Embarking on my annual quest to review every new album released every week of the year, either in full or in brief sarcastic paragraph form, 2016 saw me immediately fall at the first hurdle with the release of Blackstar, David Bowie‘s 28th album.
It was the first release of the year and it’s an album I can’t quite bring myself to unpack just yet. So in lieu of that, here are this week’s new album releases, primarily defined by their failure to be as good as Blackstar, but being slightly
less painful to listen to.
Although Panic! At the Disco comes pretty close.
Daughter – Not to Disappear
Daughter’s first album came out a couple of years ago, around the same time that 2:54, Zola Jesus and Esben and the Witch also fell down from the attic clutching a collection of old Siouxsie and the Banshees 7″s and in a bad fucking mood. Thank the dark lord they did though, because this new wave of female-led gothic pop makes a change from the usual endless parade of jangly guitar bands with a touch too much arrogance and swagger.
Sometimes you need a band to articulate how fragile and darkly you feel about the world because you’re a bit crap at articulating it yourself. Daughter’s new album Not to Disappear ably assists your need for dour catharsis, with the emotional heft of Elena Tonra’s lyrics and the sheer expanse of its production crashing into you like a giant wave against a dilapidated lighthouse. It’s deeply affecting stuff, and if you can make it out of the dementia-themed ‘Doing the Right Thing’ untouched then you sir are a robot. 8/10
Still Flyin’ – Perfect Future
I love Still Flyin’. The sprawling San Francisco collective that counts Matthew McConaughey as their spiritual role-model gets a free-pass forever for their 2008 single ‘Good Thing it’s a Ghost Town Around Here’, a song that provides the same level of joy as discovering £40 in an old pair of jeans every time you listen to it. Since then, Still Flyin’ have experimented equally successfully with the dark-synth of krautrock (Neu Ideas) and straight-up 80s sophisti-pop (On a Bedroom Wall), and they’re all worthy of investigating futher, especially if you’re an electro-pop fan.
Unfortunately their new album, Perfect Future, finds them in a middle ground, neither as charming or as unashamedly pop-led as their best work, nor as inventive as their weirder moments. This is slick and precise song-craft, which sadly lacks any real spark. The only highlight is ‘Brendan’, which tells the story of head Still Flyin’ member Sean Rawls and his lifelong best friend who was nearly crushed to death by a boulder. I’ll assume it’s true. It would be a weird thing to make up. 6/10
Mystery Jets – Curve of the Earth
Not that I particularly liked ‘Two Doors Down’ at the time, but what it lacked in sophistication it made up for in catchiness, and it’s exactly that memorableness that’s been missing from the last eight years worth of soggy output from the Jets. Curve of the Earth is their fifth album and it’s as interesting as you’d imagine any fifth album would be from a band that counts one of their own fathers as a member.
No, that’s mean, he’s a competent bassist, and if my Mum owned a Les Paul then she could definitely be the Slash in my all-mum Guns ‘n’ Roses cover band, Mums ‘n’ Roses. She has the right hair after all, and right now at the album cover photography stage, having the right hair and owning a guitar is more important than actual musical competence. Anyway, no time left to finish this Mystery Jets review, I have to go knocking on doors to find a passable Axl Rose. 5/10
Panic! At the Disco – Death of a Bachelor
Did you know Panic! At the Disco is down to one member now. I don’t mean one ‘original member’, I literally mean one sole member. There used to be four of them, now there’s only one of them. Brendon Urie to be exact, the dreamiest one. Another guy called Dallon Weekes was promoted from touring bassist, to full-time official member, but he’s just been busted back down to touring bassist again, so he doesn’t count. Has there been a more Agatha Christie-style despatching of band-members in rock history? Guns ‘n’ Roses doesn’t count because Axl Rose technically always replaced the members he fired. As for Mums ‘n’ Roses, well everything seems to be harmonious at the moment, but Imelda from number 42 mentioned she might force the other members to sign the rights of the name over to her, so things may go south.
It’s unfortunate that Imelda is the only one who owns her own bandana, she has all the power. Let’s finish this with another piece of Panic! At the Disco trivia… Did you know that Panic! At the Disco have gone from sounding like a fairly interesting, if unfortunately second-rate Fall Out Boy knock-off to sounding like something that Lady Gaga would refuse for a B-side? The things you learn when you stop paying attention to a band for 11 years. 3/10
Check out all the latest music releases in our new album reviews section, including this round-up featuring Savages and Chairlift.
