Tag: Album of the month

So, after a month of for summer hi-jinx – getting married! moving house! raising kids! Listening to music! – we’re back, back, back!

So here’s the long-awaited new offering from a band that are very beloved of this parish. Off the back of a pretty sweltering run of belting singles leading up to the album, the question on everyone’s lips (well, mine anyway): have they finally made an album that can stand up to their masterpiece, THE ENGLISH RIVIERA.

But then it’s never easy with Metronomy, so even answering that question is quite tricky. Joe Mount is such a wilful bastard, and clearly likes doing whatever the fuck he wants, and never more than on this 17 track album that features 6 instrumentals. Chasing the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame is not top of Mount’s aims in life.

The answer is YES and NO at the same time, and because it’s Metronomy, I think you probably know what I mean. It is undeniably the band’s strongest offering in years, and thought Summer 08 had a couple of belting tunes on it, I personally don’t think they’ve made a properly cohesive album since Riviera. For the record, I thought Love Letters was a steaming pile of crap.

Forever has two very very big things going for it. Firstly, it has a really wonderful set of songs on it. From Lately to Salted Caramel Ice Cream to Insecurity to The Light to Sex Emoji (yes, even Sex Emoji), this is an album overflowing with funky, fresh ideas and the kind of Metronomy songs you long for – the kind you’d end up adding to a Best of Spotify compilation.

The second thing I love about this album is that it really does feel like a complete piece of work. Songs flow into each other, and even some of the instrumentals, which I initially found indulgent and overly-long, really start to come alive (a work trip with a lot of walking around London with my headphones changed my view on these). You can hear Morodor and early Daft Punk and even some kind of freak folk influences on some of these, and I think it’s quite brave of Mount to go for it, when you could have just have made a very tight 9 track belter.

However, let’s not kid ourselves. Any 17 track album has superfluous filler. Hell, even The White Album’s got Bungalow Bill and Wild Honey Pie. The second half of the album is perhaps lighter on the really strongest stuff, and it starts to sag a little. And there are moments when Mount’s use of repetition – which he uses SO cleverly in his songs – is just too self-indulged. Mount himself jokingly said the album was pretentious and too long when he was asked about it. Or maybe he wasn’t joking. Who knows?

So sure, in time I’ll probably flick past the odd track or two. And there are moments that are a lot less than necessary. But mostly, it feels vital and fresh and 20 times more interesting than anything most artists are doing, let alone after nearly two decades (yup!) of making music.

Metronomy Forever? You betcha.

Welcome to ‘Oh My God’ by Kevin Morby. This apparently is his 5th album. Described by some as a secular Gospel Rock album. I’d never heard of Mr Morby until I googled best albums of the year 2019 (so far) and he kept popping up on everyone’s lists. I was going to Barcelona for a week with work and I like to take new albums on trips like that. If the albums work for you then they always remind you of the place and time which I love. I always take new tracks / albums on holidays for this reason too.

My route into this album was relatively easy. I always like Dylan’s gospel phase … and I’ve grown to … at least respect Leonard Cohen, through the good work of my wife Stacey. The influences on this album are obvious but for me never over powering and Kevin (hee hee) always makes it sound like his own (there’s even a little Father John Misty and Lou Reed in there too).

This album has some of the best writing I’ve heard in a while. Each track is a memorable tune. Some more than others naturally but I love this album from start to finish and could find a place in many different types of mix tapes for all the tracks. Lyrically I find this album strong as an ox. I think the sequence of tracks is close to perfect … and the instrumentation is right up my street. Bongo’s and Congos? Tick. Church Organ? Tick tick tick. Listen to Hail Mary – best organ use since Rolling Stone by Dylan? Layers of brass? Oh yes. Harps? Yes. It’s mostly guitar and piano driven but the above instruments make this sound rich and demanding of a closer listen.

I have no idea how you guys will receive this … but Oh My God. I love it.

So just as we chose this for December, then comes along old Pitchfork to make this their #1 album of the whole year:

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-50-best-albums-of-2018/?page=5

Let’s get one thing straight. I don’t think this is the album of the year. I think it is VERY good. But I’m not sure I would go as far as Pitchfork. I always get the impression Pitchfork is so painfully curated as to hit its demographic, it’s hard to take their lists seriously. Mitski certainly hits all the right 2018 buttons – strong female voice, big leap forward musically with new album, touching on angst and loneliness and anger. You can see why they chose it.

I’ve been aware of Mitski for a while, and thought I’ve liked what I’ve heard, I’ve maybe not loved it. She’s certainly an interesting voice, but I’ve found her songs a little bit too indie and angular and maybe I’m searching for a touch more from them. But that is based on not spending a lot of time with them, so that could be hugely unfair.

And then I heard NOBODY. Oh boy. What a song. WHAT a song. It might be a late entry into my song of the year. Hell, it might even just knock GIRLFRIEND off the top spot. Aching, painful, searing loneliness that starts off plaintive and then turns into a bloody grandstanding DISCO song, complete with two key changes that take my breath away every time I hear them.

So maybe now I get Mitski.

NOBODY is probably an outlier on the album – it’s not choc-a-block with similar tracks – but there is something really interesting going on here. The album starts off with a song that I could take or leave, GEYSER, that suggests something generically indie, but it quickly picks up after that. WHY DIDN’T YOU STOP ME? is a stomping slab of St Vincent-style wonky pop. And off the album goes in all kinds of fabulous directions. Other highlights: include ME AND MY HUSBAND – a piano led belter of a pop song, PINK IN THE NIGHT – huge, emotional indie torch tune, LONESOME LOVE, which goes proper alt-country. And finally, closer TWO SLOW DANCERS is a lovely, electronic ballad that’s a fitting closer.

Another wonderful plus: song length! I love that so many of these songs don’t outstay their welcome. Thanks you Mitski for writing 2 minute songs that are exactly the right length. Please please God can some bloated rock dudes take note. You don’t need 2 guitar solos, a middle eight and a lengthy outro every time, got it?

However, those brief song lengths can occasionally be a hindrance – there are some songs that feel half-formed or don’t quite earn their place on what is a very good album. And that’s, for me, why it isn’t quite album of the year material.

Still, a strong end to a pretty strong year, I thought. Over to you…

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FINALLY: As a side discussion, shall we have an albums of the year chat, Brothers? Oh yes, I think we should!

Welcome brothers. Happy August, happy Summer. Please may I introduce ‘The Internet’

Why have I only just come across these guys?  I had not heard of ‘The Internet’ until Wednesday. I reviewed my Spotify ‘listened to in 2018’ folder where I keep all of the new music I am listening to and from which I then chose to buy the best of. Each album that I loved and considered for AOTM I then qualified-out for one reason or the other.

I considered Tove Stryke ‘Sway’, pure unadulterated Scandi-Pop. I decided no as it is only really a mini-album of 8 tracks, one of which is a demo-cover so 7 tracks really. They’re all perfect 3 minute pop songs but I talked myself out of it when I realised the main reason I love it is that my son can’t not dance when it’s on so it’s getting a lot of air-time in Casa Story. My other thought was the new Yo Lo Tengo, which I love, but good god is it a ‘me’ album which I am also sure means it’s not a brothers album. It’s a bit dense, noodly and by a million miles not their best so it seemed an odd choice. I also considered the new Twin Shadow and a few others but my heart was not in them and I could not 100% ‘stand behind’ them.

So I started looking for new music reviews that excited me and found ‘Hive Mind’ by the Internet. There are lots of facts and figures that I could copy and paste about these guys … but I won’t as it means nothing to me. What does mean something is that I put this on to road-test it and feel immediately in-love with it. Where has music like this been? It’s probably there but just not been in my world. Between Weds evening and now (Friday lunch time) I think I’ve listened to this at least 12 times, start to finish. I love it.

This ticks so many boxes for me. The groove, the beat, lovely vocals, strong lyrics, humour and a ‘proper’ 13 track-album. You’ll hear lots of things in this album. David, lots of lovely nods to much of what we spent much time playing back in the day of 90’s R&B/Pop. They seem to have distilled all the best, most credible elements of mainstream R&B and blended them into something that feels referential as well as fresh.

I’ve been waiting a long time for something to grab me like Lucy Pearl did and while this doesn’t have the obvious bangers like ‘Dance Tonite’ or ‘Don’t Mess With My Man’ the beautiful, luscious soundscape is there.

Some albums are summer albums, some winter albums. Some music is morning music, some night music. Background music vs. headphone tracks. This feels universal to me. So far, I find it to be a stunner and hope you enjoy living with it to.

Have a look at their vids on YouTube as it reveals more about them and made me fall even deeper for them.

Happy Hive Mind.

Hello sunshine. Hello Eleanor.

So. I don’t know how well The Brothers know The Fiery Furnaces, the wilfully leftfield band that consisted of Eleanor and her brother, Matthew. They were like nothing else – a knotty indie band that wrote dense, weird songs with names like “Chief Inspector Blancheflower”, “The Philadelphia Grand Jury” and “The Old Hag is Sleeping”. Their songs’ lyrics sounded like they were some little known novel, and the structure of their songs were often really strange, veering off into different time frames or arranged in several parts.

Now, that makes them sound WAY harder work than they were. They were a bit eccentric, but they were surprisingly easy to love. Well, by me, anyway. Marc Riley used to play them loads on 6Music and I fell for them, bit by bit.

Adam Buxton, on his excellent podcast, recently did an episode with Eleanor F – one that was actually recorded a couple of years back, but for some reason, he wasn’t happy with. I don’t know, I found it charming and it really got to the heart of his subject. As an intro to Eleanor, you couldn’t do any better. I’d strongly recommend listening:

What’s clear from that is that her brother was quite the control freak in the band, and she felt trapped and straitjacketed in the band. Since their seemingly permanent hiatus, she’s started to carve out a strong solo career of her own, with a series of increasingly accessible solo albums, of which is the 4th, and in my opinion, the strongest.

Despite her brother’s control freakery, you can hear in Eleanor’s solo work that she was very much a big part of the Fiery Furnaces’s sound, not least because her beguiling vocals define so much of their output. She’s still fond of obtuse lyrics at times, and slightly wonky music. But what she has done is grown in confidence in writing more direct pop songs – and unlike the FF, this more pop than rock, I think. As you know, I think the P word is much maligned and is one of the highest art forms on Earth! Writing the perfect pop song: what a skill.

So what we have here is Friedberger at her warmest, her most human, her most direct. She hasn’t lost her leftfield edge, and to me, this still feels unusual and far from generic. But has she ever written as out and out a cracking pop tune as ‘Make Me A Song’? There’s a lovely mix of slow jams and uptempo numbers, and the songwriting throughout is A class. Great for lazy summer days too.

Hope you’re enjoying it as much as I am. This Furnace is perhaps less fiery these days, and more smouldering. It’s working for me.