Funk gets described a lot of different ways. Groove, energy, danceability — all of these are true, but none of them quite captures what makes Sly Stone’s best work different from everyone else’s. There’s a
Wes Montgomery is one of those guitarists who ruins everything. Once you’ve heard him, other jazz guitarists start sounding like they’re missing something — that particular warmth, that ease, that feeling of someone who has
Some jazz records are for listening. Some are for playing loudly and forgetting where you are. Light As A Feather does both — it works as attentive, note-by-note listening, and it works as something you
Some records find you before you find them. I came across Two Feet in the Gutter in a bin somewhere — I honestly can’t remember which one — and bought it mainly because the sleeve
There are records I play when I want energy. And then there’s Behaviour — the record I play when I want the opposite of energy. Not silence, exactly. Something more specific: that feeling of being
If Head Hunters was the record that introduced the mainstream to Herbie Hancock’s electric funk direction, Thrust is the record that showed he wasn’t finished exploring it. Released in 1974, a year after Head Hunters,
There are jazz albums that are historically important. There are jazz albums that sound incredible. And then, every so often, there’s one that manages both at the same time without trying too hard to be
Pet Shop Boys don’t do short. Introspective — their third album, released in October 1988 — is six tracks long and runs to over forty minutes. Every single song is over six minutes. The shortest
Guns N’ Roses were one of those bands I came to late. By the time I really sat down with them — properly, vinyl in hand — most people had already written their verdict. But
The River from Bruce Springsteen is a true rock and roll classic double album, and it’s filled with some of the most timeless songs in rock history. One of the things I love about “The
