July 2025

First Edition: Lots of variety this month

Welcome to this first edition of the monthly Listening Record. You can get new posts by subscribing to my Substack.

Below you’ll find a list of albums I enjoyed in the previous month and a playlist with (at most) two songs from each. A sampler. The playlist is just in the order of when I listened in the month…nothing more intentional than that, so some major tone shifts ahead!

Anything I especially enjoy in the month is starred.*

If I remember who suggested the album, it will appear just below after the indented bullet. (Future posts won’t have so much explanation.)

More next month. If you like something, share Listening Record with a friend.

  • Remi Wolf, Big Ideas*

  • Laura Anglade, Venez donc chez moi

  • Steely Dan, Aja

    • Nick Schmitt

  • Francis and the Lights, Farewell, Starlite!

  • Little Simz, Lotus

    • Austin Holloway

  • Various, Mary Poppins (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

  • Gotts Street Park, Volume One and Volume Two

  • Brittany Howard, Jaime

  • Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, Spielt Eigen Kompositionen

    • Julian Lage

  • Valley, Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden

    • Andrew Borror

  • Aretha Franklin, Young, Gifted, and Black

  • Nate Smith, Pocket Change

  • Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden, Jasmine*

  • The Head and the Heart, The Head and the Heart

    • Ann Schmitt

  • Leon Bridges, Good Thing

  • Chappell Roan, Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess

    • Alex Schmitt

  • Breton Yard, Brief Introductions

    • Andrew Mook

  • Thelonious Monk, Solo Monk

  • FORQ, Threq

  • Fela Kuti, Zombie

  • Laufey, Bewitched

  • Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Charlie Haden, Tokyo Adagio

  • Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Multi-Love

  • Sylvan Esso, What Now

  • Andrew Bird, Echolocations: Canyon

  • Schubert, OSM Chamber Soloists, Octet in F Major, D. 803

  • Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill

  • Benny Sings, Young Hearts

  • Mark Guiliana, MARK

  • Andy Shauf, Norm

  • Pomplamoose, Photogenique

  • Charles Tolliver, Stanley Cowell (Music Inc.), Music Inc.

Coming August 1: Listening Record

This is Listening Record, a monthly list of albums I have enjoyed in the previous month. Every post includes a list of albums and a Spotify playlist with a sampling of songs for you to try out. Released on the 1st of each month, you can comment or contact if you want to suggest something in particular for the future.

That’s it.

No pitch for money, none of my scholarly work. No complaints on politics or the weather.

Just music.

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