Album Review: Lecrae- Church Clothes 3

“I’m hearing screams and they saying we sold out, but I’m hearing screams from the stands ‘cause we souled out.”- Lecrae, “It Is What It Is”

Even in the insular world of Christian music, you’re nobody until you’ve attracted a congregation of haters.  Lecrae sold out a 5,800-capacity arena in his most recent appearance in the Kansas City area.  He addresses his unusual status as an explicitly Christian artist who keeps one foot planted on secular turf on “It Is What It Is,” one of many impressive tracks on his new mixtape Church Clothes 3. 

While much of his early work is corny, Lecrae has become one of hip-hop’s most vital artists during an implausible era in which the world’s most acclaimed rapper explicitly examines his Christian faith in his songs.  Like Kendrick Lamar, Lecrae is troubled by the contradictions that confront him.  A 16-minute promotional video for Church Clothes 3 includes a few of the mixtape's most conflicted moments.

When American churches scuff they Toms on our brother's dead bodies as they march to stop gay marriage... We had issues with Planned Parenthood too, we just cared about black lives outside the wombs just as much as in. -Propaganda, on Lecrae’s “Gangland”


---
I reviewed Bach Aria Soloists’ The Adventures of Don Quixote concert for The Kansas City Star.

---
I reviewed a concert by Lamb of God, Anthrax, Deafheaven and Power Trip for The Kansas City Star.

---
I write weekly music previews for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

---
I featured Organized Crimes’ excellent “Bel Ray Flats” on KCUR’s Local Listen last week.

---
I reviewed a Bukeka Shoals concert at Plastic Sax.

---
The Kansas City rapper James Christos has altered his approach.  He recently released Conception as James D. Conqueror.  RIYL: Mos Def, makeovers, A Tribe Called Quest.

---
My Rockfest headliner prediction was wrong.  I had expected Five Finger Death Punch, Megadeth or Volbeat to top the bill.  Instead, Disturbed is returning as the headliner.

---
Earth, Wind & Fire was second only to Stevie Wonder in sparking my interest in soul when I was a kid.  The brilliant Maurice White has died.

---
Dan Hicks has died.

---
While King’s creamy We Are King goes down easy, I’d rather listen to my old SWV, DeBarge and TLC albums.  Here’s ”The Greatest”.

---
I like Aoife O’Donovan’s In the Magic Hour when it evokes Astral Weeks and Bryter Layter.  Too much of the album, however, resembles safe coffeehouse fare.

---
I suspect that my affection for Savages’ Adore Life is rooted in nostalgia.  RIYL: Gang of Four, college rock radio circa 1987, Sonic Youth.

---
Tord Gustavsen freaks me out.  The EPK for the latest album by the vampire-like pianist is spooky.

---
Susan Tedeschi has surpassed her hero.  I’ve heard almost every Bonnie Raitt album.  None is better than the Tedeschi Trucks Band’s Let Me Get By.  The two TTB concerts I’ve attended have also impressed me more than any of four or five (post-1980) Raitt shows I’ve seen.

---
Dr. Lonnie Smith’s Evolution is shockingly vital.  RIYL: Jack McDuff, monster grooves, Shirley Scott.

---
“I’m Nick Saban in Alabama!”  Oh, Boosie.

---
The tracks on Regina Belle’s The Day Life Began sound as if they belong on separate albums.  I adore the gospel song (“He’s Alright”) and the sophisticated uptown jazz number (“A Night of Love”). 

---
I recently discovered the late vocalist Victoria de los Ángeles.  What is this sorcery?

---
Black Tusk’s Pillars of Ash is every bit as solid as headbangers say it is.  RIYL: pre-rap Beastie Boys, metallic sludge, Mastodon.

---
The first half of Rihanna’s Anti is embarrassingly awful.  The last several tracks are keepers.

---
I didn’t know that Winston Jarrett was still among us.  A new in-studio session for KEXP is impressive.

---
Technical death metal may be the most awful genre in music.  And I can't stop listening.  Obscura's Akróasis sounds like Lucifer fronting Return to Forever.  Here’s the title track.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Ghost Stories

Partly because I’m not a 17-year-old Twitter fiend, the most recent spat between Ghostface Killah and Action Bronson doesn’t excite me.  Yet as someone who purchased the first Wu-Tang Clan album as a new release in 1993, I’m extremely interested in Ghost’s ongoing vitality.  The longtime favorite of There Stands the Glass has released two of the best albums of 2015.  The jazz-based Sour Soul and the R&B-oriented Twelve Reasons to Die II feature Ghost’s masterful flow and hilariously imaginative lyrics set to riveting music. 


---
I reviewed Phish’s concert at Starlight Theatre.

---
I contributed a Local Listen segment about A.J. Gaither to KCUR.

---
I write about my final visit to Take Five Coffee + Bar in Overland Park at Plastic Sax.  The August 15 closure leaves the Kansas City area with a single jazz venue that charges cover on weekends.

---
Billy Sherrill has died.

---
Sean Price has died.

---
Black Cat, the new album from Joplin's Never Shout Never, sounds like the year's best Taylor Swift album.

---
The high quality of Wilco’s Star Wars caught me by surprise.  RIYL: Lou Reed, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Guided By Voices.

---
I listened to the Chemical Brothers’ Born in the Echoes the morning after spending the previous evening at a Phish concert.  Both ensembles make whimsical psychedelic party music.  The distinctions between the British duo and the Vermont noodlers are marginal.

---
Lamb of God’s Sturm Und Drang is a by-the-numbers metal album.  Works for me: I like counting.  RIYL: amazing back stories, Pantera, graying metal bands.

---
Wayne Horvitz’s Some Places Are Forever Afternoon is RIYL: Gil Evans, third stream, Anthony Davis.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Ray Price, 1926-2013

Now blue ain't the word for the way that I feel…

I had a rocky relationship with my dad.  The outlaw country of Waylon, Willie, Kris and Bocephus was one of the few things we could agree on.   My dad also kept a more conventional hits collection by Ray Price in regular rotation.  I've continued to love those songs in the two decades since my dad died.  I saw Price for the first time at Knuckleheads in 2007.  Although I was "working," I shed simultaneous tears of joy and grief during much of the legend's vital concert.  Here's a representative performance.  Price died earlier this week.

---
I reviewed concerts by Steel Panther and Stone Temple Pilots.

---
I played music by Terri Lyne Carrington, Bobby Rush, Brandy Clark, Frank Wess and Stik Figa on KCUR's Up To Date yesterday.

---
Guitarist Dave Higgs, a founding member of Eddie and the Hot Rods, has died.  (Tip via Big Steve.)

---
My favorite tracks on the The 12 Days of Christmas (and Voting) compilation are by the Doo-Dads and Making Movies.

---
Because the Internet is the first Childish Gambino recording that speaks to me.  RIYL: emo rap, sad guys, Kid Cudi.

---
I can't stop thinking about last month's spectacular Kanye West concert.  An intriguing detail- ambient music including Burial's "U.K." provided the low-key soundtrack to the construction of the imposing mountain that served as West's backdrop.

---
There will always be a place in my life for albums like Scott Hamilton's Swedish Ballads… and More. RIYL: Ben Webster, moldy figs, Coleman Hawkins.

---
"As the Palaces Burn", the new documentary about Lamb of God, looks great.

---
Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)