Album "Reviews"
Illuminations - Buffy Sainte-Marie
Genre: Folk, psychedelic
Year of release: 1970
How it feels: You walk through a vast and overgrown garden, past tinkling windchimes and statues growing moss, into the open door of an ancient stone basilica. Dust cakes the walls and flits through the air; it lands in your nose and mouth. This place was built to withstand a siege, but the masons who caressed it and molded it in its infancy could never have expected that it would be forgotten like this.
The mouth of the basilica appears dark from a distance, but the inside is dazzling beyond your wildest dreams. Enormous stained-glass windows with the images of saints, martyrs, holy women, and monsters stretch from floor to ceiling, from one end of the hall to the other. The setting sun casts light in every color across the pews. As your every footstep echoes, you can hear them slowing to a halt; you cannot help it; you cannot withhold your awe. This place is empty now, but it dawns on you that it was once a place of religious ecstasy.
Cheap Thrills - Janis Joplin, Big Brother & the Holding Company
Genre: Rock
Year of release: 1968
How it feels: The date is long gone and you sit in a muddy field, swatting at the flies and scratching at the dirt in the midst of a blistering summer. The sun runs its fingers through your scalp and catches the light on the beads in your hair. It's been a busy day, helping your friends haul all manner of miscellanea across the asphalt, up and down grassy hills, into the venue: guitars, coolers, tentpoles, bongs... now your legs are weary and you burn with thirst. You have earned the right to sit cross-legged in the grass, have a smoke, and weave crowns out of daisies and dandelions. A guitar strums aimlessly close to you; a crowd screams in exhilaration down the hill. You watch it all with the distant feeling that this will be important someday.
Iconoclasts - Anna von Hausswolff
Genre: Baroque pop, classical
Year of release: 2025
How it feels:
All Thoughts Fly - Anna von Hausswolff
Genre: Classical
Year of release: 2020
How it feels:
MM..FOOD - MF DOOM
Genre: Hip-hop
Year of release: 2004
How it feels: You and your uncle go for years at a time without seeing one another, but somehow every time you meet you can pick right back up where you left off. You're not even sure if he's really related to you by blood, but every other barbecue you become best friends, only to part ways again. It's a warm summer afternoon and he's sitting in the shade of the porch, teaching you how to play dominoes. The heat makes you nod off and you almost think you can do it discreetly; but every time he catches you, and he commands your attention; he's got a good eye and a deft hand. You wonder if he'd show you how to play poker if you asked, or if he'd just lecture you about avoiding such vices; it's hard to tell where he draws the line sometimes. Periodically you leave to get some soda, he leaves to fetch a hot dog. He smells like cigarette smoke and grill smoke. You don't really mind. Somewhere your sister is laughing; somewhere else your aunt is dancing; for just one afternoon, all is as it should be.
Noches En La Isla, Vol. 2 - Kris Floyd
Genre: Reguetón
Year of release: 2026
How it feels: It is summer in Puerto Rico, but then again it always is, isn't it? You and your best friends have only been out on your terraza for a couple of hours, but it feels like it's been a decade. You could talk to them for a hundred more years and still, you'd all find more things to say. You recline in your plastic chair; someone digs a Medalla out of the rapidly-depleting cooler, now filled with more water than ice; you all take turns slapping mosquitoes; Isabella just got out of the pool. Her long hair is black from the water and clings to her shoulders like that of a sea nymph. The night is alive with singing coquís. You look up into the stars as Isabella fetches a towel and wonder if there's anything more out there. You hope not. You hope this is all there is; it's all you need.
Say the Truth - Fred Fisher
Genre: Afrobeat
Year of release: 1979
How it feels:
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