Georgia – Seeking Thrills
Having a good time with a clear mind? This is an interesting cocktail to throw into a January release, a dry month for many, and for Georgia Barnes, who between her eponymous debut album in 2015 and this one, gave up consuming the works - alcohol, drugs, meat, coffee and gluten. So is this gym exercise music swigging from the plastic water bottle? Party, and clean living certainly, though also harking back with a heady mixture of 80s rave, electronica, Detroit techno, Chicago house and pure pop. Her pedigree (or at least connection) hails from her dad Neil, one half of Leftfield, but this is a new kind of retro mix from a 29-year-old millennial in a very British voice. From Started Out to Ultimate Sailor to Honey Dripping Sky there are such past blasts, while About Work The Dancefloor seeks thrills without materialism. Never Let You Go is wistful, while Ray Guns brings in dub reggae. Out on Domino.
Georgia – 24 Hours
Field Music – Making A New World
Originally a commission for the Imperial War Museum, this 40-minute, 19-song cycle about the aftermath of the First World War is clearly timed to be a century later, and as it happens, also chimes with Sam Mendes' current, excellent feature film 1917. The album opens with a short instrumental to evoke the distant echo of guns and bombs, then Silence sits within Erik Satie-style gentle piano, before the album's true momentum launches with Coffee and Wine is about the shaky, dubious Armistice agreement. Like an exhibition, images run side by side, with music changing between the Brewis brothers' sprightlier rhythmic numbers, echoing something of Talking Heads as well as Steely Dan in vocals, to more wistful, slower pace, and there are some very moving moments, such as touching on post-injury skin grafts on A Change of Heir. Honest, fresh perspectives, a mixture of jazz, pop and indie, and filled with facts and perspectives, and if not always flowing smoothly, a very worthy and worthwhile concept endeavour. Out on Memphis Industries.
Field Music - Money Is A Memory
The Big Moon – Walking Like We Do
The London female indie quartet, who were nominated for a Mercury for 2017's Love In A 4th Dimension, around the time they also backed Marika Hackman, have now taken much more pop direction. This isn't necessarily a bad move, because songwriter and frontwoman Juliette Jackson still has the ability to deliver fabulously dry, droll lyrics ("You had me going for a minute there" he sings about an ex on Waves, and "Did you really think you'd do what we would want" on Roller, powerfully, and "we just hang around like a haircut growing out on The Light) but here with a much bigger, fuller, more produced sound. Nicely peddled. Out on Fiction Records.
The Big Moon – The Light
David Keenan – A Beginner's Guide To Bravery
Passionate, powerful folk in this debut by the 26-year-old from Dundalk in Ireland who really could be one to watch for a big future. He has something reminiscent between the simmering, soaring emotions of Jeff Buckley and the fiercely tender Damien Rice, while his delivery accent stays undeniably Irish, from opener James Dean to the theatrical piano song Tin Pan Alley, to the London street adventure Unholy Ghosts. Narratives that grow on you with each listen. Out on Rubyworks.
David Keenan – Unholy Ghosts
Aoife Nessa Frances – Land Of No Junction
From the same country as Keenan, lovely, river-drifting debut from Irish songwriter Aoife Nessa Frances (pronounced Ee-fa) whose overall theme is summed up when she sings: “Take me to the land of no junction/Before it fades away/Where the roads can never cross/But go their own way.” Escapist with highly watchful lyrics, her voice and style echoes that of Cate Le Bon and Aldous Harding, with a mature, soft, stillness, especially on Blow Libra has the dreamy drift of The Byrds, while Here In The Dark adds a little Strawberry Fields. Out on Basin Rock.
Aoife Nessa Frances – Here in the Dark
Devant Devant & His Spirit Wife – Cut Out And Keep Me
A dozen fabulous new songs, their first since 2004, from the cult London band who originally gained popularity in the 90s with numbers such as Ginger, and whose reputation runs in parallel to another cult band, Art Brut. This one certainly delivers to fans, and hopefully will reach out to many new ones. Frontman and dada-inspired artist Mikey Georgeson, who has also performed in other guises, including the mischievous pop maestro Mr Solo, retains his cheekily bewigged, early Bowie-esque charm, especially in live shows, and has an uncanny ability to conjure up catchy melodies with wistful, ironic humour. There are slower, more spatial numbers here such as Sublime and Data Streams, but the picks might be the glam-rockier Sally, a classic singalong chorus on on Here I Am, and the wonderful Kinks-ish Miracles Happen. Let's hope they do. Available to stream and buy on the CutoutandKeepMe.com website.
CutoutandKeepMe.com
The Chap – Digital Technology
Clever, refreshing, minimal, strangely beautiful electronica pop from the London and Berlin-based quartet.They play around with various iterations of the genre from Kraftwerk to house, moving between abstraction (Merch) to bassy, dance funk (Toothless Fuckface) to the quizzically robotic R2D2ish Don't Say It Like That. Perhaps though the best place to leap into is the rippling electronic ocean that accompanies Bring Your Dolphin. The water is clean and welcoming. Available on Lo Recordings / Bandcamp
The Chap – Bring Your Dolphin
Poppy – I Disagree
The Los Angeles-based artist Moriah Pereira, who has created a YouTube persona Poppy, releases her third album. It's distorted guitar pop, perhaps awash with some rather American cliches, and harks to a little bit of Gwen Stefani and Billie Eilish mixed with a teen cuteness shouty K-pop style with heavy rock goth riffs. That should just about cover it. She might well have something good going on here, or you might disagree. Out on Sumerian.
Poppy – Anything Like Me
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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