Of all the new music that has dropped in the coronavirus era, I’m most excited and entranced by Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters, the singer-songwriter’s first new album since 2012’s The Idler Wheel.
The notoriously reclusive, reluctant genius has released only five albums in 25 years, each of them a very different kind of masterpiece. A new Fiona Apple record is enough of an event that I’m dedicating the rest of the week to this unique gem.
Yesterday I mentioned that my Random Weekend selections often lead to the discovery of recent work by the represented artist. Bruce Hornsby is another example. The piano man released a new album just last year — an avant-garde fusion of jazz, classical and progressive rock titled Absolute Zero. Good for him.
I’m partial to Hornsby’s early work. You know, those 80s classics like ‘The Way It Is,’ ‘Every Little Kiss’ and ‘Mandolin Rain.’
Sometimes I feel like these Random Weekends are part of a stealth marketing campaign by music studios that have tapped into my iTunes account.
Shelby Lynne pops up today, with a track from her 2005 album Suit Yourself, and it prompts me to see what she’s been up to recently. Lo and behold, she has a new, self-titled, album that dropped less than a month ago. So I listened to a couple of tracks from that record, a release I would have known nothing about if not for the Random iTunes Fairy.
With the exception of an album I will get to next week, my go-to jam during the coronavirus crisis has been Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia.
The London-born, Albanian singer-songwriter dropped this album three years after her self-titled debut, one of my favorite albums of 2017, and she managed to top herself. Lipa was forced to release the record a week early after an internet leak, but the timing turned out just right. It turns out a throwback disco album with a modern twist is just what the epidemiologist ordered during a worldwide quarantine.
I had never heard of Rina Sawayama before April 17, when I saw a slew of tweets celebrating the release of her debut studio album, Sawayama. The Japanese-born, London-raised, singer-songwriter and model has been releasing singles since 2013, racking up critical accolades and assembling a growing and fervent fan base.
One listen to Sawayama and it’s clear why she deserves to be a big deal. This album is bursting with creativity, hopscotching between genres and giving vibrant voice to Sawayama’s unique worldview.
Meet Me In Montauk 