Slow, ghostly, challenging, droning, uniquely experimental, this is the 80-year-old former Velvet Underground member’s first original album since Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood (2012), with guests including Weyes Blood, Sylvan Esso, Fat White Family and Animal Collective. The opening title track sets the tone with major seventh chords and and oodles of reverb, and featuring Laurel Halo. Noise of You is a shimmering, oddball slow soul number, with echoes of late Bowie as is Night Crawling. The Story of Blood, a former Song of the Day here, featuring Weyes Blood aka Natalie Mering is perhaps the standout, The Fat White Family very much integrate with Cale’s avant-garde, adding deep male voice dynamics on the driving big drum sound and shimming synths on The Legal Status Of Ice, while Animal Collective add their own distinctive twists on Everlasting Days. Perhaps the most avant-garde of all are the slower Marilyn Monroe’s Legs (featuring) Actress, and Time Stands Still with Sylvan Esso. It’s an album that needs a few listens for it to stick, and has some production elements that sometimes jar, but is filled with odd beauty that unfolds with constant new discovery. A quiet, late-night recommendation. Out on Domino.
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