Sparks – A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip
A very welcome return from the brothers Ron and Russell after 2017's glorious Hippotamus sees another heady mixture of wordplay, ironic turns on the state of the world, catchy melodious, hilarious proclamations and musical idiosyncracy. The list of song titles is enough to tantalise - the proudly garden tool owner's boast on Lawnmower, the relationship disaster on I'm Toast, mortality (Sainthood's Not In Your Future, extreme paranoia (Existential Threat); endless twists and ironies on Self-Effacing and One For The Ages, and, more topically in the Covid-19 and climate crisis – Please Don’t Fuck Up My World. Another precious work from the duo who mix irreverence with relevance and brilliance. Out on BMG.
Sparks – Self-Effacing
Perfume Genius – Set My Heart On Fire Immediately
Veering between mainstream and startlingly experimental, this fifth album by Mike Hadreas, American singer from Des Moines of Greek descent, is backed by stellar musicians Jim Keltner, Matt Chamberlain and Pino Palladino. The single On The Floor is a soaring, shuffling pop tune of beautiful guitar flecks, but there's a lot of variety on offer. Early 60s American pop on Whole Life, to reverb-rich early 90s alt-rock on Describe, Without You’s acoustic pop, On the Floor with has a funk reminiscent of 80s Scritti Politti. From Elvis to Cyndi Lauper, harpsichord- punctuated baroque pop of Jason, and gliding steel guitar and Balearic rhythm of Without You, his returning theme, as a gay artist, is to subvert concepts of masculinity and traditional roles. Out on Matador.
Perfume Genius – On The Floor
Nick Hakim – Will This Make Me Good
Following his acclaimed, but underexposed 2017 album Green Twins, this new LP comprises songs that defy structure. Listening to it is like sinking into a wonderfully huge sofa while smoking a massive joint. Hakim's style is a woozy form of funk, echoing a slowed down Parliament crossed with Curtis Mayfield with a whole new sound of his own. There are tangible elements to cherish here. Qadir, previously highlighted on Song of the Day, is a gorgeously sad tribute to a dead friend, WTMMG is full of absorbing, unexpected sounds, Bouncing is mischievously the very opposite of its title, All These Instruments is supremely catchy. This a truly different, perhaps even revolutionary record that will take you pleasurably elsewhere. Out on ATO Records.
Nick Hakim – Bouncing
The Magnetic Fields – Quickies
Stephen Merritt and co return with something of a whimsical release – 28 tracks in 47 minutes, the most 2-and-a-half minutes long. These are as mushc musical sketches and ideas as much as songs, but are still packed with hilarious killer lines and delightful melodies, searing wit and wonderful melancholy, the deep, doleful bass voice of Merritt interspersing lead vocals with Claudia Gonson and Shirley Simms, joining forces on the acerbically funny My Stupid Boyfriend. The razor wit is unrelenting, on such tracks as The Biggest Tits in History or The Day The Politicians Died, the filthily stickie Bathroom Quickie, or afternoon tea with devils on You’ve Got a Friend in Beelzebub. If not quite reaching the heights of 69 Love Songs, as ever, infinite jest, mischief and wonderful misery. Out on Nonesuch.
The Magnetic Fields - The Day The Politicians Died
Charli XCX – How I'm Feeling Now
The LA-based British singer Charlotte Aitchison has released this home recording pop record under the scrutiny of social media during the Covid-19 crisis, with Zoom meetings, interviews and a busy schedule all happening in her bathroom. It's lockdown for the mainstream, and you have to admire the sheer level of green-screen video industry on show here, with light pop, rave and club anthems churned out, from Pink Diamond to Anthems to C2.0, the intimate phone song, I Finally Understand, and the single, Claws, with a title chosen by fans. This is taking home exposure to a new level.
Charli XCX – claws
Frazey Ford – U Kin B The Sun
Third album by the Vancouver-based singer-songwriter with a bright, strangely mesmerising and gentle vibrato voice is filled with changes of pace, playing with a country-pop mixture with a sparse mix of piano, light, jazzy drum fills and funk guitar, harking back also t to a soulful 70s sound. It is packed with surprising turns of emotion too, from Azad to Golden, The Kids Are Having None Of It, and Motherfucker. Out on Arts and Crafts.
Frazey Ford – The Kids Are Having None Of It
Hanni el Khatib – Flight
The Palestinian-Filipino American singer-songwriter multi-instrumentalist is another artist who straddles genres - in this case a blues-rock-electronica fusion. This fifth LP is again hard to pin down, the bullet-ripping rock and beats of opener Carry, the talky, slow, ghostly Glassy, the flamboyant funk of Alive, the Young Fathers-style vocals on Dumb, a touch of Chemical Brothers echoes on Stressy, the minimalist Room, the reggae-cum-John Lennon Peace, not to mention all the other single-word titles of this 13-piece gnomic album. Splendldly invention, and hard to pin down. Out on Innovative Leisure.
Hanni el Khatib – Alive
Witch 'n' Monk – Witch 'n' Monk
Fusions of seemingly incompatible generes are always an attraction at The Song Bar and this is a prime example, with the Anglo-Colomban duo of Heidi Heidelberg and Mauricio Velasierra combining respectively, a classically trained soprano singer who plays spiky prog-punk riffs on guitar while using looper pedals and a multi-instrument flautist. This debut LP is recorded in rural Wales and in a former Stasi bunker in Berlin. What more could anyone want when you get prog-thrashy guitar riffs with panpipe melodies, great guest percussionists and and Bollywood strings? From opener Escarbando to the postpunk Coal Mine, to oodles of melodies on Outchant, it's rich, sometimes almost too complex blend, but one to savour and admire. Out on Tzadik Records.
Witch 'n' Monk – Escarbando [part 1]
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit – Reunions
The Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter's new album is a solid, clean country folk release, recorded at Nashville's RCA Studio A. It has a ghostly theme, with haunting tales of past and present, traditional in style, but with the added twist of being, as Isbell says, that "they’re also about who I used to be, the ghost of myself. I found myself writing songs that I wanted to write fifteen years ago." A couple of songs – Overseas and Be Afraid – ramp up the clap along pace and volume, but mostly these are wistful, quiet tunes. Out on Southeastern.
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Dreamsicle
Bonus compilation of the week:
Sleaford Mods – All That Glue
A collection of 22 songs spanning the last seven years of the duo's career with a selection of crowd pleasers, inlcluding McFlurry, Jobseeker, Jolly Fucker and Tied Up In Notts, B sides, with just a sprinkle of unheard tracks and rarities for fans and the curious. Out on Rough Trade.
Sleaford Mods – Second
This week's selection is by The Landlord.
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