Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
From Murder Most Foul, a 17-minute epic of storytelling beauty with the JFK assassination as focal point, but of course about so much more about America itself, laid across gentle piano and violin, to the gentle ballad I Contain Multitudes, to the bluesy False Prophet, a cover of an obscure 1954 B-side by Billy “The Kid” Emerson, all released before, but included on this album, there were signs that Bob was back with new work of profound quality. And thankfully that's the case, with a particular emphasis on what help shaped him outside of folk, recalling 1950s rhythm and blues and early pop, in particular the rather beautifully descending I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You. And there's also plenty of lyrical playfulness too, with the very humorous My Own Version, citing Shakespeare, Homer’s Iliad, Bo Diddley and Martin Scorsese, and a host of famous dead figures of note. Bleakly beautiful, doomladen strange and clever. As he sings on I Contain Multitudes: "I'm a man of contradictions, I'm a man of many moods." Out on Columbia.
Bob Dylan – Murder Most Foul
Jehnny Beth – To Love Is To Live
A passionate solo album by Camille Berthomier, aka Jehnny Beth, formerly frontwoman of Savages, mixes rage, regret and lust in a muscular set of songs of smouldering, brooding emotions and dynamic volume changes. The punchy Innocence is anything but its title, Flower is an erotic piece of close-to-the-mic whispering, We Will Sin Together is a nice pun, A Place Above features actor Cillian Murphy talking narrative, and ironically the powerful feminist next song I'm The Man is one of his theme tunes as gang leader in Peaky Blinders. Then there's the dark, smoky Heroine, the scratchy and angrily stormy How Could You features Joe Talbot, and by contrast French Countryside is a lilting piano song. It's certainly an extension beyond Savages, and has simmering power, but also seems to indicate an artist experimenting with different forms. Out on 20L07 Music.
Jehnny Beth – Heroine
Wesley Gonzalez – Appalling Human
New solo album by the former frontman of Let's Wrestle cements his place as among the ranks of Britain's best, and most eccentric and unheralded songwriters, alongside the likes of XTC's Andy Partridge, and American Anglophile BC Camplight. This is wonderfully clever pop fare with a soulful twist, expanding his musical range even beyond his appropriately titled 2017 debut Excellent Musician. The album is rich in synthesizer work, and the switch from writing by guitar to piano illustrates a whole new range with new lineup to boot – bassist Joe Chilton, singer Rose Dougal, drummer Bobby Voltaire and Callum Duffy on synths. Key tracks include Tried To Tell Me Something, Wind Your Neck In, Change, Used To Love You, and Did You Get What You Paid For? If you buy this album, then the answer to the last track is a resounding yes. Out on Moshi Moshi.
Wesley Gonzalez - Tried To Tell Me Something
White Denim – World as a Waiting Room
If you're going to do an album during the coronavirus lockdown, this is the way tot do it. Written, recorded and mixed in just 30 days, the American four-piece rock band from Austin, Texas are consummate musicians who work and play at breathtaking speed, creating a fusion of indie pop and prog that comes in a blur of fingers, this 10th album shows this done fast aren't necessarily rushed. Opener I Don't Understand Rock and Roll could the a 1970s theme tune, Matter of Matter is full of wondrous riffs and pace changes topped by James Petralli's high voice. Work is like a driving piece of funk krautrock, Go Numb has a postpunk feel recalling The Stranglers, and Eagle Wings is more New York punk, while Queen of the Quarantine is more like a piece of glam rock electronica with a hint of Marc Bolan. Energetic, playful full of infinite jest. In many ways they are the modern answer to Focus. Out on Radio Milk Records.
White Denim – Queen of the Quarantine
Drab City – Good Songs For Bad People
Intoxicating dream pop with elements of hip hop, jazz and dub, this alluring debut collects songs of innocence and experience in a woozy world of wobbly sounds, woodwind, reverb and otherworldliness, especially on track such as Another Time. Devil Doll or Troubled Girl are something that might accompany an ethereal noir spy film. Working For the Men” is a degraded service worker’s revenge ballad, imagining male tormenters brought to a violent end. It's a slow-motion punk of imaginative nihilism, echoing the sounds of Portishead or Mazzy Star. Out on Bella Union.
Drab City – Troubled Girl
Larkin Poe – Self Made Man
Welcome return for the excellent multi-instrumentalist sister duo, comprised of the Atlanta-bred, Nashville-based Rebecca and Megan Lovell, whose band name derives from being descendants of Edgar Allan Poe and their great, great, great, great grandfather, Larkin Poe, an American civil war wagon driver and historian. With Rebecca's soaring, powerful rock-blues-soul voice and Megan's stand-up steel guitar skills, they are a potent combination. The title track is a big rock beginning, Holy Ghost Fire is a gospel country belter, Back Down South is a bluegrass rock, and Tears of Blue To Gold has a country swing. Somewhere between Suzi Quatro and Shania Twain and ZZ Top with extra bite. And don't forget it is she who is the self made man. Out on Tricki-Woo Records
Larkin Poe – She's A Self Made Man
Orlando Weeks – A Quickening
The former Maccabees frontman's rather tender solo album is from the perspective of a father-to-be, variously immersed in emotions and also holding in awe, with a sense of helplessless, of what the mother goes through. Musically this filled with delicate stillness, soft piano and electronica. faint woodwind, brass, guitar and layered vocals . On Blame Or Love Or Nothing it has hints of Talk Talk, particularly recalling the voice of Mark Hollis, as well as more recently, Bon Iver. Outstanding tracks include Milk Breath, Blood Sugar St Thomas', and Moon's Opera. Shimmeringly sensitive. Out on PIAS.
Orlando Weeks – Moon's Opera.
GoGo Penguin – GoGo Penguin
This self-titled album now their fifth in eight years, could be a defining and best so far release for the trio from Manchester of Chris Illingworth (piano), Rob Turner (drums) and Nick Blacka (bass), cross-pollinating jazz with classical, electronica and more. There's a penchant for Glass-style repetition, but they build to something so much than that, especially on Atomised, the clever cross rthythms of Signal In The Noise, or Open, the shimmering piano on F Major Pixe, the gentle Embers, or beautiful rich bass on To the Nth. Out on Blue Note.
GoGo Penguin – Atomised
Blanco White – On The Other Side
A debut album from the project of London-based British artist Josh Edwards is a thing of sensitivity and beauty. Bringing together elements of Andalusian and Latin American music alongside influences closer to home, his gentle voice merges with his skills acquired by having studied guitar in Cádiz, and later the Andean instrument the charango in Sucre (Bolivia). Standout tracks include the title track opener, I Belong To You, Desert Days, Papillon, Olalla and Mano a Mano. Out on Yucatan.
Blanco White – Papillon
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