June Music Picks: Mose Allison, Gabor Szabo, Lou Bond, and more.

CDS WE LOVE...in which we cozy up to and share music that has struck our eardrums.

 Mose Allison: THE WAY OF THE WORLD

What happens when you put jazz hepcat Mose Allison in the studio with Joe Henry, producer extraordinaire? Dream fulfillment. THE WAY OF THE WORLD, Allison’s first album in over twelve years, isn’t a reprisal of his earlier work; it is, conversely, a testament to his enduring hipness. The author of “Young Man’s Blues,” the song famously covered by The Who, asserts his moxie in the album’s opening lines: “My brain is always ticking as long as I’m alive and kicking.” “My Brain,” a zany reworking of the Willie Dixon classic “My Babe,” typifies the album’s winning combo of West Coast cool and Southern raffishness. (ANTI-, 2010) —BS

Hear this! "My Brain" by Mose Allison

Gabor Szabo: JAZZ RAGA

Light in the Attic’s re-release of JAZZ RAGA, guitarist Gabor Szabo’s rara avis from 1966, arrives just in time for summer. While its sitar solos dazzle like solar flares, its mid-tempo psychedelic jazz mitigates the heat index with its exotic tonal flora. Budapest-born Szabo brings his Old-World roots to the experimental sands of the New World, approximating traditional Indian music through his prismatic style, forging something that is as refreshing as it is elusive. (Light in the Attic, 2010) —BS

Hear this! "Summertime" by Gabor Szabo

Lou Bond: LOU BOND

Who can resist yet another vintage temptation from the Light in the Attic label of Seattle, Washington? Not us, apparently. Don't let the cover image of the artist strolling a hard Memphis street while jauntily shouldering his guitar like a rifle or bazooka fool you. It's pop-symphonic languidness that will emanate from your stereo, not the sound of gritty urban life. Rather than being hard, this 1974 release, from an obscure Memphis singer-songwriter named Lou Bond, grooves slowly in the style of Al Green, Low Rawls, and Marvin Gaye. What Mr. Bond doesn't achieve is utter originality. But he sure does get that groove on, and aficionados of Old School "Adult Contemporary" should feel at home. (Light in the Attic, 2010) —MAS

Hear this! "To the Establishment" by Lou Bond

Delta Spirit: HISTORY FROM BELOW

This sophomore effort opens with one of the catchiest scathing political anthems of recent memory, “911,” that sounds more like the soundtrack to a rumbling road trip than a series of bitter punchlines. The second track, “Bushwick Blues,” with its tight and relentless refrain, deftly switches gears from potential Americana clichés to broken-hearted power-pop. HISTORY FROM BELOW offers a bounty of musical jolts, with one foot planted firmly in snarling folk-rock and the other seemingly kicking against every other genre. The album evokes summer: crunchy gravel roads, porch-picking, and piano keys splattered with whiskey-swill. (Rounder, 2010) —NE

Hear this! "Bushwick Blues" by Delta Spirit

Beach Fossils: BEACH FOSSILS

Brooklynites with a North Carolina connection, Beach Fossils create understated rock & roll so carefully dissonant you can almost picture the tambourine clapping against the top of the hi-hat. Their apathetic harmonies and minor-key jangling recall the better days of ’90s alternative, when it was just unassuming dudes who carried themselves like anti-rockstars. Diluted with ample reverb and intentionally lousy production, BEACH FOSSILS will make anyone yearn for a SoCal summer afternoon, the kind captured on bleached-out Super-8 film. With the unexpected whimsy of fake bird sounds on tracks like “Golden Age,” the album practically manufactures its own sunshine. (Captured Tracks, 2010) —NE

Hear this! "Youth" by Beach Fossil

Sonny Burns: SATAN’S A WAITIN’

SATAN’S A WAITIN’, appropriately named for its down-and-out hillbilly fatalism, contains twenty-three songs from a hitherto-unseen honky-tonk balladeer, Sonny Burns. Reminiscent of Faron Young and every bit equal to George Jones (with whom he duets on “Wrong About You” and “Heartbroken Me”), Sonny Burns lets loose his sorrowful twang with songs of loss (“Six Feet of Earth”), songs of remonstration (“Waltzing With Sin”), and songs of romantic longing (“If You See My Baby”). One listen to “Blue Blue Rain,” a perfect country ballad if ever there was one, reveals that the biggest tragedy of all was Sonny Burns himself, whose heartfelt songs languished in obscurity. Until now. (Righteous, 2010) —BS

Hear this! "Blue Blue Rain" by Sonny Burns