a few items that have earned some spins over the past week:
* Radiohead: In Rainbows – Listened to in its tangible, old world, non-downloadable, pay-up-front version, In Rainbows sounds a touch timid compared to epics like Kid A. But the lighter, wintry atmosphere it summons is a fine soundtrack for a grey January day.
* Bruford/Borstlap: In Two Minds – The newest studio collaboration between veteran rock and jazz drummer Bill Bruford and keyboard Michael Borstlap is a neatly orchestrated summit of acoustic percussives and broadly colored piano-based orchestration.
* Espers: Espers II – A darkly layered set by the indie Philadelphia band. Early Fairport Convention seems to be a model for Espers’ psychedelic fabric. But tunes like Widow’s Weed suggest the players have also snuck in a few listens to Meddle-era Pink Floyd.
* Oscar Peterson: Live at the North Sea Jazz Festival 1980 – Ongoing blueness prompted by the great pianist’s passing on Dec. 23 prompted a new listen to this fine 1998 release of a quartet concert featuring guitar giant Joe Pass and harmonica ace Toots Thielemans.
* 10cc: Bloody Tourists – A guilty pleasure from 1978. Tourists was the second album cut after Kevin Godley and Lol Creme bolted. But it is stocked full of pop whimsy and melancholy from the hit Dreadlock Holiday to the forgotten Reds in My Bed.
I am a native Kentuckian and freelance journalist who has been writing about contemporary music for the Lexington Herald-Leader since 1980. I have not a lick of honest musical talent myself, just a pair of appreciative ears for jazz, folk, blues, bluegrass, Americana, soul, Celtic, Cajun, chamber, worldbeat, nearly every form of rock 'n' roll imaginable and, when pressed, the occasional tango and polka.