Consumer Guide: April, 2025

Flawlessly executed down-and-out Americana tales, a gentler approach to a veteran speed soukous master, Pepto-Bismol and other troths explored, and hilarious noises that may make your eardrums bleed.

MC Paul Barman: Tectonic Texts (Househusband Records) How about that—the wise-ass Brown undergrad who took up hip-hop a quarter century ago just so he could rhyme “hunter-gatherer” with “cunter-latherer” and “Super Bowl” with “pooper hole” has just turned 50. So to show off his maturing skills he resorts not just to the maturing likes of “formidable”-“oral skills” and “nipple play”-“hit the hay” but “humor me”-“perfumery” and even the all too fiftysomething “Are I Peewee?” So I’m glad he resumed his hobby while noting that his flow, while agile, never truly earned that terrific honorific. B PLUS