Illegal Foreign Object

Pro Wrestling legend Jake “The Snake” Roberts once answered a question about his brilliant mic skills by saying that he figured that if all the other wrestlers were yelling, he’d slow his speech and almost whisper, forcing the fans to quiet themselves and pay attention to hear him. The following list is filled with artists who are/were willing to light an extra-long fuse.

Tim DeLaughter was always able to churn out catchy, memorable pop rock songs (until he wasn’t). When the songs stopped coming to him, he figured his time as a recording artist was mostly done. Years passed, the pandemic hit, and the songs returned. Salvage Enterprise is a beautiful record — a light hanging off the bow of a ship that’s slowly working it’s way across treacherous seas.

Required listening: “Section 44 (Galloping Seas)”, “Section 46 (Give Me Everything)”, “Section 48 (Shadows On The Hillside)”

At the suggestion of Mike Watt, I read Charles Plymell’s The Last of the Moccasins when I was 17. I was thrilled when I learned that Watt teamed up with Petra Haden to put the writer’s poetry about the horrors of the ’86 Chernobyl disaster to music. Planet Chernobyl is an unsettling, oddly beautiful listen.

Required listening: “Planet Chernobyl, Pt.1”, “Planet Chernobyl, Pt. 2”

Brooklyn’s John Roseboro’s hushed croon dances perfectly atop gentle bossa nova guitar strumming that is as relaxing as it is invigorating.

Required listening: “I Took The L”, “Topo Chico”, “Coke”

Sufjan Stevens is as consistent as it gets in the music world. I’ve been listening to his work for two decades, and I’ve yet to hear an album that didn’t touch my heart. His breathy croon remains instantly accessible.

Required listening: “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?”, “A Running Start”, “So You Are Tired”

Standing on the shoulders of the mighty Dorothy Ashby, Brandee Younger and her heart-touching harp glide through 10 tracks that span soul, hip-hop, jazz, and reggae.

Required listening: “You’re A Girl For One Man Only”, “Brand New Life”, “Livin’ And Lovin’ In My Own Way”

Impossibly soulful jazz infused with hip-hop. The results are one of the smoothest, most lyrically introspective albums of the year.

Required listening: “Bad Company”, “From A Lover”, “Pieces”

I barely remember a time when Yo La Tengo wasn’t part of my life. What awful times those must have been. This Stupid World is chockfull of dissonant guitar squalling, haunting synths, and Georgia Hubley’s winds-coming-over-the-hills vocals — basically everything I love about the band.

Required listening: “Fallout”, “Aselestine”, “Miles Away”

Thandii’s A Beat To Make It Better is R&B-adjacent trip-hop, a la Portishead or The Cardigans, that’s filled to the brim with tasty basslines, beats, blips, beeps, and Jess Berry’s beautiful Nina Persson-esque vocals. 

Required listening: “The End Of The World”, “Give Me A Smile”, “Trust Issues”

Noname’s neo-soul boom-bap (with a twist) is but the canvas over which she paints an elocutionary masterpiece. Lots of artists say lots of shit — Noname actually says something worth hearing, pointing a critical finger at the war machine, colonialism, celebrity, how we’re all to blame (her included).

Required listening: “black mirror”, “namesake”, “gospel?”, “oblivion”

Tapioca is the result of a shared love of multi-culture creation between Belgian and Brazilian duo Alessandro “Le Tagarel” Vlerick and Simon “SiKa” Carlier. Samba Em Kigali is a groovy, relaxed collection of ’70s funk style, electronic meanderings, infectious beats, and velvety vocals.

Required listening: “Lagoas de Ruanda”, “África Brasil”, “Iemanjá”

The result of his father’s love for salsa and mother’s love of Argentinian rock, Oblivion’s Mighty Trash seamlessly combines multiple musical avenues to create an album packed full of instantly-accessible hip-hop a la the best of The Pharcyde.

Required listening: “No Me Acuerdo”, “R4PSTAR”, “NO SIGNAL”, “pausa pa fumar”

Lana Del Rey’s voice is a jazzy, weightless dream. On DYKTTATUOB, she is laid bare once again, her open, brutally frank songwriting the highlight of an album that addresses love, family, kindness, and replacing childish things with wisdom.

Required listening: “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd”, “A&W”, “Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father while he’s deep‐sea fishing”

Jaimie Branch packed a ton of collaboration into her 39 years, (almost) completing four albums (three studio and one live) as a bandleader and guesting on another fourteen before passing from an accidental overdose in August 2022. Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)), Branch’s posthumously released fourth album is a swirl of Latin and Caribbean rhythms, free-jazz explosions, folk-rock, psychedelia, and improvisational lyrical outbursts. After her death, bandmates and family members completed the project by poring over Branch’s notes for the final mixes and track titles.

Required listening: “burning grey”, “borealis dancing”, “take over the world”

That’s it for today! Check back tomorrow for a few earthshakers and soulquakers!