Adrian Spinelli January 28, 2021Updated: January 29, 2021, 7:41 am
British singer and songwriter Arlo Parks at the Japanese Garden at Hammersmith Park in London. Parks makes music that captures modern-day misery in a way that feels improbably heartening. Photo: Kalpesh Lathigra, New York Times
The Chronicle’s guide to notable new music.
NEW ALBUMS
Arlo Parks, “Collapsed in Sunbeams” (Transgressive)
The West London singer-songwriter is a one-of-a-kind emerging talent with a distinct ability to earnestly capture the prevalent emotions of a generation. Parks is a poet at heart, and her songs all begin as poems before unfurling into beautiful songs. She captures young people’s often awkward and increasingly depressive states with universally impactful lyrics like “It’s so cruel what the mind can do for no reason” (on “Black Dog”), and “Some of these folks wanna make you cry/ But you gotta trust how you feel inside” (on “Green Eyes”). Even with
Adrian Spinelli January 14, 2021Updated: January 14, 2021, 10:55 pm
Buck Meek plays with Big Thief in Copenhagen in March. Photo: Peter Troest, PYMCA / Avalon / Universal Images Group 2020
The Chronicle’s guide to notable new music.
NEW ALBUMS
Buck Meek, “Two Saviors” (Keeled Scales)
While Adrianne Lenker is the primary creative force behind the superb Brooklyn indie band Big Thief, guitarist Buck Meek is a likewise stellar talent. Meek’s second LP arrives at a time when we could surely use the comforting salve of his splendid folk songs in an already tumultuous start to 2021.
Recorded in a Victorian house along the Mississippi River in New Orleans, Meek’s sweet vocals are tender and amiable throughout the album, and you can almost see his coy smile while listening to songs like the pedal-steel-driven “Candle” and hear the charming Southern twang in his voice on “Cannonball Pt. 2.”
Adrian Spinelli January 7, 2021Updated: February 11, 2021, 5:03 pm
Aaron Frazer’s album, “Introducing…” Photo: Dead Oceans / Easy Eye Sound, Dead Oceans/Easy Eye Sound
The Chronicle’s guide to notable new music.
NEW ALBUMS
Aaron Frazer, “Introducing…” (Dead Oceans/Easy Eye Sound)
Some may know this Baltimore-bred musician as the co-lead vocalist and drummer of classy soul throwbacks Durand Jones & the Indications. Now on his debut solo album, produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys and recorded at Auerbach’s Nashville studio, the singer exudes a couth 1950s aesthetic, touching on doo-wop while also pulling from ’60s soul, ’70s gospel and early disco. The arrangement featuring flute, Rhodes piano and bass, alongside Frazer’s falsetto, on “Bad News” sounds instantly vintage, and the breakneck rhythm of “Over You” has a contemporary love song palette. Frazer has always stood out as a humble force with the Indications, but now the spo
Adrian Spinelli December 24, 2020Updated: January 2, 2021, 2:50 pm
Thao Nguyen of Thao & the Get Down Stay Down performs during the 2018 Noise Pop Festival at the Fox Theater in Oakland. Photo: Tim Mosenfelder, Getty Images
The Chronicle’s guide to notable new albums from the year.
Rock
Thao & the Get Down Stay Down, “Temple” (Ribbon Music)
In 2016, the already distinguished career of Thao Nguyen took an incredible turn on the album “A Man Alive.” The Oakland indie folk singer-songwriter had turned within to confront the role that her absentee father played in shaping her pain and existence, in music that was both vulnerable and fantastic. Now on “Temple,” Nguyen digs deeper into her own identity as a queer Vietnamese American woman, and how going to Vietnam for the first time in 2015 (with her mother who hadn’t been back in 43 years since fleeing the war-torn country) helped her find herself.
Adrian Spinelli December 17, 2020Updated: December 17, 2020, 6:32 pm
Seu Jorge performs onstage during the 2019 Cruilla Festival at Parc del Forum in Barcelona. Photo: Jordi Vidal, Getty Images
This week’s “Listen” column looks back at this year’s best music. Check in next week for The Chronicle’s best Bay Area albums of 2020.
Seu Jorge & Rogé, “Night Dreamer Direct-to-Disc Sessions” (Night Dreamer)
After growing up in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, Seu Jorge rose to prominence with roles in the films “City of God” and “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou” (notably releasing an album of David Bowie covers in Portuguese for the latter.) Now he and fellow Rio native Rogé live in Los Angeles and have captured the beauty and essence of being Brazilian on this seven-track EP that leaves a lasting mark.