(Continued from part one)
(and from part two)
Most welcome surprise
I gave Esperanza Spalding some out-of-my-genre listens back in 2010. It turned out that I admired her Grammy-winning jazz on Chamber Music Society, where she was already starting to fold in gentle pop, classical, and world music influences — but I never got around to liking it. This year, Emily’s D+Evolution became my favorite album by anyone since 2012.
Spalding’s newer influences — Jimi Hendrix, funk, high-energy Latin musics, hip-hop, even high-speed a-cappella — grabbed my attention in a much more direct way, making it easier for me stick around and love the gorgeousness of her jazz chanteusery. The lyrics, not in the grand Grammy tradition, turned out to be smart and intriguing whether about love and lust, race and self-assertion, or the mythologies and missing toys and erratically-kept promises from which we build children into people.
Plus she ended with a Veruca Salt cover. I’d be delighted if I meant the alternative-rock band; they’ve made some great songs. But I’m as happy to mean, no, Veruca the little girl. Wonka had quite the year, come to think.
Biggest disappointment
Psalm Zero, Stranger to Violence. Charlie Looker's previous band, Extra Life, were an amazing blend of heavy, theatrical music with Charlie’s ancient madrigal singing style. Now he sings some like some generic alt-rock singer, and his new band is heavy in an efficiently harsh way. Boring.
Best video