Today's Top Tune

This June we’ll celebrate the 5oth anniversary of the seminal recording by Little Feat with a new deluxe edition of Feats Don’t Fail Me Now, featuring rare and unreleased versions plus outtakes from album sessions as well as a 1975 concert in Paris. Formed in Los Angeles in 1969, this outfit made a tasty stew of blues, country, R&B, and good ole’ rock n’ roll. We’ll share a song you may recognize, which has been sampled and covered by many — it’s an alternate version of the funky classic “Spanish Moon.”

Now that Beyonce released her country album to rave reviews, we’re seeing the buoying effect of her limelight, allowing other women artists to rise with the genre. Canadian artist Kaia Kater shines her love of the banjo with a love letter to her instrument. “In Montreal” is replete with head-spinning experimental rhythms and lyrics about a poet who feels lost and aimless, plus the added bonus of Grenadian-Canadian and Montreal native Allison Russell on vocals.

KCRW host Chris Douridas was heard declaring some fighting words about Suave Bruta, the debut album by French-Colombian double-bassist and singer Ëda Diaz: “I expect to go several tracks deep with airplay on this. My favorite album of 2024 so far. No skips.” That’s a big deal for a DJ who listens to A LOT of music on a daily basis. And we couldn’t agree more. Driven by an expansive cultural spectrum that incorporates a mix of woozy Latin American rhythms and romanticism akin to the writings of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the album makes it hard to choose just one song, but we’ve settled on “Dulce de Mar.”

Composer, arranger, producer, and multi-instrumentalist are among the descriptors for the artist known as Sly5thAve, who declared that his new album, Liberation, “exploded out of me. I couldn’t write it fast enough.” The result is layered with lush orchestral arrangements, innovative improvisation, and blessed with hip-hop production. Let’s turn to the title track, through which you can hear the meaning of the word.

Brooklyn-based indie-popping Yot Club, the creation of Ryan Kaiser, has a new album, Rufus, filled with inner thoughts turned into melodies like “Human Nature,” a toe-tapping earworm fixated on the acceptance of someone you once knew who has now turned into a stranger.

Not gonna lie, we are HUGE fans of the LA-based band of brothers The South Hill Experiment, born at the end of 2022 and named after their studio on South Hill St. in DTLA. For their new EPSouth Hill & Friends, the band opens up their borders to get in the sandbox with some of their friends to play with new sounds. “Little Monk” features Karriem Riggins on drums.

Dulcet-toned vocalist Lizz Wright celebrates 20 years as a recording artist with a new career-defining album, Shadow. Wright drafts five new songs to showcase alongside some of the great classic songwriters, including Cole Porter, Sandy Denny, and Candi Staton, and enlists friends like Angelique Kidjo and, on Today’s Top Tune, Meshell Ndegeocello on bass and Brandee Younger on harp for “Your Love.”

LA tongue-in-cheek rockers EELS gear up for their forthcoming fifteenth(!) studio album, EELS TIME!, early this summer. One thing you can count on is whimsical lyrics and an unmistakable sound. “Goldy” starts with a nod to The 5th Dimension’s Marilyn McCoo.

A signature of Beth Gibbons' voice is that you recognize the artist immediately, ingrained in our hearts and minds as the sound of Portishead. Deep, lush, and profoundly engaging, Gibbons releases her debut album Lives Outgrown mid-May. Recorded over a period of ten years, this album may be her most personal output to date, digging into sustained reflection and change, as echoed on “Floating On A Moment.”

For the last 20 years, The Avett Brothers anchored their status in the Americana/folk-rock arena with sophisticated sibling harmonies, ardent lyrics, and their own blend of country influences, to the delight of fans. After five years, they’re ready to release a new album, which is self-titled and produced by the esteemed Rick Rubin.

Let’s check out the jazz-leaning, organic sound structures and beautiful arrangements of Apifera.. The quartet’s new work, “Theodor Marmalade,” takes a new approach to delve into and meld psychedelic rock with alternative jazz, and is their first attempt at incorporating lyrics into their sound.

The Past Is Still Alive, is the next phase in Hurray for the Riff Raff’s progression as a raconteur. Born in the Bronx and of Puerto Rican descent, Alynda Segarra molds their lyrics into snapshots that hold memories, process their trauma, and makes sense of loss. The country-tinged “Alibi” comes in the form of a plea, one last effort to get through to someone you know you’re going to lose.

Always centered at night is the next pillar anchoring Moby’s extensive body of work. A constant collaborator, Moby’s next page includes some of his favorite vocalists, including the late Benjamin Zephaniah, serpentwithfeet, Gaidaa, and on “dark days,” the soul-infused, jazz-inflected vocals of Lady Blackbird.

Dublin-based multi-instrumentalist Conor J O’Brien, best known for heading up Villagers, recently announced their sixth studio album, That Golden Time, dropping May 10. It’s an apt title for a warm and romantic recording that extends to his work style. After sketching out and composing the work, Conor invites his band of hand-picked musicians to sprinkle their magic dust. “You Lucky One” delves into the masks we wear.

Today we celebrate the release of LA-based R&B singer (and KCRW’s Breakthrough Artist of 2023) Baby Rose’s new project Slow Burn, produced by the stellar outfit BADBADNOTGOOD. With a wide sonic realm rooted in psych-rock and alternative styles, we turn to a stand-out, “One Last Dance,” a vulnerable country ballad harkening back to the ‘70s.

With her first album in ten years, Vida, Chilean rapper and singer Ana Tijoux unleashes her indestructible spirit and social conviction on the project. A wise friend once told her something that has resonated — that the best revenge against death is life itself. “Vida is also a call to every single creator out there,” Tijoux says. “Singers, writers, sculptors, and performers, dancers, and painters – all of us. Our strength lies in sticking together. The only way to continue marching forward, preserve our sensitivity, and look fear in the eye is to rely on our collective identity.” A collection of 15 tracks, Vida is bejeweled by guest contributions from artists ile, Talib Kweli, and De La Soul’s Plug 1. We gravitate towards the wry distortion of “Niñx.”

Whether they’re your nemesis or closest ally, today is National Sibling Day. In honor of that, we’re getting down with Infinity Song, a band of four brothers and sisters based in NYC. Homeschooled musically and academically by their parents alongside their five other siblings, the band’s folks extended their love to found the Boys & Girls Choirs of Detroit. Jay-Z signed Infinity Song to his Roc Nation label in 2016, and wisely advised them not to conform to the label’s artistic culture and instead have the label catch up to them, which led to their 2020 album debut. Metamorphosis, their new EP, contains the tongue-in-cheek track “Hater’s Anthem.”

The Marías are busy putting the finishing touches on their eagerly-awaited sophomore album Submarine, out at the end of May, exploring solitude and the complexities of our emotions. While we wait, let’s enjoy the amuse bouche that is “Run Your Mouth.” On the release of “Run Your Mouth,” María shares, “This was one of the first songs Josh and I wrote on Submarine. I was conflict avoidant at the time, and whenever someone wanted to talk about something serious, I’d run and hide. I learned that was a protective mechanism and I didn’t have the capacity to open up. There’s no other song on the album like it, hope you dance to this one.”

“Bean Fields,” the latest track from Shannon & The Clams’ forthcoming album The Moon Is In The Wrong Place (out in May), is a celebration of life honoring Shannon Shaw’s fiancé, Joe Haener, who lost his life in a car accident at his family’s farm in Oregon. Their buoyant retro sound reminds us to live every moment to its fullest and cherish those we hold close to our hearts.

Four-time Grammy Award-winning six-string wiz Gary Clark Jr. continues to expand his inventive palette on his first new album in five years, JPEG RAW. An eclectic mix, “Maktub” is rich with flourishes of African highlife and Sahara blues.