Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Ghosteen
The follow-up to the stark, grief stricken 2016 album Skeleton Tree, the first after the death of his son Arthur the year before, takes an unexpected direction, from grief to a form of transcendental bliss. Not unlike Cave's live performances as a quite extraordinary figure for audiences, it filled with messianic references – Jesus, Elvis, and fairytale, elegiac stories, but in particular and gradual, gentle peeling away of past torments, particularly that central track Sun Forest, in which "the future rolls in like a wave… and the past, with its savage undertow, lets go". It is as if, after extreme grief, and then his very candid Q&A tour, as well as much open dialogue with fans online, Cave is seeking balm for the soul, and finding it. The album is full, as usual, of memorably profound lines, but musically, is is strangely minimal, a beach without mountains or trees, virtually no drums, simply piano, or Warren Ellis's atmospheric, eerie keyboards, and Cave's voice – strong of course, but no red right hand of anger, just calm, whispery at times, but still emotionally charged. Exquisitely haunting in all sorts of ways, but from start to forest, quite uniform, like a lake or forest of calm, not the usual stormy seas we expect from this brilliant, tormented spirit. Out on Ghosteen Ltd.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Ghosteen
Sturgill Simpson – Sound & Fury
The American singer-songwriter's fourth album in six years continues a wonderfully unpredictable path of musical development. From his more traditional country, self-funded 2013 debut, High Top Mountain, to turning this inside out into psychedelia on Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, to 2016’s heavily orchestrated A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, to this latest release, and mixture of stomping glam rock, grunge and disco. From railway worker to pushing the frontiers, the 41-year-old is flying full steam ahead, even with anime videos, and as per his latest single, Make Art Not Friends, which mixes country with ZZ Top, he simply does what he wants. Fabulous. Out on Elektra.
Sturgill Simpson – Sing Along
Black String – Karma
South Korean folk jazz? Why not indeed. The quartet named after the Asian zither, the silk-stringed geomungo, with percussion, flute, guitar and electronica mix east and west with great panache. Energetic twanging rhythms, jazz and more keep coming, from an oud-like horn on Hanging Gardens of Babylon to South American travelogue Sureña, a slow instrumental cover of Radiohead's Exit Music, and complex rhythms in Ornette Coleman’s Lonely Woman. A very skilled, rather beautiful and intriguing release. Out on ACT.
Black String – Sureña
Girl Band – The Talkies
The Irish postpunk quartet's second album is a perfect Halloweeen-is-approaching release, full of disturbing, stabbing guitars and the talking-screaming style of singer Dara Kiely, echoing the Fall and Liars. It's sharp, edgy, stark, ghostly and catchy all at once, which is quite an achievement. Intense, scratchy, scraping and visceral, muttering and musing, among the strangest of its track is Aibophobia, a palindromic puzzle with instrumentals recorded in reverse before being replayed forward. Reminiscent of moments in Twin Peaks, David Lynch would be proud. But maybe don't listen in a darkened room at night. Out on Rough Trade.
Girl Band – Going Norway
Serafina Steer – The Mind Is A Trap
After releasing material Bas Jan, and touring as keyboard player with Jarvis Cocker, the London-based singer-songwriter-harpist returns with charmingly oddball release of talky MicroKorg electronica brimful with humour and eccentricity, squeaks, buzzes and upfront quirky lyrics. The title track echoes a little bit of 80s Pet Shop Boys pop, but there are also elements in the album of 90s Saint Etienne and Handsome Boy Modelling School, from Provides Common Ground, to Whatsmystone, Lapse, and the upbeat sci-fi fun of This is My Emotion. Out on Vitamin Concept Records.
Serafina Steer – The Mind Is A Trap
Various – Music From Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service
A compilation hard to resist from the former Pulp frontman who hosted the BBC6 Music show from 2010-2017, and brought to it many wonderful and eclectic choices. Favourites include Nina Simone’s Baltimore, unusual cover versions like Antony and the Johnsons’ stunning performance of Beyoncé’s Crazy In Love, and the Katzenjammers’ rendition of Gary Numan’s Cars as played on steel drums, excerpts from the Radiophonic Workshop, and a special reading from Padgett Powell’s The Interrogative Mood, read live on the show by Jarvis and accompanied by David Cunningham from the Flying Lizards on kalimba. Treasures everywhere. Out on Ace Records.
Nina Simone – Baltimore
Kefaya and Elaha Soroor – Songs Of Our Mothers
Fascinating blend of styles as Afghan singer Elaha Soroor and the producer duo Kefaya (Al MacSween and Giuliano Modarelli) bring together Afghan folk with spiritual jazz and dub to Indian classical music and electronica, with traditional numbers sung by Afghan women with themes, unsurprisingly, of joy, pain and resilience, hardship and oppression, whilst also celebrating femininity, sensuality and the spirit of resistance. Beautiful, stirring and inspiring. Out on Bella Union.
Kefaya + Elaha Soroor - Jama Narenji
Temples – Hot Motion
The trio from Northamptonshire return with their third album following the much-praised 2013 Sun Structures with general consistency, though not much evolution - fuzzy psych-rock indie, energetic, a whoosh of Pink Floyd, Black Keys and MGMT with 70s hair. Out on ATO.
Temples – Hot Motion
Young M.A – Herstory in the Making
The American rapper also known as Katorah Marrero certainly has style and presence, and this release comes to mark 10 years since her brother's death. The 21 tracks could do with an edit down , but overall spits along with energy and sassy, chatty aggression and inventiveness, with her most interesting moments coming on the track Car Confessions, a free-associating imaginary journey thorough Brooklyn. Out on MA Music/3D.
Young M.A – Herstory in the Making (album sampler)
Tegan and Sara – Hey, I’m Just Like You
A drily amusing title by the Canadian twins Tegan and Sara Quin, who with this ninth album, go back to where they all started, refreshing their career after a dip in commercial success after the 2013's pop album Heartthrob. This one accompanies their memoir book, High School, and draws on the songs they first wrote together as teens, and mixes emo with sugary pop, the two styles of their career. Cheesy, but weirdly addictive. On on Sire.
Tegan and Sara – Hey, I’m Just Like You
This week's selection is by The Landlord.
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