Tag: album reviews

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Album reviews: Heron & Crane, Vivian Girls, G Flip, Ikebe Shakedown, and Sleater-Kinney

Sleater-Kinney's "The Center Won't Hold" is a bit of a letdown. Publicity image.

Heron & Crane

Firesides (Hibernator Gigs)

Denizens of Charlottesville’s indie scene know Dave Gibson from power-pop exponents Borrowed Beams of Light and Weird Mob, plus synth soundscapers Personal Bandana. Here, Gibson and Columbus, Ohio, buddy Travis Kokas split the difference, with sweet results. The mostly instrumental Firesides is a fetching mélange of melody and texture, nature and geometry, as delicate guitar figures intertwine with murmuring keyboards while drum tracks rustle underneath (becoming the motorik backbone of the Byrds-meet-Delia Derbyshire “Stars Over Nara”). Firesides
is hypnotic yet sociable, and well worth hanging with. [8.8]

https://heronandcranemusic.bandcamp.com

Vivian Girls

Memory (Polyvinyl)

Following their 2008 debut, the Vivian Girls’ aesthetic—surfy post-punk with girl group cuteness and gothic brooding—seemed to crop up everywhere, and while the band’s spinoffs (La Sera, Best Coast, Babies) carried the ball in different directions, the Vivian Girls’ DNA was always detectable. On Memory they revisit their classic style with a squall of sound that’s aggressive and protective at the same time, obscuring intimate lyrics behind feedback. And although “Waiting in the Car” closes the album in a poppier mode, the Girls’ moodier side prevails on Memory. It isn’t an apotheosis of all that put the Vivian Girls on the map, but it’s nice to have ‘em back. [7.0]

https://viviangirlsnyc.bandcamp.com/album/memory

G Flip

About Us (Future Classic)

With her giant glasses, baggy tees, and stringy hair, Melbourne’s G Flip does Taylor Swift’s nerd character better by a mile. But it’s still a character—Flip’s a pop diva who specializes in The Big Ballad, especially of the “I’m soooo screwed up but will inevitably triumph” species. Flip’s got a potent voice, mixing Lorde and Camila Cabello, and she can turn a phrase. But the songs are Hallmark-card lame, all bombast and wide gestures, and not even the sprightly, funky beat on single “About You” can hide the plodding and plotting on top. [6.1]

Ikebe Shakedown

Kings Left Behind (Colemine)

Members of New York septet Ikebe Shakedown have played with Sharon Jones & the
Dap-Kings, so you kinda know what to expect, and you get it right from the top. “Not Another Drop” opens with solid funk from the trap kit and congas
before a pair of guitars enter,
one ringing out tremoloed chords, and one chunking away, while a snaky bass line insinuates itself. And then, the horns…they enter, playing an unremarkable melody in unison, and over the course of the album they never stop; they just rest, fitfully. However each song starts, you know the horns are crouching, waiting to unleash their staccato barks to squelch whatever psychedelic guitar solo or evocative harpsichord might be fighting for daylight. The only relief comes on the brief closer “Not Another Drop (Reprise),” featuring a tasty slide guitar that makes you wonder what else you missed. [5.9]

https://ikebeshakedown-clmn.bandcamp.com/album/kings-left-behind

Sleater-Kinney

The Center Won’t Hold (Mom + Pop)

The third Sleater-Kinney album since their post-Woods hiatus (and apparently their final outing with drummer Janet Weiss), The Center Won’t Hold begins with some lumbering, retro-industrial percussion, and the classic S-K punk throttle that emerges feels like it’s fighting out of tar pits. Sadly, this is a portent. There are hooks on The Center Won’t Hold, but in pumping up the band’s razor-sharp grooves, producer St. Vincent dulls them. The lower-key “Restless” is an exception, and the band’s always-bracing vocals come close to saving the day elsewhere. But the only joy I find is the breezy, danceable “LOVE,”—a little rock ‘n’ roll fun, and a tantalizing taste of where this album could have gone. [6.1]

https://sleaterkinney.bandcamp.com/album/the-center-wont-hold

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Album Reviews: Flying Lotus, Gunter Herbig, The Young Sinclairs, Daughter of Swords, and Sugar Ray

Sugar Ray's Little Yachty is best served with a fruity cocktail. Publicity image.

Flying Lotus

Flamagra (Warp)

One of the most compelling post-Dilla beatmakers, Flying Lotus has collaborated with Kendrick Lamar and Kamasi Washington, among others, as his amorphous funk has spread throughout left-field R&B, hip-hop, and jazz. On Flamagra, FlyLo is abetted by fellow travelers like Thundercat and Robert Glasper, along with why-not guests such as David Lynch and Little Dragon. The result is a Billboard No. 1 dance album that’s devoid of floor-ready bangers (“More,” featuring fellow Angeleno Anderson .Paak, comes closest). FlyLo’s indifference to song structures could read like laziness if everything weren’t so meticulously crafted, and after some tense passages, the second half of Flamagra mellows to a smolder on the gorgeous, wordless Mac Miller tribute “Find Your Own Way Home” and the slow jam “Land of Honey,” featuring Solange. [7.1]

https://warp.net/releases/129297-flying-lotus-flamagra

Gunter Herbig

Ex Oriente: Music by G.I. Gurdjieff (BIS)

Gunter Herbig is a German guitarist by way of Portugal, born in Brazil—and he’s not the wild card here. That’d be Armenian-Greek mystic philosopher guru George Gurdjieff, who wrote these pieces in the 1920s with one of his follower/pupils, composer Thomas de Hartmann. Gurdjieff drew inspiration from various folk, religious, and ritual music traditions, much of it from the near east—Keith Jarrett has recorded some solo piano versions, and here Herbig offers solo electric guitar interpretations. The music is spare, dusky, and lightly haunting, if that’s a thing. Too heavy for an upscale candle shop, but perfect for a combo candle shop/tattoo parlor. [7.5]

The Young Sinclairs

Out of the Box (Requiem Pour un Twister)

Half of my joy over last year’s excellent Stimulator Jones debut was discovering that smooth R&B lover man Jones was actually Roanoke’s Sam Lunsford, whose Young Sinclairs had been crafting spot-on ’60s jangle pastiches for years. Out of the Box leaves The Byrds’ nest but stays consciously faux—“Stay All Night” is a sped-up “From a Buick 6”; “Get Along” is a sunnier “In the Midnight Hour.” In less talented hands, this would all be dreadful, but Lunsford is a savant with moves, and Out of the Box seems ready-made for hazy, lazy summer days. [6.8]

https://requiempouruntwister.bandcamp.com/album/out-of-the-box

Daughter of Swords

Dawnbreaker (Nonesuch)

Alexandra Sauser-Monnig has burnished her neo-Appalachian bona fides in Mountain Man, and her bandmates from that wondrous trio show up on a few songs on Dawnbreaker (as do Americana heroes Phil Cook and Ryan Gustafson). The album title even echoes a line from “Bright Morning Stars,” a hymn featured on Mountain Man’s Magic Ship—but Dawnbreaker is Sauser-Monnig’s show; an insular pensiveness prevails, without the whimsy that helped Mountain Man avoid the austerity=authenticity trap. Which isn’t to say Sauser-Monnig falls victim to it—or plays victim, either —everything is rendered beautifully and there’s an abiding optimism that shines through, especially on the radiant “Gem.” [7.6]

https://daughterofswords.bandcamp.com/album/dawnbreaker-2

Sugar Ray

Little Yachty (BMG)

I cut this band a lot of slack back in the day—Mark McGrath seemed likable enough, and he crushed “Rock and Roll Jeopardy!” And…I kinda loved “Someday” and “Fly.” So, since the album cover and song titles here clearly rendered “yachty” as a marina-based adjective, I hoped for some disposable confections. Oh well. McGrath quickly becomes tiresome as the popular jock who knows he can sing pretty with zero social risk, as the tunes jump from bland reggae to bland reggaeton to bland pop country to a tragic cover of Rupert Holmes’ “Escape (The Piña Colada Song).” Nothing is memorable enough to outlast a fruity cocktail, and disposability becomes Little Yachty’s saving grace. (5.2)

 

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Album reviews: Resavoir, Black Pumas, Lil Nas X, Kylie Minogue, Elephant9, and Various artists

Elephant9 issues a double album jazz monster with Psychedelic Backfire I & II. Publicity image.

Resavoir

Resavoir (International Anthem)

It goes down smooth and it’s jazz, but it isn’t smooth jazz. Members of Chicago collective Resavoir have played with Chance the Rapper, Noname, and Mavis Staples, and the band maps a similar wholesomeness onto these nine pithy originals that don’t just walk the classic/fresh tightrope, but live directly on it. The ensemble meshes beautifully, and trumpeter/bandleader Will Miller’s songs seem to emanate from some chirpy city park on a sunny afternoon, year unknown. [8.3]

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/resavoir

Black Pumas

Black Pumas (ATO)

Something more explicitly retro comes from Austin’s Black Pumas—they’re on locally connected ATO Records, though they sure sound like a Daptone band with their classic soul songs and crisp, minimal production (by guitarist Adrian Quesada, who’s played with artists from Grupo Fantasma to Prince). The tried-and-true instrumental textures are animated by powerhouse vocalist Eric Burton, who croons and belts with range and authority. The Pumas’ live show gets glowing reviews, and we’ll have a chance to see what’s up on September 11 at the Southern. [7.6]

https://blackpumas.bandcamp.com/

Various artists

1977: The Year Punk Broke (Cherry Red)

Can there be any need for another punk compilation? Cherry Red makes a great argument with 1977, focusing chronologically and geographically on a 3-disc, 87-song motherlode that tracks the UK/Ireland explosion month-for-month. All but the hoariest punkers will hear much of this for the first time; a few perennials are buried amidst the likes of The Stukas and Some Chicken. 1977 transmits the feeling of witnessing the magnificent cascade of refusal that spattered the year of “The Queen’s Jubilee” and Rumours. [8.7]

https://www.facebook.com/CherryRedRecords/videos/723381098116952/

Lil Nas X

7 (Sony)

Boasting the music-biz story of the year plus arguably the song of the year, Lil Nas X lowers the stakes for his debut by making it a quickie, at just 18 minutes and seven tunes (eight if you count the Billy Ray Cyrus-abetted remix of “Old Town Road”). As a vocalist, Lil Nas X is an unassuming sweetheart, but the songs here are as lightweight as his smash single without the offhand charm. Still, the Nirvana crib “Bring U Down” shows that X has open ears, and the wonky drum track on “C7osure” suggests his taste for the artlessly idiosyncratic—good signs. [6.6]

Kylie Minogue

Step Back In Time: The Definitive Collection (BMG)

Despite countless global hits, Kylie Minogue has suffered comparisons with Madonna, pegged as an imitator and a pop puppet opposite Madonna’s industry empress. This abridges the story—Minogue ditched writing/producing svengalis Stock Aitken Waterman early on, increasingly asserting herself lyrically and in the studio. And, musically, Minogue has kicked Madonna’s ass for at least twenty years. Step Back In Time jumps around chronologically, putting Minogue’s later, better stuff on disc 1 and filling disc 2 with her earlier, fluffier stuff. Not that any of it’s heavy, of course—but as dance-pop candy goes, it doesn’t get any sweeter. [8.7]

https://kylie.lnk.to/backintimeID

Elephant9

Psychedelic Backfire I & II (Rune Grammofon)

Two albums of live, molten jazz-rock from Norwegian trio Elephant9. Swing and soul are nowhere to be found as drummer Torstein Loftus whips up demonic grooves while bassist Nikolai Haengsle races alongside and organist Stale Storlokken emits skronky, overdriven solos from his own quasar. Dungen guitarist Reine Fiske brings some delicacy to II, notably on a cover of “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” (!), but it’s still a monster. To call Elephant9 Medeski-meets-Mahavishnu hints at the band’s chops but severely undersells its obliterating power. Horrible noise lives! [8.8/9.0]

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Reissue Roundup: ZZ Top, James & Bobby Purify, Various Artists

Dennis Stoner is included on the anthology, Sad About the Times, a collection full of affable, earnest easy riders. Publicity image.

Various artists

Lullabies for Catatonics (Grapefruit)

The U.K. rock scene’s initial response to LSD tended more towards pastoral reverie than paranoid fever dream (not having a Vietnam War helped). But psychic unraveling quickly followed, as chronicled on Lullabies for Catatonics, a transporting crate-dig from excellent reissue label Grapefruit. Covering 1967-1974, this triple-disc set is lovingly crammed with the heavy, the majestic, and the near-parodic (“Death May Be Your Santa Claus”). It’s definitely no Freedom Rock cash-in, as nuggets from pre-fame Yes and Soft Machine nestle alongside unreleased delights from the likes of Mighty Baby and Sweet Slag. Seekers of off-road art rock will have a blast traversing these teeming trails. A real head-ucation.****

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/lullabies-for-catatonics-a-journey-through-the-british-avant-pop-art-rock-scene-1967-74-various-artists-3cd-clamshell-boxset/

ZZ Top

Goin’ 50 (Rhino)

If it weren’t for MTV, this retrospective might be called Goin’ 14. When Eliminator hit in 1983, ZZ Top was seen as a surprise beneficiary of music videos, but the closer truth is that the band’s success was a realization of MTV’s original AOR-on-TV goals—after all, their beards and road cruiser supplied as much cheap visual thrill as Limahl’s sprouted hairdo. Eliminator became a monster, sustaining ZZ Top through increasingly listless albums (yes, they really did name one Recycler). Unfortunately, this triple-disc set is fairly proportional chronologically, meaning that down the stretch ZZ Top sounds like a good ZZ Top cover band with weaker songs. It also means the first disc covers the pre-Eliminator years, when the singular force of Billy Gibbons’ razor-sharp licks over the lean, muscular Mike Beard-Dusty Hill rhythm section was laying down some of the tightest blues rock ever committed to tape—pure, clean grease. ***

https://www.amazon.com/Goin-50-Deluxe-ZZ-Top/dp/B07RHW1PFG/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=goin+50+zz+top&qid=1561663684&s=dmusic&sr=1-2

James &
Bobby Purify

I’m Your Puppet: The Complete Bell Recordings 1966-1969 (Soul)

New York’s Bell Records was the home of a lot of great pop soul in the ’60s, releasing records by the Delfonics, the O’Jays, Al Green—and cousins James and Bobby Purify, whose debut single, recorded at FAME Studios, was an irresistibly sunny take on being whipped. Although they hit the top 40 again, “I’m Your Puppet” was the Purifys’ lone smash, which is why this compilation of their Bell recordings is so welcome. The Purifys showed impressive versatility when covering hits of the day—Bobby could do a good Wilson Pickett, James a decent Sam Cooke, and together they sounded like a mellower Sam & Dave. But the less familiar material is even more revelatory, and it’s a crying shame oldies stations don’t play more of the Purifys alongside their enduring chestnuts. ****

https://www.amazon.com/Im-Your-Puppet-Recordings-1966-1969/dp/B07QRN3Y9K

Various artists

Sad About the Times (Anthology)

As the U.S. counterculture sputtered back in the States, a softer pop main- stream emerged for maturing boomers while the hard stuff got harder, capturing disaffected youths. Somewhere in between lies most of the stuff on the endearing Sad About the Times. It’s cohesive musically, sticking to dusty West Coast country-rock with accents of psychedelia and folk, and the mood is also consistent—affable, earnest easy riders abound. And the quality of the tracks is downright stunning, especially considering that the artists here are uniformly obscure (forgive me, rabid fans of Boz Metzdorf). The best-known is probably Dennis Stoner, whose Procol-Harum-meets-the-Dead “Maybe Someday/Maybe Never” finishes the album on a stately, elegiac note. ****1/2

https://anthologyrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/sad-about-the-times

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Album reviews: Craig Leon, Naytronix, Matt Martians, Kate Bollinger, and Crumb

"Restful on the surface but restive underneath," Crumb has a new full-length album. Publicity image.

Craig Leon

Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 2: The Canon (RVNG Intl.)

Craig Leon produced the classic debuts of the Ramones and Blondie before covering some classical stuff himself (key title: Bach to Moog). On his ’80s new age albums Nommos and Visiting, Leon imagined the vernacular music of extraterrestrials, presenting it as slow, synthetic, and sweeping. (Well, who knows?) He revives the concept on the mostly instrumental Anthology, picking up right where he left off. A couple of tracks driven by minimal percussion patterns suggest a new age version of Can’s “ethnological forgery” series; the rest of the album, dominated by droning washes of keyboards, has a quiet tension, like it’s watching the skies for distant lightning. ***1/2

https://craigleon.bandcamp.com/album/anthology-of-interplanetary-folk-music-vol-1-nommos-visiting

Naytronix

Air (BatCave)

Naytronix is Nate Brenner, bassist and co-producer for Tune-Yards. Brenner also helped Merrill Garbus score Sorry to Bother You, and Air might also benefit from a movie to pick up the slack, as Brenner’s splattering, Ratatat-derived dance rock doesn’t quite gel. Not that there isn’t potential in the rubbery bass lines or in Brenner’s vocals, which he never oversells as he flickers through various affects: a benumbed Lil Peep; a Bowie fan mirror-singing; Arthur Russell with less soul. But there’s nothing in the way of rhythmic or melodic hooks, and Brenner’s banal bummer lyrics could have been transcribed from a bathroom wall. **1/2

https://naytronix.bandcamp.com/album/air

Matt Martians

The Last Party (3qtr)

An overlooked member of Odd Fu-
ture and The Internet, Matt Martians explains his new album as a kiss-off aimed both at his ex and at music bizzers clinically scrutinizing his artistic moves. But The Last Party is way more provisional than triumphant, as Martians mumbles sticky-note-sized analyses and affirmations: “I laid down all my pride / You were not thankful”; “I’ve got new boots on my feet, baby.” Still, the muted, jazz-tinged tracks have an effortless, muzzy charm, as does Martians him-
self; I gotta pull for the guy. ***1/2

Kate Bollinger

I Don’t Wanna Lose
(Kate Bollinger)

Meantime, in happy local developments there’s Charlottesville native and UVA student Kate Bollinger’s
I Don’t Wanna Lose, an assured EP of laid-back bedroom indie tinged with tropicália. It’s a charmer, as Bollinger’s relaxed, nimble voice weaves artful lines through jazzy guitar chords thickened with tremolo (courtesy of fellow ‘Hoo John Trainum). Bollinger brings a slightly wounded but wizened Rickie Lee Jones vibe to standouts “Untitled” and “Candy,” as she navigates the shifting terrain where friendship and romance meet, retreat, and repeat. Feels like we’ll be bragging on the homegrown Bollinger real soon, and for a while. On June 22, Bollinger plays the Southern with Gold Connections and Goodnight Daniel. ****

https://katebollinger.bandcamp.com/

Crumb

Jinx (Rough Trade)

Straight outta Medford, Crumb formed at Tufts before relocating to NYC in 2016 and releasing two EPs with the help of Richmond’s Citrus City Records (hurrah!). Both generated online buzz, and Crumb jumped to the legendary indie Rough Trade for their debut full-length. But the sound on Jinx is just a hair more pumped up than the EPs, and Crumb is still Crumb, doubling down on dark, beaty psychedelic pop and Lila Ramani’s sad-ghost vocals—fans of Broadcast might get misty. Restful on the surface but restive underneath and downright groovy at times (“Nina”), Jinx plays like a weird but cool dream. ****

https://crumbtheband.bandcamp.com/

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Album reviews: Boogarins, Bill MacKay, Carmen Villain, and Faye Webster

There’s layers of satire in play on Faye Webster's Atlanta Millionaires Club. Publicity image.

Boogarins

Sombrou Dúvida
(LAB 344)

Brazilian band Boogarins is back with more heady psychedelia, adding a little bap to the mix this time. If the Google translations are on point, Dinho Almeida is repeatedly counseling us to eschew tradition, explore life, embrace fear, etc. Ironically, his vocals never leave their sleepwalk-serenade comfort zone, while shred-capable guitarist Benke Ferraz also plays it safe—and though the songs themselves wander, there aren’t as many hooks along the way as on 2015’s excellent Manual. Still, Sombrou has high points, like springy
leadoff track “As Chances” and “Dislexia ou Transe,” which sounds like Yes if they were from Laurel Canyon. ***

https://boogarins.bandcamp.com/

Bill MacKay

Fountain Fire (Drag City)

Coming off a dynamic collaboration with Ryley Walker, Chicago-based guitarist Bill MacKay continues to bring together the folky and the experimental on Fountain Fire. It’s a potent brew, with MacKay’s compositions gaining intensity via layered acoustic and electric guitars that radiate rather than pummel. Last year MacKay participated in a Nick Drake cover
project, and on the Brit-folky “Birds of May” MacKay’s vocals channel the tragic bard; elsewhere he sounds like a more laid-back version of Walker. But the focus is on artful guitarchitecture as MacKay constructs feedback shapes on “Arcadia,” and adds a David Gilmour-ish slide to the swirling closing track “Dragon Country.” ***1/2

https://billmackay.bandcamp.com/album/fountain-fire

Carmen Villain

Both Lines Will Be Blue (Smalltown Supersound)

Carmen Villain’s first two albums brought folk, rock, and lots of electronics into shifting soundscapes held together by Villain’s lovely if brooding vocals. This is the Oslo resident’s first instrumental album, and it sounds lovely and brooding even without the vocals. Instead, floating on top of most of the songs is Johanna Scheie Orellana, whose flute parts provide apt decoration for the atmospheric compositions. And overall, Both Lines Will Be Blue is far more atmosphere than composition, but the album plays out with a distinct character: steamy, verdant, and meditative, like what Yoda might have listened to while doing vinyasa on Dagobah. ***1/2

https://carmenvillain.bandcamp.com/

Faye Webster

Atlanta Millionaires Club (Secretly Canadian)

Precocious Atlantan Faye Webster has tools—charisma, an ear for melody, a pithy wit—and with pedal steel and Rhodes in tow, her sophomore album is an adept low-fi country-soul affair. It’s also relentlessly pitiful; on opener “Room Temperature,” Webster whines “I should get out more” about a dozen times in a row, and while the next song swings amiably, she whimpers “the right side of my neck still smells like you” over and over as it fades out. Then Webster has the nerve to begin the third track with “My mother told me one day she’s tired of my sad song.” Geez. As the pseudo-trap title and jokey cover suggest, there’s definitely layers of satire in play, and Webster’s wan vocals (awkwardly loud in the mix) have a sardonic undertone that occasionally surfaces, as on “Jonny”: “my dog is my best friend / and he doesn’t even know what my name is.” But Webster’s irony never undercuts her sorrow—on the contrary, it lets her wallow in it. The real irony might be that she sounds best when she plays it straight, as on the retro-country dirge “What Used To Be Mine,” touchingly murmuring “I miss your voice / you’re the only one with it.” That’s something a mother would understand. ***

https://fayewebster.bandcamp.com/album/atlanta-millionaires-club

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Album reviews: Lizzo, Carl Anderson, King Gizzard& the Lizard Wizard, and Cate Le Bon

Cate Le Bon's new album, Reward, is heavy on the sax. Publicity image.

Lizzo

Cuz I Love You (Atlantic)

When Lizzo sends the title character of “Jerome” packing even though he “looks good on paper,” it summed up my feeling of listening to the sassy, up-with-me R&B of Cuz I Love You, as Lizzo’s righteous body positivity saturates the album and becomes didactic to the extent that the songs feel beside the point—and they usually are. Lizzo could also mix it up vocally, instead of relying on her Big Ending gear as if this is one long audition for “The Voice.” Happily, none of this negates the easy pleasures of the bubbly disco single “Juice” and the Missy Elliott collab “Tempo” (even as the latter includes more tired hating on “skinny hoes”). ***

Carl Anderson

You Can Call Me Carl
(Tone Tree Music)

On “Roses,” Madison County native Carl Anderson’s “Sick and tired of the ups and downs,” but the song’s twangy, gentle sway keeps better times in sight. And though the busted marriage dirge “She Took Everything” comes next, much of You Can Call Me Carl is either sardonic about the bad times, or resolute in counting blessings; “10 Different Reasons” and “Dream of You” are jaunty, even. Top-shelf musicians including members of War on Drugs and Mavis Staples’ band sparkle throughout, swooping in on “Head Hung Low” with a majestic, elegiac coda—horns and all. And Anderson’s smooth baritone is a treat—sturdy and conversational, emotionally resonant without ever trying too hard. Top it off with a dollop of primo, profane studio chatter and you’ve got an apt showcase for an artist who should keep the rest of Nashville paying attention. Carl Anderson plays The Southern on June 5 with Devon Gilfillian. ***1/2

King Gizzard
& the Lizard Wizard

Fishing for Fishies (ATO)

After their audacious five-album output in 2017, Aussie septet King Gizzard took 2018 off, returning with Fishing for Fishies, which purportedly started off as a blues record before it took some turns along the way. Well, there’s still an absurd amount of harmonica—an appropriately mellow whine on the leadoff title track, and a whole lotta Midnight Ramblerisms elsewhere, especially on “Boogieman Sam,” which otherwise sounds like ZZ Top crossed with T. Rex. Fishing for Fishies is light on standout tracks, but as you might expect from an album with three “boogie”-laden song titles, you can dance to most of it. Laudable messages about technology trumping sociality (“The Cruel Millennial”) and the evils of plastic (um, “Plastic Boogie”) get buried in the mix, perhaps so as not to interrupt the party, although the party ends early anyway, with the Tangerine Dream-like finish to “Acarine” leading to the lengthy, pointless closer “Cyboogie.” ***

Cate Le Bon

Reward (Mexican Summer)

If Fishing with Fishies is King Gizz’s harmonica album, Reward is Cate Le Bon’s saxophone album—saxes show up on nearly every track, less a marker of Southern soul than of pure tonal color. They’re still curiously expressive—reminiscent of the saxes on Arthur Russell’s Instrumentals. And “curiously expressive” describes Le Bon as well—her odd voice simultaneously direct and remote, her songs creating their own weirdly inviting worlds. Reward isn’t as rocking as Cyrk or Mug Museum, or as cranky as Crab Day; despite peeks of humor, it’s pervaded by a melancholy that suits Le Bon well, especially on “Daylight Matters,” a beautiful meditation on loss that’s one of her best songs ever. ****

https://catelebon.bandcamp.com/album/reward

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Album Reviews: Budos Band, Anderson .Paak, Shana Cleveland, Chris Forsyth, Wilma Vritra, and Shafiq Husayn

Shafiq Husayn brings an A-list guest list on The Loop. Image: Eric Coleman

Budos Band

V (Daptone)

Pseudos Band? As part of the Daptone stable, Budos Band excels at dialing in various flavors—the collective has helped supply spot-on retro soul tracks for Sharon Jones and Lee Fields, and their own instrumentals have shown up on commercials, video games, and soundtracks for Tequila 1800, MLB: The Show, and “Entourage.” No doubt, this collective of New York cats can play. Writing is the issue, and the shining moments on V, like the rubbery cowbell-and-bass opening to “Ghost Talk,” invariably give way to serviceable but generic soul and Ethio-funk grooves that seem, well, destined for commercials and soundtracks. ***

https://thebudosband.bandcamp.com/album/the-budos-band-v

Anderson .Paak

Ventura (Aftermath)

Just six months after releasing Oxnard, Anderson .Paak is back with more sophisitcated R&B and another impressive guest list; Ventura features Andre 3000, Smokey Robinson, and the long-gone Nate Dogg. .Paak sings more than he did on Oxnard, and the production is lighter even as .Paak assays serious topics in a raspy voice suited to the task (it’s not for nothing that he often gets pegged as sounding like Kendrick Lamar). Ventura doesn’t gel on every song, but it opens and closes on high notes, and lead single “King James” is a keeper.
****

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IDmv0MoxR8

Shana Cleveland

Night of the Worm Moon (Hardly Art)

After fronting La Luz for three and a half albums, Shana Cleveland releases her second solo record, which ditches surf rock for something more après-plage. Fingerpicked acoustic guitar patterns and Cleveland’s stylishly melancholy vocals are the unvarying basis for Night of the Worm Moon—the patterns sound like classic Leonard Cohen, and the songs are kind of samey, like classic Leonard Cohen, though without Cohen’s prolix gifts. Night is a mood album, wistful yet pretty, as if Cleveland’s staying home on a rainy day, but still dressing up for it. ***1/2

https://shanacleveland.bandcamp.com/

Chris Forsyth

All Time Present (No Quarter)

Experimental psychedelic guitarist Chris Forsyth is back with more of the same on the eight-song, 75- minute All Time Present—there’s hot twang (“Tomorrow”); turgid bombast (“Mystic Mountain”); and exploratory meanderings (“The Past Ain’t Passed” and “Livin’ On Cubist Time”). Forsyth could reel in the drums, which are unnecessary and distracting, but his indulgences can lead to some hard-to-reach places (see the 20-minute Neu!-meets-Phish “Techno Top”). However this all sounds to you, you’re probably right. ***

https://chrisforsyth1.bandcamp.com/album/all-time-present

Wilma Vritra

Burd (Bad Taste)

Wilma Vritra is not a lady, but a duo: British producer Wilma Archer (also not a lady) and Pyramid Vritra, a founding member of L.A.’s Odd Future. Burd is dark, often elegant hip-hop that doesn’t dwell—most songs are barely two minutes. Vritra isn’t a versatile rapper, but this is really Archer’s show—on top of some haunting instrumentals, he channels Frank Ocean vibes on “The Hill,” and perfectly sets Vritra’s disenchanted raps on “Shallow Grave” with a jaunty but menacing track evoking SoCal sunshine that mocks the pain of those underneath it. ***1/2

https://wilmavritra.bandcamp.com/album/burd

Shafiq Husayn

The Loop (Nature Sounds)

An L.A.-based producer and member of left field hip-hop group Sa-Ra, Shafiq Husayn might not be a much-chirped name, but a tipoff to his insider cred comes from the guest list on The Loop. Erykah Badu, Thundercat, Flying Lotus, Anderson .Paak, Bilal, and Robert Glasper show up over this 17-track, 75-minute delight of an album, and there’s also a lot of Parliament energy present. It’s immersive but loose, dense but uncluttered, sunny but substantial—it blooms like spring and will sound good all summer. ****1/2

https://shafiqhusayn.bandcamp.com/album/the-loop

Categories
Arts

Album reviews: Marvin Gaye, Ex Hex, and Billie Eilish

There's big buzz about When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? from 17-year-old Billie Eilish. Publicity photo.

Marvin Gaye

You’re the Man (Universal)

The follow-up that never was is finally here—and honestly probably sounds better now than it would have in 1972. You’re the Man could hardly have matched the gorgeously sighing melodies, elegant textures, and memorable aphorisms of What’s Going On, and when it tries, it suffers in comparison. Leadoff track “You’re the Man–Pts. 1 & 2” comes off like “Mercy Mercy Me Pts. 3-7,” as Gaye catalogs the issues of busing, unemployment, taxation, inflation, and gun control without exploring them—and “The World is Rated X” sounds good, but bogs down in the same ground. Faring better are the more tuneful “Where Are We Going?” and the more focused “Piece of Clay,”a gospelly plea for parental tolerance featuring Eddie Hazel-like guitar. Eventually, the broadsides give way to the bedside, or maybe the couch in the den; rather than the sex-forward “Let’s Get It On,” we get relationship jams like “We Can Make It Baby” and “You Are That Special One.” You’re the Man is a hodgepodge, though with Marvin Gaye singing, it’s inevitably a lovely one. ***1/2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW2BTXwqFnc

Ex Hex

It’s Real (Merge)

Although Mary Timony had already left behind Helium’s knotty brilliance for the more straightforward Wild Flag, the blend of pop melodies and classic indie crunch on Rips, Ex Hex’s 2014 debut, made for a nearly jarring turn to easy pleasures —but a welcome one, because the pleasures were so plentiful and seemed so easy. So why the five- year wait for this follow up? Maybe because bassist (and former Charlottesville resident) Betsy Wright has been making worthwhile waves with her own Bat Fangs. It can’t be pinned on stylistic exploration; It’s Real sounds like Rips redux, trucking in the same themes and hooks, although the new songs are generally slower and longer, sometimes to their detriment. Timony’s guitar heroics don’t quite save “Rainbow Shiner,” and the suitably yearning melody and chords on “Want It To Be True” linger a bit too long—which may be the point, I suppose. But tracks like “Diamond Drive” and “Cosmic Cave” provide breezy rushes reminiscent of the debut, and “Talk to Me” is a killer closer, timeless without being trite, sparking hopes it won’t be another half-decade before Ex Hex-the-third. ***1/2

https://exhexband.bandcamp.com/album/its-real

Billie Eilish

When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
(Interscope)

I can’t pretend to grok Billie Eilish’s intense appeal to what I’m forced to call without irony “the younger generation.” And the hype of older bizzers mostly comes off as a desperate byproduct of their obliviousness to what’s cool these days. But even ignoring the (premature) pronouncements of greatness and the (plausible) predictions of hugeness, it’s easy to see why industry hopes and YA identifications are both pinned on the 17-year-old Eilish. She’s an L.A. kid and a total pro, as is her co-conspirator and brother, Finneas, a veteran of “Glee” who co-wrote and produced Asleep. His minimal, dampened electro perfectly frames Eilish’s crafty vocals, as she molds an underpowered voice to occupy assorted personae and get them over as her various psychic facets, as opposed to masks. Right off the bat, the cocksure, almost bluesy “bad guy” flips to the weary, cautionary drug tale “xanny,” and while Asleep finishes on a trio of downers, there are also private dance tracks and some muted glitter along the way. Eilish would be one to watch, if everyone weren’t already watching. ****

Categories
Arts

Album reviews: Mary Lattimore & Mac McCaughan, Solange, Stella Donnelly, Flamin’ Groovies, and Various Artists

Stella Donnelly delivers a series of sucker punches on Beware of the Dogs. Publicity image.

Mary Lattimore & Mac McCaughan

New Rain Duets (Three Lobed)

Essentially a 40-minute jam divided into four segments, New Rain Duets brings more exquisite atmosphere from Mary Lattimore, and, in a somewhat surprising role, Mac McCaughan. Best known for cofounding Merge Records and fronting Superchunk, McCaughan supplies not guitar but guitar-like synthesizer textures and samples, which perfectly complement Lattimore’s delicate, entrancing harp. Though it functions as ambience, New Rain Duets is never complacent or merely decorative as Lattimore and McCaughan explore the spaces between mist and tempest. The duo opens for Steve Gunn at the Richmond Music Hall on May 3. ****

https://threelobed.bandcamp.com/album/new-rain-duets

Various Artists

Kankyo Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990 (Light In the Attic)

Erik Satie conceptualized ambient music with his Furniture Music pieces in 1917, and Brian Eno’s 1975 Ambient 1: Music for Airports pop-
ularized the term. Mainstream interest in music-as-decompression peaked during the yuppified, high-octane 1980s, as labels like Windham Hill peddled new age: acoustic music blending folk and jazz fusion with serene minimalism. As self-care becomes a scheduled item in our lives, and Marie Kondo brings sim-
plicity to the masses, Kankyo Ongaku is timely. It’s also pretty great: cuts range from the tranquil to the tran-
scendent, and the mildly unsettling moments sound like critiques of environmental degradation—a little edification with your quietude. ***1/2

https://kankyongaku.bandcamp.com/album/kanky-ongaku-japanese-ambient-environmental- new-age-music-1980-1990

Solange

When I Get Home
(Columbia)

Meantime, Solange continues to bring a new-age aesthetic to R&B on When I Get Home. This isn’t the first time; “Cranes in the Sky” was her ode-to-self-care hit on 2016’s A Seat at the Table, an album that also featured the even more to the point “Borderline (An Ode to Self-Care).” Home is even mellower than Table, maintaining an unperturbed roll throughout. Solange’s restrained, lovely vocals perfectly match the synth-centered backing tracks, as do the lyrics, impressionistic mantras more than narratives. There’s a contentment here, and When I Get Home plays like a hazy, happy daydream populated by your friends, if your friends happen to be Gucci Mane, Panda Bear, and Playboi Carti. ****

Flamin’ Groovies

Gonna Rock Tonite! The Complete Recordings 1969-1971 (Grapefruit)

They say if there’s a bar in heaven, NRBQ is the house band, but if there’s a dive bar down the street, this three-CD comp is definitely on the jukebox. The Flamin’ Groovies are rightly celebrated for their late- ’70s British invasion-influenced work, but on their first three records, made in San Francisco at the height of psychedelia, they provided a link between early rock ‘n’ roll and punk, blending Little Richard, Captain Beefheart, and the MC5 on tracks like “Comin’ After Me,” “Headin’ For the Texas Border,” and the incendiary “Teenage Head.” The Groovies played like their lives depended on it, and if their besotted, thunderous, bluesy rock ‘n’ roll was out of step with its Aquarian time, it’s also eternal. ****

Stella Donnelly

Beware of the Dogs (Secretly Canadian)

Stella Donnelly’s voice bears constant reminders of her Perth, Australia, provenance, but nothing could be more universal than these tales of male idiot/jerk/predators. She brings pathos on “Boys Will Be Boys,” but mostly, Donnelly cuts down boorish relatives, cover- gig hecklers, and crappy bosses with drolly caustic lyrics wrapped up in jaunty, even twee alt rock for sucker punch after sucker punch. The tunes aren’t ultra-memorable but they serve the lyrics, and Donnelly’s a charismatic singer and narrator
who sounds like she’s just getting started. ****

https://stelladonnelly.bandcamp.com/