Great Lakes, Diamond Times (CD)

I'm of course biased about Great Lakes, having worked on Ways of Escape. 2006's Diamond Times feels, to me, like a particularly transitional album. The self-titled debut caught listeners' attention with its raw energy, and Ways of Escape reflects a mature and obviously darker songwriting voice. The two albums in between reflect the process of growing up and grappling with these changes. The power of unbridled youth that still poked through The Distance Between is gone here, but the songwriting is noticeably more focused. The piano really jumps out in the mixes (perhaps that's Jamey Huggins, but the liner notes aren't very clear), and there's some great guitar playing too.

Chris Knox, Yes!! (CD)

It's hard to even write rationally about Chris's music at this point. It's also really inspiring to see video of him back on a stage performing with charisma and energy at a point where many others might have given up. I still do enjoy listening to his many great albums. By the time of 1997's Yes!!, he'd fallen into a bit of a formula, so it lacks some of the magic feeling of discovery that's present on Croaker. It features a bit heavier guitar sounds, a bagpipe, and the unforgettable "Ballad of a Victim of the Economic Recovery". There's also one of Chris's very odd collage pieces at the end—17 minutes and 26 seconds of "Ndidi". The combination of colors and patterns on the cover is hard to look at, which fits Chris's personality but not so much the music inside.

Ry Cooder & V.M. Bhatt, A Meeting by the River (CD)

Mohan Bhatt is already a fairly assimilated Indian classical musician—he's modified an acoustic guitar with resonant strings to make it into a guitar-sitar hybrid. The presence of Ry Cooder does not really add a Western feel, but it does pull Bhatt even further from a recognizable idiom. 1993's A Meeting by the River is beautiful and warm. I love that the liner notes mention having used custom microphones with Milab capsules and tube bodies, and the recordings do sound great, but the disc is mastered too quietly (perhaps because the bass tabla notes occasionally boom out too much). The insipid cover design and notes praising Coleman Barks are the only real flaws of this very pretty album.

The Styrenes, One Fanzine Reader Writes (12" EP)

Given the amazing survival of the Styrenes for 35 years, it should not be surprising that their sound has evolved over time. 1996's "One Fanzine Reader Writes" 12" stretches the idea of the Hudson-Styrene LP, with Mike Hudson rambling over even more abstract and extended compositions. Where the elements of rock and new wave were still audible on A Monster and the Devil, by this point the guitar and keyboard could fit as easily in an avant-classical texture as a rock record. Hudson's stories are amazing, and the band plays great. Apart from the illogical decision to put the better song on side B, my only real complaints are the blurry cover photo which has nothing to do with the music and the sterile but overly processed recording style. This 12" is a far more logical direction for growth than the LP that followed it (We Care So You Don't Have to).

Islaja, Meritie (CD)

While Islaja has grown into a more focused songwriter than some of her Finnish neighbors/compatriots, her 2004 debut Meritie is a bit more sprawling and messy. The prominent layered vocals resemble some sort of primitive approximation of Linda Perhacs, and the songs are generally built around tentative guitar playing. The album is weird, memorable and engaging, but lacks the sophistication that makes her later work stand out. The arrangements, while distinctive and interesting, feel more like Refrigerator's loose exploration of ideas than the refined focus she found by her second album. The fold-out packaging is particularly beautiful and fits the music nicely.

ICP Orchestra, Oh My Dog! (CD)

2001's Oh My Dog! finds ICP Orchestra at their most playful and absurd. There isn't a lot of recognizable jazz here, and the compositions meander through humor and insanity, with few listener-friendly stops. The musicianship is, of course, amazing, and when they do introduce more overtly musical ideas, it's always rewarding and fun. Oh My Dog! is a fun romp for existing ICP fans, but it's unlikely to win converts or even invite repeated listens. The cover art finds Han Bennink at his most playful, especially behind the CD in the DigiPak, and Dick Lucas's recording is clean and neutral (if a bit overly so).

Grifters, One Sock Missing (side A)

1993's One Sock Missing, the Grifters' second album, stands up as one of the more interesting of the "lo-fi" era of early-90s indie rock. It couples a bluesy classic-rock swagger with overt Chrome-like textural freedom. Despite the buried vocals (both technically and stylistically), the melodies can be recognizable and memorable. The drive and traditional riffs provide an emotional anchor, even as the album veers off into occasional bursts of oddity. The recording was, of course, purposely lo-fi, but the mastering could use some more bottom end. The cut-up drawings on the cover hold up nicely, but I'm not quite sold on the font.