NEW MUSIC
Valerie June, “The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers”: At the heart of Valerie June’s fifth album, there’s a 25-second track called “African Proverb,” that’s read by Carla Thomas, the Memphis soul singer that June has called
“the fairy godmother of the record.”
The saying goes: “Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet.” It’s a sly reference to Thomas’ 1963 hit “What a Fool I’ve Been,” and also a lead in to “Call Me a Fool,” the luxurious, oldschool soul song that features Thomas and is “The Moon and Stars’” first single.
The proverb advises caution. But “Call Me a Fool” endorses an opposite point of view. It’s a love song about letting go, taking chances, dreaming big. Call June a fool if you like. It’s not her style to dip a toe. She’s diving in.
June plays both banjo and guitar, and has always stood out in the American roots music world as an artist who blends genres to her own end.
What’s so impressive about “The Moon and Stars” is it expands that vision
Aunique.
On the contrary, June sounds more herself than ever, whether being pushed forward by a martial drumbeat and swelling strings on “Stay” or experimenting with Fela Kuti polyrhythms or simply accompanying herself on banjo. The meditative “Moon and Stars” was recorded pre-pandemic, but the music soothes as if designed for stressful times.
— Dan Deluca Wild Pink, “A Billion Little Lights”: “A Billion Little Lights,” the third album from Wild Pink, feels like a breakthrough. Leader John Ross relocated from New York City to the Hudson Valley, and these songs often find him looking back and moving on, content with a more bucolic natural environment
Ain collaboration with producer Jack Splash, who’s worked with mainstream acts like John Legend and Alicia Keys, without losing sight of what makes June’s spiritually entrancing music full of dogwood and forsythia, starry skies, and honeybees.
Ross sings in a quiet, tentative tenor, but the music is expansive and confident. Like Philly’s The War on Drugs, he layers guitars and keyboards so that they often blend in the foreground, blurring the lines between synth pop and Americana guitar rock.
While Ross played most of the core instruments, fiddle player Sarah Williams Larsen, singer Julia Steiner (of Chicago’s Ratboys), and, especially, lap steel player Mike “Slo-mo” Brenner have key roles.
Philly’s Brenner can elevate any band he contributes to - witness his work with Marah and John Train. He started touring with Wild Pink after 2018’s “Yolk in the Fur,” and his sweeping guitar lines are often highlights. They provide the hook in “Oversharers Anonymous,” create a rootsy foundation from the start of “Pacific City,” and weave through the lovely coda of “Bigger Than Christmas.”
— Steve Klinge
The Melvins “Working With God”: One of Wikipedia’s best features is the color-coded timelines tracing the changing memberships of bands with particularly long and/or convoluted histories.
The version gracing the Melvins’ page is topped by a solid line for founder and frontman King Buzzo, with an almost equally unbroken streak near the bottom for drummer Dale Crover. In between things get a little more complicated, given that their lineup has not only changed constantly but at times existed in multiple incarnations at once.
Their 24th album, “Working With God,” featuring the “Melvins 1983” lineup - a reference to the presence of founding drummer Mike Dillard. Evoking the year of the band’s founding could equally indicate the spirit of this trio, which unites brute-force riffs with sneering, juvenile humor. Witness, for instance, the f-bomb laden rewrite of the Beach Boys’ “I Get Around” and the cover of Harry Nilsson’s (almost) equally profane “You’re Breakin’ My Heart.”
— Shaun Brady
A