I've been sat here with the cursor flashing and a severe case of writer's block for the last week. To be honest, the crop of albums hasn't been that good in September (barring the top 3) so I found it hard to do my usual thing and just tap out a blog in a couple of hours. I think that the top album from September will be right up with the absolute best from 2016, but everything else I can take or leave. I've not written about it, but the Pixies album is disappointing. Obvious comment warning - They really need Kim Deal back. How can you call it a Pixies album without Kim Deal? It's a dull, middle-aged record. Like many of the big acts releasing this year, (Chili Peppers are another good example) it's been poor, and a world away from their best material. As always, the younger musicians seem to have made the best stuff this month. The old masters are dying.
The Rest:
Devendra Banhart - Ape in Pink Marble - C
Acoustic/Soft Rock
Matt Berry - The Small Hours - C
Jazz pop/Easy Listening
Jamie T - Trick - B
Indie/Rock/Alternative Hip-hop
Kool Keith - Feature Magnetic - C
Hip-hop
Omar Rodríguez-López - Umbrella Mistress - B
Psychedelic/Pop
Omar Rodríguez-López - El Bien y mal Nos Une - C
Experimental Rock/Electronica
Pixies - Head Carrier - C
Alternative Rock
Warpaint - Heads Up - C
Art rock/Indie
Sorry everyone, but this is a stinker! I loved Warpaint's last record, their self-titled effort from 2014, and also The Fool, so I was excited about this one. Warpaint have already created their own musical blueprint. You know a Warpaint song within the first few seconds. That's so vital, and will keep them going for a long time. But Heads Up is a let down following on from the strong clutch of releases Warpaint have put out.
I think this album is a victim of 2 main problems - Poor production, and too many songwriting compromises. The sound is muddy and prioritised badly; melodies that should be loud and proud are pushed down in the mix and lost, while background percussive elements and ambient guitar sounds are at the fore. It's confusing, you don't know which bit you're meant to be listening to, or which part is meant to be the lead. Couple that with not one of the members of this unique, talented and exciting band taking control at any point, and you're left with a mess of numb sounds, paths that lead to nowhere and the sonic equivalent of feeling too full after a big meal.
There's a few songs on here that are worth a go, intro track Whiteout is easily the best song on Heads Up, and Above Control is certainly worth a few spins. There's not much else to pick at though, even New Song, the obvious single from this album is laboured and far too deliberately composed. I'm never going to write off this band, because their previous releases have been so strong, but Heads Up has probably been the most disappointing release I've heard this year.
The Best:
01: Regina Spektor - Remember Us To Life - A
Alternative pop
Regina Spektor has slowly bubbled around my consciousness for a number of years, but I'd not picked up any of her albums and gave it a proper listen up until last month. She's always been on my ever-lengthening musical to-do list, always lauded and recommended by fellow music junkies, so when I saw she'd completed her latest record, Remember Us To Life, I had to get it on my circulation for September.
Spektor has a grasp around her songwriting that her fellow American pop acts could only dream of. Her skillful mastery of the piano and the comfort with which she explores the full range of her vocal ability on Remember... instantly warms your ears with familiar tones. From the blippy pop bounciness of Bleeding Heart, through the spacious, echoey Obsolete and the upbeat head-nodder Small Bill$, Spektor narrates a rich novella of sound, many pieces requiring dozens of musicians to accomplish, but always with Spektor at the heart, the maestro, sat at her piano, controlling the flow.
The Trapper And The Furrier is my favourite cut from Remember..., it being the enormous orchestral centrepiece of the record. It starts with a calm spoken word intro and builds up the intensity with each passing section, adding in string stabs and timpani crashes. The song threatens to fully let loose several times but is always pinned back at the last moment. The cryptic lyrical passages in the verses are complimented by Spektor's direct observation in the chorus - "What a strange, strange world we live in/Where the good are damned, and the wicked forgiven." It's one of my top 5 tunes from the whole year.
Spektor writes stories, she distills and concentrates the world around her, she builds around childhood memories and subtle observations. She writes about the injustice in the world and the full gamut of human emotion, dusting her songs with the embers of sentimentality, never enough to get schmaltzy - not at all - but enough to make you feel safe, welcome and loved. Remember... is a powerful journey. It gets you hooked from the first listen and offers more and more with every spin. It's put Regina Spektor right up with the very best artists in the world right now. A very important release from 2016.
02: Bon Iver - 22, A Million - A
Experimental Folk/Ambient
I'm happy to be able to put a Folk artist on this list. It's not a genre I take much inspiration from, and I don't mean anything negative by that. It's just not my cup of tea, generally. But I do like to give everything a chance, and I like to try and see the value in all music. 22, A Million got so many positive reviews, I had to see what all the fuss was about.
While created by a Folk artist, 22 is so loosely based in that genre it's hardly worth mentioning The F Word. It's so experimental at times that it's hard to put it in any sort of pigeonhole. That's what's intriguing and fascinating about this project - I've never heard anything like it. Sometimes the lead vocal is so warped and twisted, it takes a couple of listens to realise it's not some synth bassline. The level of experimentation on 22 is through the roof, one reviewer mentioned it was one of the biggest style changes since Radiohead's Kid A, which ain't too bad a thing to be compared to, is it.
22 is a short, oblique picture of a band hitting a remarkable creative zenith. It's a mutant creature, a hybrid of acoustic and synthetic, of flesh and metal. The lyrics are hard to make out most of the time. There's no discernible melody in many of the tunes. But something about this album keeps me coming back for more. It's disarmingly accessible, in spite of the amorphous form to each composition. 22 resonates with hope, happiness, and the joy of living. It's such an odd record, but it's beautiful.
03: M.I.A - AIM - B
Electronic/Alternative pop
Everyone knows M.I.A from Paper Planes, but she's released tons of great music before and since then, and is also an accomplished artist across several types of media. AIM is her latest project, and it's just as catchy and fun as anything else she's put out. I love the attitude on AIM - It's such an inclusive, welcoming record, and there's a strong pride and self-love exuding throughout.
Each song is crafted in M.I.A's own style, that earworm-plentiful mash-up of London Hip-hop and Asian/African traditional music mixed up with pop song structuring, which makes the album hugely accessible. You can pick it up and put it down whenever you fee like it. AIM one of those albums that sticks with you after the first listen. Some of the ambient elements are mesmerising; wailing vocal samples and swords clashing sometimes form the percussive base of an entire song.
AIM has a rough continuity about being a refugee and borders, obviously a nod to the current migrant crisis in the middle east. The album is generally positive though, and doesn't waver on getting slowed down in a political bog for too long, which keeps the experience light and doesn't detract from the music at all, which is sharp, astute and relentlessly cool. M.I.A has stated that this will be her last album. I hope she changes her mind in the future, because I think she's still got a lot to give to us.
04: Preoccupations - Preoccupations - B
Alternative rock/Post punk
05: Wilco - Schmilco - B
Indie/Folk/Rock
That's that for September. I cannot recommend Regina Spektor's album enough, it's such a special journey. It's gonna be at least top 5. Tell me what you think, anyway, as always.
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