Marlowe – Marlowe 2
Excellent follow-up to their eponymous 2018 debut album, American producer L'Orange and rapper Solemn Brigham combine again in superbly agile, slick, skilful hip hop project that more than matches the last, and again brings together what might be defined as old-school, clean, fast rapping without autotune or vocoder, clever sampling and scratching. It's loaded with amusing, offbeat old-film or other media inserts and fabulous changes of pace, with subjects racing through social commentary, police brutality, and poverty and a whole lot more on the absurd state of the world Standout tracks include Future Power Sources, Later With It, and Spring Kick across 18 tracks short and long. Out on Mello Music.
Marlowe – Future Power Sources
Liela Moss – Who The Power
Thrumming, atmospheric sounds, lyrics that cook up emotional turmoils and dissect difficult feelings and relationships, and topped with her soaring voice, another very fine second solo indie release from the Duke Spirit singer. Moss seems to match ethereal beauty in the style of Cocteau Twins or her childhood heroine PJ Harvey, with earthier, killer lines such as, on the machiavellian Watching The Wolf, "non-violently you're considered a complete cunt". Other great tracks include Turn Your Back Around, White Feather, Battlefield and Atoms At Me. Out on Bella Union.
Leila Moss – Atoms At Me
Video Age – Pleasure Line
Channelling a light funk somewhere between 80s Scritti Politti and Prince, a delightfully upbeat, fresh sounding release, if that’s possible for something so retro, of 80s-style pop that also brings up sounds of Janet Jackson and Bowie from that era. Video Age is the collaboration between Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli, old friends from the New Orleans DIY pop scene. Aerostar is particularly Prince-ish, Maybe Just Once very Scritti, while Good To Be Back has a cartoonish solo Paul McCartney feel. Out on Winspear.
Video Age - Aerostar
Another Sky – I Slept On The Floor
Reminiscent at times of Talk Talk, this is a beautiful LP by the London-based band fronted by the melancholy-voiced Catrin Vincent, guitarist Jack Gilbert, bassist Naomi Le Dune and drummer Max Doohan. Their searing, soaring, cinematic songs touch on the topics of austerity, mental health and toxic masculinity, with an impressive deftness of touch, subtle humour, passion and power. Fell In Love With The City, How Long?, I Slept On The Floor, The Cracks and Only Rain are just some of the evocative, wonderfully paced tracks of a rather profound dozen. Out on Fiction Records.
Another Sky – Fell In Love With The City
Gillian Welch – Boots No 2: The Lost Songs, Vol 1
Sparse, gently beautiful stuff rescued, and perhaps now released because was nearly lost in a tornado in March this year. So after July’s covers album, All the Good Times Are Past and Gone, Welch, along with David Rawlings, give us more riches, the first set of discarded demos and outtakes, all recorded in a weekend, from 2016’s first batch of archive recordings, The Official Revival Bootleg, with two more sets to come. Here are 16 tracks, among them a jaunty First Place Ribbon, the gorgeously sad Valley of Tears, Shotgun Song, Johnny Dear, Give That Man A Road, and more. It’s a measure of her talent that some people's spares are others' gems. Out on Acony.
Gillian Welch – First Place Ribbon
Victoria Monét – Jaguar
Victoria Monét is to Ariana Grande as Sia to Rihanna, the behind-the-scene hitmaker-songwriter to the star. Now, aged 27, the R&B artist goes out up front alone with her own project, and the result is silky, smooth, well-produced lush, sleek pop, rich in vocal dubs and horn accompaniment, punchy beats and airy, cascading soundscapes, echoing Janet Jackson. Best tracks include Experience, the intimacy of Dive (going down orally) or Moment, or the wry femininist fetish parody Ass Like That. Out on Tribe.
Victoria Monét – Experience
Willie J Healey – Twin Heavy
Second LP by the Oxford singer-songwriter follows 2017's acclaimed bedroom-made People and Their Dogs as well as last year's perky EP Hello Good Morning. But even after being dropped by Columbia, he continues to sniff out and lead with great melodies in this upbeat, catchy, witty follow-up recorded at Echo Zoo Studios in Eastbourne. The first few tracks are fast, crisp electric guitar, bass and drum classic songs in the manner of solo Nick Lowe, and the title track opens a slower sequence that sounds more like late Beatles, with obvious influences from George Harrison, as well as Neil Young. Standout songs include Fashun, True Stereo, Twin Heavy, Heavy Traffic, and Why You Gotta Do It. Out on Yala! Records.
Willie J Healey – Fashun
Washed Out – Purple Noon
Fourth album by American singer, songwriter and record producer Earnest Greene does simple, breathy, sighing, melancholy pop very well. There are no big surprises on this latest, apart from the multilayered track Haunt, with a collection of gently tripping numbers drift across you gently, like hair in the breeze, with his overdubbed vocals that echo in ghostly fashion across a slow lilting landscape. Don't Go, Time To Walk Away, Too Late, and the gently chugging Hide are three to check out. Out on Sub Pop.
Washed Out – Time To Walk Away
Tkay Maidza – Last Year Was Weird Vol 2
UK debut for the Aussie-Zimbabwean singer-rapper is a tasty little cocktail of hip hop and zingy pop, effortlessly poured like a mojito in the sunshine under an umbrella. Ideal summer refreshment with a little bit of a twist. Sample tracks such as You Sad, the Missy Elliott-style Shook or Grasshopper, the slow funk of Don't Call Again ft. Kari Faux, the tripalong PB Jam, or the jangly, catchy syncopated 24K. Out on 4AD.
Tkay Maidza – Don't Call Again
This week's selection is by The Landlord.
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