Highly recommended this month: Whitehorse, Keita Juma, Pops
Staples
More than worth your while: Asaf Avidan, Belle and Sebastian,
Mavericks
Also: The new Del Bel record.
Also: The new Del Bel record.
But mostly I spent February still listening to the new Sleater-Kinney record. The Toronto show on Monday, March 2, is still not sold
out! What’s wrong with you people?! Check this if you need convincing.
Asaf Avidan – Gold Shadow (Sony)
Last year the music world lost Jimmy Scott, a diminutive,
androgynous singer who started his career in the jazz age and enjoyed a
renaissance late in life thanks to David Lynch movies. Scott was unique; the
only singer who remotely resembled him was Nina Simone, who of course was one
of a kind herself. Asaf Avidan is a young, male, heterosexual Israeli singer in
the same vein: between gender, steeped in torch songs and melancholy, a singer
not of this time or any other.
Gold Shadow, his third
solo album and first North American release, is the rare record that sounds
like it could have been recorded any time in the last 40 years, with production
touches that range from Van Morrison to Sam Smith, with stops on Broadway and
German cabarets along the way. With a voice like his, Avidan could easily phone
it in and astound us with his vocal versatility alone. But he’s also got solid
songs, biting his teeth into a lyric like “I will be the jail that sets you
free,” or, “I love you like God loves his son” (how’d that turn out, by the way?)
and refusing to deliver 11 songs that easily fit into the same mould.
By the time Gold Shadow
closes with two songs that could have been heard on Leonard Cohen’s first
album, you’ve forgotten about the swaggering R&B that opened this show, or
the barking blues of “Bang Bang” or the tracks could have come from the pen of
either Jack White or Amy Winehouse. I can’t same a single Israeli artist whose
ever broken through in North America, but if anybody should, it’s this guy. (Feb.
5)
Download: “The Jail That Sets You Free,” “The Tunnels Are Long
and Dark Are These Days,” “These Words You Want to Hear”
Belle and Sebastian – Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance
(Matador)
On their 2013 tour, the highlight of Belle and Sebastian’s set
was a full-on disco number that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Daft Punk
album. The band had long shook its reputation as fey shut-ins with whispered
vocals and flute solos; they had slowly evolved into a rock band over the
course of their first decade. But this song—their live take of a DJ’s remix of
a B-side, “Your Cover’s Blown”—was a whole other direction. It later surfaced
on that year’s odds-and-sods collection, The
Third Eye Centre.
That track now informs one-quarter of this album, which finds
Belle and Sebastian embracing Euro-disco while sacrificing none of what has
always made the band unique: their love of British pop music history—from ’60s
folk (Nick Drake) to ’70s glam (T. Rex) to ’80s new wave (the Smiths) to ’90s
Britpop (Pulp)—and American R&B and the gentle voice of leading man Stuart
Murdoch, with time in the spotlight for violinist Sarah Martin and guitarist
Stevie Jackson. (And, on “Play for Today,” a stunning guest spot by Dee Dee
Penny of Dum Dum Girls.) The three disco songs are centerpieces, but they’re
balanced by songs that wouldn’t be out of place on any Belle and Sebastian
record of the last 20 (!) years, as well as a strange but seamless klezmer
detour on “The Everlasting Muse.” Don’t be surprised to see an extra
percussionist on stage with them this year: congas and bongos abound. (Feb. 5)
Download: “Play for Today,” “The Cat With the Cream,” “Enter
Sylvia Plath”
John Carpenter – Lost Themes (Sacred Bones)
John Carpenter wrote and directed some of the greatest horror
and suspense films of the late 1970s and early 1980s: Halloween, Escape From New
York and Big Trouble in Little China
among them. He also wrote all the music, including the incredibly creepy piano
theme from Halloween, which has
become just as much of a musical cliché as Bernard Herrmann’s Psycho theme. The only one of his films
he didn’t write the soundtrack for? In 1982, he decided to trust some guy named
Ennio Morricone to score The Thing.
Carpenter has been fairly quiet lately: he’s only made two films
in the last 15 years. This, however, is an album of instrumental music not
connected to any of his films—even though it would suit any one of them.
Carpenter doesn’t write orchestration; his music is easily performed by a rock
band with several keyboardists and two guitarists playing harmonized leads. It
sounds like he’s still using the same keyboards he would have used 35 years
ago, Moogs and other analog synths, the kind that mostly only French acts Daft
Punk and Air still employ.
If you’re of a certain age, old enough to have had his films
leave a mark on your adolescence, Carpenter’s music is evocative, creepy and
beautiful. Even if you’re not, however, Carpenter’s Lost Themes displays a depth and invention that the next generation
of soundtrack composers would do well to study. (Feb. 5)
Download: “Vortex,” “Fallen,” “Wraith”
Ron Hawkins and the
Do-Good Assassins – Garden Songs
(Pheromone)
Now that we’ve been told all the Lowest of the Low reunions are
finally no more—but never say never!!—it’s time to be reminded that Hawkins
does just fine on his own, thank you very much. As proof, here he is with his
ace band, offering a live-off-the-floor collection of ballads and mid-tempo
material (apparently an album of rockers is due shortly). It’s what Hawkins
does best, where his lyrics are given space to sink in, where the richness of
his voice really shines, where cellos and accordions bring out more in his material
than loud electric guitars do. He’s recycled a couple of songs from earlier
(not widely heard) releases, like the should-be-a-classic “Small Victories,”
but that doesn’t matter even if you have heard them before. The new material,
including a tribute to the late David Foster Wallace (“D.F.W.”), shows that
he’s certainly not in a slump. On the contrary: he tells us that two more
albums are imminent. (Feb. 5)
Download: “D.F.W.,” “South Ontario,” “Saskia Begins”
Ibeyi — s/t
(XL/Beggars)
Ibeyi sound great on paper; their debut album sounds almost as
good. These two sisters are Venezuelan-Cuban twins who live in Paris and sing
in English and Yoruba (a Nigerian language spoken by slaves sent to Cuba 300
years ago; it’s now spoken there only in religious services). Their father was
a percussionist in Buena Vista Social Club; he died when they were 11, before
they embarked on their musical path. This album arrives on the boutique XL
label, home to Adele, Radiohead, The XX and Vampire Weekend. The single-shot
video for the first single, “River,” is haunting and beautiful.
The rest of the debut doesn’t quite live up to that hype, though
the sound of these two sisters’ voices is undeniably gorgeous, a fierceness
shining through despite the muted nature of the electronics and arrangements
surrounding them. They could either head in a jazzier direction or one with
harder-hitting beats; right now they seem caught in between. A few more steps
in either direction would do wonders. In the meantime, they’ve got a “River,”
and they’ll skate away with one of the strongest debut records of 2015. (Feb.
26)
Download: “River,” “Ghosts,” “Stranger Lover”
Keita Juma – Chaos Theory (independent)
Toronto hip-hop is often presented as disciples of either Drake
or elders like Kardinal Offishall or Saukrates, but Mississauga’s Keita Juma is
on a whole other trip. Minimalist, futuristic, oblique, he’s not an easy guy to
figure out. But maybe that’s only because these days we expect hip-hop to be
one-dimensional, to spell everything out for us. Chaos Theory, on the other hand, is a hip-hop haunted house,
Timbaland on acid, the MC spitting verse in a fun-house mirror. Only one track
here veers remotely closer to the conventional, “Come Over,” a
four-on-the-floor booty-call set to an early Chicago house beat. Keita Juma’s
beats generally bounce all over the place; he’s a wildly inventive producer who
often changes direction entirely in the middle of a track—check the avant-garde
“YReWeOnThisBeach,” where the relaxed, charismatic MC finds himself adrift in
the Canadian wilderness, searching for inspiration. Wherever he finds it, Keita
Juma manages to create truly haunting, hallucinogenic hip-hop, the likes of
which is all too rare in this country or anywhere else. (Feb. 5)
Download: “Chaos Theory,” “Peace In/Peace Out,” “Come Over
(feat. Brendan Philip)”
Andy Kim – It’s Decided (Arts and Crafts)
Yes, it’s that Andy Kim, of “Sugar Sugar” and “Rock Me Gently”
fame, the Montreal native who has likely made millions in royalties over the
last 45 years and yet has little to no name recognition today among anyone
under 50. Enter Kevin Drew, ringleader of Broken Social Scene and co-founder of
the Arts and Crafts label, who was among the dozens of CanRock icons from all
generations who would wind up playing one of Kim’s annual Christmas shows for
charity in Toronto. In Kim, Drew saw an equally earnest, emotionally vulnerable
man, the kind of guy who stares you in the eyes and tells you he believes in
the power of love. No winking, no irony—the real thing.
Kim’s last attempt at a comeback produced a great record, 2011’s
Happen Again, the kind of record
befitting a pop music elder making music for his peers. No one heard it. Drew
wanted Kim to be heard by a whole new generation, and so offered to produce and
release a new album. Kim had nothing to lose.
He surrendered to Drew’s instincts, for better and worse: It’s Decided sounds remarkably similar
to Drew’s 2014 solo album, Darlings—not
just sonically or in the arrangements, but even in Kim’s vocal phrasing; one
could easily hear Drew’s voice on this record instead (even though Kim is
obviously, from a lifetime’s worth of experience, a much more polished singer).
The good news is that Darlings is one
of Drew’s better records, and this is a worthy companion. The bad news—if you
can call it that—is that one doesn’t get a sense of Kim’s own musical
personality here, other than the fact that the man still knows how to write a
strong melody and deliver it with conviction. Anyone who wants to hear
something like “Sugar Sugar” is better off sticking to oldies radio; there is
zero attempt here to recreate any of Kim’s earlier glories. This is a man
looking forward.
Lyrically, It’s Decided
carries a lot of weight: songs like “Why Can’t I (Ever Find My Way),” “(Been
Away For the) Longest Time” and “Forest Green” are rich with regret, reckoning
and melancholy; these are not songs for a young man to sing. Are they songs for
a younger man to produce? Absolutely—especially with the respect Drew delivers
to this project. (Feb. 26)
Download: “Why Can’t I,” “Sail On,” “Forest Green”
Mavericks - Mono (Big Machine)
Heading to Florida soon? This will get you in the mood. The best
country band to ever come out of Miami (okay, that’s probably a short list),
the Mavericks mined that city’s Latin sounds and mixed it with classic
Americana—particularly Roy Orbison, to whom singer Raul Malo shares a
remarkable vocal resemblance—and scored more than a dozen hit singles and
plenty of awards. After an acrimonious split in 2004, they reunited in 2013;
this is the second record of their comeback, and they now share a label with
Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw and Rascal Flatts.
Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that the Mavericks sound better
now than they ever did; their style of music never goes out of fashion. The
only real test is whether Malo can hit all those high notes: yes, yes he can.
And the songs are all knockouts: new classics by a classy band, through and
through. (Feb. 19)
Download: “What You Do To Me,” “All Night Long,” “Summertime
(When I’m With You)”
Purity Ring – Another Eternity (Last Gang)
It is, of course, possible in these days of miracle and wonder
to make music with someone living in another city. That doesn’t mean you
should. Purity Ring recorded their acclaimed 2012 debut, Shrines, while the duo was split between Montreal and Halifax, and
it mysteriously struck a chord that landed them an international deal, rave
reviews, and a spot on the Polaris Music Prize shortlist. How that happened for
such a cloying, claustrophobic yet cutesy electro-pop record is hard to
imagine. But it did.
Now they’ve recorded the follow-up while living in the same
city—their hometown of Edmonton—and the difference is remarkable. Granted,
Megan James’s vocals are still too precious by half, but the songwriting has
evolved considerably, and the melodies and electronics are actually working
together rather than at odds. If the debut managed to pole-vault them into a
real career, this album—with massive synth sounds designed for stadiums in
Europe—will seal the deal.
Me, I’ll wait for the next record—and be listening to the
remarkably similar but far superior Sylvan Esso album of 2014. (Feb. 26)
Download: “Bodyache,” “Stranger Than Earth,” “Begin Again”
Pops Staples - Don't Lose This (Anti)
This could have gone very wrong. A dying legend’s last
recordings, resuscitated 15 years later, with musicians who never met him
providing the rhythm section and arrangements? That doesn’t usually work out so
well.
In this case, however, Mavis Staples trusted her father’s
recordings with her producer of late, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. Why not? Tweedy’s
approach with Mavis’s albums was bare bones, bringing out the full strength of
her voice and character. Both Mavis’s albums and Pops’s feature Tweedy’s son
Spencer on drums, proving the progeny to be a master of economy: simple,
soulful beats providing needed backbone but largely staying out of the way.
Other than the sweet honey of Pops’s voice, the real treat here is hearing his
unique guitar style: often imitated, there’s nothing like the real thing. Don’t Lose This is also remarkable for
one last chance to hear three Staples sisters; Cleotha died in 2013 (Yvonne
still sings backup with Mavis). In fact, this was supposed to be a Staples
Singers record, but the daughters wanted their father to be the focus.
After two incredibly productive decades in the ’60s and ’70s,
the Staples Singers didn’t wear the ’80s very well; their final album in 1984
was a largely misguided attempt to chase contemporary sounds. This, on the
other hand, is the way we should remember Pops Staples, a throwback to the
gospel records that started his career. Though largely populated by new
material, there are also songs here he’s played all his life: “Nobody’s Fault
But Mine” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” the latter given a syncopated,
funky makeover. A cover of Bob Dylan’s “Gotta Serve Somebody” closes things out
“Don’t lose this,” Pops told Mavis, handing her the tapes just
before he died. Thank God she didn’t.
Postscript: Any fan of the Staple Singers will want to read Greg
Kot’s excellent 2014 book I’ll Take You
There, which is ostensibly a book about Mavis, although Pops is the real
star. (Feb. 19)
Download: “Somebody Was Watching,” “No News is Good News,” “Nobody’s
Fault But Mine”
Whitehorse – Leave No Bridge Unburned (Six Shooter)
Who’s burning bridges here? Not Luke Doucet and Melissa
McClelland, whose second full-length as Whitehorse is as welcoming and
accessible and brilliant a mainstream rock record could imaginably be in 2015.
Start with the obvious: both are undeniably gifted musicians,
handling all guitars, keyboards and percussion, as well as impeccable
harmonies. On top of that, Doucet also holds a trump card: he is one of the best
guitarists working anywhere in the world today. Anyone who’s seen their
stripped-down live show, utilizing live looping and layers, knows all this.
On top of that, since ditching their solo careers and rebranding
themselves they’ve also stepped up their songwriting game. This time out,
producer Gus Van Go reportedly rejected their demos and told them to “go home
and write ‘real’ songs,” Doucet told Exclaim!. Weird: this record is no better
or worse than their near-flawless 2012 debut, The Fate of the World Depends on This Kiss. If it’s to Van Go’s
credit that he made them live up to their own standards, so be it.
Whitehorse already had a perfect package, so there are no
complaints if they returned with more of the same: McCartneyesque melodies,
Duane Eddy guitars, Emmylou-and-Gram harmonies, rockabilly shuffles, Blue Rodeo
rockers, Pixie-ish oddball twists (the track “Evangelina” owes a debt to “Where
Is My Mind”) and—well, you know, lessons learned from the last 50 years of
classic rock albums. Expect Whitehorse’s discography to join that legacy sooner
than later. (Feb. 19)
Download: “Baby What’s Wrong,” “Downtown,” “Evangelina”
