COOLAID
Snoop Dogg (eOne)
Given his series of sleek, soul-pop albums produced with Pharrell Williams, fidgety g-funk stuff, faux mixtapes, and thick reggae sounds recorded under the name Snoop Lion, it has been a minute since Mr. Dogg has released a straight-out, all-rap project. Shame, right? Snoop’s eel-astic cadence and oily flow have always been the sweet elixir that makes the melodic medicine of hard times and good weed go down smooth.
Dogg has chosen several reliable old friends to collaborate with here, such as Swizz Beatz, Just Blaze, and the fast and furious Too Short, the latter a rap elder with whom Snoop duets for an old-school gangsta pairing, “Don’t Stop,” that’s more downbeat Dolemite than N.W.A. Dogg’s equally liquid and high-minded coming tour partner, Wiz Khalifa, shows up for a paean to pot, “Kush Ups” that’s both silly and heartfelt.
As far as new friends are concerned, explicitly racy crooner Jeremih tackles “Point Seen Money Gone” with Snoop at the wheel, driving home that sexual-healing feeling. This song in particular picks up where Dogg’s collaboration with Pharrell left off for some truly sensual, midnight-mood hip-hop. Still, it is Snoop by his lonely, on clickity-clacking tracks such as the salty “Legend” and the surprisingly enraged “Super Crip” that prove the Dogg master hasn’t lost his pound or his potency as a rapper and lyricist.
— A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer
WILDFLOWER
The Avalanches (Modular/Astralwerks)
The Avalanches debuted in 2000 by organizing a dense, dizzying jigsaw puzzle of seemingly unrelated electronic samples into one of the defining albums of recent decades, Since I Left You. It was in many ways an Australian counterpart to the 1996 sample-tastic debut by DJ Shadow, Endtroducing, a richly colored daydream in response to Shadow’s dark interior journey.
Wildflower marks the return of co-founders Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi, and the debut’s mix of childlike wonderment remains intact. A wistful nostalgia prevails, and the sequencing evokes a circus carnival or a trippy joy ride into the vast Australian wilderness.
The tracks cover a lot of geography: from an acid trip on a beach (“If I was a Folkstar”) to a treehouse (“Live a Lifetime Love”), and the songs are populated with characters “Livin’ Underwater” or floating in the clouds.
Like the debut, the album’s sonic landscape connects the rich textures of the Beach Boys’ Smile with De La Soul’s fanciful 3 Feet High and Rising. It creates a world through the art of digital manipulation that allows for startling juxtapositions and unlikely collaborations: “The Noisy Eater” has the eternally lovable Biz Markie jamming with a children’s choir singing the Beatles “Come Together” and “Frankie Sinatra” imagines Rodgers and Hammerstein joining forces with ’40s calypso artist Wilmoth Houdini.
In contrast to the relatively self-made debut, Wildflower is lousy with cameos: a cast of dozens that includes rappers Danny Brown and MF Doom; the Dirty Three’s Warren Ellis; Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, and Father John Misty. The diverse contributions make the album more of a bumpy ride than its predecessor. “Stepkids” borders on the ramshackle, a childlike, tambourine-inflected ditty sung by Royal Trux alumna Jennifer Herrema. Mercury Rev’s Jonathan Donahue fares best of all the guests on the woozy “Kaleidoscopic Lovers” and the even woozier “Colours.”
Daydreams don’t get much more vivid than the Avalanches iconic debut album, but Wildflower is a worthy — if not quite as revelatory — sequel.
— GREG KOT, Chicago Tribune
EARLY AMERICANS
Jane Ira Bloom (Outline Music)
Jane Ira Bloom solidifies her reputation as one of America’s most powerful and passionate soprano saxophonists with this disc, a follow-up to her Grammy-nominated 2014 all-ballads release, Sixteen Sunsets.
On Early Americans, a disc that includes 12 originals, Bloom focuses on soft, subtle, and intricate jazz with her trio, which includes Mark Helias on bass and Bobby Previte on drums.
Bloom, who was educated at Yale University, is a professor at the New School for Jazz in New York. She has recorded, produced, and been a band leader for 16 albums since 1977, and is a nine-time winner of the Jazz Journalists Association Award for soprano sax, as well as a recipient of the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Award for lifetime service.
Her other interests in creative arts range from acting to dancing to painting. With a longstanding interest in space exploration and neuroscience, she became the first musician commissioned by the NASA Art Program. An asteroid was named in her honor by the International Astronomical Union.
— TOM HENRY, The Blade
First Published July 28, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
