Lady Gaga – Chromatica
Set in a camp, Mad-Max type sci-fi world, and mixing the "confessional" with the simple-message pop formula, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta's latest is cleverly, and but often over obviously rammed with pop disco material that shoehorns in every commercial, cliched trick in the book. We know that she can sing fabulously of course, as anyone who saw A Star Is Born can bear witness, but that's all rather hidden, or at least any subtlety or nuance of her voice. This album certainly has some tracks to fill the dancefloor, referencing anyone from Daft Punk to Donna Summer to Dead or Alive, such as Rain On Me with Ariana Grande as guest, or the French house element on Replay. That particular song has an unusually dark line: "Every single day I dig a grave, Then I sit inside it, wondering if I'll behave." Yet boldness and sellout absurdity abound, such as the ridiculous Sine From Above, with her At Home at Our Mansions friend Elton John, whose recently sang I'm Still Standing, sitting in his garden sounding like Vic Reeves' The Club Singer. This song even throws in some drum'n'bass at the end just to cover, well, all the kitchen-sink bases. Stupid Love and 911 are two of the few tracks worth hearing, that is, apart from the welcome relief of the three Chromaticas I, II and III – short orchestral sections which seem to be there just to furnish the album with token sophistication. As Gaga sings on Plastic Doll, "I've got blonde hair and cherry lips, I'm state of art and microchipped." But isn't it time to move on from that now? Out on Streamline/Interscope.
Lady Gaga – Stupid Love
Deerhoof – Future Teen Cave Artists
The wonderfully innovative San Francisco indie band release their 15th studio LP, and perhaps a timely one indeed - an apocalyptic concept album imagining (perhaps predicting a near future) a grim scenario where death and mass migration is common and survival rare. But the perspective is from hopeful adolescents who seek to escape into their own creative worlds, beginning with the title track opener with psychedelic, guitars and keyboards, Satomi Matsuzaki's distinctive voice, to a series of eye- and ear-catching numbers such as O Ye Saddle Babes with Greg Saunier's usual outstanding drumming, the catchy, offbeat New Orphan Asylum for Spirited Deerchildren, to Damaged Eyes Squinting Into the Overhot Sun. A unique, futurisitic band, always pushing the experimental, always entertaining envelope. Out on Joyful Noise Recordings and Bandcamp.
Deerhoof – Future Teen Cave Artists
The Cool Greenhouse – The Cool Greenhouse
After last year’s Crap Cardboard Pet EP, an excellent debut and perhaps the most refreshing, original album of the week. As previously highlighted on Song of the Day with the songs The Sticks, and London, the band led by talking vocalist Tom Greenhouse, is a mix of driving krautrock, oddball psychedelia and echoes of The Fall with fabulous ironic humour and idiosyncratic, killer phrases. Greenhouse is a dry, wry wit with a distinctive delivery, lingering with ironic indulgence over consonants, skilfully picking out images, conversations, observations of life's absurdities like a sharp-eared, eye-swivelling urban bird. The Sticks captures the blandness life in a dull town, Cardboard Man narrates from the point of view of a Trump/Johnson/Cameron shallow politician/celebrity amalgam, Smile, Love! addresses casual sexism, Life Advice is a swirl of philosophical encounters, while Dirty Glasses looks into skewed, or clear perceptions. "Y’see the purpose of this band / Is to offer a glasses cleaning service / At a very reasonable price." A wonderful view then, of the everyday and off-beat, through a prism of 11 musical, poetic gems. Out on Melodic Records and Bandcamp.
The Cool Greenhouse – The Sticks
Nicole Atkins – Italian Ice
A welcome return by the North Carolina artist. with a strong mix of smooth, funky, bluesy, country soul with her usual powerful vocal delivery. The album was recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama with legendary session players Spooner Oldham and David Hood, part of the famed Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (The Swampers), as well as, among others, Binky Griptite of The Dap-Kings, Jim Sclavunos and Dave Sherman of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Pure class then runs through this album, from opener Am Gold, the the funky yet ghostly Mind Eraser, single Domino, the soaring St. Dymphna, the acoustic Far From Home, to the passionate closer In The Splinters. Out on Single Lock.
Nicole Atkins – Domino
Coriky – Coriky
Very fine, energetic, no-nonsense, rhythmically creative postpunk with a dollop of hardcore by the trio from Washington, DC, of Amy Farina on drums, Joe Lally on bass, and Ian MacKaye on guitar all variously sharing vocals. They are something of a low-key supergroup, variously hailing from the highly influential Fugazi, Minor Threat and the Evens, but the three are a perfect balance and blend. From Clean Kill to Too Many Husbands, Hard to Explain to Have Cup of Tea to Woulda Coulda, this is burnished consistent, hard-hewn work. Out on Dischord and Bandcamp.
Coriky - Too Many Husbands
Blake Mills - Mutable Set
Better known as producer for Alabama Shakes, Laura Marling and Perfume Genius, the LA-based Mills releases a fourth album on his own terms, a collection of low-key, gentle songs of ghostly, fragile vocals, minimal, dark, atmospheric work, restrained instrumentals, avant-garde jazz-folk, electronica, and acoustic beauty from Never Forever, May Later, Vanishing Twin, Eat My Dust, Money Is the One True God, Farsickness and Window Facing A Window. Beautiful, fragile, reflective. Out on New Deal.
Blake Mills - Summer All Over
Caleb Landry Jones – The Mother Stone
Caleb Landry is better known as an actor, creating for himself particular niche in being unpredictable, violent ginger-haired, disturbed young man, in Get Out, Twin Peaks: The Return, and The Dead Don't Lie, but this 15-track album reveals a whole other range of his singer-songwriter talents, a theatrical, psychedelic suite of songs that mirror some of the characters he plays. Abrupt, psychedelic, disorientating, schizoid shifts of voice, pop orchestration and acoustic piano and organ mix to that jump somewhere between late Beatles, Elliott Smith, and a musical that echoes a dash of Tim Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Unpredictable, dramatic, disturbing and mesmeric. Check out tracks such as All I Am in You / The Big Worm, You're So Wonderful, I Dig Your Dog, I Want To Love You. Out on Sacred Bones.
Caleb Landry Jones – Flag Day / The Mother Stone
PINS – Hot Slick
Since the uncompromisingly good socio-political single Serve The Rich, and working with Iggy Pop back in 2017, Manchester's PINS have changed tack a little, gathering a series of commercial sync deals and with this release, have become more of a girl-group band sounding more like a girlie girl-group, as it were, with unison vocals somewhat echoing Girls Aloud / with drum machine and fuzz guitar, and a stripped back simplicity. With a dash of Donna Summer thrown in, It's light, simple and effective, but the substance, and lyrics lack a certain bite and the humour of previous. The better tracks are the title, Bad Girls Forever, and the funky Set Me Off. Self-released.
PINS - Hot Slick
Choir Boy – Gathering Swans
Very derivative of the 80s, particularly of Talk Talk and The Associates, the Salt Lake City band return after four years with another album capturing a previous era. Not that there's anything particuarly with that, with a heartfelt, camp, emotional record, Klopp's high, soaring voice, accompanying the wistful nostalgia of the music, with standout tracks Complainer, Sweet Candy, the solemn Eat The Frog, and the title track. Out on Dais.
Choir Boy - Complainer
Live album of the week:
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Chunky Shrapnel
A 16-track, 96-minute double live album to accompany the concert musical road movie of the prolific Australian prog psych rock band. The fim is a point of view / on stage experience from the perspective of the musicians, capturing feverish energy and invention. Out on Flightless.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – This Thing
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