April 2026 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

Screenshot of the trailer for Finnish National Opera’s production of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Festen by There Stands the Glass.

The Top Ten Albums of April 2026
1. Ella Langley- Dandelion
Somethin’ simple.

2. Dave Douglas- Transcend
Above and beyond.

3. Marta Sanchez- For the Space You Left
Treated piano.

4. Thundercat- Distracted
Atomic dog.

5. Squarepusher- Kammerkonzert
The chamber music of tomorrow.

6. Mike and Earl Sweatshirt- Pompeii//Utility
Blurrier and slurrier.

7. Isata Kanneh-Mason- Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3
A delectable souvenir of a recital I caught in 2024.

8. Dan Penn- Smoke Filled Room
My review.

9. sunn O)))- sunn O)))
Zero tolerance for silence.

10. My New Band Believe- My New Band Believe
My review.

The Top Ten Reissues and Reimaginings of April 2026
1. Rosalía- Lux: Complete Works
Expanded version of the 2025 stunner.

2. Jimmy Scott- Falling In Love Is Wonderful
Killing me softly.

3. Kronos Quartet- Glorious Mahalia
How she got over.

The Top Ten Songs of April 2026
1. Nduduzo Makhathini- “Kuzodlula”
Blessed quietude.

2. Beth Orton- “Waiting”
Wallowing in misery.

3. Karol G and Greg Gonzalez- "Después de ti"
After you.

4. Céline Dion- “Dansons”
Jetlag is doing funny things to me.

5. Baalti and Lapgan- “Romance”
Remembering Asha Bhosle.

6. aja monet featuring Mick Jenkins and Vic Mensa- “melting clocks”
Timeless.

7. That Mexican OT- “Still Virgil”
Victory lap.

8. Quiet Light- “Self Tape”
Blue Monday.

9. Bruce Hornsby featuring Blake Mills and Bob Weir- “Might as Well Be Me, Florinda”
My review.

10. Matthew Stevens and Josh Johnson- “Hazy”
The apogee of the sound of the moment.

The Top Ten Performances of April 2026
Rapturous life events involving extensive travel precluded me from attending ten performances in April.

The previous monthly recap is here.

Album Review: Dan Penn- Smoke Filled Room

Karaoke isn’t my thing. Forced to participate, I might turn to the songbook of Dan Penn. “It Tears Me Up” and “The Dark End of the Street” are beyond my limited range, but I’d like to think I could pull off "Cry Like a Baby" or "I'm Your Puppet" through the use of goofy gesticulations.

Penn’s new album Smoke Filled Room is loaded with new karaoke candidates. The hard-knock “Blues of the Month Club” is a solid update of the Bobby “Blue” Bland hit “Members Only.” The reverent gospel composition “One Blue Light” sounds for all the world like a new Christmas classic.

“Nothing Out There” is an ode to mature love. A polished cover of the octogenarian’s breakup song “Leave It Like You Found It” could become a hit for Miranda Lambert. But compelled to step up to the mic, I’d attempt to talk-sing my way through the blue-eyed soul of the title track.

When I Think About the Good Love You Gave Me

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Rendered senseless by a regrettable quantity of liquid courage, I’d go with “I’m Your Puppet” or “Cry Like a Baby” at a bar’s karaoke night.  As with many Dan Penn compositions, the melodies and lyrics are so ingratiating that sympathetic people would likely mask my caterwauling by heartily singing along.  Furthermore, both familiar classics justify the ridiculous gesticulating that come naturally to me.  Penn, 78, the writer or co-writer of the Southern soul classics “Do Right Woman, Do Write Man,” “It Tears Me Up,” “Rainbow Road” and “The Dark End of the Street” in addition to “I’m Your Puppet” and Cry Like a Baby,” released another set of lived-in story songs in June.  The unassuming Living on Mercy is packed with gems worthy of Penn’s legacy.  Soul revivalists and honky tonk traditionalists would do well to incorporate “Soul Connection” and “I Do” into their repertoires.  I’ve already added the graphic heartbreak of "Blue Motel" to my hypothetical karaoke routine.

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The Kansas City musician Steve Phillips has died.  All the reports I’ve seen focus on the guitarist’s membership in the Celtic rock band The Elders.  I first became aware of Phillips through Steve, Bob & Rich’s frequent performances at the Westport club Blayney’s in the 1980s.  The trio became the core of the hit-making heartland rock band The Rainmakers after my one-time associate Peter Lubin signed the musicians to Mercury Records.

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The only thing worse than absorbing a hurtful insult is the gnawing suspicion the dismissal is warranted.  I began an impertinent analysis of the listlessness bedeviling Kansas City’s jazz scene at Plastic Sax.

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An extremely imaginative staging of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Les Indes Galantes” demonstrates how an archaic 300-year-old opera can be made relevant.  The dazzling German production was the 196th installment of my daily opera marathon.