Author: David Allison

Posted in Album of the Month, New Tunes

February: I Love You, Honeybear – FATHER JOHN MISTY

Posted on by David Allison

I came across FJM surprisingly recently – I say, surprisingly, because as soon as I heard his 2012 album Fear Fun, I wondered how I could have missed something that so was squarely up my street. He has all the credentials – former drummer for Fleet Foxes, crazy religious upbringing, impressive beard and sharp suit, and *those* incredible lyrics, a mixture of cutting, self-loathing and self-loving, or just plain plaintive.

I LOVE YOU, HONEYBEAR doesn’t mess with the formula, but if anything it’s an even more impressive piece of work. There isn’t a weak track on here and most of them are absolute humdingers. Tonally, it’s quite an odd mix – and I heard him on the radio (Dermot O’Leary, on R2 – which was rather bizarre!) explaining that half the album are angry songs of being pissed off at himself and others in matters of love and life, and the other is a really very touching love letter to his new wife. You’re unlikely to hear a more romantic songs than Chateau Lobby (“People are boring, but you’re something else”).

Now, I know we always get onto that discussion of authenticity and influence, so this record is a GREAT one to look at in that context. The band and the songs seem to me to be seeped in two obvious styles – one is country music (and 60s/70s country influenced singer songwriters), and the other is Beatles-esque (well, McCartney-esque, actually) melodies, all gorgeous descending chords or sudden explosions into beautiful middle 8s or choruses. God damn, but Josh Tillman (for that is his name) knows how to write a song. And no, they don’t feel ‘contemporary’, though the sequences on True Affection, for example, are a nice nod to the 21st Century. So yes, this is a record influenced by 50 years of rock music.

For me, there are two things that elevate it into something spectacular. The first is that authenticity thing. This guy means every word. We went to see him live on Friday (at the Brudenell). It was, needless to say, a fucking fantastic gig – and I can’t think of the last time I saw a performer throw every ounce of himself into a show. He feels this shit, man, and he cares about his songs. The 6 piece band were slick and brilliant and they rocked hard too. This guy isn’t an amateur. Oh, and THAT VOICE. Like honey.

The other thing that places this record squarely in 2015 is his lyrics. The darkly modern takes on the universe is so deliciously paired with this classic sound. I’m completely sold. You’d have to look hard to hear a better skewering of an individual than the vicious lyrics to The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apartment. In the wrong hands, this could almost feel mysogynistic, but you know he’s known this girl and he’s here to tell us just what a fucking pain in the arse she is. (“She blames her excess on my influence, but gladly hoovers all my drugs”. Love it!). And what about the piece de resistance – Bored in the USA. Eviscerating is the word. He just nails it, he nails everything that’s wrong about Western Culture in a song that could easily come across as pastiche. This an album steeped in anger, confusion, lust, love and fear. What could be more 21st Century than that? 😉

He does play with you a bit (see the fake piano playing on the Letterman appearances above – and the weird laughter track on the song, which I initially hated and now love), and I guess it’s hard to know where Josh Tillman ends and Father John Misty begins. But that’s part of the fun. If this isn’t my album of the year, or very, very close come December, I’ll be amazed. I hope you liked it just as much.

Posted in Album of the Month

OCTOBER: Wonder Where We Land by SBTRKT

Posted on by David Allison

Funny how an artist can make something that doesn’t grab you, and then make something else that isn’t so different – and it blows you away.

I *liked* the first album – or rather, I *loved* the singles and another track or two, and I thought the rest of it was a little undercooked. I expected this album to be a re-run of that experience – I *love* the Ezra Koenig tune and the Sampha single, and on first listen, I had a feeling of deja vu. Nice, inventive, soulful, but downbeat and – yup, maybe a little undercooked.

Wow, was I wrong? Every single time I played the album, it opened up a little more. Until I couldn’t stop playing it, and the songs started ringing round my brain even when I wasn’t listening to them.

This record is such a huge step forward from his debut. He was always clearly insanely talented, but he’s honed that talent very quickly, and this genuinely feels like an artist firing on all cylinders. And like all musicians of any note, he seems to create a sound that makes you wonder where the fuck it even came from.

What I like about it is that he doesn’t feel like a guy immersed in some hipster culture or trying to create something to do with fashion. It is *soul* music in the broadest sense. I knew nothing about the guy until I read this interview:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/02/sbtrkt-wonder-where-we-land-interview

– and it really informed my listening of this album. He does sound like an outsider, someone who’s willing to try anything out and see where it leads. A song like Look Away, featuring the Chairlift singer, could easily come across as repetitive or moribund – instead it feels insistent and melancholy. Higher, the Raury track, feels a bit like a slap in the face the first few times you hear it, coming as it does quite early in the tracklist. But again, it became something quite different after a few listens. He sure as hell knows how to get the best of Jessie Ware, an artist I *really* like but who can easily drift a little into bland territory without the right material. Best of all is the album’s closer, Voices in My Head, a terrifyingly real drug psychosis song delivered with paranoid genius by ASAP Ferg.  Again, you struggle to imagine how a collaboration like that came about. And then I read this:

http://rock.genius.com/Sbtrkt-voices-in-my-head-lyrics

And this kind of sums up what I love about this. He’s a collaborator – a proper one, who can bring out the best in everyone he works with – but one who at the same time has a complete musical vision.

This, Brothers, is undoubtedly one of my albums of the year. I look forward to your thoughts.

Posted in Album of the Month

JUNE: Singles by Future Islands

Posted on by David Allison

First impressions don’t always count, I guess.

I knew nothing of this band – who have actually been around for a while, this being their 3rd album – until that Lettermen performance went a bit viral. And like Brother Guy, I was kind of appalled by Samuel T. Herring (what a name!)’s vocals, which I just couldn’t get over. He was certainly soulful, but the hystrionics made it feel kind of ridiculous.

And then, bit by bit, I’d keep hearing from various friends about how much they loved the album. So, like you, I came to this cold and expected little. And to start with, I wasn’t all that sure. His voice is less Marmite in the mix of this rather smart and crisp 80-influenced production. But neither did it grab me that much. Not on the first or second listen. But by the third or fourth, I was doing that thing you do when you know it’s got you – you go straight back to the beginning and play it again.

Twin Shadow is a looming comparison it’s impossible not to make. Like TS, the band take an 80s sound that could come across and self-conscious and make something organic of it. That’s down to the sound being well-crafted and to some pretty solid songwriting hooks. It’s an odd package but it works surprisingly well.

Is it my album of the year? No. (current candidates: St Vincent, East India Youth, Beck, Todd Terje) Will I be playing it in a year’s time? I’m not sure, but it’s possible. I still play the first Twin Shadow album regularly (the 2nd one, not though – it didn’t have any staying power). I hear they’re also a blow-away act live, so that might be fun to do too.

File under: surprisingly palatable and tasty.

Nuff wood

Wow, so I have a new favourite EP. No nothing of this guy til I heard this. Friend of Jamie Woon’s, done a bunch of remixing but this is his first release. I only have so much time for glitchy, squelchy stuff, but this is FRESH. Love the garagey vibe, digging the loved up thing, love how accessbile and open it feels.

The whole EP is a belter. File under: RECOMMEND