BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD — FOR THE FIRST TIME
There has been a hell of a lot of hype around Black Country, New Road. And what’s more, the Cambridgeshire sextet are self-aware enough to acknowledge it.
“Just to think I could’ve left the fair with my dignity intact/And fled from the stage with the world’s second-best Slint tribute act,” singer Isaac Wood jokes on recent single Science Fair, making wry reference to the band’s frequent (and, to be fair, pretty on-the-nose) comparisons to the ’90s alt favourites. It’s one of many knowing lyrical nods to the attention that’s surrounded the group in the past year or so, and the accompanying rush to pigeon-hole them with what’s gone before.
But describing BCNR as derivative couldn’t be wider of the mark. Yes, there are notable influences — The Fall, Art Brut and, yes, Slint all sound like they’re in there somewhere. But like many truly great artists, BCNR manage to jumble up those inputs and create something that sounds entirely distinct.
This is a group of supremely talented performers with fascinatingly diverse musical backgrounds, despite their tender years (all are in their early 20s). Careering through post-rock and free jazz via Klezmer (Jewish party music), their debut LP For The First Time is erratic, epic and teeming with more ideas than many artists have in their lifetimes.
“I am looking at you and you cannot tell I am more than the sum of my parts,” goes the refrain on the sprawling and superb anthem Sunglasses. The thing is: they really are. 9/10 (Review by Stephen Jones)
FOO FIGHTERS — MEDICINE AT MIDNIGHT
Dave Grohl is, famously, the nicest man in the world, so I really don’t want to be rude about his new album. Sadly, it’s not very good. The “na-na-nas” and handclaps of Making A Fire are a jarring start, only added to by Shame Shame’s funk-pop stylings.
The latter, possibly the stand-out track of the nine on show here, and the title track somehow recall the second album from Biffy Clyro/Sucioperro side project Marmaduke Duke. Of the other singles, No Son Of Mine is just straight-up Motorhead cosplay — albeit packing the album’s best riffs — while the earnest Waiting On A War is a curious disappointment.
Coming out of such a fraught time in American politics, the ballad’s subject matter and Grohl’s desire to ease his daughter’s fears could have made for something with the emotional heft to rival the classic Walking After You, but the bland chorus just does not quite land.
Even a poor Foo Fighters album is certainly worth a listen, but this eclectic offering lacks cohesion and inspiration. 6/10 (Review by Tom White)
JOHN CARPENTER — LOST THEMES III: ALIVE AFTER DEATH
Ominous jabbing synths and insistent drums get the adrenaline going before a brooding guitar solo releases the tension — welcome to John Carpenter’s unique vision. The director is known for horror classics like Halloween and The Thing, as well as cult movies Escape From New York and Assault On Precinct 13, but has actually made more albums than films.
An electronic music pioneer, the 73-year-old has scored most of his films and, as well as the soundtracks, he’s now released four studio albums. The superb Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998 re-recorded some of his best tracks, and this is the third in a series of soundtracks to imaginary films.
Opener Alive After Death channels the spirit of Halloween, perhaps his best-known composition, the first of 10 suspense-filled instrumentals that lie somewhere between the 1980s and the near future.
Dead Eyes features icy washes of synths, there’s another epic guitar solo on Vampire’s Touch, and Cemetery builds from a simple piano pattern to insistent keyboards, crashing guitar and skittering drums.
Slower tracks like Dripping Blood and Carpathian Darkness sum up the mournful morning after the nightmare has ended, metaphorical dry ice drifting across the imaginary screen. The titles — Weeping Ghost, Dead Eyes, Turning The Bones — show the type of imaginary film Carpenter envisions, definitely not a rom-com or the next instalment in the Frozen franchise.
Carpenter and his son Cody bring the widescreen synths and his godson, Daniel Davies, provides the crunching guitar, so the listener just needs to sink into the darkness. 7/10 (Review by Matthew George)
MALUMA — SEVEN DAYS IN JAMAICA
Names like J Balvin and Karol G have come to define Colombia’s musical presence outside its borders, but 27-year-old Maluma is quickly claiming a place among their ranks. He gained valuable exposure in the UK collaborating with Madonna on Medellin, a paean to his home city, from her 2019 album Madame X.
Seven Days In Jamaica is the soundtrack to a week he spent in the country pre-pandemic and as such is inspired by the lush music of those islands. Dancehall and reggae fuse with his Maluma’s own reggaeton and pop sounds to create something that sounds essentially international — and ready to conquer charts around the world.
Dancehall artist Charly Black and reggae royalty Ziggy Marley add authenticity to proceedings, although the latter’s appearance on Tonika, which opens the album, is a little underpowered. This is a visual album and so the music is accompanied by some 30 minutes of dance, club scenes, and shots of beautiful beaches and beautiful women.
High production values fail to mask the fact that, despite being a visual feast, each “day” essentially functions as its own compartmentalised music video. While the concept may be thin, the music is anything but. These are portraits of a week spent partying in paradise, with all the joys and excesses that entails. 7/10 (Review by Alex Green)
FEMI AND MADE KUTI — LEGACY +
The son and grandson of Fela Kuti unite for a double album offering a widescreen view of the Afrobeat pioneer and Nigerian political activist’s legacy. Femi is 58 now and his eldest son, Made, is 25. Fela would have been 82 now.
Together they offer two variants on Afrobeat, the complex fusion of jazz, rock, funk and Ghanaian highlife born out of West Africa in the ’60s and ’70s. Femi’s outing, Stop The Hate, is a crisp and creative vision that sticks close to the established template, with a deeply political flair.
Followers of the genre won’t find much new here but nevertheless these tracks give a one-two punch that is not to be disregarded. More exciting is Made’s offering, titled For(e)word, which shocks the Afrobeat genre forwards into 2021.
From the off, his compositions are bursting with creativity, with motirik rhythms rubbing shoulders with parping horns and all manner of electronic gadgetry. Of the two, this is more likely to delight. 6/10 (Review by Alex Green).