Popular Music CDs for Adults
Hundreds of CDs are added to the Library's collection each month. Here are the most popular Music CDs for adults.
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Jon Savage's 1980-1982: The Art of Things to Come
Ace is delighted to continue with Jon Savage's highly respected year-by-year series documenting the music scene on a world stage, which began with a volume based on his successful 1966 book for Faber. A genre-spanning two-disc array of pivotal singles, extended mixes, context-providers, scene-stealers, and lost gems from disco, b-boy, new wave, rap, indie and synth: these are the decks that defined the dawn of the '80s, captured the mood and crystalized Jon's personal experiences of these years. (syndetics)
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Something to Give Each Other
Refreshing and free, Something to Give Each Other is the sound of a maturing artist taking a bold step into the spotlight. Three years after his last EP and a full half-decade since his previous full-length, Troye Sivan finally does what he came to do, delivering an effervescent dose of pop that is all-at-once endearing, explicit, and exciting. In addition to the horny lead single "Rush" -- one of the most memorable singles of 2023 -- Something... is packed with a wide range of gems that range from club-friendly dance anthems ("Got Me Started," "Silly," and "What's the Time Where You Are?") to romantic, midtempo sweetness ("In My Room," "One of Your Girls"). The young artist responsible for his earlier, more introspective bedroom pop material is still at work here, while that liberated spirit that began to "Bloom" in 2018 has taken the reins and successfully reached a place where he can be himself. As such, Something to Give Each Other succeeds because Sivan has been freed: to be who he wants to be and express that through his most engaging and addictive album to date. ~ Neil Z. Yeung (syndetics)
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Equal Strain on All Parts
Jimmy Buffett was diagnosed with an aggressive skin cancer around the time he was wrapping up work on 2020's Life on the Flip Side, but he spent the next four years working steadily, playing annual shows with his Coral Reefer Band and finishing the album that became his last, Equal Strain on All Parts. Arriving about two months after his death, Equal Strain on All Parts doesn't sound like the last testament of a dying man. It's a joyous, sometimes raucous, sometimes reflective album that lives thoroughly in the moment, swinging between sunshine and twilight in a warm, comforting manner. Buffett doesn't shy away from his enduring obsessions -- even the opening "University of Bourbon Street," an unabashed celebration of the rolling beat of New Orleans R&B -- but he's also not operating on autopilot. He's spinning stories and telling jokes, inviting Paul McCartney and Emmylou Harris into the studio to share the good times, playing country-rock ("Close Calls"), sun-bleached ballads ("Equal Strain on All Parts"), and tropical pop ("Like My Dog") with equal fervor, taking the time to cover Bob Dylan, write a tribute to French rock & roller Johnny Hallyday, and craft another working-for-the-weekend anthem with "Nobody Works on Friday." Maybe none of these songs carry the weight of mortality, but taken together, they amount to an effective summation of Buffett's enduring charms. It's not a bad way to say goodbye at all. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine (syndetics)
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Crashin' From Passion
In the 1970s, Betty Davis defied genre and gender by pushing her voice to extremes and embracing the erotic. She articulated a kind of pre-punk, funk-blues fusion that had yet to be normalized in mainstream music, a style that few musicians have come close to replicating. As one of the first Black women to write, arrange, and produce her own albums, Betty was a visionary who disregarded industry boundaries and constraints. In 1979, when Davis entered an L.A. studio to record her fifth and final album, she was reeling from a series of setbacks. With renewed vigor, Davis reunited with former Funk House guitarist Carlos Morales and brought together industry veterans like fusion drummer Alphonse Mouzon. The resulting album was her most musically diverse, blending elements of reggae and calypso, jazz, dark synth-pop, and even disco. Equally exploratory are Davis' vocals, as she trades in her signature sass and snarls for more nuanced stylings. (syndetics)
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Catch the groove: live at the Penthouse 1963-1967
Arriving on Record Store Day in 2023, Catch The Groove: Live at the Penthouse 1963-1967 by vibraphonist, composer and badleader Cal Tjader is an event. Despite a catalogue spanning four decades, Tjader seems almost a marginal figure in the 21st century. He was arguably the first non-Latin musician to complertely devote himself to establishing Latin jazz as a genre and commercial success from the 1950s until his death in 1982. Between 1967's Along Comes Cal through 1977's Guarabe, Tjader melded cool jazz, hard bop, bugalu, salsa, guaracha, Latin funk, and fusion on fine recordings such as The Prophet, Cal Tjader Plugs In, Agua Dulce, Primo, and Amazonas. That said, the tide may be blowing in his direction again. In January, electronic producer Chris Bangs featured Tjader's "Samba Sueno" as the lead cut on Firebird. In April, the vibraphonist's Huracan, an obscure but star studded 1978 direct-to-disc LP was remastered and reissued. In May, esteemed critic Tom Moon published a review of it and celebrated his seventies recordings. Catch The Groove is presented by Zev Feldman's Jazz Detective label. It offers 27 unreleased performances from Tjader's headline stints at Seattle's Penthouse, They were engineered and recorded by Jim Wilke, a local DJ who also broadcast some of these performances. Among Tjader's sidemen on these dates are pianists Clare Fischer, Lonnie Hewitt and Al Zulaica, percussionist Armando Peraza, bassist Monk Montgomery, and drummer Carl Burnett, and more. Disc one reveals Tjader, a serious jazz vibraphonist, opens his 1963 gig by swinging Duke Ellington's "Take the A-Train," followed by Dave Brubeck's "In Your Own Sweet Way" and Rodgers and Hart's "It Never Entered My Mind" before delving into samba on Braziliasn standard "Manha De Carnaval," and driving descarga on his "Insight." The entire collection is shot through with excellent, joyful performances of jazz standards juxtaposed with Latin and pop fare. From the middle to the end of disc one are a trio of Latin jazz jams with Eugene Holley's cooking son "Pantano" sandwiched between Tjader's lithely grooving "Davito" and breezy "Leyte." His playing is crystalline, it circles outward from the root melody rhythmically and harmonically. That's easily heard on wonderful, fingerpopping standard reading of "Love For Sale," "Lush Life," "I Can't Get Started"and Ray Bryant's enduring "Cuban Fantasy." While his own compostions "Fuji" and "Soul Burst" reflect that through a breezier approach. The readings of Peraza's Maramoor Mambo," and Edu Lobo's samba "O Morro Nao Tem Vez," and Mario Bauza's "Mambo Inn" reflect an developed approach to Latin jazz. Even the pop tunes here, Johnny Mandel's "The Shadow of Your Smile." and a Cubano approach to the Association's "Along Comes Mary" transforming it into burning Latin jazz . The sound throughout is balanced and warm, though some tracks are prematurely faded at their peaks to make room for others. The booklet contains rare photos and liner essays by Greg Casseus, and interviews with Eddie Palmieri, Poncho Sanchez, and musical evaluations by Gary Burton and Joe Locke. This fantastic reissue is an elemental portrait of Tjader the innovatorforging a singularapth through jazz. ~ Thom Jurek (syndetics)
Format: Music CD
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Nothing is as real as nothing
A new release by the all-star guitar trio of Frisell-Lage-Riley is always a cause for celebration and this sixth volume in their transcendent legacy completes Zorn's second trilogy of CDs with a beautiful and intricate suite of music dedicated to one of the 20th century's greatest literary visionaries--Samuel Beckett. Performing this gorgeous book of music with a soulful sensitivity, these three master musicians weave musical magic in this stunning collection of acoustic guitar music. Zorn's most intimate and ethereal ensemble at its very best! (syndetics)
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Astrud Gilberto
After making her professional debut as the cool, breathy voice behind the historic 1964 crossover smash The Girl from Ipanema, Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto became a major force in popularizing the bossa nova sound. Her understated yet magnetic delivery is spotlighted in this collection, showcasing her instantly recognizable approach to songs. (syndetics)
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Off the Wall
First released in 1979 the album introduced the world to the adult Michael Jackson. The album also showcases some of his most soulful material. (syndetics)
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Mixing up the Medicine: A Retrospective
A new career-spanning compilation containing twelve of Bob Dylan's greatest songs, including "Knocking On Heaven's Door;" "Like A Rolling Stone;" and "Hurricane." It serves as the companion piece to the Mixing Up The Medicine book, which offers an unprecedented look into the Bob Dylan Archive. This magnum opus will include nearly 1,000 images, most of which have never been seen by the public, alongside original essays by prominent writers and artists. (syndetics)
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I Don't Want You Anymore
It's been four years since Cherry Glazerr released their resplendent third album Stuffed and Ready, but Clementine Creevy has been in no rush. Cherry Glazerr has been on the road more often than not since Creevy was still in high school, and when the pandemic hit, she immersed herself in a static existence she'd been deprived of. Creevy describes Cherry Glazerr's ambitious new album as some of her most personal, raw music to date, a collection of songs that elaborate on this period of self-reckoning. It's the first she's produced since Cherry Glazerr's garage rock debut, Haxel Princess, released nearly a decade ago when Creevy was a teenager. Creevy describes it as a "mature" album, more so in reference to her personal growth than a reflection of the record, which in true Cherry Glazerr fashion is best described as Extremely Fun. (syndetics)
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