The British Film Institute’s excellent Flipside strand resurrects neglected or marginalised UK movies, many of them reflecting the social flux of the 1960s and 1970s.
Neil Young’s prolific, patchy output rejects the very notion of major releases, though only a major artist would be given so much rope. His thirtieth album of the century (new or archive) still stirs anticipation as his first with Crazy Horse in seven years, with Nils Lofgren back in the band he last passed through in 1971, in place of the retired Frank “Poncho” Sampredo.
PJ Harvey is not just a consummate rock musician but a multi-talented artist, who has re-invented herself throughout her career. She paints and makes sculpture, has participated with Artangel in an ambitious art installation, and written and performed theatre and film music. The music for the stage version of Joseph L.
It’s unfortunate that LAHS’s opening track is titled “Holding Pattern” as the album only achieves lift off with its ninth cut “Light Yearly”, a chugging workout with spiralling guitar and echoes of Sixties folk rock if it were refracted through an opaque crystal.
Foals, the band with a trademark sound characterised by the African-style intricate interplay of rhythm rather than lead guitars, returns with what amounts to the second half of a double album. The first half was released last spring, and this new release might well feel like more of the same. But the band’s powers of invention are well up to creating tracks that shine on their own.
It’s an easy joke to suggest that James Arthur needs an editor. By this point, the 31-year-old singer is almost as famous for his lyrical mis-steps and ill-advised use of Twitter as his 2012 The X Factor victory. You, his third album, seems to have been subject to the longest roll-out in history (first single, “Naked”, was released almost two years ago), and arrives at 17 tracks and over an hour in length.
Spaghetti Western guitar, rumbling bass, a rattling keyboard pulse and an unyielding forward thrust combine to delineate Somebody's Knocking’s opening cut “Disbelief Suspension”. Then there’s that growling yet melodic voice delivering sinister lines like “gonna fly to the sun in a helicopter…you wanna take a ride.” Recognisably, it’s Mark Lanegan. Equally perceptibly, his new album is another winning episode in the purple period he’s been enjoying over the last four years or so.
Canadian DJ-producer Philippe Aubin-Dionne – AKA Jacques Greene – has had a successful career in global clubland. One release in particular, his spacey 2011 deconstruction of the song “Deuces” by R&B star Ciara, which he entitled “Another Girl”, created waves in the world of house music. His 2017 album Feel Infinite demonstrated he had vision enough to hold listeners on a longer electronic journey.
These horribly remarkable times can shake the strongest souls. Since the popular acceptance of The Seldom Seen Kid, Elbow at their worst have sometimes resembled their friends and supporters Coldplay, offering anthemic placebos to vaguely generalised ills, as Guy Garvey’s big, sentimental heart buried the odder, proggier band they once were.
It’s been almost five years since we’ve heard anything from the mighty Lightning Bolt, but the tail end of 2019 promises to be something of a musical feast from Brian Chippendale and Brian Gibson’s noisy, high-speed sonic riot. There has already been a re-release of 2003’s Wonderful Rainbow album and an announcement of European tour dates, but this week also sees the appearance of a new album. It’s safe to say that those who have been waiting for it will not be disappointed.