It’s been a crazy-busy week for new album releases, yesterday we covered Keith Richards, Chris Cornell, David Gilmour and other old farts, but today we bring you bang up to date, with far more contemporary sounds, including four absolute smashes from Low, Nerina Pallot and Lana Del Rey.
In fact it’s such a busy week I had to call on Teases and Dares‘ Lee Bennett to help me pick up the slack. So without any further rambling, here are some albums to wrap your lugholes around.
Nerina Pallot – The Sound And The Fury
Nerina is a very British songwriter and a criminally underrated one at that. Best known for her hit ‘Everybody’s Gone To War’ and the album from which it comes, Fires, this new record may in fact be her best work yet. There are probably two types of Nerina – the pop princess with hooks by the bucketload (as evidenced by her writer for hire work for Kylie including the title track from her Aphrodite album) and the more serious singer-songwriter.
The latter is what we have on offer here. Motherhood has made Nerina a bit of a worry-wart in terms of what’s happening in the world – understandably so. The refugee crisis, for example, surfaces in the video clip for ‘The Road’ while the song takes its cue from the Cormac McCarthy book of the same name. There is further literary influence in ‘The Boy On The Bus’ which features the protagonist from Donna Tartt’s epic novel The Goldfinch front and centre. Some of the songs here have been reworked from their appearances on the new-EP-a-month release schedule Nerina recently completed.
Musically and lyrically darker than anything she has done before it’s a work of real depth and only adds to an already accomplished if unrecognised body of work. [Lee Bennett] 9/10
Low – Ones and Sixes
It’s unfathomable to think that Alan Sparhawk, his wife Mimi Parker and Steve Garrington are able to pull such incredible amounts of inspiration from a seemingly bottomless reservoir of pain and beauty. It’s the kind of effortless creativity that can only come from somewhere very real and deeply heartfelt. A masterpiece, once again. 9/10
Lana Del Rey – Honeymoon
Well if people thought the whole Lana Del Rey schtick was an act, she is doing a heck of a job keeping up the pretence. Honeymoon takes us further into the woozy, darkness-in-the-suburbs melodrama of Ultraviolence, albeit with a bit more romance this time. Attention-grabbing early single ‘High By The Beach’ (the video of which featured a gun-toting Lana popping off a helicopter full of paparazzi) is by far the most uptempo thing here, which gives you some idea of the pace.
A noticeable amount of progress is made in terms of the vocals (much less fiddling about with effects and more straight up singing) and it turns out Lana voice is stronger than we thought. What Honeymoon also shares with Ultraviolence is that nothing beats the album opener, in this case the stunningly eerie title track, although tracks like ‘Terrence Loves You’ and ‘Music To Watch Boys By’ make heroic attempts at perfection. ‘Salvatore’ feels like a Latin jazz ballad version of Lady Gaga’s ‘Alejandro’ and has the feeling of a classic about it already.
Highly unlikely to win any new fans, Honeymoon will probably alienate followers demanding a return to the RnB-tinged sound of National Anthem (the come to California and get crazy with me invitational ‘Freak’ being the only vague hint of that sound) but those who loved Ultraviolence will find themselves happily immersed once again in Lanaland. [Lee Bennett] 8/10
Kwabs – Love + War
The Bermondsey born soul singer Kwabs has an incomparable voice. Deep and tremulous with just enough fragility to make him charmingly accessible. It’s as comfortable gliding smoothly over the scampering beats of SOHN on the minimalist ‘Wrong or Right’ and the bassy menace of ‘Look Over Your Shoulder’ as it is soaring in counter-point to the solemn atmospherics of ‘Forgiven’.
His vocals are the sole focus of debut Love + War, and they damn well should be, as they’re the most impressive element here. Unfortunately this leaves a deficit in other areas. The production is bland, the song-writing lacking spark and the whole album suffers from far too much earnestness. Say what you will about The Weeknd’s self-indulgent navel-gazing, at least he finds room for party smashes like ‘Can’t Feel My Face’. It’s early days yet though. Kwabs is a massive talent who definitely has the capacity to create a ground-breaking pop album, just as soon as he shakes off the desire to play it safe. 7/10
Metric – Pagans In Vegas
It’s hard to put a finger on why this isn’t another brilliant Metric album. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not at all bad. The songwriting is as good as ever and Emily is in fine voice. However, for some reason it just doesn’t… well… pop. It feels like all the previous Metric studio albums were put in a mixing bowl and this was the final result but no-one followed a recipe. Nothing here rocks like ‘Monster Hospital’, nothing bounces quite like ‘Dead Disco’ and we are missing the full glam stomp of ‘Youth Without Youth’.
It’s the least cohesive Metric album thus far and it’s this lack of identity which has the greatest impact on the listening experience. Thematically Pagans in Vegas dwells on consumerism, the temptation to sell out and the battle between man and computer. ‘Cascades’ is the sound of Emily trapped in a video game and ‘Too Bad So Sad’ would have been a nice addition on Daft Punk’s Tron soundtrack. Elsewhere Emily and co have a Madonna moment on ‘Celebrate’ which is the closest they have ever come to the dancefloor. This may well be an album which comes alive on stage. Let’s certainly hope so. [Lee Bennett] 7/10
Ryan Adams – 1989
The best album Ryan Adams has made in more than a decade isn’t even his own album. It offers absolutely no surprises beyond the initial premise of ‘Ryan Adams covers Taylor Swift’s 1989 in his downbeat, alt-country Ryan Adams way’. Now what I really want to hear is Taylor Swift cover ‘This is It’ or ‘So Alive’, that would be true pop perfection. 6/10
Darwin Deez – Double Down
Darwin Deez seems nice, he’s written a few decent pop tunes (‘Free’, ‘Radar Detector’), he’s always smiling and thinking about other people. His new album is just as bright and breezy as his previous efforts, with as much catchiness and low-fi experimentation to keep things fresh. Yeah he’s a good guy. What was that? Do I want to go around to his house this weekend and hang out? Nah I’m okay, I just fancied a quiet one, it’s been a busy week. No, like I said, he’s a good guy, I just… uh… I don’t know… there’s something about him I just… uh… you know… he’s a bit ‘funny’ isn’t he? I don’t think he’s all there. And he only eats quinoa. 6/10
Battles – La Di Da Di
Yeah it’s pretty good, but since Tyondai Braxton left two albums ago, the math-rock knob-fiddlers have been a pale shadow of their former, boundary pushing selves. This is Battles-lite, sadly predictable in texture and rhythm and featuring Instrumentals in which you can second guess every single twist and turn after only a few seconds have unfolded. It’s much like an old episode of Columbo. Comforting, well-worn and something you can let wash over you with minimal effort.
Well I’m done now for the day, I’ll see you later.
Hang on… There’s just one more thing.
The drummer from Battles murdered the Hollywood actress for her collection of antique necklaces. 6/10
Check out all the latest music releases in our new album reviews section, including Disclosure – Caracal.
