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This week’s picks include friendly American pop with a bit of a subversive streak and West Africa’s answer to the Buena Vista Social Club.

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Cotonou Club (Strut Records)

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo comes from the town of Cotonou, in the small West African nation of Benin. They’ve been around since the 70s, but their new album, called Cotonou Club, is their first in 25 years. For some years, it was assumed that the band had broken up, and it was rumored that at least some of the guys were dead. Well, those reports, as they say, were greatly exaggerated, as the lively “Von Vo Nono” shows.

The fact that we have a new recording by Orchestre Poly-Rythmo is due to a French journalist having a car accident. Really. French radio producer Elodie Maillot went to Benin, and found to her surprise that not only were the musicians still alive, but they were still playing their heady brew of funk, soul, and traditional vodun drumming. The band asked her to produce a recording, but it wasn’t until she got an insurance settlement from a car accident that she had the money to actually do the job. The results are appealingly loose-limbed, but with an almost hypnotic rhythmic drive. 

The album is called Cotonou Club, the Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, from Benin. [Available at Amazon] - Picked by John Schaefer

Sallie Ford and The Sound Outside - Dirty Radio (Partisan Records)

Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside’s debut album, Dirty Radio, feels like something out of a 1950s sock hop… a kind of risky sock hop, somewhere in the mountains, where the local kids have nothing better to do than get in trouble. With her lustful rockabilly vocals and cat-eye retro glasses, lead singer Sallie Ford clearly has an eye—and an ear—for the timeless.

The album name, Dirty Radio, is ripped from the opening song, titled “I Swear.” Its disdainful lyrics make it clear that Sallie Ford and her backing trio would like nothing more than to sully the mainstream pop airwaves. The same devil-may-care attitude is reflected on the track, “Danger,” which features the warm walking bass line of Sound Outside member Tyler Tornfelt.

Although the band met in Portland, Oregon, Sallie Ford’s childhood in the eclectic Blue Ridge town of Asheville, North Carolina, is evident. Her southern roots are especially apparent on gospel-infused call-and-response numbers like “Cage.”

It's like reading your teenage daughter's journal... or going back in time and scrawling in your own. Dirty Radio is the debut album from Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside. [Available at Amazon] - Picked by Katie Macpherson