Thank you for requesting a personalized playlist! Based on your musical preferences, here is a selection of titles you might enjoy. All of the albums listed are available for checkout from the library’s collection.

**

Killdozer.
Intellectuals Are The Shoeshine Boys Of The Ruling Elite.
Touch And Go.
1989.

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“So very perfectly American: a title that could have come from one of Frank Zappa’s albums, a cover photo with references to Elvis and Brainerd, MN, and a concluding remake of a Creedence Clearwater Revival song, “Run Through the Jungle.” Combined with slabs of noisy feedback twisted through country-blues hell and produced — in one of his first major jobs — by Butch Vig, Intellectuals Are the Shoeshine Boys was a gut- and eardrum-busting debut. If the Hobson brothers never became as famous as the Kirkwoods from the Meat Puppets, they and Gerald, master of the contemptuous bark and drawl, carved out their own mark in ’80s independent rock. The Captain Beefheart-by-way-of-the Birthday Party roots of the band were perfectly obvious, but in light of where the trio went, the aesthetic — if that’s the right word — got established early on, then was perfected.” – allmsuic.com

Keywords: Noise, Punk

**

David Sylvian.
Brilliant Trees.
Virgin.
1984.

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“For an album of only seven tracks, Brilliant Trees is an eclectic affair fusing funk, jazz, and ambient. Its best pieces are the moody jazz of “Red Guitar,” the dusky atmosphere of “Weathered Wall,” and “Brilliant Trees” itself, both of which feature the woozy trumpet of Eno collaborator and fourth-world pioneer Jon Hassell. The record also showcases guest players like Holger Czukay (Can).” – allmusic.com

Keywords: Psychedelic, Electronic Music

**

Various Artists.
Minimal Wave Tapes Vol. 1.
Stones Throw.
2010.

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“Dedicated to unearthing obscure wallflower synth pop, Veronica Vasicka’s Minimal Wave label began in 2005 and left an instant impression. Its first release was a 12″ featuring four songs pulled from a cassette-only (200 copies) 1982 release by an English duo called Oppenheimer Analysis. By 2008, OA had not only re-formed and performed in a handful of countries, but had one of their reissued tracks, the gorgeous “Devil’s Dancers,” licensed for Clone’s Classic Cuts series. Another thing that happened in 2008: Peanut Butter Wolf fell for the label and subsequently went about compiling this disc, issued on his Stones Throw label, with Vasicka.” – allmusic.com

Keywords: Electronic Music, Punk, Noise

**

Nina Hagen.
Fearless.
Koch.
1983.

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“Born in East Germany, Nina Hagen had already gained a reputation as a flamboyant rock singer by the time she emigrated to the West in 1976, where she formed a band, signed to CBS Germany, and released the debut album Nina Hagen Band in 1978. It was followed in 1980 by Unbehagen. Hagen’s first U.S. release, Nina Hagen Band EP (1980), was a four-song EP consisting of songs drawn from her two German releases. She moved to New York and made her first English-language LP, Nunsexmonkrock, in 1982. That and its follow-up, the Giorgio Moroder-produced Fearless (1983), charted briefly, and “New York New York” was a Top Ten dance club hit.” – allmusic.com

Keywords: Gothic, Punk, Alternative

**

The Wedding Present.
Hit Parade 1.
Manifesto.
1992.

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“The Wedding Present have been unanimously despised by the British music press following a brief honeymoon period in the mid-’80s. When they announced their desire to issue a single a month for a whole year, one particularly caustic Melody Maker journalist pointed out that she now had two low spots in her monthly cycle to endure. It must also be said that RCA were not too enamored of the projected release schedule when David Gedge first put his idea to them. For many, though — including discerning onlookers like long-standing friend and supporter John Peel — the Wedding Present’s single-a-month blitz in 1992 was one of the highlights of that year.” – allmusic.com

Keywords: Alternative, Folk

**

Various Artists.
Cambodian Cassette Archives.
Sublime Frequencies.
2004.

Find Cambodian Cassette Archives at your library

“Pol Pot’s horrific regime in Cambodia wreaked destruction in multiple directions, including irreparable damage to the country’s culture and musical heritage, as well as the loss of so many lives. It’s sadly appropriate, then, that this compilation of Cambodian pop music, spanning the 1960s through the 1990s, had to be pieced together from more than 150 cassettes (described as “ravaged” in the liner notes) found in the Asian branch of the Oakland, CA, public library. Though some of this was recorded in Cambodia before Pol Pot’s ascension, much of it was likely done from the 1970s onward by expatriates in the United States and other countries (the presence of synthesizers on some cuts makes it pretty certain that they don’t predate the ’70s). Here is one case where you really can excuse the lack of documentation in a historical archive release: artists are known for only two of the 20 tracks, and even more than half of the song titles are unknown. Despite the mystery surrounding who made this music where (and the inescapably subpar, erratic sound quality), it’s an interesting and, to an admittedly variable degree, fun anthology that captures different admixtures of Western pop/rock with more indigenous Cambodian influences.” – allmusic.com

Keywords: World Music, Folk

**

Sun Ra.
The Heliocentric Worlds Of Sun Ra.
Calibre.
2007.

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“The German Happy Bird label issued this pirate of Heliocentric Worlds, Vol. 1 (1965) during the mid-’80s when the majority of Sun Ra platters were not widely available. Surprisingly, one distinct disparity is the radically improved sound quality of Other Worlds (1983), allowing greater attention to the subtle detail in the overtones and interplay. These seven sides became the first of what many free and avant-garde jazz enthusiasts had heard from Ra. At the heart of his post-bop performances is the flexibility of the support from the Arkestra, whose percussive talents were equal only to their unquestionable abilities on other respective instruments.” – allmusic.com

Keywords: Jazz, Psychedelic

**

Lords Of The New Church.
Killer Lords.
IRS.
1993.

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“The Lords of the New Church took the punk/new wave types of sounds and combined them with heavy metal influences into a gothic-sounding but very accessible texture. The resulting music is showcased on this compilation disc, which includes tracks from the various LONC albums and some rarities. The group did plenty of cover cuts but made them all their own. In fact, in many cases, the covers really steal the show on this release; particularly “Dance With Me,” “Live for Today,” and the very funny and obnoxious take on Madonna’s “Like a Virgin”… this release is definitely a treat.” – allmusic.com

Keywords: Gothic, Punk

From Jacksonville Public Library:

The Jacksonville Public Library is proud to partner with MOCA Jacksonville on “ReFocus,” an exhibition series for 2012 focusing on three decades of contemporary art and its relevancy in the 21st century. This exhibition explores how the themes and techniques employed during those time periods continue to influence artists working today.

The series opens with “ReFocus: Art of the 1960s” from January 28 – April 8.  This exhibition delves into one of the seminal and radical periods of contemporary art. The arts—literature, art, dance, and theater—went through a fascinating period of growth and change during the 1960s. New, experimental art forms like pop art and happenings drew new public attention to artistic expression. Trends in the arts reflected both the turbulent social and political trends of the time and the influence of artists and writers of an earlier generation.

By the 1960s, America had been involved in some sort of military conflict for nearly three decades, and it affected how artists saw the world. The civil rights movement and the sexual revolution helped to expand participation in the arts, and these new participants brought fresh insights to the art they practiced.

Join MOCA Jacksonville as it explores major movements of the decade: Pop Art, Op Art, Performance Art, Minimalism, Color Field Painting, Hard-Edge and Post-Painterly Abstraction. Experience master works by artists that defined a generation: Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg.

Thank you for requesting a personalized playlist! Based on your musical preferences, here is a selection of titles you might enjoy. All of the albums listed are available for checkout from the library’s collection.

**

Various Artists.
Jazz vocalists hear & now.
Concord Jazz.
2006.

Find Jazz vocalists hear & now at your library

Jazz Vocalists: Hear and Now is a fine sampling of jazz and pop artists interpreting contemporary material on disc one and jazz standards on disc two. These previously released tracks include legendary vocalists like Little Jimmy Scott, Nancy Wilson, Abbey Lincoln, and Ernie Andrews along with current favorites Diana Krall, Kurt Elling, Kevin Mahogany, and Cassandra Wilson. Also making appearances are pop singers Joni Mitchell “Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me,” Linda Ronstadt “Cry Me a River,” and Norah Jones “Don’t Miss You at All.” — allmusic.com

Keywords: Jazz, Pop

**

Various Artists.
We all love Ella : celebrating the first lady of song.
Verve.
2007.

Find We all love Ella : celebrating the first lady of song at your library

Despite her name on the cover and her photos in the credits, Ella Fitzgerald’s shadow doesn’t loom over this tribute album, which is a good thing. A succession of female vocalists (plus Michael Bublé and Stevie Wonder) pay tribute to Fitzgerald with their own interpretations of her best-known standards. Despite the fact that few of the singers originated with jazz vocals (most started in R&B), they’re usually able to nod to Fitzgerald’s greatness but also impart a degree of wisdom themselves. Virtually all of them appear in front of the same band, and the consistency helps the collection from being too scattered. From Natalie Cole’s delighted “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” to young Nikki Yanofsky’s scatting “Airmail Special,” the vocalists each find something interesting to say. Highest points go to Dianne Reeves, whose “Oh, Lady Be Good” has the same sublime power as Fitzgerald’s, and Queen Latifah, who finds the proper amount of sass to inject into “The Lady Is a Tramp.” — allmusic.com

Keywords: Jazz, vocal

**

Art Ensemble of Chicago.
Urban bushmen.
ECM.
1982.

Find Urban bushmen at your library

Recorded at a 1980 concert in Munich, Urban Bushmen not only provides an excellent summation of the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s work since 1966, but also substantiates the group’s reputation for putting on intense and inspired shows. The album centers around three extended pieces: reed player Joseph Jarmen’s “Theme for SCO,” the group’s “Urban Magic,” and reed player Roscoe Mitchell’s “Uncle.” Over the course of these multi-part “suites,” the group effectively blurs the lines between jazz and free jazz, deftly working through New Orleans’ marches, turbulent hard bop, highlife/reggae rhythms, and minimalist sound sculptures; while Jarmen, Mitchell, and trumpeter Lester Bowie come up with consistently varied and surprising solo/tandem contributions, drummer Don Moye and bassist Malachi Favors expand the sound with an array of percussion effects and humorous interjections (sirens, car horns, megaphone rants). — allmusic.com

Keywords: Jazz, Experimental

**

Lou Rawls.
The essential Lou Rawls.
Philadelphia International.
2007.

Find The essential Lou Rawls at your library

Simply put, The Essential Lou Rawls is the first of the many compilations tallying the output of this classy, unclassifiable singer that gets it all right. Rawls recorded for a number of labels during his four-decades-plus in the business, but his most important work was evenly split between two of them, Capitol, in the ’60s, and Philadelphia International, in the late ’70s. While other collections have tended to focus on one period or the other, or to spotlight one aspect of his wide-ranging canon, this two-disc, comprehensive collection covers the gamut. — allmusic.com

Keywords: R&B, Soul, Jazz

**

Parliament.
The mothership connection.
Mercury.
1975.

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The definitive Parliament-Funkadelic album, Mothership Connection is where George Clinton’s revolving band lineups, differing musical approaches, and increasingly thematic album statements reached an ideal state, one that resulted in enormous commercial success as well as a timeless legacy that would be compounded by hip-hop postmodernists, most memorably Dr. Dre on his landmark album The Chronic (1992). — allmusic.com

Keywords: Funk, R&B

**

Morton Feldman.
Something wild : music for film.
Kairos.
2002.

Find Something wild : music for film at your library

While it might not come as a complete surprise that Morton Feldman composed some music for cinema, it may well shock fans of his work to realize how far he was willing to adapt to the needs of the film. This disc, beautifully performed by the Ensemble Recherche, contains seven soundtracks dating from 1950 to 1981. The two written as accompaniment for documentaries on the painters Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, from 1950 and 1963, respectively, fall very much in line with Feldman’s other output from those periods. The former is static and pointillistic, while the latter is a gorgeous example of notes hung in space that clearly point toward his later masterworks for small groups of instruments. — allmusic.com

Keywords: Avant garde, Classical

**

Various Artists.
Blind Pig sampler : Prime Chops.
Blind Pig Records.
1990.

Find Blind Pig sampler : Prime Chops at your library

Keywords: Blues

**

Lorin Maazel & Berliner Philharmoniker.
Wagner : Orchestral works.
Red Seal.
2004.

Find Wagner : Orchestral works at your library

Keywords: Classical, Opera

Thank you for requesting a personalized playlist! Based on your musical preferences, here is a selection of titles you might enjoy. All of the albums listed are available for checkout from the library’s collection.

**

Abba .
Gold .
Polydor .
1993 .

Find Gold at your library

“The most commercially successful pop group of the 1970s, the origins of the Swedish superstars ABBA dated back to 1966, when keyboardist and vocalist Benny Andersson, a onetime member of the popular beat outfit the Hep Stars, first teamed with guitarist and vocalist Bjorn Ulvaeus, the leader of the folk-rock unit the Hootenanny Singers. The two performers began composing songs together and handling session and production work for Polar Music/Union Songs, a publishing company owned by Stig Anderson, himself a prolific songwriter throughout the 1950s and 1960s. At the same time, both Andersson and Ulvaeus worked on projects with their respective girlfriends: Ulvaeus had become involved with vocalist Agnetha Faltskog, a performer with a recent number one Swedish hit, “I Was So in Love,” under her belt, while Andersson began seeing Anni-Frid Lyngstad, a one-time jazz singer who rose to fame by winning a national talent contest”. -allmusic.com

Keywords: Swedish Pop/Rock

**

Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins.
Rabbit Fur Coat .
Team Love .
2006 .

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“The story line on Rabbit Fur Coat is this: for her first venture outside of celebrated indie sensations Rilo Kiley, singer/songwriter Jenny Lewis has made a “white soul” album, along the lines of Dusty Springfield or Laura Nyro. Which is why, of course, she brought in Kentucky duo the Watson Twins to provide bluegrass harmonies for the entire record. Which is to say that Rabbit Fur Coat doesn’t quite live up to its billing — especially when compared to The Greatest, Cat Power’s genuine white-soul album that hit the stores the week after Lewis’ solo affair. What Rabbit Fur Coat brings to mind is not Laura Nyro but, perhaps inevitably, Neko Case and the stark, arty Americana intimacy of her breakthrough, Furnace Room Lullaby. Not that Lewis has Case’s throaty voice or commanding presence — she can growl and slide into notes, but at her core she has a small, fragile voice, one that lends this muted set of songs intimacy, even if it also brings them to the verge of cutsiness.
And that’s not a word that should be associated with Rabbit Fur Coat, an album that’s designed to be a comforting late-night confessional, from rousing stompers like “The Big Guns” through the bluesy crawl of “Rise Up With Fists” to bittersweet ruminations like the seemingly autobiographical title track and the cheerful, gangs-all-here singalong to the Traveling Wilburys “Handle With Care.” -allmusic.com

Keywords: Indie Rock/Americana

**

Bob Dylan .
Nashville Skyline.
Legacy .
1969 .

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“John Wesley Harding suggested country with its textures and structures, but Nashville Skyline was a full-fledged country album, complete with steel guitars and brief, direct songs. It’s a warm, friendly album, particularly since Bob Dylan is singing in a previously unheard gentle croon — the sound of his voice is so different it may be disarming upon first listen, but it suits the songs. While there are a handful of lightweight numbers on the record, at its core are several excellent songs — “Lay Lady Lay,” “To Be Alone With You,” “I Threw It All Away,” “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You,” as well as a duet with Johnny Cash on “Girl From the North Country” — that have become country-rock standards. And there’s no discounting that Nashville Skyline, arriving in the spring of 1969, established country-rock as a vital force in pop music, as well as a commercially viable genre”. -allmusic.com

Keywords: Country Rock/ Singer/Songwriter

**

The Black Crowes.
Before The Frost.
Silver.
2009 .

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“Revitalized by their 2008 reunion, the Black Crowes decided to take a genuine risk, recording a double-album’s worth of new material in front of a live audience at Levon Helm’s barn in upstate New York…and then release the second half, Until the Freeze, as a free download-only. To a certain extent, such formal experiments are where the Crowes can really stretch, as they’re so devoted to rock & roll roots from Southern England to South Georgia, they can’t add new wrinkles to old traditions. But that’s not exactly right: they’re willing to stretch until at least the late ’70s, offering their spin on a Rolling Stones’ disco on the album’s first single, “I Ain’t Hiding.” As true as that may be, it’s too snide and easy, and does a disservice to what the Crowes pull off with aplomb on this rather remarkable record, a record that has all the easy interplay of a road-tested band but none of the weariness. The Crowes play with muscle and grace, easing into the rustic ramble of “App aloosa” or getting dirt underneath their fingernails on the stupendous opener “Good Morning Captain,” a song that sets the keynote for the rest of the record both in its sturdy construction and enthusiastically ragged performance”. -allmusic.com

Keywords: Rock & Roll/Blues

**

James Otto .
Sunset Man .
Warner .
2008.

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“Of all the Big & Rich protégés — and as of 2008 there are too many to count, with only a capo or consigliere of the MuzikMafia being able to keep track — James Otto initially seems the closest to Kenny and John, as his second album, Sunset Man, kicks off with “Ain’t Gonna Stop,” the kind of party-pumping anthem that B&R have managed to turn from refreshing raunch to boring BS in just under five years. Otto gamely spits out Big Kenny’s mock-macho lyrics — including the de rigueur referencing to rocking out at an “Ott-to show” — seemingly happy to be given another shot at the big leagues after having his 2004 debut, Days of Our Lives, sink without a trace, but fortunately for him and the rest of us Sunset Man doesn’t dip all that often into MuzikMafia burlesque (toward the end of the album there’s “Drink & Dial,” a far better and funnier attempt at this blustering boogie). Instead, it quickly settles into a mellow, romantic groove, lingering on love songs. When the tempo d oes upshift, it’s only a modest bump, as when “These Are the Good Ole Days” eases into second gear with its tuneful unhurried nostalgia, which helps give the impression that Otto is a reflective sort, whether he’s ruminating on times passed or heartbreak (or on the easy-rolling title track, both)”. -allmusic.com

Keywords: Contemporary country

**

Thin Lizzy .
Dedication: The Very Best Of Thin Lizzy .
Mercury .
1991 .

Find Dedication: The Very Best Of Thin Lizzy at your library

“Despite a huge hit single in the mid-’70s (“The Boys Are Back in Town”) and becoming a popular act with hard rock/heavy metal fans, Thin Lizzy are still, in the pantheon of ’70s rock bands, underappreciated. Formed in the late ’60s by Irish singer/songwriter/bassist Phil Lynott, Lizzy, though not the first band to do so, combined romanticized working-class sentiments with their ferocious, twin-lead guitar attack. As the band’s creative force, Lynott was a more insightful and intelligent writer than many of his ilk, preferring slice-of-life working-class dramas of love and hate influenced by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and virtually all of the Irish literary tradition. Also, as a black man, Lynott was an anomaly in the nearly all-white world of hard rock, and as such imbued much of his work with a sense of alienation; he was the outsider, the romantic guy from the other side of the tracks, a self-styled poet of the lovelorn and downtrodden. His sweeping vision and writerly impulses at times gave way to pretentious songs aspiring to clichéd notions of literary significance, but Lynott’s limitless charisma made even the most misguided moments worth hearing”. -allmusic.com

Keywords: Hard Rock/Pop Rock/British Metal

**

Screaming Trees.
Dust .
Epic .
1996 .

Find Dust at your library

“In many ways, the Screaming Trees missed their opportunity. They released Sweet Oblivion just as grunge began to capture national attention and they didn’t tour the album extensively, which meant nearly all of their fellow Seattle bands became superstars while they stood to the side. After four years, they returned with Dust, their third major-label album, and by that point, the band’s sound was too idiosyncratic for alternative radio. Which is unfortunate, because Dust is the band’s strongest album. Sure, the rough edges that fueled albums like Uncle Anesthesia are gone, but in its place is a rustic hard rock, equally informed by heavy metal and folk. The influence of Mark Lanegan’s haunting solo albums is apparent in both the sound and emotional tone of the record, but this is hardly a solo project — the rest of the band has added a gritty weight to Lanegan’s spare prose. The Screaming Trees sound tighter than they ever have and their melodies and hooks are stronger, more
memorable, making Dust their most consistently impressive record”. -allmusic.com

Keywords: alternative/grunge

**

Damien Rice.
B Sides.
14th Floor .
2004.

Find B Sides at your library

“After wooing critics in 2003 with his stunning debut album, O, Damien Rice built upon his growing success with this quaint B-sides collection. This EP features seven previously unreleased songs that are soul-stirringly classic of the Irish singer/songwriter. On record, Rice is a convincing poet with a wild imagination of love and wonder, but in a live setting, he is much more provocative and passionate. On-stage is where he truly shines. Songs such as the thorny relationship account of “The Professor & la Fille Danse” and the acoustic guitar waltz of “Delicate” are evident of Rice’s rich talent as a singer, but also as a storyteller. B-Sides is exactly streamlined in production, so much so that a listener can be left in their own world when listening to Rice’s music”. -allmusic.com

Keywords: Folk

Thank you for requesting a personalized playlist! Based on your musical preferences, here is a selection of titles you might enjoy. All of the albums listed are available for checkout from the library’s collection.

**

Kelis.
Flesh Tone.
Interscope.
2010.

Find Flesh Tone at your library

‘To say Kelis has been through some changes would be an understatement. Since the 2006 release Kelis Was Here, she moved from Jive to will.i.am’s Interscope-affiliated vanity imprint, divorced Nas, and gave birth to a boy. Between all that, in addition to a catalog of four R&B albums that deserved greater sales, she could be forgiven for making something like a mindless dance-pop album. While Flesh Tone is a headlong dive into sleek dance-pop — one that could have been forecast years prior, given her collaborations with Moby, Timo Maas, and Richard X, and let us never forget Diddy’s “Let’s Get Ill” — it is much more personal than any of her past releases.’ – allmusic.com

Keywords: R&B, Hip-Hop

**

Kelis.
Kelis Was Here.
Jive.
2006.

Find Kelis Was Here at your library

“Kelis Was Here, her fourth album — bears no retreads. Though lead single “Bossy” makes lyrical references to her number three hit and the moderate breakout “Caught Out There,” the song is as distinct as anything she has done before, featuring another variation on her don’t-give-a-damn assertiveness, this time over an ornamental and plinky production from Shondrae. The album, like the others before it, deals a number of stylistic curveballs, all of which are handled by the singer like lobs down the middle of the plate.” – allmusic.com

Keywords: R&B, Hip Hop

**

Terence Trent D’Arby.
Terence Tretnt D’Arby’s Symphony Or Damn.
Columbia.
1993.

Find Terence Tretnt D’Arby’s Symphony Or Damn at your library

“Falling halfway between the modern R&B of Introducing the Hardline and the extravagant Neither Fish nor Flesh, Symphony or Damn is Terence Trent D’Arby’s most ambitious album yet. It’s also his best, because it takes the fine songwriting of his debut and melds it to the sonic excesses of Fish. Sure, some of it is embarrassing (it’s hard not to cringe during the “Welcome to My Monasteryo” declaration at the beginning of the album), but more often than not, D’Arby’s experimentations succeed, and succeed grandly, at that.” – allmusic.com

Keywords: R&B

**

Kelis.
Tasty.
Arista.
2003.

Find Tasty at your library

“Kelis has shown how deviating from the norm can get you pegged falsely — in her case, as an extraterrestrial being the Neptunes had beamed down from another planet. Maybe the orange-hair-and-body-paint photo on the cover of Kaleidoscope didn’t help. And it’s safe to say that none of her contemporaries would’ve ever thought of screaming something like “I hate you so much right now — uuuugh!” for the chorus of a debut single. Otherwise, Kelis is as down-to-earth as they come; she just doesn’t fit the mold of what has been expected in a female R&B artist the past few years (or ever).” – allmusic.com

Keywords: R&B, Hip-Hop

**

Sam Moore.
Overnight Sensational.
Rhino.
2006.

Find Overnight Sensational at your library

“Sam Moore was one of the great men of 1960s soul as half of Sam & Dave, but like his former partner Dave Prater (who passed away in 1988) once the duo broke up, Moore had a hard time getting a solo career off the ground, and his star turned dim in the ’70s. There’s no arguing that Sam Moore deserves a second shot at the spotlight, and his voice is still in fine shape… his wife and manager, Joyce Moore, decided that the best way to relaunch Sam’s career was to create an “event” album around him, with a name producer and a gaggle of guest stars.” – allmusic.com

Keywords: R&B, Soul

**

Meshell Ndegeocello.
The Spirit Music Jaima: Dance Of The Infidel.
Shanachie.
2005.

Find The Spirit Music Jaima: Dance Of The Infidel at your library

“Filling the roles of central artist, composer, and director, Me’Shell Ndegéocello takes a left turn with Dance of the Infidel, a very loose affair that nonetheless flows with a natural grace. It is, for the most part, a jazz album, indicated by a shifting lineup that includes Jack DeJohnette, Oliver Lake, Don Byron, and Kenny Garrett, along with vocal turns from Cassandra Wilson, Lalah Hathaway, and Sabina Sciubba. The album is bound to challenge a good number of Ndegéocello’s fans.” – allmusic.com

Keywords: R&B, Jazz

**

Meshell Ndegeocello.
Plantation Lullabies.
Maverick.
1993.

Find Plantation Lullabies at your library

“Me’Shell Ndegéocello’s debut album twists and turns through so many genres — R&B, pop, jazz, hip-hop — that it’s hard to put a finger on just where she wants to take its 13 songs. That she also spins conventional racial and sexual identity here makes Plantation Lullabies an occasionally overwhelming — as well as a vibrantly sophisticated — listen. Ndegéocello defies labels throughout, tagging her slinking and crawling songs with a rubbery flow that’s just as rooted in ’70s funky soul as it is in ’90s hip-hop culture.” – allmusic.com

Keywords: R&B, Hip-Hop

**

Various Artists.
Saturday Night Fever: Original Movie Soundtrack.
Reprise.
2007.

Find Saturday Night Fever: Original Movie Soundtrack at your library

“Every so often, a piece of music comes along that defines a moment in popular culture history: Johann Strauss’ operetta Die Fledermaus did this in Vienna in the 1870s; Jerome Kern’s Show Boat did it for Broadway musicals of the 1920s; and the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album served this purpose for the era of psychedelic music in the 1960s. Saturday Night Fever, although hardly as prodigious an artistic achievement as those precursors, was precisely that kind of musical phenomenon for the second half of the ’70s — ironically, at the time before its release, the disco boom had seemingly run its course, primarily in Europe, and was confined mostly to black culture and the gay underground in America. Saturday Night Fever, as a movie and an album, and a brace of hit singles off of it, suddenly made disco explode into mainstream, working- and middle-class America with new immediacy and urgency, increasing its audience by five- or ten-fold overnight.” – allmusic.com

Keywords: Dance Music

Love + Hate songs for Valentine’s Day

Thank you for requesting a personalized playlist! Based on your musical preferences, here is a selection of titles you might enjoy. All of the albums listed are available for checkout from the library’s collection.

**

Ashley Tisdale .
Guilty Pleasure .
Warner .
2009 .

Find Guilty Pleasure at your library

“Graduated from High School Musical and on the eve of her 24th birthday, Ashley Tisdale is ready to act like an adult, or at least not like a tween, on her second album, Guilty Pleasure. The title is a giveaway to Ashley’s pop aspirations, the cover an indication of her Britney Blackout makeover, the album a curious hodge-podge of every young starlet of the last few years of the decade, both big and small, good and bad. Britney, in her post-K-Fed incarnation, is naturally at the foundation, but Ashley also incorporates Ashlee Simpson’s junkie-wannabe rock, Katy Perry’s provocative stomp, Fergie’s trashy club crawl, some of Christina’s theatricality, and Kelly Clarkson’s spunk plus, most bizarrely, a bit of Lindsay Lohan’s soul-baring second album on “How Do You Love Someone,” a song that lashes out at distant dysfunctional parents, a song so atypically ugly it stops the album dead. That is, until the realization flashes that this, like so much in Tisdale’s career, is a carefu l pose from a showbiz kid who relishes performing so much she’ll try anything just along as she can stay on the stage”. -allmusic.com

Keywords: Dance Pop

**

Return To Forever .
The Anthology .
Concord.
2008 .

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“Jazz keyboard player Chick Corea’s Return to Forever emerged as one of the key jazz-rock fusion bands of the 1970s. Like Weather Report and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, they were formed by an alumnus of Miles Davis’ late-’60s bands with the intention of furthering the jazz-rock hybrid Davis had explored on albums like Bitches Brew. At the time, this was seen as a means of creativity, a new direction for jazz, and as a way of attracting the kinds of large audiences enjoyed by rock musicians. Return to Forever started out as more of a Latin-tinged jazz ensemble, but Corea, influenced by the Mahavishnu Orchestra of John McLaughlin and some of the progressive rock bands coming out of Great Britain, notably Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, moved the group more toward rock, achieving considerable commercial success. A later re-orientation of the band gave it more of a big-band style before Corea folded the unit, retaining the Return to Forever name for occasional tours and other proje cts”. -allmusic.com

Keywords: Fusion, Jazz-Rock

**

Medeski, Martin, & Wood.
It’s A Jungle In Here .
Gramavision.
1993 .

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A group that effortlessly straddles the gap between avant-garde improvisation and accessible groove-based jazz, Medeski, Martin & Wood have simultaneously earned standings as relentlessly innovative musicians and as an enormously popular act. Emerging out of the New York downtown scene in the early ’90s, MMW soon set out on endless cross-country tours before returning home to Manhattan to further refine their sound through myriad influential experimentations. Each of the musicians — keyboardist John Medeski, drummer/percussionist Billy Martin, and bassist Chris Wood — had crossed paths throughout the ’80s, playing with the likes of John Lurie, John Zorn, and Martin mentor Bob Moses. In 1991, the trio officially convened for an engagement at New York’s Village Gate. Soon, the group was rehearsing in Martin’s loft, writing, and then recording 1992′s self-released Notes from the Underground. As the group began to tour, escaping the supportive though insular New York music comm unity, Medeski — a former child prodigy — switched to a Hammond B-3 organ rather than a grand piano. Gramavision released It’s a Jungle in Here in 1993, which featured horn arrangements by future Sex Mob founder (and pan-scenester) Steven Bernstein. The medley of Thelonious Monk’s “Bemsha Swing” and Bob Marley’s “Lively Up Yourself” spoke volumes about what the band was attempting to accomplish”. -allmusic.com

Keywords: Jazz/Funk, Soul

**

Tortoise .
TNT .
Thrill Jockey .
1998 .

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Expected by many to continue leading the post-rock brigade into a new fusion with dub and electronics, Tortoise instead turned yet another corner with their third album, TNT. Adding guitarist Jeff Parker to cement their musicianship as well as their connections to Chicago’s fertile jazz/avant-garde scene, the band returned with a record of post-modern cool jazz, only slightly informed by the dub, Krautrock, and electronics of Millions Now Living Will Never Die. It shows from the first few seconds — a lazy, slightly free drum solo frames a few tentative guitar chords and some teased effects, before the band kicks in with a holds-barred jam that encompasses a tremulous solo from trumpeter Rob Mazurek. With engineer/mixer/drummer John McEntire and company adding only a few post-production frills to the mix — and those so complementary and subdued that they rarely even sound like effects — TNT comes off as a surprisingly organic record”. -allmusic.com

Keywords: Indie Rock, Post Rock

**

Electric Light Orchestra .
Eldorado: A Symphony .
Epic .
2001 .

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This is the album where Jeff Lynne finally found the sound he’d wanted since co-founding Electric Light Orchestra three years earlier. Up to this point, most of the group’s music had been self-contained — Lynne, Richard Tandy, et al., providing whatever was needed, vocally or instrumentally, even if it meant overdubbing their work layer upon layer. Lynne saw the limitations of this process, however, and opted for the presence of an orchestra — it was only 30 pieces, but the result was a much richer musical palette than the group had ever had to work with, and their most ambitious and successful record up to that time. Indeed, Eldorado was strongly reminiscent in some ways of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Not that it could ever have the same impact or be as distinctive, but it had its feet planted in so many richly melodic and varied musical traditions, yet made it all work in a rock context, that it did recall the Beatles classic”. -allmusic.com

Keywords: Pop Rock

**

Orbital .
Orbital.
FFRR.
1991 .

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The U.S. version of Orbital’s debut album serves as a good primer to the group’s early history, including standard versions of the early singles “Chime,” “Omen,” “Satan,” and “Midnight,” in addition to two B-sides which showed Phil and Paul’s first stab at varying their Kraftwerk-inspired sound. “Belfast” (from the “Satan” single) is a warm, mid-tempo synth track inspired by Depeche Mode; “Choice,” at the other extreme, is an aggro-house piece with vocal samples (e.g., “Wake Up!”) that recall socially conscious punks like Crass”. -allmusic.com

Keywords: Ambient, Club/Dance

**

Dead Can Dance .
The Serpent’s Egg.
4 AD .
1988.

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Perry and Gerrard continued to experiment and improve with The Serpent’s Egg, as much a leap forward as Spleen and Ideal was some years previously. As with that album, The Serpent’s Egg was heralded by an astounding first track, “The Host of Seraphim.” Its use in films some years later was no surprise in the slightest — one can imagine the potential range of epic images the song could call up — but on its own it’s so jaw-droppingly good that almost the only reaction is sheer awe. Beginning with a soft organ drone and buried, echoed percussion, Gerrard then takes flight with a seemingly wordless invocation of power and worship — her vocal control and multi-octave range, especially towards the end, has to be heard to be believed”. -allmusic.com

Keywords: Pop Rock/Dream Pop

**

Florence + The Machine.
Lungs .
Universal .
2009 .

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Precocious Brit Florence Welch fired a bullet into the head of the U.K. music scene in 2008 with the single “Kiss with a Fist,” a punk-infused, perfectly juvenile summer anthem that had critics wiping the names Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, and Kate Nash from their vocabularies and replacing them with Florence + the Machine. While the comparisons were apt at the time, “Kiss with a Fist” turned out to be a red herring in the wake of the release of Lungs, one of the most musically mature and emotionally mesmerizing albums of 2009. With an arsenal of weaponry that included the daring musicality of Kate Bush, the fearless delivery of Sinéad O’Connor, and the dark, unhinged vulnerability of Fiona Apple, the London native crafted a debut that not only lived up to the machine-gun spray of buzz that heralded her arrival, but easily surpassed it”. -allmusic.com

Keywords: Alternative/Rock/Indie