Dana Gavanski – Yesterday is Gone
Exquisite debut from the Toronto singer-songwriter, previously featured on Song of the Day, who sings with great tenderness, clarity, subtlety and minimalism, adding deft, light touches of guitar, bass, drums, with tinklings of other instruments, ably helped by producer Mike Lindsay of Tunng. From One By One, Catch, Good Instead Bad, to the title track, her style has the class and timing of Cate Le Bon, paced perfectly, with wonderful maturity and timeless love and reflective songwriting that will resonate for years. Out on Full Time Hobby.
Dana Gavanski – Catch
Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud
Alabama singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield's latest album has moved away from indie-rock towards her background's more regular country-rock Americana. Packed with deceptively clever lyrics that flow like a mountain stream, in her readily admitted state of new sobriety, is classy, heartbreak songwriting, simply produced. Her voice is a tad thin, slightly twangy at times, but once you tune into the pace and style this doesn't stop the overall effect being a fine, very attractive album, particularly the title track opener, Fire, Lilacs, Can't Do Much and The Eye. Out on Merge Records.
Waxahatchee – Lilacs
Sorry – 925
Experimental, grungey, dreamy, apathetic indie rock debut by Lorenz and Louis O’Bryen, who are inspired by, apparently, Hermann Hesse to Aphex Twin and even Tony Bennett. Helped by co-producer James Dring (Gorillaz, Jamie T, Nilüfer Yanya), they are another band springing from the scene around Brixton's Windmill pub venue, which has included Fat White Family and Shame. An easy, offbeat, throwaway style accompanies keenly shaped songwriting, from the slithering song Snake, to the more upbeat Right Round The Clock, to the more melancholy, lo-fi As The Sun Sets. Out on Domino.
Sorry – Right Round The Clock
Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia
All the elements are there – big production values, a strong voice that includes that US-style multi-syllable wobble, overdubbed with a hint of Autotune, and funky, clean, heartbreak pop. But you still have to give her some credit for being the UK's most successful pop artist, or do you? On Physical (let's get) there are echoes of Olivia Newton-John's famous hit, and it even comes with a workout video, with what seems almost a parody of previous. But for what it is, being unashamedly commercial, it's good, channeling elements of Gloria Gaynor, Prince, and INXS from Levitating, to Hallucinating, to Break My Heart. Out on Warner Music.
Dua Lipa – Break My Heart
Sufjan Stevens & Lowell Brams – Aporia
Sufjan Stevens and his step-father and record label co-owner, Lowell Brams create and album of ambient soundscapes, an imagined sci-fi epic brimming with moody, hooky, gauzy synth-rich atmosphere. With 21 tracks over around 42 minutes, it weaves in and out of many moods, but is classic late-night material in these stay-in times. The Runaround is a key track, but second track What It Takes lifts the pace with beats and choir-style vocals. Stevens adds to his extraordinary range here with work that harks back the seventies with echoes of John Carpenter, Tangerine Dream, Wendy Carlos, and Mike Oldfield. The whole album can be found here. Out on Asthmatic Kitty.
Sufjan Stevens, Lowell Brams – The Runaround
Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn – Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn
A wonderful album that brings together folk traditions from China and the US by these respective female artists. And there's rich history to their instruments. Wu Fei is a Chinese-born, Nashville-based folk musician guzheng specialist, her instrument hailing from 2,500-year-old zither-like tradition. Washburn meanwhile plays clawhammer banjo, an instrument brought to the US by west African slaves, he reminds us, her liner notes tell us, not the Appalachians. And as the world shares rather a lot now, what spreads here is fabulous music, merging together like the waters in their combined songs, with vocal harmonies adding to the magic. Standout tracks include Four Seasons, as well as Water Is Wide/Wusuli Boat Song. Out on Smithsonian Folkways.
Wu Fei & Abigail Washburn – Water Is Wide/Wusuli Boat Song
Stephen Malkmus – Traditional Techniques
Out earlier this month, the former Pavement and sometimes Jicks frontman returns with another form of solo experimentation after last year's electronica adventure, Groove Denied. This new one is altogether more acoustic, with rich acoustic strings that include guitar and sitar, with a softer, folky style, but with a post-punk edge that is unmistakably Malkmus. Key tracks include Shadowbanned, What Kind of Person, Juliefuckingette, and The Greatest Own In Legal History. Out on Domino.
Stephen Malkmus – Shadowbanned
The Chats – High Risk Behaviour
The young Queensland pub-rock punk trio of singer-bassist Eamon Sandwith, guitarist Josh Price and drummer Matt Boggis are a refreshing blast of bouncy humour, beer and pies, marked by entertaining videos and a previous EP. So this debut LP is littered with hijinks, and their delivery makes a good pairing with Amyl & The Sniffers, with elements of Fontaines DC, the snappy guitars of Gang of Four and a Ramones short, sharp song ethic with banging good tunes. Out on Bargain Bin.
The Chats – Pub Feed
Pearl Jam – Gigaton
The grunge veterans have been blasting amps for nearly 30 years now, and there’s no stopping them, this time being more experimental and varied in style but still giving the fans what they want, from Superblood Wolfmoon’s outrageous guitar soloing, Quick Escape’s big chorus, deft lyrics on Dance of the Clairvoyants, the softer ballad of Alright or Comes Then Goes, the pump organ on River Cross, and the total rocking out on Never Destination, with Eddie Vedder’s voice as distinctively big as ever. Indulgently rockin’ loud just as you’d expect. Out on Republic Records.
Pearl Jam – Quick Escape
Shabaka and the Ancestors – We Are Sent Here By History
Excellent, cosmic jazz by the saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings (best known currently for The Comet Is Coming and Sons of Kemet), alongside the Ancestors, a group of South African musicians. Appropriately the theme is apocalyptic, the music sometimes spiked by fiery declamations, co-written with poet Siyabonga Mthembu. Key tracks include They Who Must Die, Teach Me to Be Vulnerable, We Will Work, and Go My Heart, Go to Heaven. But despite the dire warnings in vocals, this is intricate, life-affirming music that gets you to your feet for one last hurrah. Out on Impulse.
Shabaka And The Ancestors – The Coming Of The Strange Ones
Daniel Avery & Alessandro Cortini – Illusion of Time
Acclaimed producer Daniel Avery and experimental musician and Nine Inch Nails synth player Alessandro Cortini release their debut LP together, a dark, energetic swirling work of ambience. Standout tracks include Water, Sun, Enter Exit the title track, as the instrumentals unfurl in dripping pools of sounds, whorls of constant air, and repetitive motives. It could be a soundtrack for a futuristic movie. Out on Phantasy Sound/PIAS.
Daniel Avery & Alessandro Cortini – Illusion of Time
Brian Fallon – Local Honey
Former lead singer of heartland-punk band The Gaslight Anthem departs from that genre and into a stripped-down Americana space on his third solo album, creating down-to-earth tangible folk with guitar, banjo, crisp percussion and softly delivered vocals. Standout tracks include 21, I Don't Mind (If I'm with You), Horses, When You're Ready, and You Have Stolen My Heart. Out on Lesser Known Records.
Brian Fallon – 21
This week's selection is by The Landlord.
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