You're gonna need a little music.
I love it when a Fresh Pick does my job for me. Take it from our Album of the Week from Leeds post-punk band, Yard Act, You're Gonna Need A Little Music and luckily you've come to the right place.
Alongside Yard Act's terrific third album, check out Orquesta Akokán's magnificent mambo on América!, The Real Chuck NORAD's Minnesota trip-hop with Circuit, and Umut Adan and Zebânis' Turkish psych and then some on Başka Bahar.
For singles this week, Ezra Collective and Lila Iké's "Well Organised" connects London and Jamaica, Jess Williamson's Didion-inspired "Goodbye To All That," Panda Bear & Sonic Boom take Beach Boys harmony to outer space on "Revive Him," and Danielle Nicole says you won't "Gaslight" me.
Then our resident Linda Ron-stan (stadt), Julia Schrenkler talks the legend's 1976 album Hasten Down the Wind, and her outsized impact on music in the '70s on this week's Pick from '76.
Check out this week's suggestions from Music Director Kari Hedlund, Asst. Music Director Malachy Koons, Volunteer Coordinator Dan Gannon and Director of Audience Engagement Julia Schrenkler.
Albums
Album of the Week: Yard Act - You're Gonna Need A Little Music
"We make hits!" sang Yard Act frontman James Smith on their song of the same name off 2024's Where's My Utopia?
The Leeds post-punk band is still at it on their latest release, but the tension and disillusionment with success is ratcheted up on You're Gonna Need A Little Music.
"New Beginnings," "You're Gonna Need A Little Music," "Talky Talky People" and "Over The Barrel" are all rock hits of the finest order, from the sing-song rhymes on the chorus of "Beginnings," the stadium ready disco of the title track, to the bright pop of "Talky Talky" and the twinkling piano rag that lifts the album's closer.
Much of the album, however, is focused on the pitfalls of success that the "hits" (their first two albums went top five on the UK Albums Chart) have brought, with lost friendships, jealousy and the difficulties of constant touring on Smith's mind.
Just as rewarding as the catchiest moments is the palpable anger of opener "Empty Pledges," the punk rants of "Cherophobe Rock" and "Thrill of the Chase," and the hauntingly intimate story of catching up with a former fling that Smith recounts on "Janey," where the singer realizes his life in the band is all consuming and has made him harder to relate to.
Despite the dark themes, Yard Act are never afraid to be playful, absurd and a little sleazy. The contrast is what makes the music so good, and you can tell that beyond their music making approach, it's the way they navigate a dark world getting darker. -MK
Orquesta Akokán - América!
The Havana mambo group's fourth album is a beautiful blend of Latin soul, boogaloo and salsa, with star appearances from Miriam Elhajli, Carolina Oliveros, Mireya Ramos and Papote Jiménez. The horns are out of this world, the grooves are hip-shaking and the guest vocalists from throughout the Latin American diaspora tell a heartwarming story of migration, culture, community and missing home. -MK
The Real Chuck NORAD - Circuit
The first time I stumbled upon this band, I was visiting the 331 Club for the sole reason there was live music that night. I was blown away by their energy and interesting jazz-funk fusion. A few months later, I fell in love with their "People Have the Power" cover when it appeared on the Music For Good mixtape. Nonetheless, I was unprepared for the beautifully moody trip-hop and funk landscape the Minneapolis group has built on their debut EP Circuit. The line "a soundtrack to a dystopian future we deserve" in their Bandcamp bio says everything you need to know. -MK
Umut Adan and Zebânis - Başka Bahar
If you like similar but different, think chocolate ice cream and rocky road, then this record of Turkish psychedelic rock is right up your alley. Think Tinariwen being raised in Istanbul instead of the Maghreb deserts of North Africa, and you will be bobbing your head to the grooviest guitar riffs that ever grooved.
The record was recorded over several years as Umut Adan and his band Zebânis travelled from Türkiye to Italy to Belgium, reflecting the internationalism of his sound. The opening cut "Bogotà" includes the poetic lyric in Spanish "Somos el coraje de una etapa incierta" which translates to "we are the courage of an uncertain stage" and hints at a folk music protest vibe dressed up in psych-rock. Başka Bahar also features folkier songs that have a protest aura that seeps through the Turkish lyrics, and we all know that you don't always have to fully understand the words to get their intention. -DG
Singles
Ezra Collective - "Well Organised ft. Lila Iké"
Sounds of the Caribbean are sprinkled throughout the new song from the London jazz collective. Led by vocals from Jamaican musician Lila Iké and the steelpan subtly playing in the background was recorded by bandleader Femi Koleoso at a youth club in London. Iké's vocals are warm and soothing at centerstage — a perfect invitation to the upcoming album, Here Because of Hope, due out in September. -KH
Jess Williamson - "Goodbye To All That"
The TX singer-songwriter's first single from her upcoming sixth album, A Mile South of Heaven (Oct. 9, 2026), is inspired by a Joan Didion essay of the same name. Where Didion wrote about leaving New York City, Williamson's single deals with leaving Los Angeles and splitting her time between the city of angels and her new home of Marfa. The scary balance of leaving something you love and the hope that comes from new beginnings rings out in her voice. Space, like the distance between her two homes and the wide open places that surround Marfa, is everywhere in the mix. -MK
Panda Bear & Sonic Boom - "Revive Him"
If you like the Beach Boys and outer space sounds then you will love love love this poppy lil' creature. Your fingers will snap, your head will willingly wobble and your ears will ingest the sweet druggy syrup of this tune off their new A ? of When album. The lyrics speak to a struggle within oneself where you are simultaneously attempting to survive AND revive oneself. Bears repeated listens this one does!! -DG
Danielle Nicole - "Gaslight"
"I've been thinking about what you've been thinking I should be / After much reflection, I think I'm just gonna stay me."
In the latest song from Danielle Nicole (Trampled Under Foot), the blueswoman finds herself in the middle of a toxic relationship, and as you can see in the lyrics above, she's making the call to leave. The song is funky with drums by Tony Braunagel, who has worked with blues legends like Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal, and Nicole's vocals channeling a bit of another legend in the genre, Susan Tedeschi. -KH
Pick From '76
Linda Ronstadt - Hasten Down the Wind
If you experienced the '70s, you couldn't miss Linda Ronstadt. Between 1969 and 1980, she released ten albums ensuring a consistent beat of airplay and appearances. Her particular alchemy combining an absolutely stunning vocal range and cool-chick-you'd-like-to-know energy delivered a full focus performance to any song she chose. Whether you heard her on the radio or caught her rocking style on The Midnight Special TV Show, you could be a captive to the set.
Linda is a performer, and she delivered back in '76, the year she dropped the ultimately platinum Hasten Down the Wind, which included charting covers of "Crazy" and "That'll Be The Day." Coming from a decidedly devoted Buddy Holly fan family, you'd have thought we'd disapprove of her take on the latter. Ronstadt's direct delivery, combined with a strong sense that she herself was actually enjoying the song, upon radio play, it would bring family folks out of the woven lawn chairs and to their feet, dancing in the garage and singing along. While her cover of "Crazy" hit the Country chart a bit later, it didn't hit my heart the way the lead track "Lose Again" did. The whole album could be the soundtrack to a girl's roller coaster of night home after a break up, just grab your hairbrush mic and lip sync to the title track, her rendition of a Warren Zevon song.
Overall, the Hasten Down The Wind tracklist is very, well, Linda. How one artist could release an album that could simultaneously appear on rock, country, and easy listening charts kind of bumfuzzles the mind now, but there she was landing crossover hits and creating a crazy quilt of varied chart numbers record after record across an entire decade. Hasten Down The Wind was no exception. Songs from this album as well as her other releases got airplay even as her following album was shipped and sold, so it's nearly impossible to frame a single set in the gallery of a decade.
Track selections weren't the only delivery of variables. It seemed she worked with everyone in the U.S. music scene, across a wide range of skills and disciplines. Sure, why not have Peter Asher (Peter and Gordon), Don Henley (The Eagles) and singer/songwriter Karla Bonoff as back up vocals (and more!) on a single record? That doesn't even begin to touch the long list of respected studio musicians and choir vocals that add to the recipe.
While I am definitely a fan of Linda's voice and work, and have never hidden my love for her earlier album Heart Like a Wheel, a sweet and notable point about Hasten Down the Wind is that it includes her first released song recorded (partly) in Spanish. Linda is listed as a co-writer of "Lo Siento Mi Vida", and one could imagine a lost girl penning the wistful, lonely love letter it is. Whether the song is to a lover, a way to respect her childhood that included Mexican music and honor her heritage, or to the act of longing itself, it is low, long wrencher. As an adult, I wonder if she wasn't expressing some of the fame-based isolation and distance she admitted to in interviews at the time. It's possibly the first single B-side I decided I liked more than the "star" single, and that's a rite of passage for listeners of a certain age. -JS
