A Song For Friday: Baby Cool

When an artist hits my Top 25, I keep my antenna on high alert for more, no matter how long it takes. Such is the case with Grace Cuell, whose first album as Baby Cool I praised in 2023 for its “sublimely light touch,” reveling in the spacious guitars and gentle rhythms of her country-psych-folk-pop sound, along with her hypnotic pronouncements. In the ensuing years, I did start to wonder if there would be a follow-up to Earthling On The Road To Self-Love, so I’m happy to report that Baby Cool is back today with the wonderful Infinity Baby (Fuzz Club/Reverberation Appreciation Society), which proves that the earlier album was no fluke.

After the sweetly indeterminate Intro, the album kicks in properly with the extravagant Mirage, filled with sparkling harp and swaggering guitar to underscore Cuell’s dreamy vocals. The album takes you on a journey, too, and by the time you get to Otherside, the last track, listener and artist both have earned every second of its grandeur.

Entering at midtempo with strummed acoustic guitar and gently plucked harp, Cuell’s voice floats in as if on a cloud of pure gothic romance: “What would it feel like, to dance with my sin/Deep into nothing/To stay with the wind.” Paging the Brontë sisters! Eventually, she builds a cathedral of multi-tracked, wordless vocals before a burst of feedback introduces another, slower section, led by piano. “So send me over the edge,” she sings, “Then I can see what the fuss is about/I’ll write to you while I’m there/tell you about what I find on the other side/The otherside.” The sound grows larger from there, as Cuell and her producer, Samuel Joseph, add lofty pedal steel, swirling harp, and transporting mellotron while she sings, “On the edge again” over and over. As the song flames out with more feedback, I’m on the edge, too!

If you’ve started at the end and are still swooning, go back to the whole album, and experience Infinity Baby all the way through. If you like physical product, Greenway Records is handling vinyl fulfillment in the U.S. and offering an Emerald Tide Splatter Variant in a limited edition of 200. If they sell out, you may still find one here. Infinity is just a click away…

Listen to most of the Songs For Friday here or below.

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zzzahara - Distant Lands (Lex) When Zahara Jaime released Spiral Your Way Out in January of last year, I called it the “first great album of 2025.” Well, they’ve done it again, with an album that has even greater variety and color than the last one. Some of that may be due to the influence of dreams, David Lynch, and feeling free enough to be inspired by fiction rather than the romantic ups and downs of their life. But since some of their dreams were about their brother, who died when they were 12, there is no shortage of emotion behind the songs. The energy is incredible here, too, with songs like Whispering Tree, Speedracer, and My Little Dove seeming unstoppable, soaring on uplifting guitars, taut bass, and propulsive percussion. It was a shock to realize that, except for a lovely guest vocal by Winter on the last track, zzzahara and their producer, Casey Lagos, were responsible for everything—the album often sounds like a band going full tilt in the studio! Such is the miracle of modern recording methods when wielded with passion and creativity.

Zoh Amba - Eyes Full (Matador) Even though I try to keep up with New York’s avant-garde scene, I hadn’t heard of Amba, who has played saxophone with Tyshawn Sorey and other luminaries, before. But this album finds the Tennessee-born musician making her debut as a singer-songwriter, and it is a striking collection indeed. With a voice like cracked leather soaked in whiskey, Amba approaches each song as if it might be her last, with her raw guitar tangling with Kevin Hyland’s and both of them driven on by Jim White’s drums. Her palette includes blues, folk, country, and punk, and she applies them with bold, dramatic brushstrokes and the ease of someone who comes to it all honestly. I feel fairly certain we won’t hear a more immediate album this year.

Vince Staples - Cry Baby (Loma Vista) Over a decade ago, I included Staples’ debut in the Best Of 15: Hip Hop, noting that “he shows a lot of promise, with more personality than many young M.C.’s.” While I haven’t loved every album (Big Fish Theory (2017) and Ramona Park Broke My Heart (2022) were both winners, while Dark Times (2024) was good but felt transitional), I was definitely right. I’m also happy to report that this new album is a return to form, with the rapper revitalized by a new sound based on sixties rock and soul, as well as the trip hop and electronic music he’s drawn on in the past. The refreshing blend of live and synthetic sounds feels quite distinct from most hip-hop today, and while he’s only one producer among many, you can hear the stamp of soul revivalist Homer Steinweiss (the Dap Kings, etc.) in the grooves. The incorporation of classic American idioms rubs up against Staples’ gimlet-eyed view of America today in interesting ways throughout the album. And it all comes together when he quotes Edwin Starr in the last track, 7 in the Morning: “War, what is it good for?/And what’s the point of peace if we can break it?/All the wars we wage as nations over money or location or religious ideation.”

Lee “Scratch” Perry & Mouse On Mars - Spatial, No Problem (Domino). In the years since the reggae icon and production innovator died in 2021, there have been various posthumous releases of varying quality, but this is of a different order entirely. I originally thought the German duo of Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma had been handed tapes of unfinished songs or vocals with the remit to make of them what they could. But in fact, the eight songs here were made with Perry during a three-day session in 2019. While it’s unclear why this took so long to be completed, the results are multi-layered, hypnotic grooves that draw on reggae, dub, Afrobeat, jazz, electronic music, funk, and more, with horns, synths, and percussion leading the charge. It all sounds fabulous, and as a big fan of glitchy Mouse On Mars masterpieces from the 90s like Autoditacker and Glam, I’m not sure where the duo got the skills they display here. Perry’s mastery of vibes and sonics surely helped, and it speaks volumes that he not only sought out Werner and Toma but that he felt comfortable enough to wander through the tracks, muttering and chanting about Sesame Street, the Roman Empire, and subjects in between. Except for the last track, which feels a little wayward, it’s a stunningly effective album and should serve as a true last word from Perry.

Grid Ila - Xe (Buh Records) Based on the wide range of electronic, industrial, post-punk, and dance influences he brings to bear on this debut, José G. Villarroel must have a killer record collection. A Venezuelan now living in Peru, he builds up juicy, driving tracks with guitar, bass, percussion, and sequencers, aided by Juan Diego Capurro, who contributes vocals or percussion to a few tracks and produced the album. If Xe sounds like it came from the underground, that’s deliberate, as Villarroel’s concept for the album was to tell the story of a future Lima, where music is censored and can only travel through clandestine means. Get in on the secret.

Meadow Argus - Dreams Are Another Doorway (Kirigirisu Recordings) This is the work of Tynan Krakoff, who lists the sound sources on this mind-movie as “tape loops & other tape manipulation, organ, keyboard, music box, field recordings, old personal/found recordings, and other mysteries dark & vast.” That’s completely accurate, too, and this disparate blend of materials is unified by being assembled on a four-track cassette deck. With voices, radio static, and the occasional saxophone, Dreams Are Another Doorway is firmly in the lineage of ambient music and sound-art collages, such as Pere Ubu’s Crush This Horn. Evocative in the extreme.

Nolan Hildebrand - Noise Trip Explosion (Redshift) Encompassing works from the last five years, this is an exciting introduction to a fearless composer and musician. Starting with the first track, generative open graphic score #1, the Toronto-based artist announces himself with a five-alarm fire of squiggles and snarls generated by Colin Fisher’s saxophones and Hildebrand’s (mixer feedback), sounding like tuning a radio at top volume. Other tracks incorporate guitar, piano, violin, and percussion, all twisted and torn by Hildebrand’s manipulations. Created with percussionists Louis Pino, Nikki Huang, Hoi Tong Keung, Jasmine Tsui, Thomas Li, and Bevis Ng, DADA BENDER has a touch of Raymond Scott and Carl Stalling’s antics, ending the album on a lighthearted note.

Joseph Franklin - The Horror of the Avant-Garde(s) (New Focus) Don’t be afraid! While this concerto for piano (Marc Hannaford) and percussion (Satoshi Takeishi) has plenty of high-wire moments for the soloists, they never fail to catch themselves on the edge of disaster. The soloists pirouette around and interact with dazzling instrumental colors supplied by 13 expert players, including Franklin on contrabass guitar and harmonium, in a work of substance and surprise. The premiere in Franklin’s native Australia included a children’s choir, butoh dance, visual art, and “culinary ‘horrors,’” whatever that means. It sounds like an enterprising New York City venue (The Shed? Perelman Arts Center? Lincoln Center?) should present that here STAT.

Diego Tedesco - Varietas (New Focus) Opening with the spiky, swooning Capriccio (2017), played with flair by Miranda Cuckson (violin) and the all-star Composers Conference Ensemble conducted by James Baker, this debut portrait album is a terrific introduction to Tedesco. Variety is the name of the game, too, as the Argentine composer also gives us solo works for guitar (Dan Lippell) and violin (Cuckson) and electronics, along with other chamber pieces, and an otherworldly vocal piece, De los sos ojos, sung with both abandon and command by Natalia Cappa. In 2024, she included the piece on her album, Una, which I either missed or was too young to understand. Well, I’m on to you now, Tedesco!

Note: The graphic above is based on a photo by Lucy Kelly.