Starring
Alison Goldfrapp, Blake, Chantsss, Coco, Loma, Nick Lowe, Prince Josh
Under Starter's Orders
Indoor Safari : Nick Lowe
The wonderful Nick Lowe has released his first new full length LP of original material since 2011’s ‘The Old Magic’. It’s also another left turn in a career that has had so many he must be feeling giddy.
This time he’s turned to early sixties rock and roll, aided and abetted by his touring band of choice, Los Straitjackets. They’re the perfect collaborators for this. Their rock and roll is energetic and authentic covering everything from surf rock to Buddy Holly. Occasionally it feels as if Lowe is actually fronting Los Straitjackets (but without the mask!).
There are also times when it feels like an homage to some of his favourite artists. It’s as if he’s discovered a treasure trove of unreleased Buddy Holly tracks and he does them full justice. It’s what he wants to do and he’s fully earned the right to that.
Even better though, are the songs where he sings his age rather than his youth. Since 2011 his voice has aged and can sound raspy. It’s a little at odds with a track such as ‘Went To A Party’ and feels like a retreat into his past when he was a 24/7 party animal. It shows his wry humour is intact when he explores the other side of the coin. In ‘A Quiet Place’, he just wants to escape the noise all around him. It’s more convincing too.
The album highlights are as good as anything from his peak years. There’s a sincerity there in songs like ‘Blue On Blue’ that marks them as special. It’s no coincidence that his vocals sound less overstretched here. ‘Different Kind of Blue’ and the magnificent ‘Trombone’ are perfectly suited to his voice as it is now. It was early in the morning so I suppressed the cheer I felt inside when I heard ‘Don’t Be Nice To Me and the lines:
“Don’t be nice to me.
I’m undeserving of your kind attention.”
It’s a flashback to the curmudgeonly and bitter man that he became, and it’s brilliant.
You should never say never - just look at Willie Nelson in his nineties - but this sounds and feels like Lowe’s swansong, his final curtain. I hope I’m wrong, but if it is, it’s not a bad note to finish on.
Taster Track : Trombone
The Front Runners
Shyness : Chantsss
Italian musician Chantsss navigates the border between ambience and chill down music to gorgeous effect.
In some ways, this review is redundant because, more than most, this is an album for subjective feelings, not consensus. How do you feel about the sounds? What do you hear? From the outset of opening track ‘If U’ it’s a contemplative and meditative listening experience.
This is headphone music for listening to with your eyes closed. Sustain is the name of the game, as notes go on and on until they quietly fade into the distance. You fall slowly through its ambience. It’s full of special effects - special in their impact, not in how they are created - such as the whispers and trickling water of ‘Lotus Drips’ and the sudden disruptions that attempt to knock you off balance.
It’s a mark of the album’s success that the sole collaboration - with Ben Bondy on ‘Jus Woke Up’ - serves to enhance the standing of their undiluted pieces. It waters down what makes this album stand out, turning it into something more often found in the club chill down room. It’s good but a standard offering.
There are many highlights. There’s the muffled slow pounding of ‘Fleur Oblique’ set against the depths of a space like atmosphere. Where the album gravitates towards ambience, it’s an ambience to thirst for. It makes the moment where the layered electronica gives way to a simple acoustic guitar one of gorgeous, unadorned beauty.
The peak of this album is reached on ‘Lose My’. The mix of echoing notes and celestial vocals is profoundly gorgeous. It’s the kind of track where it feels as if everything the artist wants to stand for falls into place.
Listen to this carefully and you will find something to love. It’s a truly independent, confident and perfectly pitched album.
Taster Track : Lose My
2 - Coco
Like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, Coco’s second album is an evolution from their first, losing a little but gaining more.
Their debut was an album firmly placed in the chilled melodies of Khruangbin. In seeking to move on from that, to emerge from Khruangbin’s shadow and take a leap forward, they’ve given the album a startling start. ‘Any Other Way’ rips through their lush, accessible sounds in a move that’s almost aggressive in its unexpectedness. It’s a slow mix of blues rhythms and strangled guitars. If it bears any resemblance to Khruangbin, it’s a Khruangbin overdosed on steroids.
It reins itself back with ‘Moodrings’ but there’s still a determination to be different and put distance between this album and its predecessor. It’s kookier than I remember but it’s also a big step towards the new strengths that you will find here.
Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a challenging listen but if you’ve come to it from their debut it will require you to make a reassessment. This new Coco is more folk rock than chilled come down. With a song like ‘Cora Lu’ they’ve transitioned to something lighter and prettier. ‘Wheel’ too calls to mind the yacht rock sounds of the 70s, with its saxophone coming to you across a warm breeze. There’s enough of an underground, psychedelic tone in the mix though to ensure that this is no sellout.
Two songs stand out. ‘For George’ is a lovely pastoral song, soothing with its flute and instigating smiles with its light jazz tones. ‘The Swimmer’ has the kind of gorgeous melody in its chorus that brings you to the brink of tears with its beauty. The John Peel that fell for Laura Cantrell late in his career would have these two songs playing on repeat. They have all the hallmarks of songs that will be recognised as timeless.
Change may not be comfortable at first, but when it’s handled as well as it is here it can create something truly lovely.
Taster Track : The Swimmer
The Chasing Pack
The Love Invention : Alison Goldfrapp
Alison Goldfrapp’s foray into pure dance music is your soundtrack for a good time, however you define it.
This is music for hooking up with the Tinder generation, a warm up for a night of promise ahead with no strings attached. It revels in the prospect. It’s a relaxed sound with no pressure, content to unfold and wait to see what happens next. This is the sound of the sun coaxing you into bed, not the insistent demands of the North Wind. In years to come, couples will claim to have conceived their first child to this album!
Alison Goldfrapp is a self appointed, but thoroughly deserving, High Priestess of the club world. Each song contains a mantra for love, such as “ Only love can make you feel alive.” from ‘The Beat Divine’.
It’s a soft club sound, characterised by gentle, unfaltering rhythms, seductive vocals and thoughtful embellishments. It’s not a reinvention of Alison Goldfrapp more a refocusing that melds the smoothness of ‘Lovely Head’ with the dance floor sensibility of ‘Ooh La La’. It’s club music that doesn’t attempt to produce art fuelled statements like Roisin Murphy. Rather it’s a step towards the harmless enjoyment of Kylie Minogue in her most sophisticated dance floor guise. Of all the songs here, only ‘Subterfuge’ looks back to her electronic roots.
If a couple of tracks seem to tread water and disappear into anonymity, generally this is a warming and inviting listen that is immensely likeable.
Taster Track : NeverStop
Kaleidoscope : Blake
Hmm. This 2021 album poses a dilemma. It’s an inoffensive and quite likeable collection of 60s and 70s sugar pop. It’s also, what’s the word, weak.
Take the opening couple of tracks. ‘So Good’ is a standard slice of power pop but without any power behind it. ‘Whatever You Do’ is a slice of Everly Brothers or Buddy Holly pop. It has the merit of being simple, but that’s because there isn’t very much there. He seems to have set his sights on latter day Nick Lowe but without the wit or way with words.
Moving on ‘Love Is The Way’ is a slice of psychedelic bubble Led Zep. It wouldn’t have sounded out of place on the Cherry Red bubble rock compilation ‘Bubble Rock Is Here To Stay’ that came out a few years ago. It’s been a long time too since people sang so openly of having secrets. They’re not a good thing any more. ‘I’ve Got A Secret’ is a world view drawn from sixties pop and young teenage girl comic strips.
This may be the most sustainable album you’ll hear because everything about it has been recycled. It’s as if it’s been pulled together from records found in charity shop bargain bins. The trouble is that it’s more Bargain Hunt than Antiques Roadshow and the quality simply isn’t there.
There are better moments. ‘Kaleidoscope’ shows what can happen if you choose your influences from strong sources, in this case, The Beatles’ ‘Revolver’. The perky ‘Paisley Patterned Love’ has the hallmarks of a good throwaway song to leave the audience smiling and shows that you can lighten up with the best of them. ‘The Lost Art of Letter Writing’ is a piece of genuine acoustic pleasure that works through its indie charm.
In fairness to Blake, this is his 2021 album. I dipped into his album from last year ‘Plainsongs’ and they sound as if they’ve been polished into something a little more substantial. You can file ‘Kaleidoscope’ though under light and disposable.
Taster Track : The Lost Art of Writing Letters
How Will I Live Without A Body ? : Loma
This collection of alternative indie rock may be rooted in the dark side of life and death, but it quickly becomes a compelling listen.
Loma are very much a band, but Emily Cross’ day job seems to exert a powerful influence on their material and sound. She’s a death doula - someone who helps others to understand what it is like to die, who takes the fear out of the unknown without painting an unreal picture of peace and salvation. She answers questions like the one posed in the title - ‘How Will I Live Without A Body?’
For the listener too, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Yes, this is, at times, an intense, dark and brooding work but the songs are full of elements and details that grip your attention allowing you to face difficult subjects with a sidelong glance.
Yes, a song such as ‘Dark Trio’ could accompany the first steps into a horror or ghost story. ‘A Steady Mind’ will slowly raise your pulse and heartbeat. Against this the songs are full of small touches that link you to nature and life. Birdsong fills the gaps between tracks. The wind and seas of ‘Broken Doorbell’ connect you to the world. But it’s worth listening carefully to the songs. ‘Please, Come In’ introduces half submerged melodies, and unexpected turns as it builds to a squalling conclusion and fading away. The songs overlap to give a natural ,seamless flow to the album and its subject.
As you enter their world it becomes more and more captivating. It’s a work that cares about more than creating an atmosphere. It becomes a performance. Loma are a band who know what they want and bring it into being.
It’s an album that will stay with you long after it’s finished.
Taster Track : How It Starts
Moth : Prince Josh
Prince Josh brings you wonders of electronic ambience - but on his own terms with few concessions.
His terms mean that you have a consistently interesting and immersive listening experience but also a downtempo and downbeat one. It sounds great, offering entry to a fully realised sonic world and making you a small part of something much bigger. It’s less of a chilled experience though and more of a cold one.
Josh McIntyre, to strip him of his royal title, is a producer and DJ as well as a songwriter. It shows. This is an album that sounds great. It’s full of surprises, with the sudden outburst of crackle on the opening track ‘Moth’ and the truly stereo effects on the track making it a technophile’s delight. It shows consummate skill throughout but keeps you at a distance.
This is Moby around the time of ‘Play’ but without the kind of melodies that made that inescapable at the time. ‘Wax’ creates the same feelings as a Gregorian chant. It’s full of mystery and ethereal beauty but you’ll be haunted by it, not possessed. Sonorous chords set the melody in ‘The Glory’. The slow build of ‘Bring The Beat Back’ holds your interest without ever achieving take off. If anything it slows it down. The beat may be coming back but for now it’s trapped in the departure lounge. It comes as a relief to hear low level conversation between ordinary people on ‘Low’. You snatch at it in gratitude for any kind of connection
‘Dream Story’ does achieve some urgency over its six minutes but it’s the urgency that comes from anticipating something with bated breath. ‘Now I’m Okay’ also stirs itself, bringing the album slowly out of a self-induced trance.
Your abiding memory of this album will be admiration and liking for its technical achievements. With a little more warmth and emotion it could have been really something.
Taster Track : Moth
Playlists
As ever this week's Taster Track playlists can be accessed at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7cSveL7NpVp1xgrKxPe4av?si=SkFlSnvySeuYFpgG0WJFmA or via the Spotify link on the Home Page.
The link to the Youtube playlist is https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwV-OogHy7Eh_sy55y6i18Qj7w_Z3CQft
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