Loren Connors - Red Mars (2011)

Fittingly titled. Loren (Mazzacane) Connors totally owns this style, atmospheric instrumental electric guitar improvisations, at once both abstract and strangely accessible. This sort of thing should be dreadfully boring but there is a quality to it that makes it appealing as either background music or a more involved listening experience. Disjointed, atonal notes become beautifully melodic under Loren's playing, making a perfect sort of sense in their own unusual way. The music's presence is very inviting, and the atmosphere that Connors is capable of creating on this recording with only a guitar (using minimal effects) and amp noise is nothing short of astounding. This isn't the kind of music to intellectually analyze to death, it pretty much speaks for itself.
https://open.spotify.com/album/6FGwwUFJYZGFJZhumXhTU6

Oasis - Don't Believe the Truth (2005)

As much as I loved the early Oasis records, I've never really bothered with their output after Be Here Now (which I will bravely state is not that bad, seriously!) until I decided to give this one a shot. This penultimate Oasis album is decent enough Britpop, perfectly respectable if not always memorable. Hey guess what, it sounds like Oasis! By this point, Noel Gallagher wasn't writing all the songs anymore but it's not like anyone would be able to tell. Even (ex-Ride dude) Andy Bell's songs are fully conformed to the ossified Oasis style. But hey if it ain't broke, don't fix it, I suppose. We're at least spared Oasis making pathetic attempts to stay relevant by, I don't know, going grime or something. While there are no surprises whatsoever, there is a mac & cheese-style comfort food feel to releases like this one.
https://open.spotify.com/album/17ey4RhKTF2sqtr88d6Qfg

Blowfly - The Weird World of Blowfly (1973)

Blowfly was the legendary alter ego of soul singer/songwriter Clarence Reid (R.I.P.). The concept of Blowfly was pretty simple: filthy, X-rated parodies of classic pop and soul songs sung by a dude in a shitty superhero cape and mask getup, usually recorded "live" in a party setting. For example, "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" becomes "Shitting on the Dock of the Bay" or "The Thrill Is Gone" becomes "The Sperm Is Gone". If this sounds incredibly stupid and juvenile to you, well it most certainly is. But the offensiveness is pretty much the point, and I would be lying if I said this wasn't thoroughly entertaining. Calling The Weird World of Blowfly a comedy record is selling it a bit short. The musical content is quite good, with Blowfly's backing band particularly hot on this recording (especially the drummer's breakbeat segues in between the songs). And the audience is very energetic, interacting with the performers and helping make the whole recording a fun experience. It's a novelty concept on display here, but it withstands repeated listens after the shock content wears off.
https://open.spotify.com/album/5XqXefj93qNjfCMjaZuFNv

André Cymone - Livin' in the New Wave (1982)

Nothing screams early-80s electro new wave funk quite like using a Tron-style album cover background. André Cymone was part of Prince's crew in the early days until he broke off to go solo around the time of this album. Musically, it's pretty close to Dirty Mind-era Prince, with plenty of new wave guitars and squiggly synths to go around. So close, in fact, that it makes me wonder about how much Cymone contributed to the development of Prince's early sound. I've gotta say, though, a noticeable flaw of this album is that while Cymone is a serviceable vocalist, he lacks the personality or versatility of his former bandmate (or even Morris Day for that matter). The lyrics ain't too hot either, but I guess one doesn't listen to stuff like this for enlightening lyrical content. Fun record and worth a listen, though!
https://open.spotify.com/album/4JYsvke5iZxH5yXJfDAY2U

Caetano Veloso - Transa (1972)

Caetano Veloso is easily one of the GREATEST OF ALL TIME no matter what language you speak, and it's a damn shame that at the time of this writing a majority of his albums are unavailable on Spotify (in the US at least). Thankfully, however, this album is on here, recorded during the period in which he was exiled by the Brazilian dictatorship and living in London. While not necessarily representative of his work as a whole, Transa is probably one of the best introductions for a newcomer to Caetano's music, as well as one of his greatest albums. It's certainly an accessible record to get into, although the lyrics (mostly in English here) and mood can understandably get a little dour. The music is with a full band but pretty stripped down and spare, a welcome relief from the arrangements on some of his other records which can feel overstuffed at times.  A couple tracks on here ride out into these really cool trance-like repetitive grooves and they go on for like 7 or 8 minutes but you don't want them to end and then you get sad when they do end and then you start playing them again. A classic.
https://open.spotify.com/album/49cBF5iGpJ7nx6EAR8BLga

Herbie Hancock - Lite Me Up (1982)

At some point in the 1970's, Herbie Hancock decided he wanted to sing on his records, besides having little-to-no vocal talent. Have no fear though, he found a solution in robotically distorting his voice by singing through a vocoder most of the time. Lite Me Up is one of a number of sleek, vocoder-laden R&B/disco/funk albums he made. He even hired Rod Temperton, the songwriter behind a lot of Michael Jackson's hits, to write most of these tunes, making me think Herbie was gunning for some sort of Off the Wall/Thriller-style crossover hit. As a result, it's as much a Herbie Hancock album as it is a Rod Temperton one. Even considering the talent involved (hey, dudes from Toto played on this too!), this album comes off mostly as disappointingly generic. The VERY PROFESSIONAL-SOUNDING guest vocalists who sing most of the songs don't really do it for me, either. However, on the few times when Herbie takes over on vocoder, everything changes. The aptly-titled "Gettin' to the Good Part", yesssss that's more like it! And "Give It All Your Heart" is jaw-dropping, a romantic duet between Hancock and Patrice Rushen (of "Forget Me Nots" fame), both on vocoders and sounding like two robots very much in love. Was this inspired by the movie Heartbeeps?!? These tracks sound so much like the last Daft Punk album, you could probably fool most people into thinking they're new Daft Punk singles or something. Lite Me Up was the last album Herbie did in this style before shaking things up further and hitting pay dirt with "Rockit". Most of it sucks, but check out those vocoder tracks!
https://open.spotify.com/album/5LsdfUYg3pWMyjoyAnS3fE

The Impressions - Preacher Man (1973)

After Curtis Mayfield left the Impressions for a solo career in 1970, the band still kept going. This is the second album of the post-Mayfield era, although he was involved here in some capacity as the "Production Coordinator" (whatever that entails). I am pleased to report that Preacher Man is surprisingly excellent! No real surprises here, just epic early-70s soul with a shit-ton of strings and wah-wah guitars and topical "we've got to get together, people" and "we've got to make a better day"-type lyrics. If you're a fan of Curtis Mayfield's early solo records or Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, this is well worth checking out. The ambitious 10 minute "Thin Line" is the centerpiece of this short but sweet album. Did it have to be 10 minutes long? Maybe not. Does it still rule? Yes it does. The song's arrangement and steady buildup are top-notch and everything you would want from an over-the-top, socially-conscious soul epic. The album as a whole keeps a consistently high quality throughout.
https://open.spotify.com/album/3Rqc54B3gO2fUqWTH4J24n

Bloodrock - Bloodrock 2 (1970)

Oh man, Bloodrock is one of the best band names ever. With a band name and album cover like that, how could you go wrong? Well...it's not bad. A little heavy on the typical histrionic, vibrato-laden rock dude vocals of the day. For being what passed for hard rock at the time, though, I wish this stuff was heavier. It often just sounds like a less-good Grand Funk Railroad. And that's good enough, I guess. "D.O.A." is all-time, though. An 8 minute dirge sung from the point of view of a corpse, complete with tasteless ambulance sound effects. Even the worst album on earth would get a five star rating from me if it had this song on it. Wikipedia states that this album received gold certification from the RIAA in 1990. I can dig that.
https://open.spotify.com/album/5VwaK4Ip2MjhTLzQpD9cwa

Lou Reed - New Sensations (1984)

A disturbingly upbeat album from our man Lou. Hey, who said he isn't allowed to be goofy and fun sometimes? I certainly can't blame him for trying to get on 80's rock radio or whatever he's attempting here, and it sounds like he's having a good time. There is no confusion as to what era in which this album was recorded (the Phil Collins-esque gated reverb drums sound absolutely ridiculous on a Lou Reed record), but thankfully things don't get too synthed-out. It's still mostly guitar-bass-drums. "Doin' the Things That We Want To", that's a pretty classic-sounding Lou Reed groove. Not everything on this is too hot, though. "My Red Joystick" is terrible. This was released as a single?!? And who the fuck wants to hear Lou Reed sing about video games?!? A much better dumb song here is "My Friend George" (chorus lyrics: "Hey bro, what's the word?/I hear you're talkin' 'bout my friend George"). The album is mostly throwaways, but fun enough.
https://open.spotify.com/album/0H1QdJdBc1roGFZ6g2U9Dx

Chic - Real People (1980)

Chic steps into the 1980s, sounding a little different from their previous work, slowly moving away from their early disco-based sound and into a more modern R&B dance approach. This record is pretty good overall. Surprisingly lots of guitar from Nile Rodgers, too. I didn't care too much for the slower numbers and there didn't seem to be a lot of real standouts here, but this album as a whole flows quite nicely and feels like a real album conceived as such. Side note: While lyrics were never a strong suit for this band, a few moments on here when Chic gets serious are pretty cringeworthy. "I've got protection/From your infection", yuuuck.
https://open.spotify.com/album/6UfHHpUD6whnedHnApDtxo

Fred Schneider - Just Fred (1996)

Dude from the B-52's makes a punk album with an all-star cast. Steve Albini engineered it. Members from the Didjits and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet and Six Finger Satellite all play in his backing band(s). While there is no mistaking Fred's voice for anyone else's, this album comes off pretty convincingly. It doesn't feel like a cash-in for relevancy. I think Fred just wanted to rock out and get way more unhinged than he normally does in his regular band. I have to admit however, his vocals are a bit too much to take in this setting after awhile. But there is no doubt he remains fully committed throughout. Interesting cover of Harry Nilsson's "Coconut" as well. Fun record!
https://open.spotify.com/album/5XdCm9Cfh93y8ZOcuvlFsg

T. Rex - Futuristic Dragon (1976)

Oh my is this album ridiculous. If the cover didn't already tip you off about that, just listen to the 2-minute introduction with such spoken lyrics as "Deep beneath an ancient shadow/...Dwelt the grinning Cyclopean pagan/Screaming destruction in sheer dazzling raiment/A thunderbolt master a 'lectronic savior/A gold galactic raver, the Futuristic Dragon." Right on! I always had avoided the late-period T. Rex albums since I wasn't too keen on the direction they started taking post-The Slider. Turns out that was a mistake! Holy crap, "Jupiter Liar" is so freaking good, just a classic-sounding T. Rex tune I had no idea existed until now. For a guy with a limited musical palate, Marc Bolan was certainly able to get a lot of mileage out of what he was able to do well. That's not to say there isn't much experimentation, there is a noticeable soul music influence here, but it's all handled quite skillfully. And most of the time it rocks, as most good T. Rex should. A lot of "oh yeah"s and "yeah yeah"s and "do it to me baby"s and whatnot throughout. Not the album I would recommend as an introduction to the art of T. Rex (Electric Warrior is still the best, sorry). But as an advanced studies course it gets an A.
https://open.spotify.com/album/7bxgqrql5oDIr4SVFB1bYN

Diesel Boy - Cock Rock (1996)

Full disclosure: The first all-ages punk show I ever went to was Diesel Boy and Goober Patrol at a Machinist Hall around the time this album came out. You might remember Diesel Boy as the band in the episode of Freaks and Geeks when James Franco's character briefly went "punk". Does this album hold up? It's honestly a bit hard for me to separate this band from the time period, when it felt like there were like 6,000,000 bands on Fat Wreck Chords/Honest Don's playing vaguely similar, slickly-produced pop punk seemingly tailor-made for skate videos. Consequently, it often feels too much like a nostalgia piece for my ears to make a correct assessment. It doesn't help that Diesel Boy don't really stick out much from the pack except for maybe having slightly snottier vocals than the others. And aside from "Punk Rock 101" and "Titty Twister" (two essential inclusions on any 90's pop punk mixtape if you ask me), the songs here aren't always super-memorable. But while they are certainly no Lagwagon, this album still brings the Fat Wreck-style pop punk goods if you're in the mood for it.
https://open.spotify.com/album/5CflWRJhHBqeZ4SZuPtDQd