A Reader staffer shares three musical obsessions, then asks someone (who asks someone else) to take a turn.
Low, Double Negative This venerable Minnesota slowcore trio, anchored by Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, has been inching from rock instrumentation toward electronic textures for a couple albums now. The new Double Negative abandons that gradualism for a breathtaking leap. Almost every sound—sometimes even Sparhawk and Parker’s lovely vocal harmonies—is processed, distorted, or degraded. It’s as though Low has blasted its bleakly beautiful, devastatingly restrained songs into atoms, and now it’s those atoms we hear, doing their buzzing, pulsing dance.
Meshell Ndegeocello, Ventriloquism In April, Ndegeocello released this album of R&B covers from the 80s and 90s, making them her own through delicate yet powerful reinterpretation and rearrangement. She adds a great deal of depth and nuance to songs that might’ve otherwise been doomed to formulaic digestibility (one of many great examples is her take on TLC’s “Waterfalls”). Additionally, proceeds from the album benefit the ACLU.
Accueille le Diable [EP] by Catacombes
