Hot New Tracks From Charles Bradley, Fujiya & Miyagi, and More

Mother Jones critic Jon Young dissects four albums by the song.


TRACK 12

“Heartaches and Pain”

from Charles Bradley’s No Time for Dreaming (Daptone)

Liner notes: The searing ballad that closes this stunning debut recalls the bleak moment when the singer’s brother was shot and killed by his nephew.

Behind the music: Part of the new wave of gifted soul revivalists affiliated with Brooklyn’s Daptone Records (home of Sharon Jones), Bradley took a roundabout route to his first album. Born in 1948, he pursued music on the side for decades, while he worked as a chef.

Check it out if you like: Gritty R&B shouters, including James Brown, Wilson Pickett, and Dyke & the Blazers’ Arlester Christian, of “Funky Broadway” fame.


TRACK 5

“Yo Yo”

from Fujiya & Miyagi’s Ventriloquizzing (Yep Roc)

Liner notes: His monotone oozing cool disdain, David Best murmurs, “You change your mind when the wind blows…You know even less than you think you know,” as old-school synths pump out a casually funky groove.

Behind the music: Though you might think Fujiya & Miyagi are a Japanese duo, the quartet’s name comes from an obscure brand of audio equipment and the “wax on, wax off” teacher of The Karate Kid.

Check it out if you like: Krautrock (Neu!), synth-pop pioneers (Devo), and more recent electronica (LCD Soundsystem).


TRACK 11

“Understruggle; Yay, Win”

from Ben + Vesper’s Honors (Sounds Familyre)

Liner notes: Nudged by gentle banjo and mandolin, New Jersey spouses Ben and Vesper Stamper intertwine their lazy voices in musings on everything from a missing shirt to the nature of destiny, creating the feeling of hanging out with friends on a sleepy afternoon.

Behind the music: Vesper Stamper is named after Casino Royale Bond girl Vesper Lynd.

Check it out if you like: Sufjan Stevens, the Handsome Family (another married duo), Mountain Man, and others who bring idiosyncratic twists to familiar folk conventions.


TRACK 9

“The Cracks in the Walls”

from Broken Records’ Let Me Come Home (4AD)

Liner notes: “Never calm me down, I want to feel my heart is bursting out,” exclaims Jamie Sutherland with fidgety fervor, as thundering drums, jangling guitars, and mournful violin create a thrilling sense of apocalyptic drama.

Behind the music: Sutherland says the Edinburgh sextet’s second outing drew inspiration from Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska and landmark films like Badlands and East of Eden. The album’s initial recording sessions took place in an old distillery grain store in the Scottish highlands.

Check it out if you like: U2, Arcade Fire, and Jeff Buckley, all masters at depicting personal passions on epic canvases.

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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