June 2016 Review

June saw a lot of releases I wanted to get my teeth into. There were some I couldn't get round to, which is a shame. I would have like to have listened to the new Swans record, the new Melvins record and some others, but my morning commute is only so long. I'd rather do 10 albums well than 15 sparingly. One big disappointment was the new Chili Peppers album. I don't wanna do a full review about it, but they're clearly missing John Frusciante. Without his contribution, there a large hole in their music. It's a shame, but at least they're trying. Anyway. My top 2 from this month were so close I agonised over the ranking for days. I feel like I've made the right choice though. Dig in.


The Rest:

Gojira - Magma - B

Metal


The Kills - Ash And Ice - C

Indie/Alternative Rock/Garage Rock

The Kills were at the sharper edge of the 00's Garage guitar revival in terms of creativity. Their 2-piece set up never threatened to impede the songwriting talent offered by Alison Mosshart, whose lyrics and voice are genuinely unique in a scene where it's easy to filter into the background and become Just Another Indie Band.

There's been half a decade since their last album, and I was excited at the prospect of a follow-up to what was by all accounts, a superb record. Unfortunately, Ash And Ice is a step back. There's no development in terms of sound, songwriting or style.

It would be unfair to dismiss the album purely on that basis - The Kills, after all, have carved out their own sound, they have their own niche, and for that you have to give them props. But if you're gonna listen to Ash And Ice, you might as well not bother, and dust off that old copy of Blood Pressures. Satellite still bangs hard, doesn't it?


Ladyhawke - Wild Things - B

Pop


Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Getaway - C

Alternative Rock


The Best:


01: Laura Mvula - The Dreaming Room - A

Experimental Pop/Art Pop


In a month of safe releases from established guitar acts, it was a welcome reprieve to listen to something completely different. It's difficult to pigeonhole Mvula's musical style. In the 36 minutes that The Dreaming Room lasts, it covers all kinds of musical styles, lyrical themes and emotional states.

Mvula's talent and sheer depth of musicality seems largely untapped, even with the kaleidoscopic breadth of The Dreaming Room. Only on her 2nd release, Mvula is already showing herself to be a highly accomplished artist, and the prospect of further work from her is exciting. She worked with several established figures on The Dreaming Room; Nile Rodgers, Wretch 32 and Troy Miller. They all put in a good shift, but these merely garnish the ocean of creativity poured out by Mvula.

Overcome, Let Me Fall, Show Me Love and Phenomenal Woman are all excellent pieces, all different, and all worthy. Mvula has perfected a brand of music that is regal, powerful, and dominant, but also humble, understated and graceful. Sometimes all these qualities reside within the same song. The symphonic work on The Dreaming Room is a specific highlight, the orchestral trills slip and slide to form a naturally beautiful layer to an already delightful listening experience. The best album in June was something I took a chance on, and I'm so glad that I did.

02: Band Of Horses - Why Are You OK? - A

Indie/Folk/Alternative Rock


I think it's hard to be in a guitar band these days and release music without being accused of being uncreative, (see The Dud below.) Rock music is as old as the hills and there are some people who like to say that there's no new guitar music out there. I think there is a new scene emerging, and Band Of Horses are one of the leading voices in that. Why Are You OK? is their latest, and it's thoroughly delightful.

The first half of OK is far more interesting than the second. Lyrical themes throughout explore life and love and the confusion of strong emotions, of travelling wide and meeting new people. The album is front-loaded; each one of the first run of songs could be a single, the catchiness speeds you through the tracklist on a smooth ride of styles and moods.

From the epic dual-movemented opener Dull Times/The Moon, to the prime cut, certified indie banger Casual Party right to the back of the record, OK flows steadily through rock, country, folk and indie themes, never settling on one level for too long. By the end, there is maybe too much "Aw, Shucks" tweeness, (Country Teen is a stinker) but OK has enough in the first half to tip the balance and keep it in a positive light.

I don't usually like to list influences, because it's mightily subjective, but I think it's clear that the boys REALLY like Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. There are also some Weezer chord changes on OK that could be lifted straight from the Blue Album. It's nice to see that the natural evolution from these soft indie bands of the 90's is an album as expansive and satisfying as OK. There's lots to explore on this album, and most of it is highly enjoyable.

03: Kayo Dot - Plastic House On Base Of Sky - B

Experimental/Progressive/Electronic Rock

04: DJ Shadow - The Mountain Will Fall - B

Hip-hop/Electronic/Dance


DJ Shadow is responsible for one of my favourite records of all time, his much-lauded debut ...Endtroducing, which set the Hip-hop world alight with layers of structure on an ethereal base of distant guitar samples and orchestral stabs, like a film soundtrack without a visual. Rightly or wrongly, all of Shadow's work since has been measured against that impossibly high benchmark. The Mountain Will Fall has not surpassed that standard.

Mountain is exactly what you would expect from a DJ Shadow record in 2016. With elements of Hip-hop, electronic and dance music, Shadow pulls the strings together to form an amorphous project with plenty of peaks and troughs to reel you in. Nothing else sounds quite like a DJ Shadow record, he has a wide range of musical influences that come together in his own output to form an instantly recognisable style, and even at this point, 5 albums in, it is a sound with plenty of ground left to cover.

Mountain is a good record on the whole, but at times it's more like a series of sketches than a fully-fledged album. It can get jarring when Shadow gets a groove going and then drops it out for 16 bars of weird noodling. The ending to Mambo is particularly frustrating, the song rising to a crescendo with an immeasurable amount of anticipation for a huge drop that - Oh. That's the end of the song. Nobody Speak, a straight-up Hip-hop song featuring Run The Jewels is far and away the best cut on this record.

05: The Temper Trap - Thick As Thieves - B

Indie/Rock

The Dud:


Rival Sons - Hollow Bones - D

Rock

D is for derivative. This is the worst album I've heard this year. This is pointless, lifeless and thoughtless. Hollow Bones is everything that is wrong with guitar music in 2016. There is no message, no dynamic, and the guitar riffs are on that intensely annoying knife edge between soft and heavy. You can't mosh to this, but you can't sit back and groove to it either. There is no discernible difference between the songs, save for the token acoustic ballad at the end, which somehow makes it even worse. A whole lot of hot air. Expect to find this soundtracking beer and car adverts for the next 12 months. Are we done? I think we're done here.


That's June, as always there's been some wonderful listening to be had this month. And hey! I actually got this done (just) before August. See you in a month.

May 2016 Review

I only got 'round to 8 albums in May. Not much took my fancy this month. It did allow me to get well acquainted with what I did choose. I actually wanted to review 9, but one of them was Bob Dylan's album, a like-for-like covers album of old standard pop songs. Seems like everyone sells out at some point, eh? I'd have to have given it a D, and I can't bring myself to do that to such a legend. At the other end of  the scale, my #1 album this month is a total banger. It could even be the best of the year.


The Rest:


Catfish And The Bottlemen - The Ride - C

Indie/Garage Rock


Kate Jackson - British Road Movies - B

Pop/Indie


The Best:


01: Chance The Rapper - Coloring Book - A

Alternative Hip-hop/Gospel/Soul


Coloring Book was one of the most anticipated albums of 2016. Chance The Rapper, an upcoming starlet of hip-hop on the crest of a wave, championed by such names as Kanye West and Jay Electronica has dropped his 3rd album, and 2016 seems so much brighter all of a sudden. Coloring Book has this delightful positivity that pours into your heart from front to back, and obligates you to smile. Chance's hyper-elation spreads generously thick musical effervescence over every track. The listen is not taxing in any way; Coloring Book, for it's length is a joy to listen to, with a perfect combo of initially pleasing hooks and deeper musical dynamics that demand well over a dozen spins.

As with a lot of Hip-hop records these days, there is a rich cast of guest spots. Chance sometimes dominates songs and sometimes allows his friends to take centre stage, making the entire experience flowing and collaborative. Chance's moniker may lead some casual observers to label this as Just Another Rap Album, but Coloring Book is so much more. There is as much Soul and R 'n B on here as anything else, and along with the glorious Gospel choir sections peppering the album, Coloring Book is a genuine masterpiece of a style of music so young, it barely has a genre specified. Let's call it Gospel Hip-hop.

The socio-political situation in The States is complex and troubled, especially for the POC community, and in this context Coloring Book is all the more sweet. It shines out beams of hope and love in the face of so much hostility, an antidote to the dark swell, a beacon in the fog. Looking at the high level of quality in the tracklist - No Problem, Blessings, Same Drugs, Juke Jam, Smoke Break - All these are incredible pieces, varied in style, produced to a razor sharp standard and treated with a high level of care. Chance has poured all his energy into this project, and helped with a cast of musical super-luminaries has achieved something really special. Album Of The Year contender.

02: Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool - A

Experimental/Ambient

A new Radiohead album these days is a rare occurence, coming with the frequency of a general election or a solar eclipse. The Abingdon boys are grown up, with wives and children to look after, solo projects to work on, and Greenpeace campaigns to be the face of. When they do get back to the lab as a fivesome, the product always ends up succinctly representing a different half-decade of reflection on the world, people, and the human condition. A Moon Shaped Pool is the latest epoch-definer from Probably The Best Band In The World.

Everything that is to be said about Pool has been said, and said, and said. Yorke's lyrics are mysterious, emotional and cutting as ever, Greenwood's musical arrangement (especially the string sections) are breathtaking and refreshing. The rest of the band, as always fill their boots. Radiohead are 5 separate artists who come together to form something that is at times indescribably superb and wonderful. We all know that.

What is worth saying is that Radiohead have torn up their own rule book with Pool. As experimental and genre-defying as the band have been over the years, they have kept a certain feel and structure to all of their songs. Most Radiohead songs have rigid verse/chorus/etc structures that temper the swell of virtuosity. Very few Radiohead songs clock in at over 5 minutes, very few lack a chorus. With Pool, Radiohead have done away with these restraints and released their most experimental, ambient album; their most creatively free project to date.

I feel though that this is actually a negative thing, as Pool lacks the solid, driving paranoid meticulousness that makes their top tier releases untouchable. As such, Pool is in the mid range of Radiohead's back catalogue, better than Amnesiac and Pablo Honey, but not troubling the likes of OK Computer, In Rainbows or Kid A. But after all, a middling Radiohead album is still better than the vast majority of music. This will fit snugly in the top 10 of many end of year lists.

03: Adult Jazz - Earrings Off! - B

Jazz/Experimental


This is one of those releases I took a random punt on. I literally only listened to this because I thought the name Adult Jazz was a wonderfully simple name for a band. I mean seriously, how come no one nabbed that decades ago? Anyway, Earrings Off! is grand.

The style of Adult Jazz is quite simple for such an off-the-wall group. The album is composed of sparse horn arrangements and is easy to listen to. The wailing vocals from lead singer Harry Burgess are the centrepiece, floating nicely over the repetitive motifs from the band. His lyrics are simple and expressive. There's a measured craziness about Earrings Off! that is instantly endearing, the dichotomy of the emotional vulnerability and the mature inspection in the lyrics mixing up with the texturally exciting music to form a unique and fascinating artistic style.

It's a shame it's so short, because Earrings Off! is full of brilliant ideas and creativity, and surely a full length project would not drop the quality level. There are only 7 tracks and 3 of them aren't really "proper" songs, serving as bridges between the madness. The finished product is delightfully consumable, the band have bags of talent and love showing it off to the world. Earrings Off! is well worth a go, for even the most casual listener.

04: Katatonia - The Fall Of Hearts - B

Melodic Metal

05: James Blake - The Colour In Anything - B

Pop/Soul

The Dud:


Death Grips - Bottomless Pit - D

Alternative Hip-hop


Is this what you kids listen to these days? Is this cool? Is this the music of the era? Of the people? Is this the vessel that carries the message? Have I missed the boat? Have I finally passed the threshold of old age and gone into pipe-and-slippers land? Should I just chuck it all in and get my Daily Mail subscription sent off and be done with it? If I don't get to listen to this album again, then take me there now.

The thing I admire about Punk music is the obvious - It backs its strong lyrical message with angular, loud, discordant music to create an artistic statement that fully transcends the need for acute musicianship. It pushes through the vain pretences of society and screams revolt. It's simplicity allows anyone to make it, and anyone to love it. But the important thing is the message. It has to be a statement. It has to mean something.

And so we come to Death Grips, the mid-2010's musical equivalent to Punk. But lyrically, there is no statement, no meaning. The sound drops quickly into a dirge of angry noise, shouting and no dynamics. Bottomless Pit loses all it's worth through never having any meaningful thrust in the first place. It taps into the unrequited anger of youth but offers no answers to the rage. There is at least a credible sense of displeasure at the futility of facile modern pop culture, but it never comes up for air under the melee. This is worse than that Wolfmother album.


So that's May. I surpassed 50 albums this month, so I'm well on track for at least 100. I'm looking forward to compiling a strong top 40 come the end of 2016. There's some great June albums I'm already getting my teeth into, and I promise I'll do more than 8 next month. Hope you check out the less famous albums this month, smaller artists need the exposure. Listen to Adult Jazz, they're bloody mad! And don't @ me about Death Grips. I can't believe a label put out that album. It's awful.