Week of September 7 – 13, 2026
Sensory Dispensary
“The record you didn’t know you needed is what I am listening to in the other room.”
“The record you didn’t know you needed is what I am listening to in the other room.”
A couple of busy days made this a strong week. I rediscovered some old favorites, gave some new stuff a chance, and filled out the rest of the week with some heavy rotation choices.
I like Abacab a bunch, and there are some great tracks on some of the later releases as welll, but for my money Duke is the last truly great Genesis album. “Behind the Lines” is a great lead track and it doesn’t disappoint at all from there. “Misunderstanding” isn’t my favorite, and out of album context I usually skip it, but I tolerate it when I listen to the whole album for completion purposes.
You really can’t go wrong with a Pretenders album. I admittedly have been lapse in keeping up with their last few releases, something I am trying to remedy when I remember. Chrissie always sounds great. I wouldn’t rank it with their best but I don’t regret giving it a bit of time to listen.
This album grabbed me the very first time I listened and it hasn’t loosened one bit, perhaps I am closer to it today than ever. It is and I think always will be one of my very favorite albums.
Back in college my friend Dylan took a semester (or maybe it was a year?) and traveled to the U.K. and Ireland. She gave me a tape when she got back with “There’s No Other Way” on it and it had such a cool psychedelic vibe to it. The album hadn’t been released in the U.S. yet but my guy at ABCDs was able to get an import copy for me. I don’t listen to it often enough.
I was visiting my friend Rich at college when he played this for me. I had seen the video for the title track and the rest of the album also had that same retro feel. When Mama Said came out, that sort of took all of my Lenny attention, but this really is nearly as good, and that’s saying a lot.
A random choice but I enjoyed it. It kind of reminded me of an American version of XTC. Worth more listens and checking out the rest of their stuff.
I wasn’t sure if Roger Waters was ever going to top Amused to Death, or given the time that traversed between them, if we were even going to ever get a follow-up. I had this on daily repeat for months and it still gets a ton of play. It’s very likely going to grab the top spot on my last.fm album list soon. It is a remarkable work.
This one just showed up at the bottom of a Spotify page and I was immediately filled with glee! I hadn’t listened to this in years, I would say literally forgotten but man, it is so back now. This is still so good.
A fine offering from Steve Forbert, the uniquely talented singer / songwriter who has assembled a wonderful career full of the carefully crafted songs that only he can sing.
Not sure how, but his song “Summertime Thing” keeps showing up in my Spotify lists, and I quite like it, so I thought I would do a bit of digging. This, from 2004, served as a pretty good introduction to a full album experience. I didn’t love it but it was interesting enough that I will dig further. I also need to check out the band Green and Red, which he was a member of as well.
I can’t believe Suzanne Vega has been part of my life for over 40 years now. There is something about her phrasing on “Marlene on the Wall” that I find intoxicating. Not from this album, but her a cappella original of “Tom’s Diner” is far superior to the remix, and I will die on that hill.
Fagen without Becker is not Steely Dan, but this is a pretty damn good impersonation.
This is such a fun album to listen to as Joe and the band do their Swing thing. I’ve always loved that Joe Jackson has been free to do what he wishes when it comes to following his muse, whether it is here or doing a movie soundtrack, releasing a three sided live album with no audible audience, putting the old band back together, revisiting old songs with new arrangements. One of my favorite performers, a joy to see live.
Another band and album I don’t listen to frequently enough. I usually reach for Avalon but this time, something called out to me to pick this, I can’t explain, a song of some sort just compelled me and I couldn’t say no.
I read about this band and it mentioned that both members were originally in The Easybeats, the great Australian group of “Friday on my Mind” fame. I didn’t much care for this though, it was very anti-easybeats and the vocal phrasing was just plain odd. I recognized “Hey St. Peter” which if I had known was going to make an appearance, I would have just skipped this one entirely. I always hated that song, and the rest was pretty much like that.
I love Tedeschi Trucks Band a ton but it’s nice to go back and listen to young Derek lead his own band, and well worth the time. This live release is just great and Derek’s playing is crazy good as usual, and singer Mike Mattison reminded me just how fantastic he is when he takes that center stage. This is the version of the band we saw long ago at Martyr’s so it’s a bit nostalgic to revisit.
These guys are so good, it’s a shame they only released four albums before splitting up. I think I like Last Night on Earth a little better than this one, but you can’t go wrong with any of them. They are a unique and special band, and I am glad I discovered them.
I just picked this randomly from their discography because I was curious, and that’s what I do. I liked it, favorited some songs. Interesting lyrics for sure. I’ll get curious again and listen to something else, but this was good for now.
I have this weird blind spot when it comes to Band of Horses. I really like them and listen to them frequently, but I can never remember which album has which songs on it. I don’t know why this happens, and this doesn’t really happen with any other band. So when I get in to a Band of Horses mood, I just pick one and hope it is not the same as the one I picked last time. Doesn’t much matter, I always enjoy my choice.
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