Album of the week

I honestly don't believe anyone's actually going to stay up until 6 AM waiting, but since he hasn't made a move yet, maybe things will shift by then. 🙂

As for those late-night sessions, I guess it’s both a blessing and a curse for me. I pick my own projects, so when I overcommit, suddenly my workday stretches way past any reasonable hour. July is especially brutal like that.

Miami - let's make it shine! 👋 Lisa Davis46, whenever you can find a spare minute—you know how it goes 😉

I’m telling you, there are so many killer album suggestions getting overlooked. On one hand, it sucks... but on the other hand, it just means we can listen to them and review them in different threads instead, or suggest them during other weeks 😁 Especially when someone drops a recommendation for something totally obscure that sounds awesome from the very first listen.

I ended up just signing off and slept right through the voting. Honestly, maybe it’s for the best since I still haven't figured out who I'd actually vote for today anyway. Regardless, I'm listening to both albums, and once I'm down in Miami, I'll drop a review when I get a chance.

Here's another shot of rain falling in New Orleans. Just to stir the pot a little... 🙂


Children playing in the rain on the streets of New Orleans, Cuba
Smithsonian

And a bit more recent, though maybe not quite as idyllic.

To place, Cuba, just looks depressing and post-apocalyptic to me; I don't see anything remotely romantic or appealing about it. Plus, you've got that stifling, oppressive heat because it's sitting right there in the tropics.

Definitely not my cup of tea.

Looking at this lineup, it was pretty obvious that Miami would be the heavy favorite, given how much everyone loved them back in the day.
I honestly thought Metallica might give them a run for their money, but that just didn't happen.

e, I guess the whole point is that some people don't even get a choice. They might spend their entire lives stuck
(in Cuba, or somewhere else down in South America), yet somehow they still manage to find beauty in all of it.

Personally, I’ve never been much for the tropics...
I think I’d much rather be in Scandinavia or somewhere like the Netherlands.

So, I was lucky enough to spend some time in New Orleans way back when—back when I was just a kid with zero inheritance to my name 😁—and looking through my old notes, the vibes range from "total chaos" to "absolutely breathtaking."
It’s funny how when you're a child, you get this sense of total freedom there—like everyone is just living life barefoot and unbothered—but coming back as an adult and seeing how people actually live... well, honestly, from my childhood trip, I mostly just remember the warmth and those smiling faces, especially the kids.
It's not exactly a place I'd fly to on a whim today, but it's definitely a goldmine for artists. I can totally see a poet or a musician finding their groove in a bohemian lifestyle there.

Maybe BVSC will serve as a nice little reminder for me one day, but I think I'll wait for a brighter, more laid-back day to revisit it.

Exactly. It’s got this bohemian vibe, almost like something straight out of the 1930s—there's just something undeniably magnetic about those simpler eras and the way life used to move before everything got so frantic. Whenever I think about that specific kind of bohemian aesthetic, my mind immediately jumps to the music video for "Absolute Beginners" by David Bowie; to me, that perfectly captures the whole mood.

It’s funny, though, how much your perspective shifts as you grow up. When you're a kid, you experience these moments through a completely different lens; back then, you’d just soak up those simple, unhurried times without a second thought, truly enjoying the lack of complexity.

Anyway, I'm done rambling. I'm just sitting here waiting for the topic of the week's album to drop. 👍

@Ashley Grant66/">@@Ashley Grant66, really beautiful shot. Especially that sense of freedom and those warm, smiling faces (though it’s pretty obvious you can’t hide the other side—the poverty and the struggle).

The topic is coming soon, I'm trying to keep it brief. 🙂 Not working out.

Here’s a little suggestion for some cloudy warming...

David Lynch - Joker time (2011)

I’m going to throw one of our own albums out there. It feels just as relevant today as it did twenty-three years ago.

TBF - Ping Pong (The Art of a Healthy Groove)

So, following Tom's lead, here’s a quick one-minute techno-meditation suggested by Maher Shalaby:

Klaus Schulz - Are you Sequenced? (1996)

Tool - Fear Inoculum (2019)



The title track

I’m throwing out a recommendation for some electronic jazz fusion. Check out Moses Boyd - Dark Matter (2020).

I’m putting forward Thompson - wind from the Rockies (1998)



TRACKLIST:

1. Stop, Wind
2. Beautiful friends
3. How beautiful you are
4. Hey, come on, our songs
5. Good morning
6. Black nights, white roads - remix
7. Drink soul why be
8. Why did you set your sights on me
9. I left you, darling
10. To crack the shot

We’ve got until tomorrow at 11:11.

It’s basically just one massive win after another (mostly). 😁

Voting's done. Honestly, felt more like a formality than an actual election.😁

Kudos to Jessica Morris6 once again—she really has a knack for spotting top-tier ethno-jazz. She’s claiming Thompson's tracks are actually better than those Tibetan jazz-funk monks, Tinariwen. Total rock perfection, if you ask me. Now all us American disco heads—STAY AWAY! STAY AWAY! STAY AWAY! 🙏 This is gonna be our week, I can just feel it.🙂

Oh, please.
We’ve already been over this—if Dennis Hall41 shows up, that album isn't going down the drain.

Anyway, I'm glad you decided to jump back into the Album of the Week thing.
The last one actually had some decent debate, though I guess we'll see what comes next. 😁

You've still got some luck left, though I honestly doubt it—Americans have always just known how to spot quality rock.