Nine New Albums I'm Recommending Right Now - by Ted Gioia

As always, I dig into the hidden crevices and crannies of the music business to find good stuff others don’t know about. A few of these are recordings you will only hear about from The Honest Broker.

But each of these albums is playlist-worthy and will not disgrace even the most exclusive turntable. Most of them are likely to show up on my Best of Year list.

I’ve always liked extreme examples of the cool aesthetic—especially those susurrating vocals that sound like a seductive stranger whispering secrets in your ear. So while others of my generation were body slamming in smelly nightclubs of low repute, I was often back in my dorm room daydreaming to Astrud Gilberto records.

I loved those old Chet Baker vocal tracks, too, and even his pop-oriented acolytes. (Anybody else here up for a Kenny Rankin or Michael Franks revival?) I didn’t even need to understand the words—just let João Gilberto sing out the contents of the phone directory or daily news (as Miles Davis famously asserted), and I’m as content as a Copacabana clam.

Which is a long way of saying that I love Mei Semones and her understated vocals, even when I don’t know what she is singing about. This Alt J-Pop artist resides in Brooklyn, and sings in both English and Japanese. She also mixes in subversive bits of jazz, especially in her guitar playing. I’d listen to her even if she was just doing instrumentals. But those vocals are the main course—and they’re so delectable that I’m even willing to ignore the pink stuffed animals.

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