2nd Batch of 2021 Music In

I'm a machine, I tell ya, a music-processing machine.

• Stéphane Grappelli & Yo-Yo Ma, "Anything Goes", 1989, 10 tracks. Mostly Cole Porter songs. iTunes brought this in as a Yo-Yo Ma classical album. On the original album cover, Stéphane clearly had top billing as is appropriate. I was surprised I didn't like this as much as the "Skol" album Stéphane did with Oscar Peterson. Wow, looking at his Wikipedia page, he was a collaborating fool from the 1970s into the 1990s. Still I'll go for 4 stars. Here's the track I think best mixes the violin & cello: "So In Love".

• Olivier St. Louis, "Matters of the Heartless", 2021, 7 tracks, Bandcamp. From the First Word Records sampler. Great R&B, from Berlin, Germany. 4 stars. Here's "Jump The Line", which was on the sampler.

• katie dey, "urdata", 2021, 12 tracks, Bandcamp. I read the album title as "ur" as in archetypal or primordial, then I saw I had her album "mydata". So I'm guessing "ur" is "your". Cute. Conceptually, I like this album. But, it is a little too conceptual for me, much moreso than her earlier albums. Lots of beeps & boops & weird filters. Well done, but, again, a bit too conceptual for me. 3 stars.
• TYPHOON, "Sympathetic Magic", 2021, 12 tracks, Bandcamp. Kind of whiny emo solo guitar and vocals - with occasionally some richer orchestration. Some of the tunes are OK, but it's way too much of the same. 3 stars.
• Willie Nelson, "That's Life", 2021, 11 tracks. His 3rd album of standards? It's funny, now when I get a standards album like this, I compare with my set lists. This album has 5 songs that are in my book: "just in time", "i've got you under my skin", "you make me feel so young", "i won't dance", and "lonesome road". Still, overall, I did not find these performances very compelling. 3 stars.
• Herb Ellis and Joe Pass, "Two For The Road", 1974, 13 tracks. Like I mentioned last time re Joe Pass "Virtuoso", this is a really lot of notes often played very fast - it definitely takes some getting used to. This is borderline, but they do play well together, so I'll go for 4 stars. Here's "I've Found a New Baby".

• Superorder, "What We Became", 2021, 7 tracks, Bandcamp. Chill, trancy dance grooves from this keyboards/percussion duo. The percussionist is my most excellent nephew Max Heinz of Portland, ME. 3 stars.
• Lake Street Dive, "Obviously", 2021, 11 tracks, Bandcamp???. Their 7th album, more than I would have thought. But, they've been together since 2004. Great poppy, catchy tunes. A couple are a little trite, but overall a fabulous effort. 4 stars. Here's the 1st track, "Hypotheticals".

• Nubiyan Twist, "Freedom Fables", 2021, 9 tracks. 7 different guest lead vocalists, FTW! 10 piece power R&B band out of London, really, really strong. Gawd, in my experience, there is nothing more powerful in a rock/blues/r&b band than the wall of sound of a 4 piece horn section. Great world beats. 4 stars, Here's "Wipe Away Tears", featuring Nick Richards.