This week, I’ve got another four albums for your listening ears. There will be three new albums from the past week (on a monday to monday basis) and one classic album we’re celebrating the anniversary of.
Honorable mention this week to internet rapper bbno$ for releasing what will probably be the worst album of the year. Sorry, queerbaiting won’t save you from having zero musical prowess or knowledge! Anyways, onto the stuff I actually care about.
Deadbeat – Tame Impala
5.2/10
There’s no denying the impact that Tame Impala had on the indie scene over the past two decades. “Lonerism” and “Currents” are defining albums for a lot of the older Generation Z, introducing an entire youth group to neo-psychadelia in an accessible pop manner, not just opening the floodgates for more and more new artists to release a then-mostly dead (mainstream speaking) genre, but also to introduce an entire new, younger crowd to the psychedelic rock artists of old– I mean, Kevin Parker sounds almost exactly like John Lennon at times.
This past year we’ve seen shockingly good returnals from lots of older artists– Clipse, Swans, Deftones, all reminding us of the reason they’ve stuck around so long. Tame Impala unfortunately falls far short of the quality of his peak however and this album was a mediocre snoozefest. The hour length that is the signature of his projects no longer adds a sense of grandeur to his project– here, it makes it a worse and worse experience to sit through.
The sudden switch from psychedelic rock to HOUSE music of all things was not expected– and was executed pretty poorly. Everything from the cheesy midi piano on tracks like “Piece of Heaven” and the opening “My Old Ways” to the overproduced bass kicks and snap sound effects really sell to you the fakeness of this album. Tame Impala has in the past so convincingly replicated the sound of a large band, but this album is so obviously a one man operation– and that one man clearly does not have the technical ability to make a good EDM album.
“Oblivion” is probably the worst offender here, which (to me) sounds like some dissonance between Parker’s vocals and the lead melody at times and a very boring drum beat that I quickly grew sick of. These electronic melodies that sound like goofy jingles and ringtones even are all throughout the album, “See You Monday (You’re Lost)”, the aforementioned “Oblivion” and many, many other riffs and fills.
There is clearly a great potential here– tracks like “Afterthought” and “Dracula” reminded me the ability that Tame Impala has to create great pop tracks and without a doubt his vocals are still at the forefront and continue to be as gorgeous as ever, but man, that genre change is rough. If this is the path of music that Tame Impala wants to continue to make, I hope that he learned something from this album.
LOTTO – They Are Gutting a Body of Water
7.3/10
Shoegaze isn’t exactly dead, but with the amount that word gets thrown around to describe any kind of noise rock, I would say that the genre is quickly heading there– at least in the general public’s eye. New shoegaze bands like They are Gutting a Body of Water (TAGABOW for short) are however, beating the allegations.
The album is exactly what marks a quintessential shoegaze piece: hazy, dense rhythm guitar filled with high pitched scream-esque riffs and measured drums that keep everything in order despite the raw chaos of the melody section. Despite an unfortunately poorly mixed bass, I have to say I still found the music cohesive.
TAGABOW also has fun throughout the tracks, other than just the beautiful distorted guitar (which on its own is exciting) there’s creative but sparse use of synths with the track “trainers” featuring a calliope sound and some spoken word bits on opener “the chase” and “american food”. “american food” also features an acoustic sounding riff to lead in the song and has a hip hop sounding drum beat with samples of record scratching throughout.
The lead singles from the album are great high points and maybe even some of the highest quality shoegaze to come out of this decade, but some of these tracks are forgettable filler and it really drags the whole thing down. “slo crostic”, “chrisis head” and extended bridges throughout the songs all feel like empty bodies that need just a touch more personality.
Regardless, the album is still of high quality and if you’re looking for new shoegaze, be sure to check it out.
From the Pyre – The Last Dinner Party
7.1/10
The Last Dinner Party is one of the better bands to emerge from the Windmill scene and with Black Country, New Road and black midi to go up against, that’s no small feat. Though their debut album “Prelude to Ecstasy” was of decent quality, it wasn’t anything special. This album however, is.
The grandeur has been turned up to 100, nearly every track on this album has an insane crescendo at the end, complete with strings, choirs and an explosion of lead vocals from singer Abigail Morris. While at times this musical vibe can be a turn off (with some cringier deliveries in tracks like “Count The Ways”) sometimes they manage to bridge the gap between broadway performance and rock in a way that sounds like something you can take seriously. Tracks like “Second Best” and “This Is The Killer Speaking” ride the line pretty comfortably.
Morris’ vocals have been compared to Siouxsie Sioux’s and what a great derivation that is. While Sioux’s dark vocals accent the– for lack of a better word– evil music she was making, Morris’ are layered over bright piano, poppy drums and a more fun atmosphere overall, giving the album a very stage play-esque feeling. Despite the high praise I feel she deserves during many songs, it’s those sort of spoken-word, whisper-singing moments that sound like poor Björk impressions that really tarnish a lot of this album for me. Otherwise great songs really get kicked down a few notches by Morris’ overblown– again– broadway-esque deliveries.
Despite this album being a step in the right direction following an already good debut, I felt that some more musical risks could have done a lot of good. Yes, the music is great, but some more creative instrumentation I think could balance out the vocals at times and lead to a more cohesive experience– perhaps I just love saxophone too much though. Many of the tracks also follow a similar pattern for me, “I Hold Your Anger” and “Sail Away” feel nearly identical to me, with too similar of a slow piano intro followed by a choir and strings.
If you like musical theater music (which again, no judgement) give this album a listen, but I’m not sure how often I’ll come back to this one. Still a good record all the same.
A New World Record – Electric Light Orchestra
10/10
When I give an album a 10/10, it means one of two things. Either that I believe it to be perfect in every conceivable way, all the way down to the design of the cover and vinyl insert– or that it’s my favorite album of all time: “A New World Record” by Electric Light Orchestra. This album is conveniently part of both categories.
Electric Light Orchestra went on a run in the mid to late 70s that felt like lightning in a bottle, from 1975-1979 they released four albums all of incredible quality and could never replicate that sound (nor did they try to after 1979, but nobody else could). This excursion of fusing classical music with rock– not just in the way The Beatles did on albums like “Magical Mystery Tour”, but in an even more symphonic way– peaked in 1976 with “A New World Record”.
Electric Light Orchestra is a band of course, made of incredibly talented players. Richard Tandy is a phenomenal keyboard player that can really shred a synthesizer– the same can be said about Mik Kaminski on the violin and drummer Beverly Bevan (yes, that’s his real name). Though nobody would kid themselves by saying these players aren’t vessels for frontman Jeff Lynne’s songwriting ability. Lynne wrote virtually every single part of every song, the basslines, guitar riffs, pounding drums and all those gorgeous strings.
The album opens with a fast paced, jumpy, classic rock piece in “Tightrope”, after a long, ambient synth build up. The way the daunting saw-lead and rapid strings quickly transition into Lynne’s distorted rock guitar tells you exactly what you’re getting into. The near-anxious strings dancing between the banging classic rock seems constantly on edge yet manages to live in a perfect between state, which is exactly what ELO seeked to accomplish.
Lynne– in addition to his mastery of writing for nearly every instrument– also has a gorgeous voice. He shouts with an undeniable energy in tracks like “Tightrope” or “So Fine”, cools it down to a lullaby in tracks like “Telephone Line” and even grits his voice up for a more bluesy tone in “Rockaria”. There’s also occasional backup support from bassist Kelly Groucutt and opera singer Mary Thomas. Aside from just the pure transcendent quality of Lynne’s vocals, there’s also that incredible range that can perfectly match and accent the music.
I would be a fool to not mention Jeff Lynne’s secret THIRD incredible talent he brought to Electric Light Orchestra– production. This album sounds like it was recorded yesterday. The quality captured on every instrument (but the backing strings especially) are absolutely incredible sounding. There’s a reason Lynne was brought on by multiple Beatles to produce some of their later solo albums, he has an uncanny ability to produce music of such incredible quality.
Everybody knows “Mr. Blue Sky”, but it’s ELO’s deep cuts that prove what an underrated musical genius Jeff Lynne truly is– and this album is chock full of their absolute best.
