September 2017 Review

I listened to no less than 14 albums from October, it was one of those months where I read the release list and was all "yep, yep, yep ...yep" and kept on loading my Spotify up with music. As is often the case with these bumper months, there were a few albums I put in The Rest that maybe should have gone in the ranked section - Danny Watts, Death From Above and Four Tet just missed out, and would have been dead certs for the top list on a weaker month. I was toying with a top 7 but... Nah. One to definitely avoid this time round is Prophets Of Rage. It's not like I was expecting anything special, but Rage Against The Machine with the dudes from Public Enemy and Cypress Hill waters down the political message from revolutionary encitement to Rock The Vote. Bring back Zach De La Rocha! 


The Rest:

Tori Amos - Native Invader - B

Death From Above 1979 - Outrage! Is Now - B

Four Tet - New Energy - C

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Luciferian Towers - B

Mogwai - Every Country's Sun - C

Prophets Of Rage - Prophets Of Rage - C

Danny Watts - Black Boy Meets World - B

Zola Jesus - Okovi - C

The Best:

01: The Horrors - V - A

The Horrors are one of those bands that have been indie darlings for years, but have never quite broke the mainstream. Their last few albums have been critically acclaimed, but they've only troubled the top 40 of the UK singles chart once. It seems that the public at large hasn't quite warmed to the Essex quintet yet. I've never really been that bothered about their sound, but V hit me with some force, and I can't get enough of it.

It's hard to give the genre on this record a name, but it has a pleasing mixture of alternative rock, shoegaze and New-Wave psychedelia that weaves in and out of many different moods and emotions. Mountainous guitar walls tower across the landscape on V, guiding the bigger drops and tying up the loose ends of the calm sections. Enormous shuddering melodies clatter through the speakers, and single notes arc across the sky for miles. Huge tunes like Machine, Press Enter To Exit and World Below uplift the experience to euphoric heights, while low drifting tripped-out pieces like Gathering, Ghost, (which contains an utterly incredible explosion of glittering electronica around the halfway mark) and Weighed Down balance V out to a masterful level.

The boys save the best until last, though. The closing track Something To Remember Me By is an epic 6.40 of soaring vocals, reverb everywhere, and about 4 million guitar channels. The sound is truly monumental, an instant classic that fills out every cavity of your skull with bright, shining optimism. It's the kind of thing you'd expect from the peak of the late 80's post-Punk/Indie wave, but without being a throwback. Lead singer Faris Badwan's voice is beautifully suited to this song, dominating the soundscape for one final push for glory. As the final chords fade out, it doesn't feel like you've been listening for almost an hour. V is a shoe-in for top 20 of 2017.

02: LCD Soundsystem - American Dream - A

Is this a comeback record? In terms of years between albums it would be hard to justify - LCD Soundsystem's previous release was but 7 years ago,  the critically acclaimed This Is Happening. The band's hiatus (according to Wikipedia) lasted merely 3 years, meaning this album took a few years of "active" time to produce. So while it may not be a "long-awaited" comeback, it is still an artistic statement of intent, a signal to the world from James Murphy that he's back on the scene. And what's more, he's back on form, because American Dream is a very good album indeed.

While Blank Screen, the dreary outro track that takes up a fifth of the album's running time is a damp squib, the rest of the record gleans with brilliance, shining with the urbane sophistication that LCD Soundsystem have made their calling card. They are the thinking man's Electronica, a modern, spikier Talking Heads, and with Murphy's spoken-word monologue singing over the top of a lush orchestral vista of instruments, American Dream is another jewel in the already glittering crown of LCD Soundsystem's discography. 

There are many highlights on this record, but far and away the best tune on this is the irrepressible single Tonite, a pulsating fixture in the midst of the album's runtime, with all instruments going balls-to-the-wall for a cacophonous backdrop to Murphy's utterly vital vocal poetry. He is the eye of this particular storm, and his measured observational righteousness is hypnotic. You find yourself lost in the melee of sounds, and just as you think it's getting too much - It's done, and the next song starts. So it goes for the rest of American Dream, an album which will deservedly sit at the higher end of critic's best of lists, and that you will be hearing a lot of at any halfway decent Christmas parties you might find yourself attending this year.

03: Kamasi Washington - Harmony Of Difference - B

04: Masta Killa - Loyalty Is Royalty - B

Wu-Tang solo albums are a more regular occurrence than named storms, and for fans of the 18-legged New York Hip-hop dynasty, they sprinkle over any given year with comfortable islands of sonic familiarity. The quality is sometimes questionable, (Method Man's Meth Lab from 2015 was awful) and most of the releases post-90's have been viewed with a caveat emptor frame of mind. Recently though, the general quality has picked up, and with a new Wu-Tang album on the horizon, Masta Killa has put out his first new record since 2012's Selling My Soul.

Loyalty Is Royalty is an expansive collection of tunes. Masta Killa is known for being one of the least ostentatious of the Clan, and on the whole, his straightforward style is backed with some simple beats. Trouble, Therapy, Noodles Pt. 1 and OGs Told Me, all these songs are straight-up boom-bap ditties, and form the main sound palate of Loyalty Is Royalty. Masta only goes in to full commercial mode on Flex With Me, a latter album track that breaks up the darker pieces with a sweet Rhianna-esque female vocal, which adds a bit of depth. Loyalty Is Royalty is a balanced and varied record, and worth a listen even if you're not a Wu-disciple.

05: Wolf Alice - Visions Of A Life - B

06: Foo Fighters - Concrete And Gold - B

From Dave Grohl's awkward early 20's as drummer for Nirvana, through his rebirth as a neo-Grunge paragon in the wake of Cobain's death, to his current iteration as the Hey Guys Lets All Have A Beer And Groove Out To Some Gnarly Tunes Super Cool Rock Dad, the Foo Fighters have charted the highs and lows of the crown prince of American rock for almost 25 years now. Concrete And Gold is their latest iteration. The album is full of surprise innovations, intro track T-shirt starts the album like a rock opera, and single The Sky Is A Neighbourhood is one of the least single-y songs they've ever put out.

It's the last 4 tunes that really drive home the smorgasbord narrative. The acoustic-driven Happy Ever After, Sunday Rain, a mid-tempo whiskey-n-beer grinder, The Line, with the full-throated optimistic sound they've made their trademark, and finally Concrete And Gold, with it's sludgy, drawn out chords to close. It's entertaining stuff, and makes for one of the most interesting sections of music the band have ever put out.

Being The Biggest Goddamn Rock Band In The World comes with an enormous weight of expectation, and it would be easy for the Foos to play a safe hand every 3 years from now until the end of time, churning out some average rock fodder and getting perfunctory seal claps from the alternative music press. They'd still earn millions a year, they'd still tour the world and they'd still get Best Hard Rock Performance at the Grammy's. So the fact that they are still deigning to experiment in this mid-career era of theirs is a good sign that they still love what they do, and that they care about their fans. This doesn't even touch their 90's material, but that's OK. A thoroughly pleasant album.