Oddisee - Alwasta [2016]

It's always nice to see people like Oddisee, a great rapper, producer and a fantastic live performer, drop a free EP out of nowhere. Oddisee has been releasing nothing but quality for a while, with his most recent projects, Tangible Dream and The Good Fight, being very enjoyable. Those records featured a noticeable improvement from him in the rapping department, with Odd growing even more in synch with his production while being more adventurous with his flow and rhyming with well written and thoughtful lyrics. On this EP, we find Oddisse continuing this trend, delivering intelligent, well crafted rhymes over lush production that features tastefully used live instrumentation provided by his backing band, which is comprised of Ralph Real (keyboards and vocals), Dennis Turner (bass), Jon Laine (drums) and Oliver Saint Louis (guitar).

Esperanza Spalding - Emily's D+Evolution [2016]

Published on Pretty Much Amazing

This is an album of firsts for Esperanza Spalding. Emily’s D+Evolution is her first album of almost all original compositions (the only cover here is “I Want It Now”, from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) and her first album on which she has embraced a heavier, often guitar based sound. As a result, despite her past forays into classically influenced territory (Chamber Music Society) and mixes of jazz and soul elements with a pop sensibility (Radio Music Society), this is arguably her first album that runs a serious risk of alienating some of her fan base. I could be wrong (what do I know really?), but with the singles of her last (and highest selling) album being the pop-soul of “Black Gold” and a cover of a Michael Jackson classic (“I Can't Help It”) it is pretty easy to see how someone who hasn't paid that much attention to her artistic evolution since 2012 (the singles from D+Evolution are not chart topping hits, after all) could find this album, opening with some dark keys that lead into some heavy guitar playing that has more in common with a Cream record than her past efforts, more than a bit surprising.