Algiers – There Is No Year
Third album by the quintet from Atlanta, Georgia is the stuff of powerful message and music indeed. A mixture of gospel, funk, indie, rock, hip hop and soul, it is based on frontman Franklin James Fisher's long poem, Misophonia (meaning sounds that produce extremely negative reactions). Full of ideas, it's a serious intellectual record for serious times, but don’t let put you off. The music is stirring, stimulating as well as high-minded, with Motown-style choir on Dispossession, high-octane punk Void, to a postpunk sound on We Can't Be Found, there's an impassioned delivery throughout. Out on Matador.
Algiers – Dispossession
Courteeneers – More. Again. Forever.
This sixth LP, of indie rock stadium bangers with a neurotic edge, from the Manchester band, fronted by Liam Fray, is a mixed bag, with lyrics that can be both profound and absurd, music variously cliched and original. Fuelled by worries about addictions and visits to the therapist, it contains lines such as “I don’t love you enough for my last Rolo”, “burn the midnight oil at both ends” and “All we do is go to parties and talk about parties we used to go to”. Better Man has echoes of R.E.M., Heavy Jacket and Heart Attack mix Killers and Kasabian, but the title track is an ear-catching dance mix with spoken word passages, and there's an accompanying story by novelist Emma Jane Unsworth. Out on Ignition.
Courteeneers – More. Again. Forever.
Eminem – Music To Be Murdered By
Another release by Marshall Mathers that seemed to come out of nowhere, like 2018's Kamikaze, it's full of anger, self-recrimination, and shoots out in all directions, including at #MeToo culture and more, no doubt to garner controversy. It's hit and miss. Talking of which, a cornerstone track is Darkness, a chilling attempt to view the 2017 mass shooting at the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest music festival through the eyes of its perpetrator, Stephen Paddock. Never comfortable, and with many contradictory idea and emotions, Mathers still has something to offer hip hop, especially with the help of Dr Dre, his rhyming and delivery still remains unrivalled by more recent stars. Out on Shady/Aftermath/Interscope.
Eminem – Little Engine
Mura Masa – Raw Youth Collage
Collage by name, and to a certain extent collage it is by nature with lots of gaps, not many full songs to complete the picture, but there are still potent elements to this second album by 23-year-old Guernsey producer Alex Crossan, a sort of punk-hip-hop-pop crossover. Deal Wiv It features slowthai, Clairo fronting I Don't Think I Can Do This Again, A Meeting at an Oak Tree, and the bleakly catchy No Hope Generation. More of sigh than a roar, but one with a voice at least. Out on Polydor.
Mura Masa – No Hope Generation
Mac Miller – Circles
A strange, sad coda to a short career by the Pittsburgh rapper, now released two years after his untimely death by accidental overdose at just 26. His last, Swimming, was released after the end of his relationship with singer Ariana Grande. Miller was friends with various LA jazz and funk stars Thundercat and Flying Lotus, this is a more melancholy companion piece, with a sparser guest list, but includes Prince's Revolution guitarist Wendy Melvoin. This is less a rap album, more a singer-songwriter one, with minimal echoes of the the bleaker side of Beck, and traces of a fragile mental state, but there's much to enjoy here, from Blue World, using a section of Four Freshmen’s It’s a Blue World, the barbershop song that influenced Brian WIlson, Arthur Lee’s Everybody’s Gotta Live, and the waltz-style That’s On Me. Most telling of all, though, is Good News, in which he sings: “There’s a whole lot more for me waitin’ on the other side, I’m always wonderin’ if it feel like summer.” Out on Warner.
Mac Miller – Good News
Halsey – Manic
The music itself, to some tastes, sounds Autotune-artificial and overproduced pop, but there's no doubting the raw emotions exposed here by the Halsey, aka Ashley Frangipane, this bestselling 25-year-old. "I'm my own biggest enemy, Yeah, all my empathy's a disaster, Feelin' somethin' like a scaly thing, Wrapped too tightly 'round my own master," she sings on I Hate Everybody, while on the number 1 Without Me, there's a sharp cut in the direction of rapper ex G-Eazy. “I’m so glad I never ever had a baby with you / cause you can’t love nothing unless there’s something in it for you”. Closing track 929 yearns for a father. This is like a torn teenagers' diary exposed. Painful, potent, painstaking. Out on Capitol Records.
Halsey - 929
Keeley Forsyth – Debris
Debut LP by the singer-songwriter from Oldham, who now 40, is best known as an actress on lots of British TV, from Coronation Street to Peak Practice describes the songs in this album as being "like blocks of metal that drop from the sky”, that is to say: "There was a lot going on in my life that was heavy and hard.” With sparse arrangements by pianist and composer Matthew Bourne and producer Sam Hobbs, with various other acoustic instruments, including violin. It's a ghostly, wondrous, fragile, warbling work, from It's Raining to Black Bull to Large Oak, Look To Yourself to Lost, hewn in stillness, dark emotions whisper and hover. Overall it has of Aldous Harding, Karen Dalton, PJ Harvey and Antony Hegarty, making something altogether mysterious and exquisite. Out on The Leaf Label.
Keeley Forsyth - Debris
Alice Boman – Dream On
Stillness and intimacy mark the style of the Swedish singer-songwriter's work, and having previously made EPs, this is her full debut LP, again working with old collaborator and producer Fabian Prynn and now also with Patrik Berger. Minimal, echoey, beautiful and otherworldly. Standout tracks include Everybody Hurts and Don't Forget About Me. Out on PIAS.
Alice Boman – Don't Forget About Me
Bill Fay – Countless Branches
The singer-songwriter who made his name in the early 1970s, and is now in his mid-70s, continues to enjoy cult status and late-career success with an album based on old ideas with newly written toplines. A classic example of blossoming happiness in old age, following 2012's Life Is People and Who Is The Sender? (2015). Again out on Dead Oceans.
Bill Fay – Filled With Wonder Once Again
Bombay Bicycle Club – Everything Else Has Gone Wrong
Reunited after having split four years ago, this is an odd return by the London quartet - repetitive and shallow somehow, hovering uncertainly between indie and pop. "If I had a job, I would quit my job. Just wanna have a good day", sings Jack Steadman on Good Day. No shit sherlock. While there are bright moments, it's hard to get too excited about songs such as Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You), the title of which says it all. Maybe it's a grower if you feel inspired to give it time but the title more self-fulfilling than was planned. Out on Mmm…Records.
Bombay Bicycle Club – Everything Else Has Gone Wrong
Pinegrove – Marigold
Fourth album by the alt-country, indie rock band from Montclair, New Jersey formed by childhood friends frontman Evan Hall and drummer Zack Levine is a upbeat, bright collection. quite meditative but upbeat in theme, songs shedding light on difficulty, and seeking ways to solve it. Phase is inspired by insomnia, and the anxieties and thoughts a person cycles through when unable to sleep. The Alarmist is "the negotiation of space between two people — balancing comfort and closeness with a need for independence." Out on Rough Trade.
Pinegrove – Phase
Whyte Horses – Hard Times
A splendid collection of covers by the Manchester-based collective put together by Dom Thomas, founder of the eclectic vinyl reissue label, Finders Keepers, in what is described as a "fantasy mixtape" recorded in an isolated studio on the Isle of Wight. It includes guests John Grant, La Roux, Badly Drawn Boy, Tracyanne Campbell from Camera Obscura and Gruff Rhys. The WH concept whether with new or old, has always draw from the past – particularly French pop, 60s, 70s and more, and yet not quite seem from that era. Standout tracks include Satellite of Love featuring Badly Drawn Boy, The Bee Gees' Mister Natural (with La Roux), Gruff Rhys singing the Brân cover Tocyn and Chrysta Bell doing Bang Bang (made famous by Cher and Nancy Sinatra) John Grant with Hard Times, the 1971 classic by the tragically short-lived Baby Huey. Out on CrC Music.
Whyte Horses (ft. John Grant) – Hard Times
Citizen Bravo, Raymond MacDonald and Friends – Return to Y’Hup: The World of Ivor Cutler
Charming, pithy, offbeat eccentric. That was the Scottish poet, and this musical tribute very much matches that, with 26 tracks, many of them under two minutes in a variety of styles, such as 2-Tone reggae for Shut Up!, dream pop for Shoplifters, electro ambience for spoken-word recitals, and Women of The World, his 'hit', is a refreshing folky-march, joined by Tracyanne Campbell. Out no Chemikal Underground.
Citizen Bravo, Raymond MacDonald and Friends - Women Of The World (with Tracyanne Campbell)
Don’t forget to also check out our favourite albums of 2019:
Aldous Harding to Richard Dawson to Michael Kiwanuka: favourite albums of 2019 – part 1
Billie Eilish to FKA twigs to Weyes Blood: favourite albums of 2019 – part 2
This week's selection is by The Landlord.
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