Now that I look at it, this week at Spectrum Culture was entirely about music for me. Even the film review I contributed was bursting with it, appropriate considering it was about the legendary Muscle Shoals recording studios that have factored into countless classic rock songs. It’s a good thing the director was able to drop in plenty of the songs (which must have cost plenty), because the film doesn’t have much else to recommend it.

On the music review side, I covered one disappointment and one winner, and they didn’t fall into those categories in quite the way I might have expected. First, I was assigned to write on the new album from Kim Gordon’s first significant post-Sonic Youth project because the editor-in-chief correctly surmised that I’m a Sonic Youth fan. (My take, published last year, on a live Sonic Youth album remains, I think, one of my better album reviews for the site.) Unfortunately, the album is a let-down, another warning, along with several half-baked side projects and solo efforts over the years, that the alchemy of the whole band is a special thing.

On the other hand, I became one of many who have accepted entry onto the Haim bandwagon. Maybe that makes me a sucker, but–damnit!–a good album is a good album. And Days Are Gone is a very good album.