In previous years, I posted these round ups every week or two, necessitating a small dilution in quality with the voracious drive for quantity. During those days, I had to let some B-grade material slip through — never less than solid, but not always top of the class.

No longer! All A’s nowadays. In fact, the main criteria I presently employ when considering an album to spotlight is whether I would buy it on vinyl. If it even comes under consideration for trying to make room on my record shelves, then it’s likely going up for your consideration, too. For these two, I made space.

Prepare for quality to smack you in the face. Let’s round ’em up.

The Paranoid Style — The Interrogator

An abundance of pop culture references roll over you like waves, like an avalanche, from The Beatles to Jean Luc Goddard. Who namechecks Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat in 2024? The Paranoid Style, that’s who. Also, you have to be a serious music geek to reference Nick Lowe’s “I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass” with your own “I Love The Sound Of Structured Class.” The music often hits that rarely-mined 1977-1982 era of new rock (more Pretenders than skinny tie New Wave) so it doesn’t sound like anything else contemporary that’s trying to sound retro. The music is great, and sometimes the singing is more speak-singing, but ultimately everything is a vehicle for the lyrics. The Interrogator benefits from repeated listening — there’s a lot to investigate, and a lot to learn.

Taylor McCall — Mellow War

A concept album dedicated to McCall’s grandfather, a Vietnam vet turned preacher. That’s him on the cover. Uneasy bluesiness with touches of gospel; waking up with a psychedelic hangover, wrapped in the sheets of late 60’s acoustic Beggars/Bleed Stones. Everything stays at the same slow to mid-tempo, but mellow is in the title, after all. Echoes of The Band and Chris Stapleton. Feels like it would be considered a classic album had it been released 40 or 50 years ago.