Coast To Coast
15 tracks of the month’s best music
John Cale
1 BILL MACKAY Radiator
On his new album Locust Land, this Chicago-based guitarist and improviser makes his closest attempt so far at a singer-songwriter record. While this track, laced with crunchy guitars and vintage organ, is instrumental, it ebbs, flows and glistens like a Liege & Lief ballad tackled by the Velvets.
2 JOHN CALE Shark-Shark
A lighter counterpart to the magisterial gloom of last year’s Mercy, POPtical Illusion continues Cale’s run of excellent 21st-century records. Here’s one of the fiercest cuts, with ragged guitar and drum machine backing the songwriter’s suitably menacing proclamations. Head to our interview with Cale on page 70.
Cassandra Jenkins
The Folk Implosion
3 DAVE ALVIN & JIMMIE DALE GILMORE Trying To Be Free