Reissue CDs Weekly: Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies

Jason Pierce and co’s first album reappears

Lazer Guided Melodies was great. It still is. Spiritualized’s debut album built from what was already there in Jason Pierce’s previous band Spacemen 3 and took it into newer, more textured territory. While softer-focussed and more dynamic than Spacemen 3 there was still an edge, a brittle carapace which ensured Spiritualized was its own thing. There was also a gospel-informed sense of drama.

Album: Field Music - Flat White Moon

★★★★ FIELD MUSIC - FLAT WHITE MOON David and Peter Brewis draw inspiration from their own lives

David and Peter Brewis draw inspiration from their own lives

Although it is not solipsistic, Flat White Moon is Field Music’s most personal, most revealing, warmest-sounding album so far. David and Peter Brewis have opened up. Their ninth studio album together opens with a seeming declaration. “Orion from the Street” has a drum pattern, bubbling, whooshing sounds and weaving, treated guitar unambiguously alluding to The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows”.

Album: Imelda May - 11 Past the Hour

★★ IMELDA MAY - 11 PAST THE HOUR Irish star makes rare musical blunder into whiffy 'classical rock' and balladry

Irish star makes a rare musical blunder into whiffy 'classic rock' and balladry on her latest

11 Past the Hour opens with its title song, a delicious, twangy, string-laden Nancy Sinatra Bond theme that never was. The album closes with a lyrically empowered torch song, “Never Look Back”, which rises and rises over a marching band drum tattoo and swelling orchestration. Its enormousness is hard to argue with. Unfortunately, in between these two, Imelda May’s sixth album is a bit of a stinker.

Reissue CDs Weekly: Tame Impala - InnerSpeaker (2010➝2020)

REISSUE CDS WEEKLY: TAME IMPALA - INNERSPEAKER (2010➝2020) Box-set makeover of crisp, fizzing debut album

Box-set makeover of one of the last decade or so’s greatest albums

Heard now, InnerSpeaker sounds as it did when it was issued in 2010. Tame Impala’s debut album was crisp, fizzing; a pithy collection of psychedelic rock nuggets which made its case instantly. This was modern psychedelia, infused with a dash of Sweden’s Dungen, which still sounds fresh. Despite brushing the borders of freak-out territory, it was direct. Tuneful too. Fantastic.

theartsdesk on Vinyl 63: KMFDM, Laurie Anderson, Seratones, The Telescopes, Black Sabbath, Conrad Schnitzler and more

THEARTSDESK ON VINYL 63 KMFDM, Laurie Anderson, Seratones, Black Sabbath and more

The biggest bumper crop of vinyl record reviews out there

Rumours keep swirling of pressing plants stumped by the effects of COVID-19 lockdown, and it’s true that vinyl editions of many albums have been delayed, yet still those records keep arriving. At theartsdesk on Vinyl, no-one cares if an album was streaming or out in virtual form months ago. Vinyl is the only game here and when those albums arrive, they are heard, and the best of them, from hip hop to Sixties pop to steel-tough electronic bangin’ to whatever else, makes it into 6000 words of detailed reviews. There’s no shortage of juice or opinion here. Dive in!

Album: Ryley Walker - Course In Fable

★★★★ RYLEY WALKER - COURSE IN FABLE Musically-aware singer-songwriter at his most assured, most direct

The musically aware singer-songwriter at his most assured, most direct

Although Course In Fable is, as Ryley Walker albums go, pretty straightforward some sharp left turns indicate that the formerly Chicago-based, now New York-dwelling guitar whizz isn’t content with limiting a single musical line of attack to one song.

Album: Tune-Yards - Sketchy

★★★★ TUNE-YARDS - SKETCHY Californian alt-pop innovators sounding fresh

Californian alt-pop innovators sounding fresh and maintaining their unique trajectory

Tune-Yards have been much-feted for bringing an original sound to pop. Quite rightly so.

Reissue CDs Weekly: Linda Smith - Till Another Time 1988-1996

LINDA SMITH - TILL ANOTHER TIME 1988-1996 A singular American sonic auteur

Essential compilation celebrating the singular American sonic auteur

“I See Your Face” opens with a short burst of Phil Spector-ish tambourine rattling. The sort of thing also employed by the early Jesus & Mary Chain. Then, a cascading folk-rock guitar paves the way for a disembodied voice singing over a spooky one-finger keyboard line and chugging, reverbed guitar. Occasionally, what sounds like a syn drum goes “pff.”

“Gorgeous Weather” is equally remarkable, equally other-worldly. A spiralling, distant-sounding creation, its subterranean feel suggests an oncoming storm rather than what’s usually thought of as gorgeous weather.

Album: Frida Hyvönen - Dream Of Independence

★★★★ FRYDA HYVÖNEN: DREAM OF INDEPENDENCE Unflinching accounts of change and loss from the Swedish singer-songwriter

Forensic, unflinching accounts of change and loss from the Swedish singer-songwriter

Track two on Dream Of Independence, the new album from Sweden’s Frida Hyvönen, is titled “A Funeral in Banbridge”. An account of attending a funeral in, indeed, Banbridge, County Down, Northern Ireland, it’s bright, melodically jaunty, piano-driven and moves along at a fair clip.

Album: Black Honey - Written & Directed

★★★ BLACK HONEY - WRITTEN & DIRECTED Brighton band's second album gives indie a good name with huge-sounding and catchy guitar pop

Brighton band's second album gives indie a good name with huge-sounding and catchy guitar pop

Indie rock has taken a commercial back seat, even if the music press still hasn’t quite caught up. Sure, there have been hit-makers, and bands that sell out stadiums, but overall, indie’s tide is very slowly retreating. Like any genre, it will always be about, like westerns in Hollywood, a classic formula, but the take-up of technologies far beyond the electric guitar renders it a retro curio.