Happy Mondays - Bummed (1988)

Review:
Happy Mondays deliver an album here that plays like disco for a party that should have ended hours ago. Monotonous and hypnotic, it emphasizes the mindless repetitiveness of its rhythms ("Brain Dead," indeed). This is music that I'd describe as indulgent, as a compliment. The band is credited with doing much to jumpstart the Manchester scene, but this is closer in spirit to Can's groovy experimentation than most Britpop of its era. That's probably to the album's credit, resulting in a decadent, catchy sound that stops just short of being clearly meaningful.

Top Tracks:
The anthemic "Wrote for Luck." The middle finger to The Beatles that is "Lazyitis."

Drive Like Jehu - Yank Crime (1994)

Review:

It doesn't take a fan of the genre to appreciate the virtuosity of these mutating punk epics. One of only two albums by the band, it's the sort of wholly complete work that suggests there was nowhere else to go after its release. The first half of the album is urgent and expansive, the second considerably more introspective. All of it feels of a tortured piece, somehow. 

Top Tracks:

"Luau," ambitious and twisty, even among these gargantuan tunes. "Super Unison," which takes the band somewhere close to plaintive.

Nina Simone - Wild is the Wind (1966)

Review:
Apparently cobbled together from leftover studio and live tracks, this album perhaps inadvertently stands as a testament to Simone's eclecticism. By turns political, swooning, and angry, the setlist demonstrates Simone's manic ability to commit to a mood... and then turn on a dime. The cumulative effect is the feeling that a soul is being bared, in all of its complexity. Because I am a fan of Simone's, largely through compilations, I'm not familiar enough to state where this ranks within her discography. Still, it seems an solid starting point for those looking to enter into her world, even if the album features only one track written by Simone herself.

Top Tracks:
The soaring, sweet "What More Can I Say?" The sobering, one-two punch of the title track and "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair."