5 New Albums You Should Listen to Now: Julian Taylor, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Bad Cop, Bad Cop, and Phoebe Bridgers

We published the first New Music Spotlight on July 6, 2017, it’s become one of our most popular post formats, and today we’re offering up something similar, for new albums. Let us know what you think. Maybe it’ll be the start of something wonderful and new.

The New Music Spotlight is meant for singles, but full albums are dropping that we want you to think about. 5 Albums You Should Listen to Now will give you a hit of notable new releases for your listening pleasure.

Julian Taylor: The Ridge [Howling Turtle Inc]

The new album from Toronto-based music veteran Julian Taylor is a breath of fresh air. Co-produced by Taylor and longtime collaborator Saam Hashemi, the eight-song album was originally scheduled for a fall release date. Still Taylor decided to release the album sooner in the hope that his songs might bring joy to listeners in troubled times.

Recorded at The Woodshed, Blue Rodeo’s studio in downtown Toronto, The Ridge highlights the softer side of the multi-talented Taylor.

Accompanied on piano, fiddle and pedal steel is Derek Downham, Miranda Mullholland, and Burke Carroll respectively. Taylor’s band includes his cousins from Kahnawake, Barry Diabo on bass and Gene Diabo on drums/congas. The album also features Sheila Carabine and Amanda Walther (DALA) on backing vocals, Kevin Fox on cello and Saam Hashemi on percussion.

The Ridge is a storytelling album. The album offers up a peek into the life of Julian Taylor in 8 tracks. It’s about life, love, disappointment, and dreams.

With all tour dates currently on hold due to COVID-19, Taylor is doing regular live streaming for his Patreon supporters (https://www.patreon.com/juliantaylormusic). Taylor plans to donate a portion of the sales from The Ridge to a scholarship he started in honour of Bruce Adamson. “This is something near and dear to my heart,” said Taylor. “Bruce was my bandmate for over a decade before he ended his own life. I started this scholarship in his name to help at-risk children who are interested in pursuing music.” (http://shineconcert.ca/bruce-adamson/)

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Neil Young: Homegrown [Silver Bow Productions, Inc.]

Have you ever started something and then life got away on you. Neil Young‘s Homegrown was recorded after a relationship breakup. Recorded in ’74 and ’75, unreleased for decades, because according to Young, Homegrown “was just a very down album.”

Young has described the 12-track album as “the unheard bridge between Harvest and Comes A Time.” Accompanying Young, the LP boasts a backing band consisting of Levon Helm, Karl T. Himmel, Ben Keith, Tim Drummond, Stan Szelest, and Robbie Robertson, with an appearance by Emmylou Harris.

I’m not sure what Neil was worried about, I love a good sad album. If parts of this album feel familiar, it’s because Homegrown, Love Is A Rose, White Line, Little Wing, and Star Of Bethlehem were all later released on other records.

One of my favourite tracks on Homegrown is Love Is A Rose. Originally recorded by Linda Ronstadt in 1975 as the opening track to her Prisoner in Disguise album, Young also released a version on his 1977 compilation, Decade.

“I apologize. This album Homegrown should have been there for you a couple of years after Harvest. It’s the sad side of a love affair. The damage done. The heartache. I just couldn’t listen to it. I wanted to move on. So I kept it to myself, hidden away in the vault, on the shelf, in the back of my mind… but I should have shared it. It’s actually beautiful. That’s why I made it in the first place. Sometimes life hurts. You know what I mean. This is the one that got away.” – Neil Young

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Bob Dylan: Rough and Rowdy Ways [Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment]

Nobel Prize-winning, Bob Dylan returns with Rough and Rowdy Ways, his first album of original material since 2012. Dylan sings about history, pop culture, mortality, inspiration and love, plus much more.

The 10-track album is full of name drops, rhymes, lyrical mysteries and croons for the ages.

Rough and Rowdy Ways, is Dylan’s 39th studio album. It’s brimming with quiet melancholy and big, bold blues sounds. Almost 80, Dylan remains relevant.

This past spring, without warning, over three weeks, Dylan dropped three selections from Rough and Rowdy Ways. At the stroke of midnight, on three Fridays he released I Contain Multitudes, False Prophet, and Murder Most Foul. Those tunes bookend the new 70½-minute double album. Murder Most Foul contributes close to 17 minutes of that total time, and it’s his first song to hit number one on the Billboard chart.

Last week, in a rare interview with The New York Times, when asked about the current pandemic, Bob Dylan said, “I think it’s a forerunner of something else to come. It’s an invasion for sure, and it’s widespread, but biblical? You mean like some kind of warning sign for people to repent of their wrongdoings? That would imply that the world is in line for some sort of divine punishment. Extreme arrogance can have some disastrous penalties. Maybe we are on the eve of destruction. There are numerous ways you can think about this virus. I think you just have to let it run its course.”

And in a follow-up call, when asked about George Floyd, the singer-songwriter said “It sickened me no end to see George tortured to death like that,” he said. “It was beyond ugly. Let’s hope that justice comes swift for the Floyd family and for the nation.”

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Bad Cop, Bad Cop: The Ride [Fat Wreck Chords]

Awesome So-Cal pop-punk band Bad Cop, Bad Cop are back with another Fat Wreck Chord release. The Ride has twelve tracks, and it offers a blend of positivity and affirmation of self, along with some political messages.

The album offers up everything we’ve come to expect from the all-female quarter, including prodigious punk rock power, badass guitar riffs and great messaging.

Bad Cop, Bad Cop are Stacey Dee on vocals and guitar, Jennie Cotterill also on vocals and guitar, Myra Gallarza on drums, and Linh Le on bass and vocals.

Kicking off the album, Originators reminds me of old NOFX, complete with fuzzy guitars. It delivers great harmonies, and that continues throughout the album. Certain Kind of Monster and Pursuit of Liberty pick up the political gauntlet tackling immigration.  Each song looks at the issue from a different viewpoint. Breastless brings Stacey Dee’s battle with breast cancer to the front. A topic most would be cautious about approaching, the song is honest and positive.

I like this album. It’s well-produced, it’s got great songs, and it makes me want to see this band live soon.

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Phoebe Bridgers: Punisher [Dead Oceans]

If I were writing a headline, it’d be – Phoebe Bridgers Delivers Delicious Emo-Folk with Punisher.

Similar to her first album, it delivers more of what fans have come to expect from the singer. Eleven skillfully produced sad songs about desperation, self-destruction, love, broken faith, and the ever-elusive recovery.

Phoebe’s sweet, airy, high voice disguises the darkness, the intensity of her lyrics. The album is well written, beautifully produced and with a touch of horns in Kyoto we’re heading down a favourite road of mine. Phoebe is direct and funny.

Punisher takes us to soft, quiet places on Moon Song, and then drops us in the cacophony of guitar feedback, screaming, cymbals, and more nearing the end of the final track, I Know The End.

If you’re looking for an album to drop on, and let it play, Punisher should be on your list.

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Trish Cassling

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Toronto Music Blogger