New albums we listened to this week
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Big Freedia | Jack White | Lana Del Rey | Peter Rowan
Big Freedia | B+
The NOLA bounce monarch’s Herculean campaign to liberate the asses of the planet — via tireless touring, booty-twerk vids and reality TV — hasn’t left much time for pedestrian concerns like making albums, but Just Be Free (Queen Diva), unsurprisingly, approaches that proposition with the same sass and aplomb Big Freedia brings to everything else. Its funky horns, ghetto-house break beats and insta-coined catchphrases will keep those cheeks clapping.
—K. Ross Hoffman
Jack White | A-
As unpredictable and endlessly intriguing as White himself, Lazaretto (Third Man) finds the impish, ineffable guitar hero/antiquarian, with a cast of dozens, at both his darkest and most playful. He’s following his abundant, aberrant whims: reviving mid-’90s rap-rock on the unhinged title cut, scraping out back-porch country ballads alongside fiddler Lillie Mae Rische, lurching into searing, vengeful melodrama or hot-wiring Willie McTell’s Delta blues for the digital age.
—K. Ross Hoffman
Lana Del Rey | B+
Ultraviolence (Interscope) strips all of the hip-hop, and much of the Hollywood, out of LDR’s signature vibe, making it less magnificently fantastical but not necessarily any more realistic; less sonically striking (that unmistakable breathy, languorous alto aside) but hardly less rapturously absorbing. Nothing sounds like a single, so it all just sinks deep into a bluesy, glam-tinted wallow — call it bummertime sadness — blurring into a continuous, elegantly framed soft-focus, slow-motion montage.
—K. Ross Hoffman
Peter Rowan | A
It’s astonishing to hear Peter Rowan’s voice — legendary for blending bluegrass high-lonesome with a nod to the falsetto ornaments of Mexico’s hot lands and his impressions of Native American vocalizations — sounding better than ever on Dharma Blues (Omnivore). As the title suggests, many of Rowan’s originals are little gems of Buddhist teaching. Pedal steel sets a perfect meditative tone on some cuts, drives on others. Pals Jody Stecher, Hot Tuna’s Jack Casady and Gillian Welch are prominent contributors.
—Mary Armstrong
