Album Review: Blood Orange- Negro Swan

I once thought Blood Orange was exceedingly overrated.  The music made by the lionized auteur Devonté Hynes finally catches up to the breathless hype on Negro Swan, one of the most engaging alternative R&B albums to be released in the wake of Frank Ocean’s game-changing 2012 masterpiece Channel Orange.  Negro Swan’s glossiest songs could be psychedelic remixes of George Michael’s biggest hits while less structured tracks sound like spontaneous late-night D’Angelo jams.  The spoken word interludes about sexual politics and gender identity don’t address concerns of immediate interest to me, but the passages provide effective transitions between the stylistically disparate selections.  Here’s “Jewelry” and “Saint”.


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I reviewed Billy Joel’s concert at Kauffman Stadium for The Kansas City Star.

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I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star.

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I slam everything in an irritable Plastic Sax post.

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Chas Hodges of Chas and Dave has died.  (Tip via BGO.)

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Good Lord!  The deep 1980s funk on the Dur-Dur Band compilation Volume 1, Volume 2 & Previously Unreleased Tracks saved my soul the other day.  Not even the atrocious sound quality spoils my appreciation of the uplifting music that seems to be based equally on the (Jamaican) Wailers and indigenous African styles.  (Tip via Big Steve.)

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The Near East Quartet achieve one of the rarest feats in jazz with “Jinyang”: the creation a compelling music video.  The South Korean group’s ECM debut is imbued with similarly originality.

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“The Gypsy Faerie Queen”, a new song by Marianne Faithfull and Nick Cave that “exists in the twilight in-between,” is almost more than I can bear. 

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Mandy Barnett’s Strange Conversation has a few nice moments.  RIYL: Patsy Cline, near misses, K.D. Lang.

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I expected to like Anthony Roth Costanzo’s Arc.  I was mistaken.  RIYL: Philip Glass, countertenors, George Frideric Handel.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)