Cécile McLorin Salvant - For One To Love [2015]

Cécile McLorin Salvant, who is accompanied by the extremely talented trio of Aaron Diehl (piano), Paul Skivie (bass) and Lawrence Leathers (drums) is one of the most exciting vocalists in jazz today. Her past two albums were quality, a particular highlight being an original tune named "WomanChild". "WomanChild" is a wonderfully written tune that may have had more than a decent chance of being a jazz standard if it was released back when jazz was a big part of mainstream music culture. Salvant is one of the key young jazz performers right now, equipped with an extremely expressive voice that has a great range. This range is one of the key aspects of her singing style, which occasionally features her using starkly distinct tones to convey various (and at times, conflicting) emotions in the same track. Salvant's voice is equally as captivating when it is singing playfully ("Stepsister's Lament") as when it is bellowing powerfully ("Growlin' Dan") and For One to Love may be her best release yet.

Moka Only - Magickal Weirdness [2015]

Moka Only is a quality emcee with great wordplay and nice multi-syllable rhymes, but above all, his flow on Magickal Weirdness is extremely on point. A user on Okayplayer forums compared the rapper to Common circa Resurrection - and one can really hear that in the flow. Moka's music mostly gives off the playful and jazzy vibe that was present in the much of that Common classic.

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly [2015]

The Dissection of A Butterfly

It's February 22, 2016. It has been almost a year since To Pimp A Butterfly, noticeably a week before its actual release date, awkwardly found its way on to iTunes. Considering all the critical acclaim that this album has received, it is a bit easy to forget - and as a result a bit funny to remember, that its early release was publicly described as an Interscope "fuck up", by an irritated Anthony Tiffith (CEO, Top Dawg Entertainment), on the same day where it would eventually break Spotify streaming records. Since that day, an endless amount of think pieces, positive and negative reviews via online mags and forum posts (don't let metacritic fool you - this album is quite divisive among hip hop fans) and some poorly written backlash ("hip hop and jazz, what? this is a thing that happens?" - Complex) have been penned about this album. Many of these pieces were written extremely fast, some even just days after the album was released - such is the climate of modern day music journalism and blogging.

David Bowie - Blackstar [2016]

For those who processed the record directly before or after his death, it will be impossible to separate Bowie’s death from the analysis of Blackstar. One could argue that it’s nearly impossible to find a similar situation in music history. That situation would have to have the following five key factors:

(1) The artist is aware that he will probably die soon and decides to record an album 

(2) The album produced contains songs that musically have a dark and foreboding atmosphere 

(3) There are blatant references to death and mortality, lyrically and visually throughout the project (the "Lazarus" video speaks for itself)

(4) The public did not know that the artist had the illness which caused his death.

It is sadly appropriate that Bowie, a one of a kind artist, would exit this earth artistically in such unique circumstances. To dedicate your life to art is one thing, but to use the possibility of your death as something that fuels your art is something else entirely.

David Bowie - Low [1977]

Low is arguably Bowie’s greatest and most daring achievement. The Thin White Duke had just dropped Station to Station in 76’, which is, in comparison to this record, an amazing, but relatively straightforward, rock masterpiece. Take out the epic krautrock title track are what exactly is the listener left with on Station to Station? The remaining album is something that comes off as very American, despite the fact that Bowie himself is English. To be fair, this isn’t exactly the biggest surprise as it was recorded in Los Angeles, with a band that was majority American. Of the five songs not named “Station to Station”, two of them in particular are clearly groovy and more importantly, a bit soulful. “Stay” and “Golden Years” sport rhythms that make the fact that Bowie, an English rock star, was the first white man on Soul Train (despite his awkward Soul Train performance) significantly less surprising. Overall, the title track aside, Station to Station was a very warm, and arguably, American record, which is what makes the entire aesthetic of Low all the more surprising and intriguing, even when analyzing it decades after the fact.