Run The Jewels – RTJ4
A fourth release by Killer Mike and El-P that couldn't have been more timely in the wake of the George Floyd death and subsequent protests across the US and other parts of the world. It was due in the autumn, but was put forward, wrongfooting mainstream press, but not here at Song Bar of course. It offers comes with a free download and hard copy proceeds go to the Mass Defense Committee, is a network of lawyers, legal workers and law students providing free legal support for political activists, protesters and movements for social change. And it could also be the hip hop pair's best – uncompromising, playfully clever, politically charged lyrics, but full of musical invention and accessibility. Walking In The Snow refers to the killing of Eric Garner but could so easily be Floyd: “You so numb you watch the cops choke out a man like me/Until my voice goes from a shriek to whisper—‘I can’t breathe’/And you sit there in the house on couch and watch it on TV." But there's also dark humour throughout. Yankee And The Brave is set around a fictional TV show in which the pair have respective characters with Yankee (El-P) and the Brave (Killer Mike), mirroring their baseball teams, the New York Yankees and the Atlanta Braves where the pair set out their intentions for the album. Single Ooh La La, featuring Greg Nice and DJ Premier is anarchic fun, with a video shot before Covid-19 or current protests in which money ceases to have any value. JU$T, with guests Pharrell Williams and Rage Against The Machine's Zack de la Rocha tackles slave traders shown dollar notes, and the final epic 11th track, which builds like a jazz composition, A Few Words For The Firing Squad includes moving confessions about grief and hopes for the future. Sharp, eloquent, slick, and emotional. Out on RBC / BMG
Run The Jewels – Ooh La La
The Nightingales – Four Against Fate
After their excellent Perish The Thought in 2018, touring with the great standout Stewart Lee, and the release of crowdfunded darkly hilarious documentary King Rocker, a welcome return for one of Britain's very finest truly independent bands. Robert Lloyd is still going strong with his distinctive delivery and quirkily brilliant lyrics, with increasing backing and shared, half-talking vocals with drummer Fliss Kitson. There's no better example than the criss-crossing, rhythm-changing track Top Shelf, previously highlighted on Song of the Day, but the whole album is laced with self-derogatory and dry humour, from Thick Rides Again to Neverender, the crazily changing rhythms and riffs of The End Began Somewhere, the electro-pop-style Everything, Everywhere, All Of The Time, the juddery glam rocker The Other Side, and the classic finale, The Desperate Quartet. Against lockdown, the music industry and financial barriers, this four-piece triumphantly fights on against all odds. Out on Bandcamp.
The Nightingales – Everything, Everywhere, All Of The Time
Sports Team – Deep Down Happy
After a fine EP and a series of live shows over the past two years, the former Cambridge students' band, now based in West London, sees their LP finally out after another Covid-19 delay. Like contemporaries Squid from Brighton, and Mush from Leeds, this is fierce, consistent, tight guitar-based indie songwriting coming thick and fast in short and snappy, a dozen three-minute songs with a vocal delivery by Jagger-style frontman Alex Rice's half-shout and scream. Their particular angle is a parody of their own rather middle-class backgrounds, announcing it on opener Lander with “I wanna be a lawyer, or someone who hunts foxes”. The album is certainly packed with witty , self-referential exclamations, such with The Races (with wedding fight video), Kutcher, Camel Crew, Here It Comes Again, Fishing and first single Here's The Single (previously highlight on Song of the Day) among the standouts. The music is consistent high-octane, perhaps all a little too uniform in that respect, but that's no bad thing, especially when it comes to live performance. A continuing, very bright prospect, also no doubt itching to get back on tour. Out on Island Records.
Sports Team – Camel Crew
Rolling Blackouts C.F. – Sideways To New Italy
After their lauded 2018 debut Hope Downs, the Australian indie band return with a slightly, brighter, softer sounding, twangier follow-up. At times there have various echoes of Teenage Fanclub early R.E.M., Crowded House and Felt,with a definite 80s feel. The album’s title is a village near New South Wales’ Northern Rivers – the area drummer Marcel Tussie is from. These songs written by and led singer-songwriter-guitarists Tom Russo, Joe White and Fran Keaney, jump in pace and volume, from a pacier earlier three of The Second of the First, Falling Thunder, and She's There, to the slower Beautiful Steven or Sunglasses At The Wedding. Out on Sub Pop.
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - She's There
Brigid Dawson and the Mothers Network – Ballet of Apes
Present of many of Oh Sees records as a counterpoint to John Dwyer, Brigid Dawson releases a solo effort of jazz-inspired work with a collaborative team across continents, and this may explain how long the project has taken - recorded San Francisco with Sic Alps and Peacers leader Mike Donovan, in Melbourne with Mikey Young of the Eddy Current Suppression Ring and Total Control, and in Brooklyn jazz players Sunwatchers. It's an eclectic, unique blend of styles, jazz dominating the second half, while the first is a contrast, described as “wise warnings dyed in dark hues, knotted and hard-won torch songs from the edge of a turbulent sea, bittersweet balladry spun in defense against evils familiar and unknown.” The title track pulls you in with double bass, rattlesnake percussion, and Brigid's alluring voice, Is The Season For New Incarnations feels like a ritualistic procession, Heartbreak Jazz is as it describes, wrapped in melancholic strangeness, and The Fool is a gorgeous reworking of an old track. Slow, beguiling, mesmeric and impossible to define. Out on Castle Face.
Brigid Dawson and The Mothers Network – Is The Season For New Incarnations
Brigid Mae Power – Head Above The Water
Another Bridid and just as worth listening to is this beautiful third LP from the Irish folk singer. It seems to transcend eras, marrying the ancient and traditional with the modern, and above all utterly mastering the strong art of stillness in her songs, like a female Bill Callahan, such as on Wearing Red That Eve. Blending strings, bouzouki, piano and minimal percussion, her pace is effortlessly strolling and evocative. Wedding Of a Friend crosses more into country with slide guitar, as does opener On A City Night, while the Not Yours To Own, I Was Named After You, We Weren't Sure, You Have A Quiet Power, The Blacksmith and others gently strum and glide like a folk river flowing down the ages, all the way to the final, piano-led Head Above The Water. Recorded at The Green Door in Glasgow, this is a gorgeous, gentle beauty. Out on Fire Records.
Brigid Mae Power – Wearing Red That Eve
LA Priest – Gene
The moniker of Same Dust, aka Sam Eastgate of Late of the Pier, and one half of the wonderful Soft Hair, in which he teamed up with Connan Mockasin, after five years since the fabulous Inji, LA Priest returns with a second album of eccentric electro-space-pop-psyche solo work, strangely moving, beguiling and bizarre with a dash of St Vincent about it. Check out the funky Beginning, Rubber Sky, or What Moves, or Peace Lily, or the weirdly rhythm sounds of Monochrome, or the cleanly syncopated What Do You See, or the darkly, jangly Ain't No Love Affair. Lush, crumbly, smooth, and unusual tasting, like a series of strange cocktail recipes lined up, each more intoxicating than the last. Out on Domino.
LA Priest – Beginning
The Stroppies – Look Alive!
Wonderfull fresh, positive, catchy new exclamatory release of eight short tracks from Angus Lord and Claudia Serfaty co from Melbourne, following 2017's debut, Whoosh! The standout track is the organ-decorated Holes In Everything, as well as Burning Bright, the title track, and the slower, more wistful Roller Cloud. The only criticism is a wish for more tracks. Out on Bandcamp.
The Stroppies - Holes In Everything
Westerman – Your Hero Is Not Dead
The debut album by West London songwriter Will Westerman is promising gem mixture of gently performed, cleverly crafted electro pop songs of diverse styles, from opener Drawbridge to Big Nothing Glow, the gliding beauty of Waiting On Design, Think I'll Stay, the rich acoustic guitar of Dream Appropriate, the Spanish allure of Float Over to the serene closer, Your Hero Is Not Dead. There are touches of Peter Gabriel and Talk Talk among this lovely collection of musical artworks, as shown to accompany each song on YouTube. Out on Play It Again Sam / Partisan Records.
Westerman – Think I'll Stay
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