Listen: Sofi Tukker remixes Nina Simone, and the War on Drugs channels the Boss – SF Chronicle Datebook

The War on Drugs perform a concert at Verti Music Hall Berlin in 2018. Photo: Andrea Friedrich / Redferns

The Chronicles guide to notable new music.

The follow-up to A Deeper Understanding, the 2017 Grammy winner for best rock album, I Dont Live Here Anymore was written over the course of three years. The typically expansive lineup of players was mostly pared down to frontman Adam Granduciel, bassist Dave Hartley and multi-instrumentalist Anthony LaMarca in a series of New York and Los Angeles sessions at iconic rock n roll studios like Electric Lady and Electro-Vox. The Philadelphia band continues to follow the groundwork set forth by influential mainstays like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty: Harmonia channels the Boss, with Granduciels jean-jacket-rugged vocals, while the arena rock riffs of I Dont Live Here Anymore invoke a spirit of adventurousness, a feeling of sticking with your compatriots through less than stellar days.

I keep coming back to it as a record of movement, Granduciel said of the album in a statement. Of pushing forward, of trying to realize that version of our most fulfilled life, in spite of forces at every turn pushing down and trying to break you.

On their latest release for David Byrnes Luaka Bop label, the Danish experimental jazz duo of pianist Morten McCoy and bassist Jonathan Bremer make immersive music thats a splendid fit for a humble evening indoors. In fact, the albums title means night in Danish, and the celestial quality of these songs is a mighty salve. The album was recorded direct to tape to preserve the spirit of inspiration and improvisation, and songs like the gently embracing Gratitude offer the listener a chance to reflect and ruminate at the end of the day.

Cross, as exhilarating of a tuba player as youll find in the business, is an integral part of the resurgent London jazz movement. He breathed new life into the instrument and its applications on his 2019 debut Fyah, and embarked on new frontiers as a member of Sons of Kemet on one of this years best albums, the incredible Black to the Future.

On his sophomore release, he presents interpolations of the tuba with electronic beats for a nuanced take on Afro-futurist jazz. Forward Progression II is an ode to both Caribbean dancehall riddims and his late father. The Spiral (featuring Rudimental vocalist Afronaut Zu and saxophonist-pianist Ahnans) paces along masterfully as Cross shows how deeply the tuba can affect modern jazz composition.

Cross is an essential sideman for many of London jazzs current luminaries, and he shows on INTRA-I that hes a force to be reckoned with as a bandleader himself.

From 2002 to 2005, Verve Records released three albums in the Verve Remixed series, a highly successful effort in presenting music from the labels iconic catalog reimagined by electronic-leaning contemporary artists: Think Nina Simone remixed by the Postal Service and Astrud Gilberto by Thievery Corporation.

In the same spirit, Verve releases Feeling Good: Her Greatest Hits & Remixes on Oct. 29, an album featuring Simones greatest hits plus seven additional remixes by notable DJs. The New York City duo Sofi Tukkers version of Sinnerman, which has been given the dance music treatment countless times, is an apt introduction to the new project and a testament to the timelessness and influence of Simones music.

One of The Chronicles Best Bay Area albums of 2020, Temple saw songwriter Thao Nguyen prying deeper into the roots of her identity as a Queer woman of Vietnamese descent, an ongoing process for Nguyen. (Shes spent time peeling back the layers of familial construction on her two most recent albums, including 2016s A Man Alive.) This deluxe edition of Temple features acoustic and string arrangement versions of the tracks How Could I, Marauders, Marrow and Temple. On Marrow Strings Version, the music takes on a symphonic quality with lush classical strings. Its hard not to place yourself on the streets of Vietnam, where Nguyens mother is from, when hearing this operatic soundtrack, which serves to deepen the imagery of her mothers journey, already present on every moment of the album.

When Geographers Michael Deni left San Francisco in 2018, he did it respectfully, with a memorable goodbye show at the Fillmore, filled with love for his home for the past 14 years. He was an integral figure in the citys indie-pop movement in the 2010s and an even more important artist in the local live music circuit.

When I first moved here, it was so open and loving, he told The Chronicle before the move. I wouldnt have achieved what I achieved here somewhere else.

Deni has been in Los Angeles ever since, and he has an album scheduled to drop Nov. 12 called Down and Out in the Garden of Earthly Delights. The final track is called Peripheral Vision, and it brims with the liveliness that San Francisco came to adore. Its a heavy indie-pop number, with flourishing synths and Denis magical voice pointing the way on his voyage.

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Listen: Sofi Tukker remixes Nina Simone, and the War on Drugs channels the Boss - SF Chronicle Datebook