Rufus Wainwright – Unfollow the Rules
The flamboyant American-Canadian comes with a return to lush, opulent pop, rich in orchestration, humour, delicate emotion and touching moments. An encounter with fans in Bexhill-On-Sea (yes really) inspired the ballade This One’s for the Ladies (That Lunge!). The title track, perhaps the best, is a fabulous piano-based track that begins with a stillness, his distinctive voice quivering above, then builds to a powerful crescendo, a song that wouldn't be out of place in his classic albums Want One and Want Two. Devils & Angels (Hatred) is full-on electro orchestral pop. Ticks every Rufus box. Out on BMG.
Rufus Wainwright – Devils & Angels (Hatred)
Julianna Barwick – Healing Is a Miracle
This fourth album by the American artist who builds her music around electronic loops is perhaps her richest, fullest and most powerful to date, even though it is perhaps slightly less varied in sounds that 2016's Will. Inspirit sounds like an out-of-space sci-fi track with a vast choir. Overall this feels like a modern form of church music. Wishing Well is a ghostly apparition of a song. In Light, featuring Sigur Rós’s Jónsi, lulls like waves. Guest harpist Mary Lattimore on Oh, Memory is beautifully celestial, as is Safe, like the sound of sunlight, if that can be imagined. Late-night, lie-down-in-the-dark music, calmingly transcendent, ethereal, a little Enya-esque at times, but not as contrived, and undoubtedly gorgeous. Out on Ninja Tune.
Julianna Barwick – Inspirit
The Streets – None of Us Are Getting Out of This Life Alive
Nine years since Mike Skinner's last Streets album, and an astonishing 18 since that breakout album Original Pirate Material, this return feels like harking back to the past, but the twist is that this is an album of rapping duets. Skinner's drily shallow, deadpan delivery is just as it was, but this time he is joined by a variety of guests – Ms Banks, Jimothy Lacoste, Dapz on the Map, Tame Impala and Idles, the latter's Joe Talbot on the title track. It's a mixed bag of the throwaway and insubstantial, but also fluently profound in these dysfunctional times. "There's several ways that this is gonna go bad," he raps on The Poison I Take Hoping You Will Suffer. "“I know something you did/ But I can’t say owt/ Because of, let’s say, how I found out," he says on I Know Something You Did. World-wearily cynical, but as ever with a turn of phrase that's somehow blandly engaging, even though musically, with various forms of garage beats, there isn't always much to get excited about. Thematically mobile phones ring out continuously, including on two track titles - and that's like this album, bland and distracting, but also strangely engaging. Out on Island Records.
The Streets – None of Us Are Getting Out of This Life Alive
Donna Missal – Lighter
The New Jersey singer-songwriter returns with a second album of songs fuelled by her bisexuality, and with strong vocal elements of big stars and big sales in her delivery – Shania Twain, Sheryl Crow and Stevie Nicks. This is shameless commercial material designed for mainstream audiences, but does its powerpop mission well, with a big sound and a strong, strident voice, especially on Hurt By You, Carefully, Best Friend, and Who Loves You. There's not much room for nuance here, with boxes ticked ruthlessly, but it does what it says on the tin - hold out those lighters, or phone touches when those stadium moments come. Out on Harvest Records
Donna Missal – Let You Let Me Down
Mr Ben & The Bens – Life Drawing
Ben Hall and his band, now signed to Bella Union, return with a dozen wonderfully easy paced, psychedelic pop songs, Hall's high, clear voice and songwriting talent ringing out with lovely profundity and a sense of perfect timing and purpose. After 2019’s Who Knows Jenny Jones?, about a young, shy Pitsmoor woman who returned from an alien encounter with disco-dancing talents, this new set of songs are more about his local environs - characters and experiences in Sheffield and around - with gentle keyboards, guitar and drums. Standout tracks include On The Beach, Faithful Hound, The Wind on Spittlehill, Beast In The House, and Closing Time. Stylistically echoing a mixture of Villagers and Belle & Sebastian, and even a touch of Mercury Rev and Velvet Underground, songs that transcend era with wonderful maturity. Out on Bella Union.
Mr Ben & The Bens - Beast In The House
The Beths – Jump Rope Gazers
The New Zealand band, led by Elizabeth Stokes, return with a second album of carefree, fresh indie pop, effervescent choruses and rousing backup vocals, zeroing in on the communality and catharsis that can come from sharing stressful situations with some of your best friends, in particular the rough and tumble of touring. There's a lovely balance of hope and cynicism here, hitting on the distance that life necessarily drives between people over time, but still buoyed by the music, such as Dying To Believe and the tender, shoegazey Out of Sight, the breezy opener I'm Not Getting Excited, or the dreamier, acoustic You Are The Beam of Light. Out on Carpark Records.
The Beths – I'm Not Getting Excited
NZCA Lines – Pure Luxury
The flamboyant synthpop band and the moniker for flamboyant producer and multi-instrumentalist Michael Lovett's latest LP has an colourful range of styles designed to grab notice in a world of short attention spans, a technicolour joyride laced with irony, a hyped-up version of 21st century excess where gold trim hides rotten plywood facades, muscle cars are bought with credit cards and barbed wire fences separate luxury resorts from the slums beyond their walls. So there's funk and disco (Pure Luxury, Real Good Time and Prisoner of Love) cheesier powerpop with violins (For Your Love), material variously inspired by Imagination, Prince and Parliament. As the final track says: "“Tonight is all that really matters, as long as we keep dancing”. Out on Memphis Industries.
NZCA Lines – Pure Luxury
SoKo – Feel Feelings
The French singer born to Russian-Polish Jewish father and a French-Italian Jewish mother releases her third album. It's a delightfully eccentric and at times humorous set of songs about love, uncertain sexuallity identity, melancholy and is delivered with a playful, swivel-eyed irony. These feel like slow, soft torch songs of romance and tragedy, actressy feelings that are both passionate but also throwaway, her voice often gliding between the high and ethereal and the earthily deep. Musically, and lyrically she employs a sound that is lush, and soft, out-of-focus, and a little by Connan Mockasin. Standout tracks include Being Sad Is Not A Crime, the terribly French and breathy Blasphémie, Are You A Magician?, the sexually swinging Oh, To Be a Rainbow!, and the strange, talky, Replaceable Heads. Eccentric, and indulgently enjoyable with vaguely nonsense lines. Let me enjoy your face. Out on Because, Babycat.
Soko – Oh, To Be a Rainbow!
Mulatu Astatke & Black Jesus Experience – To Know Without Knowing
Melbourne meets Ethiopia as the Australian eight-piece ensemble reunite with the father of Ethio-jazz in a wonderful, mix of momentum-building Cuban, funk, reggae and more, as rich in influences as the band is diverse. with female Ethiopian singer, Enushu Taye, joining musicians of Australian, Moroccan, Māori and Zimbabwean descent. Several wedding songs get the party swinging, given extra edge with the horn section led by co-founder Peter Harper. Best listened to from start to finish but standouts include Mulatu, Kulun Mankwaleshi, Mascaram Setaba, and To Know Without Knowing. Out on Agogo Records.
Mulatu Astatke & Black Jesus Experience – To Know Without Knowing
This week's selection is by The Landlord.
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