmichael
Drenched in tradition and heritage, yet bursting with a sense of modernity and excitement, Marram might just be one the best albums to listen to if you want to feel inspired yet nostalgic.
Album of the Week, 37: Who Is William Onyeabor? – William Onyeabor
A couple of years ago, I first listened to this week’s Album of the Week. I was immediately hooked and I found myself asking one, simple question: Who Is William Onyeabor? In retrospect, maybe that question isn’t so simple after all.
Album of the Week, 36: Fitzgerald & Pass… Again – Ella Fitzgerald & Joe Pass
This album needs to be your next listen if you want to enjoy this autumn at all. It is nearly an hour long, so stick it on and go for a late afternoon walk or pop it on to warm up to the day. Two of the greatest that ever did it, performing together in…
Album of the Week, 35: Heavy Weather – Weather Report
My Album of the Week was the product of a jazz-fusion group at their peak. From both a personal perspective, and based on commercial success, Weather Report’s 1977 album, Heavy Weather, is the peak of their success, creativity, and flair. Looking back, it’s also phenomenally influential.
Album of the Week, 34: Hmayra – Shubh Saran
If you’re new to Shubh Saran, go read up on him and definitely go and listen to Hmayra. You’re late to the game but so was I when I first heard it and I’d have felt a fool if I had waited any longer to check it out.
Album of the Week, 33: Happy Music – Supershy
Alter egos have been ever present as part of musicians’ identities and artistic expression. From Sgt. Pepper (The Beatles) to Slim Shady (Eminem), and Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie) to Buckhot la Funke (Cannonball Adderley), alter egos have provided some of the all time greats a way of exploring new avenues with their music.
Album of the Week, 32: World’s Fair – Julian Lage
World’s Fair shows an honest yet courageous side to Lage, as it blends American musical traditions with his own humble modernity.
Album of the Week, 31: Find Your Flame – Nubiyan Twist
Some of the best music is that which soundtracks a period of your life. When hearing a riff instantly brings up a memory, feeling, or emotion, and takes you right back to when you first fell in love with it. My Album of the Week is, for me, one of those records.
Album of the Week, 30: August Greene – August Greene
August Greene was released back in 2018, and we’ve heard very little from the group since. Maybe that’s all we’ll ever hear. Selfishly, I’d like to hear more but it is still as relevant and mesmerising today as it was when it was released. Go for a drive and listen.
Album of the Week, 29: Fresh – Sly & The Family Stone
A classic in the realm of funk, I think this is Sly Stone and his band at their peak – despite the challenging context in which it was born.
Album of the Week, 28: Coming Home – Leon Bridges
While the revival of an acoustic soul sound wasn’t anything new, Coming Home did it with a dose of honesty and authenticity.
Album of the Week, 27: 2nd Exit – 2nd Exit
Pioneered by the likes of A Tribe Called Quest, Digable Planets and De La Soul, the genre of ‘jazz-rap’ has been around for a good few decades. With the obvious exception of the early 90s and birth of the style, I’d say the last ten years or so has produced the very best records in the…
Album of the Week, 26: The Bomb Shelter Sessions – Vintage Trouble
Rocking up to gigs early has boundless benefits for anyone interested in a good music or indeed a good night. This fact was confirmed to me at one of the first gigs that I can remember attending, back in June 2013. The Who were travelling the globe again on their ‘Quadrophenia and More’ tour, which…
Album of the Week, 25: The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld – The Orb
Concept albums can be, when done right, some of the most beautiful and powerful forms of musical expression. By exploring a specific theme, they can be fantastic entryways into genres you may not have given a chance to before; if you click with the concept, you can often find yourself coming around to the musical…
Album of the Week, 24: Hey Ma – James
I am biased as always with my possibly overstretched affection for this piece of work, but I am convinced that along with the instrumental inventiveness of this album, almost all of the tracks show James at the top their game.
Album of the Week, 23: Original Pirate Material – The Streets
In the bedroom of a rented Brixton house in the early 2000s, one of the greatest and most influential British albums of all times was created.
Album of the Week, 22: Jim Hall’s Three – Jim Hall
This album is a masterclass in musical conversation, showcasing how truly worldclass musicians can not only survive but thrive under an unforgiving trio setup. Jim Hall’s Three might seem like an odd choice for our first Jim Hall Album of the Week feature but it’s one of the best showcases of his understated brilliance as…
Album of the Week, 21: hugo: reimagined (live from the Royal Albert Hall) – Loyle Carner
Plenty of music magazines, journalists and fans have had a go at creating their lists of the best ‘live albums’ of all time. The album I’ve selected this week is, I think, a strong candidate for this category – and it’s only just turned one year old.
Album of the Week, 20: Good Dog, Happy Man – Bill Frisell
If you are looking for a great album that hooks you up with a healthy dose of guitar, at times happily holding a vamp, yet mostly providing soulful homely melodies, then Good Dog, Happy Man has to be your next listen.
Album of the Week, 19: Promises – Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, London Symphony Orchestra
My Album of the Week is the incredible three-way partnership, Promises, written and produced by Floating Points (a.k.a Sam Shepherd), and performed by himself, saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra.
Album of the Week, 18: Ett Göteborgsporträtt – Axel Mårdsjö
This album serves as a lasting love letter to a hometown and boy does it serve well. Embodying almost perfect aesthetic unity, from the artwork to the first and last tune, Ett Göteborgsporträtt delivers exactly what we can only hope all contemporary “folk-jazz” records do
Album of the Week, 17: We’re New Here – Gil Scott-Heron, Jamie xx
This week, I’ve selected Waxing Lyrical’s first ‘remix’ Album of the Week, and, in my opinion, one of the very best remix albums out there. It’s courtesy of two of my favourite artists: Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx. The album is We’re New Here.
Album of the Week, 16: $/He Who Feeds You…Owns You – The Brother Moves On
Some of the greatest albums made are those with a message, whether in protest or praise. This album expertly entangles meaning and message with music that both grooves hard and draws you in with masterful melodicism.
Album of the Week, 15: Hard Groove – The RH Factor
This week, I’m exploring one of the most musically stacked records in the discography of Roy Hargrove – Hard Groove.
Album of the Week, 14: Sowing Acorns – Emma Langford
Sowing Acorns is an album that came to me through a relatively unlikely source at a relatively uncertain time. This was the first album that I had heard from the Limerick native, Emma Langford, and I had heard it performed as part of a livestream
Album of the Week, 13: Zombie – Fela Kuti
Founder of Afrobeat. Political activist. International Icon. The Black President. There are many names, monikers and titles which have been used to capture the influence Fela Kuti has had on the world – yet somehow, at the same time, not enough.
Album of the Week, 12: Live at the 55bar – Janek Gwizdala
It’s an all round spectacular album and a testament to a place that played host to some of the world’s finest jazz musicians.
Album of the Week, 11: Day/Night – Parcels
Day/Night is Parcels’ second studio album, released in 2021 on the Because Music label. It follows their fantastic, eponymous debut 2018 release, setting the bar high… and did they deliver.
Album of the Week, 10: Among Friends: A Musical Travelogue – Joshua Lee Turner
Beautifully capturing the confluence of musicianship and relationship at a time when human interaction was scarce, ‘Among Friends’ is a personal diary shared with the world with space for individuals to transcribe their own memories.
Album of the Week, 9: Moseley Shoals – Ocean Colour Scene
This week’s album takes us back to the pinnacle of the Britpop era, for a record I think is a little overshadowed by its peers, and subsequently a little underrated.
Album of the Week, 8: April – April Varner
If you’re looking for a virtuosic vocal jazz album that takes you through energetic highs and sombre lows, this is perfect for you.
Album of the Week, 7: Turn This Mutha Out – Idris Muhammad
This week, we’re heading back to 1977, for Idris Muhammad’s Turn This Mutha Out. Despite it pushing 50 years of age, it remains an incredibly influential album, and one you will definitely have heard in the modern day, even if you haven’t quite realised it.
Album of the Week, 6: Be the Wheel – Theo Katzman
If you’re new to Theo Katzman or haven’t heard him away from Vulfpeck, then this a great album to jump in to, capturing the virtuosity of his voice and its capacity to convey emotion as well his affinity for lyric writing and instrumental unity. Start from the top, the middle or the end; it doesn’t…
Album of the Week, 5: Vertigo – Groove Armada
English electronic duo Tom Findlay and Andy Cato, better known by the name Groove Armada, win my Album of the Week, with Vertigo – their second studio release, from 1999.
Album of the Week, 4: Songwrights Apothecary Lab – Esperanza Spalding
…this work (S.A.L for short) did a great deal to change my perspective on how digitised music can be presented and interacted with.
Album of the Week, 3: Some Nights I Dream of Doors – Obongjayar
Some Nights I Dream of Doors was a solo project a long time coming, following six years of singles and EPs, during which Obongjayar honed his sound to create the electronic, cinematic, Afrobeat-inspired sound and mood associated with the album.
Album of the Week, 2: The Songs of Robert Burns – Eddi Reader
This coming Saturday, those of us north of Hadrian’s wall and across the world with a proclivity for Scottish tradition are celebrating Burns Night – an eccentric tradition involving the reciting of poetry, drinking of whisky, and eating of minced Sheep’s organs.
Album of the Week, 1: Screamadelica – Primal Scream
Released in 1991, Screamadelica was undoubtedly a breakthrough album, finally catapulting Primal Scream into mainstream critical and commercial success.
Waxing Lyrical 