I largely neglected this blog in 2017 from April onwards, while I was writing The Never-Ending Present: The Story of Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip (out April 3 on ECW Press). I turned down all freelance work while researching and writing the book in the space of six months. When that six months was up, I was busy editing the book and catching up on the rest of my life, so this blog sat dormant.
But that entire time I
did maintain my weekly column for the Waterloo Region Record, a column I’ve had
since 1999; it’s where most all reviews on this site originally appeared.
Some reviews during
that time got/get their own post elsewhere on this blog, particularly on my
year-end picks for 2017. This month I’ve also posted some of the records I felt
more strongly about. Here’s the rest—in alphabetical order, not by date.
Because no one will read this whole file, here’s a list of what you’ll find
below:
Afrotronix – Nomadix
Les Amazones d'Afrique
– République Amazone
Benny Andersson –
Piano
Arca – s/t
Barenaked Ladies –
Fake Nudes
Beck – Colors
Big Boi – Boomiverse
Big Walnuts Yonder – s/t
Blue Hawaii –
Tenderness
Benjamin Booker –
Witness
Daniel Caesar –
Freudian
Castle If – Plant Material
The Clientele - Music for the Age of Miracles
Cold Specks - Fool's Paradise
Como Mamas – Move Upstairs
Del Bel – III (Missed Connection); L
Con – Moon Milk (Wildlife Sanctuary Sound)
Dim=Sum – s/t
DJ Shub – PowWowStep
Do Make Say Think – Stubborn Persistent Illusions
Steve Earle and the Dukes – So You Wanna Be an Outlaw
Ex Eye – s/t
Charlotte Gainsbourg – Rest
Jacques Greene - Feel Infinite
Headstones - Little Army
The Heliocentrics – A World of Masks
Iskwé – The Fight Within
Julie and the Wrong Guys - s/t
Kacy & Clayton – The Siren’s Song
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Murder of the
Universe
Pierre Kwenders – Makanda
Land of Talk – Life After Youth
Lorde – Melodrama
Mappe Of – A Northern Star, A Perfect Stone
Minotaurs – Aum
New Fries – More EP
Robert Plant – Carry Fire
Prophets of Rage - s/t
Quantum Tangle – Shelter as we Go
Andrea Ramolo – Nuda
David Rawlings – Poor David's Almanack
Ride - Lannoy Point
Rostam - Half-Light
Serena Ryder – Utopia
Buffy Sainte-Marie – Medicine Songs
Oumou Sangaré – Mogoya
Shabazz Palaces –
Quazarz vs. the Jealous Machines; Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star
Jon Stancer – For the
Birds
Mavis Staples – If All
I Was Was Black
Colin Stetson – All This I Do For
Glory
St. Vincent –
Masseduction
Moses Sumney – Aromanticism
Trio Da Kali and
Kronos Quartet
Shania Twain – Now; Margo
Price - All American Made
Chad VanGaalen – Light
Information
The Wooden Sky – Swimming in Strange
Waters
Afrotronix – Nomadix (independent)
What would you get if
you crossed the Saharan blues of Tinariwen with Kraftwerk? Not an entirely
hypothetical question for Montreal musician Caleb Rimtobaye, who
moved to Canada from Chad many years ago and started H’sao, one of the most
thrilling African bands I’ve ever seen in this country (they played Hillside
many moons ago). Rimtobaye hasn’t put down his guitar—he shreds all over this,
his second album as Afrotronix. But underneath his six strings and plenty of
acoustic percussion are electronic African pop grooves meant to be blasted at
massive volume. Rimtobaye runs his voice through various processors—including
AutoTune—yet sounds much more soulful than lesser singers who use it as a
crutch. By donning gorgeous fantastically ridiculous sci-fi headgear on the
album cover and in promo material, he’s all but inviting comparisons to Daft
Punk. But he’s got the goods to back it up. Between him and Pierre Kwenders,
Montreal’s Afrofuturist music scene is sounding great. (Jan. 12, 2018)
Stream: “Ama Boua,”
“Zaala,” “Épuisé”
Les Amazones d'Afrique – République Amazone
(RealWorld)
When you gather some
of the most powerful female voices in West Africa for a supergroup, you can’t
really go wrong, especially when two of those women are Angélique Kidjo and
Mariam Doumbia (of Amadou and Mariam). Add nine more women to that mix, and
you’re really stacking the deck. Then along comes producer Liam Farrell, who
helmed the astounding debut album for Congo’s Mbongwana Star in 2016.
Musically, République Amazone isn’t as mind-blowing
as that band’s album—a lot of it falls into the category of late ’90s
trip-hop-lite, with nods to reggae, that bring back memories of Finley Quaye.
(Anyone remember him? Fantastic debut and then—well, look him up, it’s sad.) No
matter: we’re here for the women, and there is no shortage of fiery tracks here
that will send you scurrying to find out more about the lesser-known singers here,
such as Nneka and Mamani Keita.
The sound is
thoroughly modern, with deep bass grooves and electronic touches; Farrell is
also unafraid to distort and electronically process these already powerful
voices (no AutoTune, thankfully). The debut single “I Play the Kora” was a
benefit single for survivors of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, and the Kidjo-led “Dombolo” has a powerful accompanying video
focused around the slogan, “Women are the forces who built the land of the ancestors.”
And the land of the future, by the sounds of it. (Jan.
12, 2018)
Stream: “Dombolo” feat. Angelique
Kidjo, “Nebao” feat. Mamani Keita, “Full Moon” feat. Rokia Koné, Mamani Keita
Benny Andersson – Piano (Deutsche Grammophon)
“I am playing my
memoirs,” says the ABBA pianist, as he releases a 21-track solo piano record on
a renowned German classical music label. ABBA fans may never get new music or a
proper reunion tour--the band famously turned down a $1-billion offer to
reform--and there is talk of some kind of “hologram” tour in 2019. This, on the
other hand, is a much classier and more age-appropriate move. Andersson has
much more than ABBA to draw from; only about a half-dozen tracks here are from
his pop music career, and only two of them would be recognizable to casual
fans. (Anyone who’s been a fan for 40 years--like this reviewer--will know them
immediately.) Coming from a band not known for subtle performances, Andersson
is a delicate pianist who no doubt knows his way around some Satie; the fact
this is on Deutsche Grammophon is not just stunt casting. Only occasionally
does the album veer into airport-lounge territory (“Thank You For the Music”).
Otherwise, it’s thoroughly satisfying. Somewhere Chilly Gonzales, of Solo Piano fame, is kicking himself that
he didn’t do an ABBA piano record before Benny got to it. (Oct. 6, 2017)
Stream: “I Let the
Music Speak,” “Malarskolan,” “Mountain Duet”
Arca
– s/t (XL)
Arca is the Venezuelan Londoner who is
best known for having collaborated with Bjork on her last two albums, including
last November’s Utopia. His harsh,
often abrasive sound design, is, incongruously, simultaneously beautiful and
ugly; his first two albums were innovative and more than merely interesting.
But it’s here, on his self-titled third album, where his music boasts a new
confidence and clarity. Perhaps it’s because he’s also allowing himself to be
vulnerable, singing for the first time on one of his records. He does so in his
native Spanish, and on a series of what he claims are first takes. For someone
who’s only unveiling this particular talent now, Arca proves to be a remarkable
singer, bringing an emotional depth to his music that elevates it far beyond
just soundscape. No doubt Bjork brought that out of him; she’s built the entire
latter half of her career on marrying spirited vocals to experimental textures.
Arca, of course, is nowhere near the singer Bjork is (who is?), but while his
boss’s 2017 album collapsed under its own weight, Arca’s own record revels in
its agility and endless surprises. (Jan. 5, 2018)
Stream: “Piel,” “Saunter,” “Sin Rumbo”
Barenaked Ladies – Fake Nudes (Warner)
Not only is this
Barenaked Ladies’ 12th album, it’s the second one they’ve
released in 2017. The first was a collaboration with a cappella group the
Persuasions, which worked not just because of the vocal performances but
because the band seemed so relaxed and playful, not unlike their
still-entertaining live shows. On Fake
Nudes—surely the best album title of 2017—the band continues their
“grinning streak” with producer Gavin Brown, who’s helmed the third phase of
the band’s career with aplomb. Brown balances the band’s natural talents with
more obvious bids at a top 40 single, which are thankfully kept to a minimum,
because “Lookin’ Up” is a definite low in the Ladies’ catalogue—even lower than
“One Week.” “What’s the cost in trying to figure out who we are?” asks singer
Ed Robertson on one of the stronger tracks here, “Navigate.” What the Ladies do
best these days are the mid-tempo pop songs that steer more toward pop-country,
with Kevin Hearn’s colourful synths painting around the edges. “Canada Dry”
panders slightly to the deficit left by Gord Downie’s departure from this
country’s tower of song, but it’s also the one song here likely to make it into
live sets for years to come. Kevin Hearn’s songs are again a highlight; he has
as many songwriting credits here as Robertson. The biggest surprise is when
Tanya Tagaq shows up to offer uncharacteristically subtle touches to Hearn’s
“Flying Dreams.” (Nov. 23, 2017)
Stream: “Canada Dry,”
“Navigate,” “Flying Dreams”
Beck – Colors (Universal)
No one knows what to
expect from Beck on any given record; his last one, Morning Phase, was an unremarkable acoustic affair that somehow won
the Grammy for Album of the Year in 2014. This one is supposedly a return to
“party Beck,” which means that a lot of people are still in a 20-year-old time
warp hoping that he makes another Odelay.
The man is 47 years old. He’s not going to make another record like the giddy
young hipster he once was. But surely he can make a record that doesn’t sound
like a pale imitation of himself: every song here is a somewhat funky groove
with an overproduced rock song on top of it. It sounds like… the Happy Mondays?
Is the zeitgeist so bad that we have to be nostalgic for that band now? It’s
telling that the best song here is when the old man tries on a trap beat for
“Wow.” “It’s like: wow. It’s like, right now.” Yep, sure is.
Stream Beck: “Colors,” “Dreams,” “Wow”
Big Boi – Boomiverse
(Sony)
Remember when Outkast
were the biggest name in hip-hop, and all the white critics thought Andre 3000
was the genius because he wrote a guitar-based pop song that sounded like the
Pixies? Hoo boi. Andre’s Outkast partner Big Boi isn’t the most prolific
producer in the world—this is only his third solo album since Outkast went on
hiatus in 2007—but that’s three more records than Andre 3000 has put out, i.e.
none.
Big Boi’s low profile
between releases is no mystery when you hear what he comes up with after a long
absence: Boomiverse is all killer, no
filler (with some Killer Mike, to boot). George Clinton grooves are set to a
modern context, with EDM touches and some old-school R&B flourishes, while
always rooted in the Southern hip-hop that Big Boi played a large part in
defining. The Boomiverse is always expanding, it seems. (June 29, 2017)
Stream: “Chocolate,”
“Freakanomics,” “Order of Operations”
Big
Walnuts Yonder – s/t (Sargent House)
I realize I’m one of the few who think
that the relatively obscure California band Deerhoof were the greatest rock
band of the 2000s: for their originality, inventiveness, prolific nature, the
fact they didn’t sound like they belonged in any earlier decade, and the presence
of drummer Greg Saunier. They’re still going, of course: they headlined the
Camp Wavelength and Arboretum Festivals this past August in Toronto and Ottawa,
respectively.
If the name Deerhoof doesn’t mean
anything to you, maybe the name Mike Watt does—the monster bass player behind
the Minutemen, fIREHOSE and, in the last decade, Iggy Pop and the Stooges. No?
How about Nels Cline, guitarist in Wilco and avant-garde shredder
extraordinaire in his own right (check out 2016’s gorgeous and subdued album Lovers)?
Those three powerhouses have joined
with someone new to my ears, guitarist/vocalist Nick Reinhart of Tera Melos, to
spontaneously combust as Big Walnuts Yonder. Watt sent everyone in the band
some bass lines, and everything was written and recorded during three days in a
Brooklyn studio, except vocals, which were an afterthought months later.
The result is: insane, in the best
possible way. None of these players hold back; the creative synergy and
resultant fireworks are clearly evident. And yet all that musical fury is
consistently harnessed in the same direction; these are actual songs, not
showcases for showboaters. The end result will lay waste to all other
guitar-based music you’re likely to hear this year. (May 18, 2017)
Stream: “All Against All,” “Raise the
Drawbridges?” “Forgot to Brush”
Blue Hawaii – Tenderness (Arbutus)
Raphaelle
Standell-Preston plays in one of the most creative bands in Canada, Braids, but
has now released her second electro album with Alex Cowan as Blue Hawaii. The
tension heard on their debut, 2013’s Untogether,
in which the former couple were getting their feet wet with electronic dance
music influenced by Cowan’s stay in Berlin, is no longer evident. Tenderness is a sunnier affair,
musically, even if the lyrics are about the perils of living a life online and
long-distance relationships. The paradox here is that though Tenderness is more musically
accomplished and less introverted, it’s not as interesting or enticing as the
debut—to these ears, anyway. But the deeper bass tones, string embellishments
and crisper beats provide a softer cushion for Standell-Preston’s
ever-improving vocals. (Nov. 16, 2017)
Stream: “Free at
Last,” “Do You Need Me,” “Tenderness”
Benjamin Booker – Witness
(ATO)
Three years ago, when
we first heard this New Orleans-based performer, Benjamin Booker said he wanted
to sound like Otis Redding playing guitar in a punk band. Gimmicky, sure, but
it worked. He still tries that out on tracks here, like “Off the Ground,” and
it still sounds great. But now he’s older, wise and in the midst of volatile
times in his native country, and so this album aspires to be, according to
Booker himself, a James Baldwin-like reaction to reawakened racial strife. (One
title: “Truth is Heavy.”) That’s most obvious on the title track, which enlists
Mavis Staples—a voice that is a direct connection, both aesthetically and
historically, to civil rights struggles of the past. Not all of Booker’s lyrics
hit direct targets: an actually astute political protest album would surely not
contain a lyric like, “I just want to believe in something / I don’t care if
it’s right or wrong.” Because just about any Donald Trump voter could have been
heard saying the same thing last summer.
Musically speaking,
the concept here means less rock’n’roll, more R&B—some of which would fit
in with retro throwback acts like Leon Bridges, but with the assistance of
Danger Mouse associate Sam Cohen and Alabama Shakes engineer Shawn Everett, Witness is content to reference the past
without emulating it. (June 1, 2017)
Stream: “Witness,”
“The Slow Drag Under,” “Believe”
Daniel Caesar – Freudian (Golden Child)
For the last couple of
years, Daniel Caesar has been the one to watch in Toronto’s R&B scene. His
moment has finally arrived. This, his first proper full-length album, came out
in August and has gone gangbusters ever since: he’s headlining five, count ’em,
five sold-out shows at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto this December. The
reason why is obvious: he has a chilling, smooth-as-velvet voice with deep
roots in gospel music and R&B crooners, which leaps out at you right from
the opening track, “Get You.” John Legend should be watching his back.
Though rooted in
tradition, Caesar’s sound is very modern—the British Mercury Prize-winner
Sampha is an analogous comparison—but has nothing to do with the cold nihilism
of the so-called “Toronto sound” of Drake, The Weeknd, Majid Jordan, etc. One
would have to go back to Glenn Lewis to find a male soul singer of this
strength on the Canadian scene, and so far Caesar’s already managed to leapfrog
over the traditional barriers to success in this genre that plagued Canadian
artists of earlier generations. Between Caesar and Jessie Reyez, the next year
promises to have a whole new wave break out of Toronto. (Nov. 16, 2017)
Stream: “Get You”
feat. Kali Uchis, “Blessed,” “Take Me Away” feat. Syd
Castle
If – Plant Material (independent)
Synth pioneer Stevie Wonder once
released an album called The Secret Life
of Plants, which was a bit of a baffler and effectively stalled a flawless
run of albums in the 1970s. That won’t happen to Toronto analog synth
enthusiast Jess Forrest, a.k.a. Castle If, because a) she’s completely unknown
and has no genius reputation to sully and b) her album is brilliant. Plant Material is playful, rich and full
of great melodies for the more demonstrably sentient listener. Yes, she owes
debts to Tangerine Dream and other Germans, but “Guzmania Lingulata” struts
through a bossy bossa nova beat, and “Comin Up Next” rides a slinky funk groove
à la Money Mark. She claims that music has been proven to facilitate plant
growth, and that one track here is meant to be a “therapeutic drone” for just
that purpose, she told Now Magazine. No matter, the plants in Ms. Forrest’s
house aren’t the only ones who will enjoy this record. (May 11, 2017)
Stream: “The Grass is Greener,”
“Monstera Deliciosa,” “Sansevieria Trifasciata”
The Clientele – Music
for the Age of Miracles (Merge)
As much as there is to
recommend about this recently resurrected British band, all their records sound
exactly the same: wispy, mid-tempo music that sounds like it was made by Belle
& Sebastian’s sadder and somewhat aloof cousins. Singer/songwriter Alasdair
MacLean weaves beautiful, folk-influenced guitar lines over supple bass lines
from James Hornsey and a delicate touch from drummer Mark Keen. The
arrangements are designed for daydreaming, cloud-watching--but not heavy
lifting (one song is actually called “Falling Asleep”). One can’t fault a band
with chemistry like this for being very good at one thing and running with it,
and this is as good or better than anything else they’ve done, perhaps because
a seven-year hiatus has them bringing their best game. (Sept. 21, 2017)
Stream: “The
Neighbour,” “Falling Asleep,” “Everyone You Meet”
Cold Specks – Fool's
Paradise (Arts and Crafts)
A few years ago, I was
working at a magazine that ran very little music coverage. A freelancer had
successfully pitched a story about struggles facing a new wave of female
R&B voices out of Canada: Divine Brown, Melanie Fiona and Jully Black among
them. The story started out by talking about Cold Specks, the musical project
for a young woman who then called herself Al Spx, who possessed a powerful
voice and played stark, haunting music she termed “doom soul.” Wait a minute, I
asked the editor: why is Cold Specks in this article? Spx played slow,
guitar-based music that has more in common with Nick Cave than Nicki Minaj. Is
it because she’s black, one of the few African-Canadian women to have any kind
of profile in this country’s music scene? Because otherwise, we’re talking
about apples and oranges here.
Two albums and a
couple of Polaris nods later, Cold Specks—who dropped the Al Spx pseudonym, and
now goes by her birth name, Ladan Hussein—has indeed drawn closer to R&B,
although Fool’s Paradise is more Massive Attack than Mary J. Blige. There are
barely any guitars: synths and drum programming dominate. The background isn’t
necessarily important: as always, it’s Hussein’s voice that draws you in first
and foremost, but it does sound even better with some deep bass and beats
behind it, situating her somewhere between Sade and Bjork (“Ancient Habits”
borrows a bit from Bjork’s “All is Full of Love”), if either artist wrote
almost exclusively in minor keys. Hussein also slips into Somali on the title
track, acknowledging a family history she once felt she had to mask to make it
in the Canadian music industry.
If third albums are
where an artist really proves themselves--after the potential fluke of a debut,
and the transition of a second album--then Cold Specks has most definitely
stepped up. The songs are strong, the setting is right, and she’s evolving
easily. There’s nothing remotely foolish about Fool’s Paradise. (Sept. 21,
2017)
Stream: “Fool’s
Paradise,” “Wild Card,” “Rupture”
Como
Mamas – Move Upstairs (Daptone)
Three senior sisters from Como,
Mississippi, population 1,000, had never been to New York City before the folks
at Daptone Records (Sharon Jones, Charles Bradley) invited them up for a show
at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem in 2015. The gospel singers brought the house
down. Days later, they shacked up in Daptone’s tiny studio to cut their first
album with a full band behind them, Daptone players who know how to hang back
and let the soulful grooves speak for themselves, and step aside for the
singers.
There’s nothing about Move Upstairs that sounds like it was
recorded in 2017: but that’s the point. If old-timey African-American gospel
music is remotely interesting to you, you could buy an old reissue or you could
hear living proof that the tradition is still alive and well.
Interestingly, the Como Mamas have been
supported by a non-profit called the Music Maker Relief
Foundation, which “was founded to preserve the musical traditions of the South
by directly supporting the musicians who make it, ensuring their voices will
not be silenced by poverty and time.” His Word is alive. So are these fine
ladies. Lend them your ear. (May 18, 2017)
Stream: “Out of the Wilderness,” “I
Can’t Thank Him Enough,” “Glory Glory Hallelujah”
Del
Bel – III (Missed Connection)
L
Con – Moon Milk (Wildlife Sanctuary
Sound)
“You write the same song mostly every
day,” sings Lisa Conway on Del Bel’s “Maybe There’ll Be a Lightness,” the
closing track on the band’s third album. This Guelph-based ensemble was once in
danger of being a one-trick pony. Not any more.
They burst out of nowhere in 2011 with
a debut album that excelled in noir-ish atmosphere and ominous overtones that
put them in the same company as Timber Timbre. Singer Lisa Conway’s voice
was—is—equally spooky and sultry, bringing life to instrumentals originally
intended for a film soundtrack.
Here Del Bel expands their palette and
dynamic range considerably, drawing from dub reggae, trip-hop, Spanish
balladry, and a dash of hip-hop, as evidenced by the cameo from Toronto MC
Clairmont the Second. The spaghetti Western guitars are still there, but it’s
the presence of a full horn section throughout that adds welcome colour;
songwriter and bassist Tyler Belluz spent part of 2016 touring with Romania’s
Fanfare Ciocarlia, so he may have gained an increased appreciation for horn
arrangements—which were present on the band’s last album, but are used much
more effectively here. Drummer Adam Hindle is also a key asset here; with
Belluz as the principal songwriter, most Del Bel songs are structured around
the groove, no matter the tempo. “Only Breathing” rides a slinky groove and
descending bass line akin to Portishead’s “Glory Box” (or, for that matter,
Alessia Cara’s “Here,” which uses the same Isaac Hayes sample).
Conway released her second solo record
last fall, Moon Milk, which she wrote
and recorded while a songwriter-in-residence in Sackville, N.B., and inspired
by the Italo Calvino story collection Cosmicomics. Most of the tracks here
feature a few synths, a drum machine and her guitar, from all of which she
conjures interstellar sounds for planetarium pop music that sounds haunting
even at its most uptempo, like the techno track “Form of Space.” But Moon Milk is much more diverse than it
first appears, thanks to guest appearances from some of her Del Bel bandmates
and others: “All at One Point” set to just acoustic bass and a few horns;
“Without Colours” is similarly sparse; several tracks feature gorgeous string
arrangements, including “Games Without End,” featuring just the strings and
Conway’s wordless harmonies. Conway may be the voice of Del Bel, but it’s her
songwriting and arrangements in her solo work that shows her true talent.
(April 20, 2017)
Stream Del Bel: “Katie,” “If I Was a
Fool,” “Put Me to Bed With a Shovel”
Stream L Con: “The Distance of the
Moon,” “A Sign in Space,” “Form of Space”
Dim=Sum
– s/t (Big White Cloud)
In the Neil Young biography Shakey, cantankerous producer David
Briggs is contemptuous of any Young recordings that “don’t have the spook.” He
would dismiss later takes in favour of the first run-through, because that one
“had the spook.”
Dim=Sum has “the spook.” This is a West
Coast group featuring guitarist Shuyler Jansen and drummer Mike Silverman (both
of the late, great Edmonton band Old Reliable), bassist Chris Mason (of
Saskatoon’s Deep Dark Woods), and synth player Dave Carswell (Smugglers,
Destroyer)—old men with nothing to lose and nothing to prove, so they might as
well jam out for 15 minutes at a time on songs that fall somewhere between Neil
Young, Black Sabbath and German art rock.
Songs lurch and plod in the best
possible ways, sometimes coming to a complete stop for whale sounds from an
electric guitar, sprinklings of synth and jazzy drums. Miraculously, there is
always a concrete song at the core; this is not entirely a free-for all, and
it’s surprisingly well-orchestrated for something that sounds so loose. It’s
music for late-night driving through Western Canada in a heightened state,
where strange visions appear on the periphery of the highway, where the limits
of your imagination are as vast as the land stretched out before you.
Carswell is one-half of the JC/DC
production team, along with the New Pornographers’ John Collins. But while that
band appears to be playing it somewhat safe, Carswell has dove off the deep end
here. More power to him and his colleagues. (April 13, 2017)
Stream: “Fisherman’s Daughter,” “Blue
Rolls the River,” “Things Just Don’t Add Up”
DJ Shub – PowWowStep
(independent)
The waves of acclaim
for A Tribe Called Red’s Halluci Nation
album keep pouring in: they took home some Junos last month, including one for
producer of the year, and they’re more than likely to be shortlisted for the
Polaris Music Prize this summer (many are betting they’ll win in September).
It’s an important album for many reasons; it’s also, arguably, the best by a
band that keeps getting better.
And yet: it was made
after the departure of DJ Shub, who reappears here with his own album. It’s
more than obvious, listening to Halluci
Nation and PowWowStep one after
the other, what exactly it was that Shub brought to Tribe: the funk. PowWowStep, a term Tribe adopted to
describe their sound when they first emerged more than five years ago, owes
more debts to the warm vibes of classic house music than the more abrasive EDM
that pops up on much of Halluci Nation.
Both acts, of course, employ powwow singing—the Saskatchewan group Northern
Cree appears on both recordings.
Shub left ATCR for
family reasons, as that group’s tour schedule kept him away from his young
kids. The musical differences appear to be minimal. But as ATCR get more heady
and expansive, it’s Shub’s music that works better on a dance floor. (June 1,
2017)
Stream: “Big Crow”
(feat. Black Lodge Singers), “Come On Over” (feat. Northern Cree), “Smoke Dance
One” (feat. Frazer Sundown)
Do Make Say Think – Stubborn Persistent Illusions
(Constellation)
A perfect title for
any band celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut
album—and doing so with perhaps their best record yet, one capable of
convincing the curious and/or sceptical. Maybe that’s in part because, like
their label mates Godspeed You Black Emperor, they’ve suddenly found themselves
writing in major keys—and maybe that’s because, as the Belgian
cartoonist Jean-Claude Servais once said, “The hour calls for optimism; we’ll
save pessimism for better times.” Either way, this is a band whose collective
experience (Broken Social Scene, Feist, Andy Kim, R&B/metal band Lullabye
Arkestra, and more) and chemistry together result in interlocking melodies and
gorgeous textures over the alternately jazzy and hardcore punk of dual
drummers. Every song here is a miniature film in itself—not just the soundtrack
to a hypothetical film, but with enough sonic and harmonic detail to imagine
characters and dialogue—not an easy feat for an instrumental band. But not that
difficult for a band like Do Make Say Think. (June 22, 2017)
Stream: “A Murder of
Thoughts,” “And Boundless,” “As Far As the Eye Can See”
Steve Earle and the Dukes – So You Wanna Be an Outlaw (Warner)
“If my mama coulda
seen me in these chains, she’d be fit to be tied / she was spared that pain
because I was barely 13 when she died.”
Who else can write a
couplet like that? Steve Earle, of course, has served time in jail, has hit
rock bottom more than once, been divorced seven times, and has more than earned
the right to write 19 albums worth of country songs about it all.
There have been times,
of course, where the prolific artist has seemed to be either spinning wheels or
trying on different sets of sonic clothing to varying effect. Here, however,
Earle stays close to his country roots, to great effect, full of fiddles and
pedal steel and a Willie Nelson cameo. Of course, there are also excursions
into more hard rock territory, including the Zeppelinesque “Fixin to Die.”
Continuing his great tradition of writing male-female duets, he teams up with
Miranda Lambert for “This is How It Ends”—which, unexpectedly bears an uncanny
musical resemblance to “Islands in the Stream,” only sung by artists who recently
went through very public separations with fellow songwriters.
By far the standout
track, however, is Earle’s ode to his late mentor Guy Clark, “Goodbye
Michaelangelo”—which speaks volumes about Clark’s influence. (June 29, 2017)
Stream: “Goodbye
Michaelangelo,” “If Mama Coulda Seen Me,” “News from Colorado”
Ex Eye – s/t (Relapse)
The intense music of
saxophonist Colin Stetson has always been compared to the punishing extremes of
metal. It’s not remotely a surprise, then, that here he is fronting an
instrumental metal band, with drummer Greg Fox of Liturgy (who also played on
Stetson’s recording of Gorecki’s 3rdsymphony), a synth player and a
drummer. It suits him to a T. He’s not imitating vocalists or flashy
guitarists, although his penchant for arpeggiation serves him well here. Ex Eye
don’t have a single focus to their sound: they play as a unit, as one rhythmic
force, as one expressive texture. There are clear parallels to the more
punishing parts of Stetson’s former Montreal neighbours Godspeed You Black
Emperor, though with more release and less build-up—but always walking a
tightrope of tension.
This also comes right
in time: Stetson’s solo records, while all excellent, were beginning to blur.
It was time for new challenges. Between the Gorecki album and this, he’s
obviously game. (July 27, 2017)
Stream: “Xenolith; the
Anvil,” “Anaitis Hymnal; the Arkrose Disc,” “Form Constant; the Grid”
Charlotte Gainsbourg – Rest (Warner)
Charlotte Gainsbourg
is an award-winning actor; she has been since she was a teenager. In North
America, she’s best known for her uncomfortable roles in Lars Von Trier films.
In France, despite her length career, she’s still best known for being the
daughter of a towering figure in French music, Serge Gainsbourg. On each of her
three previous albums, Gainsbourg has always performed the work of men: her
father, Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker, and Beck. This time out, she’s written lyrics for
the first time, partly as a way to process grief after the death of her
half-sister, Kate Barry, in 2013. She’s also writing largely in French—a
language the London-raised singer has largely avoided in her music until now.
Gainsbourg’s musical
collaborator this time out is SebastiAn [sic], a French producer with credits
on Frank Ocean and Fallout Boy albums. He’s no match for Cocker and Beck, even
if he follows their same formula: synth- and string-drenched moody electro-pop
that sounds like ABBA on downers, allowing Gainsbourg’s breathy vocals to
maximize their melancholy. SebastiAn’s formula gets tired quickly, but
thankfully Daft Punk’s title track and Paul McCartney’s “Songbird in a Cage”
have a magic and mystery that much of Rest lacks.
Rest
is getting rave reviews all around—have these people heard her other records?
Maybe not: the last one came out seven years ago, a.k.a. a lifetime for modern
attention spans. (Nov. 30, 2017)
Stream: “Rest,”
“Sylvia Says,” “Songbird in a Cage”
Jacques Greene – Feel
Infinite (Lucky Me/Arts & Crafts)
You can be a world-renowned
touring DJ, a Soundcloud sensation and remixer to the superstars, but until you
put out a full-length album, there’s a significant part of the music industry
(say, columnists at small-city newspapers) that will not take you seriously
until you put out a full-length album. Enter Jacques Greene, a 27-year-old
Montreal DJ (recently relocated to Toronto after a short stint in NYC), who—taking
a queue from his friend Kaytranada—has just put out his debut album after seven
EPs in seven years.
On it, Greene moves
through a series of moods, rather than deliver one thumper after another; to be
sure, there are more than a few tracks here designed for the clubs, but overall
it’s much better appreciated in its entirety. His signature sound is what’s known
as the “R&B chop,” slicing and dicing a sampled vocal. It’s been around
since at least Kanye West’s early work—or, closer to Greene’s aesthetic, his
Montreal compatriot Akufen—and it’s certainly nothing new, though Greene
consistently uses it to great effect. It’s telling that when real-life R&B
singer How to Dress Well shows up on the album’s only cameo, his performance is
less emotionally affecting than the majority of the tracks here in which Greene
chops up a sampled vocal into breaths and stutters.
Listening to Le
Couleur and Jacques Greene makes one wonder why Arcade Fire went to work with
Daft Punk on their new record, when talent like this was literally around the
corner. (June 15, 2017)
Stream: “To Say,” “I
Won’t Judge,” “Real Time”
Headstones – Little
Army (Cadence)
Old punks are boring.
Pining for youth. Replicating a rage that surely must have dissipated years
ago. Playing music best left to 18-year-olds. Give it up, old guys.
Unless you’re in the
Headstones. Then you’re just fine.
This is the second
record of their comeback. There’s plenty of life in that graveyard.
Singer Hugh Dillon has
always been a riveting frontman, to say the least, and he later bottled that
energy into a successful acting career (seen most recently in the Twin Peaks reboot) while he dealt with
addiction and put the band on an 11-year hiatus. When the Headstones returned
in 2013 with Love + Fury, they
achieved the impossible: a punk reunion that proved to be not a sad attempt at
a victory lap, but a renaissance even better than the first time around. The
songwriting was sharp, the bass line of Tim White were the driving force, and
Trent Carr’s guitar playing combined visceral energy with the veteran skill of
an old country music picker. On top of it all, Dillon’s snarl was more
effective than ever: the lived experience behind the voice shone through loud
and clear: “Red meat eater / liar and a cheater / always hit the ground
running, taking what I need.”
The Headstones stick
to their formula, a whip-tight take on vintage punk the vein of the Sex Pistols
and Teenage Head, with no regard to any trends of the last 30 years—which is
why it works. They do act their age, occasionally, to great effect; the
somewhat softer songs like “Sunlight Kills the Stars” or “The View Here” are
the types of Tom Petty song his fans have been hoping the legend would still be
writing.
Most affecting is the
hometown ode “Kingston,” which finds Dillon reminiscing about coming “straight
outta KCVI,” about seeing blues bands at the Prince George Hotel, and how he
“found a postcard in the basement / from 1989 / Gord Downie’s validation / man,
I needed every line.” The lyrics work much better than the music, which mark
perhaps the only time the Headstones have ever channelled their one-time
contemporaries Spin Doctors.
These old dogs don’t
need new tricks. Those old clothes still fit and look totally bad-ass. (Aug.
17, 2017)
Stream: "Devil's
on Fire," "Broken," "Sunlight Kills the Stars"
The
Heliocentrics – A World of Masks
(Soundway)
This psychedelic jazz combo from London
have spent most of their discography backing up others: Ethiopian sax great
Mulatu Astatke, Persian music scholar Lloyd Miller, African-American filmmaker
Melvin Van Peebles and Nigerian saxophonist Orlando Julius. Here, they also
employ a key guest: Slovakian singer Barbora Patkova, who bring them even
closer to the work of their hero, Sun Ra, and his work with singer June Tyson
in the ’70s. A World of Masks is rich
with trippier grooves than you are likely to hear anywhere else in 2017; while
bands like Sweden’s Goat draw from similar wells but always err on the side of
rock guitars, the Heliocentrics are happy to let the textures do the talking.
(May 25, 2017)
Stream: “Made of the Sun,” “A World of
Masks,” “The Silverback”
Iskwé – The
Fight Within (independent)
Much has been made
about a surge of interest in Indigenous performers in this country, with two
names coming up over and over: A Tribe Called Red and Tanya Tagaq, both of whom
take traditional music and turn it on its head. As is always the case, there
are more—much more—who deserve mainstream attention. Iskwé, a Cree-Dene-Irish
woman from Hamilton via Winnipeg, is at the top of that list, for a multitude
of reasons. For starters: her voice, which is a commanding instrument that
demands your attention from the outset, capable of communicating in any genre
she chooses. (There’s an incredible YouTube clip of her covering the Tragically
Hip’s “38 Years Old” for The Strombo Show—seek it out.) Her music is steeped in
modern R&B and synth textures, somewhere between Rihanna and St. Vincent.
There are no musical nods to traditional music anywhere here, and nor, of
course, should we expect there to be; just because A Tribe Called Red and Tagaq
tap into that, however subversively, doesn’t mean that will be an inherent
aspect of other modern Indigenous artists. Iskwé released a single a few years
back, “Nobody Knows,” to raise awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous
women, which is included here. The key lyric: “Nobody knows where we’ve been or
where we go.” In the case of Iskwé, everybody will know soon enough what
talents she possesses. (Nov. 16, 2017)
Stream: “Soldier,”
“Disturbed,” “Healers”
Julie and the Wrong Guys – s/t (Dine Alone)
In her 25-year-career,
Julie Doiron has made a lot of pretty music. Many of her solo records are
unadorned, quiet meditations. Her 1999 collaboration with the Wooden Stars set
her songs to intricate arrangements and beautiful harmonies. She played guitar
and bass in Gord Downie’s Country of Miracles for much of the 2000s, her voice
an integral part of songs like “Trick Rider.”
In 2017, however,
Doiron is hanging out with the rhythm section of one of Canada’s best heavy
metal bands, the Cancer Bats, and making her loudest album since her very first
band, Eric’s Trip. (Eamon McGrath joins them on guitar.) No doubt some
observers will be surprised to hear such a left turn from the 45-year-old
mother of four who now lives back in her native New Brunswick. But this is
exactly the kind of cathartic release one might seek at this point in life:
Don’t do anything half-assed. Go big or go home. Bring the best songs you’ve
written over the five years since your last record. Block out the other noise in
your life and turn this up.
It would be a stretch
to suggest that Doiron’s voice suits the material, but that’s exactly what
makes it so compelling and unique, especially when she layers harmonies on a
track like “Heartbeats.” She’s not a metal screecher; she’s not even a punk
rocker (anymore). But she never sounds lost; she confidently stakes her place
in the heaviosity like she has every right to be there, which of course she
does. The meek shall inherit this earth.
In case you prefer the
more demure Doiron, she also has a new EP of older songs in new Spanish
translations. It’s totally lovely. (Sept. 29, 2017)
Stream: “You Wanted
What I Wanted,” “Love and Leaving,” “Calm Before the Storm”
Kacy & Clayton – The Siren’s Song (New West)
Hyped young artists
are often said to have come “out of nowhere.” In the case of Kacy Anderson
& Clayton Linthicum, that’s literally true: the cousins grew up in Wood
Mountain, Saskatchewan. It’s about a two-hour drive from Swift Current to the
northwest and Moose Jaw to the northeast. It’s not on most maps.
But for their third
album, they found themselves in the heart of Chicago at the studio of Wilco’s
Jeff Tweedy, who spotted them at a festival and offered his skills as a
producer (Mavis Staples, Low). There, their shared love of ’70s folk and
country records enabled them to make a record with deep grooves and plenty of
space in which Anderson’s languorous vocals can luxuriate. There’s some fine
pickin’ throughout, and dreamy pedal steel for texture. With harmonies like
these and strong songwriting, Kacy & Clayton probably didn’t need Tweedy’s
help at all. But he’s delivered a record that should make them the talk of
Americana circles for the rest of 2017. They’re going to be on everyone’s map
soon enough.
Stream: “The Siren’s
Song,” “The Light of Day,” “A Certain Kind of Memory”
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Murder of the Universe (ATO)
This powerful and
potent political statement is exactly what the world—oh, wait, no, this is a
completely ridiculous record. And, breaking the pattern for this band, not in
the best possible way.
It’s the third album
in less than a year released by these Aussie weirdoes, who excel at incredibly
heavy psychedelic freak-outs played at hyperkinetic speeds. Fasten your
seatbelts and get ready for a bumpy, breakneck ride.
Normally that’s
enough, but this time they fall short. Murder
of the Universe consists of three different suites, we’re told, although a
female narrator is interspersed throughout the first two-thirds album going on
about—well, one can’t be sure, really. The last third is narrated by a cyborg
who talks about his imminent nausea. The song titles are entertaining enough on
their own (“Vomit Coffin,” “Soy-Protein Munt Machine”)—surely we’re not
expected to make sense of this? Musical ideas are recycled endlessly, and not
effectively.
What was amazing about
this band’s earlier records was that they were not the joke that the name would
suggest. This time out, they’ve come up with exactly the kind of hogwash you’d
expect from a bunch of stoners called King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. (June
29, 2017)
Stream: “The Lord of
Lightning,” “The Floating Fire,” “Han-Tyumi, The Confused Cyborg”
Pierre Kwenders – Makanda
(Bonsound)
This Montreal artist
burst onto the scene with 2014’s Le
Dernier Empereur Bantou, a multi-lingual, genre-hopping record rooted in
Congolese rumba that landed him nominations for the Junos, the Polaris Music
Prize, and Quebec’s ADISQs. Born in Kinshasa, Kwenders wanted to dive deeper
into his Congolese roots on his second album. To do so, he travelled to Seattle
to work with Tendai Baba Maraire, the
Zimbabwean-American half of psychedelic hip-hop duo Shabazz Palaces. Makanda
moves Kwenders away from modern dance trends and further into mid-tempo
polyrhythms. Kwenders is a natural star, but some of the best tracks here are
where he cedes the spotlight, sharing it with Shabazz Palaces’ Ishmael Butler
on the title track, and duetting with Tanyaradzwa on the lush, string-drenched
ballad “Zonga.” (Sept. 14, 2017)
Stream: “Makanda,”
“Welele,” “Zonga” feat. Tanyaradzwa
Land
of Talk – Life After Youth (Dine
Alone)
Liz Powell is back. She’s sounded older
and wiser ever since she was a 16-year-old Guelph student wowing local audiences
with her maturity and depth of songwriting; no one was the least bit surprised
as she started wowing audiences across the continent when she formed Land of
Talk in Montreal 10 years later. Much acclaim followed, as well as a brief
stint in Broken Social Scene in 2009 before she shredded her vocal cords later
that year. One more Land of Talk album followed, and then Liz Powell
disappeared from the public eye.
The decision to return could not have
been made lightly. Land of Talk was surely never lucrative enough to suggest
that a return was inevitable. Yet someone with Powell’s voice and talents was
not going to stay silent for long. “I don’t want to waste it this time,” she
sings. “I don’t want to waste my life.”
Life After
Youth lives up to its title: Powell’s vocals have a reserve and a
measured calm about them, while her guitars swell with quiet storms underneath.
She’s always been a sonic child of the ’90s, and here the steady pulse of her
rhythm section (featuring, at times, members of Sonic Youth, Roxy Music and
Besnard Lakes) and swirling keyboards owe more to hypnotic dreampop à la Yo La
Tengo’s swoonier side than the scrappy guitar rock of previous Land of Talk
records. Between this new approach and the fact the songs no doubt had plenty
of time to simmer, the end result is a record is in every way a new lease for
Liz Powell’s musical life. It sounds like the album she’s been trying to make
since day one, the one we all knew back then she eventually would. (May 18,
2017)
Stream: "This
Time," “Heartcore,” “World Made”
Lorde – Melodrama
(Republic/Universal)
This ties Aimee Mann’s
Mental Illness for apt album title of
the year. Lorde, of course, is 20 years old; her breakthrough singles came out
when she was 16. If anyone entitled to be the voice of melodramatic youth, it
would be her. If she sounded wiser than her years on her debut, here, on her
second album, Lorde acts her age—and in doing so perfectly captures all the
awkwardness and emotional whirlwinds that define that period in everyone’s
life. First single “Green Light” suggests a more musically upbeat turn, but for
much of Melodrama Lorde rides the mid-tempo, slinky groove she built her career
on, and explores the lower end of her vocal register. She’s at her most
emotionally naked on “Liability,” an anthem for anyone who’s ever been dumped
for feeling all the big feelings. As always, Lorde’s primary strength is
spinning personal stories into universal narratives: no matter how old you are,
it’s not that hard to access that formative time in your life when a Lorde song
was your reality. (June 22, 2017)
Stream: “Green Light,”
“Liability,” “Supercut”
Mappe Of – A
Northern Star, A Perfect Stone (Paper Bag)
This one literally
came out of nowhere. The solo artist from suburban Oshawa who now calls himself
Mappe Of had posted some tracks online, and a powerful Toronto indie label
stumbled across it and wanted to put it out immediately. Mappe Of has still yet
to play a live show. (That changes on August 2, with his Toronto debut at the
Drake.)
Unless, that is, you
count the time Tom Meikle spent as a busker in Australia, which is where he
honed his acoustic guitar skills after teenage years spent playing metal. When
he returned home to Ontario, he started writing and working on these demos,
which were recorded in a student basement apartment and polished somewhat
surreptitiously, after-hours, in a recording studio at a post-secondary
institution.
Meikle is a monstrous
guitarist—but he doesn’t really let it show. You can hear it in his classical
fingerpicking, but it never distracts from the song, the vocal, or the overall
sonic aesthetic. Wise is the man who can shred, but chooses not to. Meikle’s
voice—and the style of music—will draw obvious comparisons to Fleet Foxes and
Bon Iver or even Patrick Watson, but his playing and the songs don’t sound
particularly like anything in those artists’ repertoire. And what on the
surface sounds like a folkie record contains plenty of electronic effects,
particularly on the vocals, and other studio trickery that means Mappe Of’s
sound is by no means set in stone.
This is the rare debut
album that works entirely on its own, but points in enough directions that
where Meikle goes next is anyone’s guess. Even if chooses to repeat himself,
Mappe Of would still have plenty to explore. (July 27, 2017)
Stream: “Cavern’s
Dark,” “Nimbin,” “Ruin”
Minotaurs
– Aum (Independent)
Nathan Lawr’s Minotaurs certainly chose
a fine month to release their fourth album of “apocalyptic, psychedelic
Afro-folk” at a time when Canadian media is ablaze with talk of cultural
appropriation, of whether it’s ever okay for creators from a dominant culture
to borrow from the historically oppressed. Here we have a group of liberal-minded
white Canadians playing music more than heavily influenced by Afrobeat both new
and old; much of the (albeit limited) media exposure they have and the (few)
gigs they get are a result of their experience in the trenches of so-called
indie rock and folk music. Make of all that what you will.
Afrobeat in the ’70s was, of course, a
cultural exchange in itself, as was rock’n’roll itself, for that matter. And
there are points on Aum that bear as much resemblance to the funkier side of TV
on the Radio’s catalogue as it does to the flood of ’70s African reissues that
hit the market in the last 10 years. Most important: Lawr puts his own stamp on
all of this, with synths and distorted keyboards underpinning the interlocking
guitars, and a dystopian unease that clashes with the joyous grooves. A full
horn section and rich percussion are employed effectively throughout; the
production is gloriously dense and layered.
Lawr has moved well beyond imitation
and gets weirder with age, with each record better than the last. It still
sounds better live, though: go see them whenever you can this summer. (May 25,
2017)
Stream: “Black Maria,” “Hipswinger,”
“All Hail”
New
Fries – More EP (Telephone Explosion)
The two women who formed Toronto band
New Fries, guitarist Annie Spadafora and drummer Jenny Gitman, claim to not
have been musicians before starting the band. Maybe that’s true, maybe it’s
not, but they have a fire within and an incredibly intuitive sense of rhythm
and, in the case of Spadafora, a phenomenally expressive voice, making her the
kind of punk rock singer who—like Kathleen Hanna or Karen O—has unusually
strong pitch while dancing around the notes. Backing them up are two veterans
with Guelph roots: keyboardist Ryan Carley (Ohbijou) and bassist Tim Fagan, who
were part of another explosive band more than a decade ago, called We’re
Marching On. That combustible combination of innocence and experience makes
their More EP, produced by Holy F--k’s Graham Walsh (Operators, Sam Roberts),
easily one of the most refreshing records to come out of Ontario in the past 12
months. (May 4, 2017)
Stream: “Jz III,” “Gertrude Stein
Greeting Card from Pape/Danforth,” “Mary Poppins Pockets”
Robert Plant – Carry
Fire (Nonesuch/Warner)
The Led Zeppelin
frontman has been on a roll for at least the last 10 years, churning out some
of the best music of his career—including, of course, his Grammy-winning
collaboration with Alison Krauss. With his latest backing band, the
International Shape Shifters, he’s been mixing North and West African
influences with beautifully textured modern folk music not unlike Daniel
Lanois. Plant has always required a guitar ace at his side, and these days it’s
Justin Adams, who has also produced albums for Mali’s Tinariwen. Plant’s voice
seems to, miraculously, be getting better with age; his last album, 2014’s Lullaby and the Ceaseless Roar, boasted
some of the most nuanced and graceful vocal performances of his career. The
band behind him is top notch, and successfully explore the worlds between
cultures. This time out, it’s the songs that let Plant down; if Carry Fire is successful at all, it’s
based entirely on mood and performances. It’s not essential listening like his
recent work, but it’s a good reason to get this band back on the road. (Nov.
16, 2017)
Stream: “Carving Up
the World,” “A Way With Words,” “Carry Fire”
Prophets of Rage - s/t (Universal)
Guitarist Tom Morello
wears a knockoff ball cap with the slogan “Make America rage again.” It’s a dig
at his current commander-in-chief and a nod to his old band, Rage Against the
Machine, who have reunited without singer Zach de la Rocha, with Public Enemy’s
Chuck D and Cypress Hill’s B-Real in his place. When they arrived last summer
with a limp EP of reworked past glories, it just seemed like an excuse for them
to crash the Republican National Convention.
A year later, America
acts like it’s ready for a civil war and totally unready for another war that
might be forced on them. America doesn’t need any help raging. But having a
soundtrack of fury and righteousness in the name of justice can’t hurt, can it?
Expectations were
rock-bottom after the EP that introduced this band. Thankfully, Chuck D has
bounced back sounding better than he has on a nine forgettable Public Enemy
records in the last 25 years. Which is good, because B-Real isn’t much
help--though, to be fair, neither was Flavor Flav. Though at least Flav was
amusing. Likewise, the band behind Chuck manages to erase the memory of
Audioslave by returning to what Rage Against the Machine did best.
It’s unfortunate,
then, that for every peak performance here that seems utterly essential in
2017, there’s a track that’s downright clunky, like “Legalize Me,” “Hands Up”
or the unfunky “Take Me Higher,” with the chorus, “Drones gonna take you out!”
Rap and rock are
always uncomfortable dance partners. But if anyone was going to make it work,
it would be this crew—even they are musically stuck in the late ’90s. When they
do manage to click, all other rap and rock sounds downright impotent
considering the current climate. Rage on. (Sept. 29, 2017)
Stream: “Radical
Eyes,” “Unf--k the World,” “Who Owns Who”
Quantum Tangle – Shelter
as we Go (Coax)
A preceding EP with
some of these tracks won the Juno this spring for Indigenous Album of the Year.
No wonder. The duo of Greyson Gritt and Tiffany Ayalik combine bluesy folk,
Inuit throat singing and some modern electronics for a unique blend that
immediately sets them apart from everyone else in the current Indigenous music
renaissance. Their harmonies are impeccable; the throat singing never once
seems grafted onto conventions of settler music. “What have you seen in your
short long life?” they ask. A lot, it turns out. But this album isn’t long
enough: eight songs, two of which are alternate versions of other tracks here.
More Quantum Tangle, please. Especially now. (July 20, 2017)
Stream: “Tiny Hands,”
“Love is Love Pt. 1,” “Freeze Melt Boil”
Andrea
Ramolo – Nuda (Fontana North)
This thirtysomething Toronto songwriter
hangs out with (apologies to Mott the Hoople) all the old dudes, CanRock
veterans from the Cowboy Junkies, Junkhouse, Skydiggers, Blue Peter and others.
It’s incredibly easy to see why they all bring their top game to her third solo
album (not counting two she made as one half of the folk duo Scarlett Jane):
she’s got “the spook,” that late-night, blues-tinged, atmospheric torch song
that seems right at home anywhere in southwestern Ontario, a lineage that runs
from Daniel Lanois to Mary Margaret O’Hara to Crash Vegas to Royal City to
Fiver.
Her vibe and her songwriting is one
thing: Ramolo’s stunning voice is a whole other affair. Just in case the guest
list on the album threatens to distract from the main event—many of those
guests regularly convene as members of Lee Harvey Osmond, and in many ways Nuda
sounds like that same band with a female singer—Ramolo includes a bonus disc of
solo demos, Da Sola, that is every bit as stunning. Producers Michael Timmins
(Nuda) and Faye Blais (Da Sola) deserve equal credit for providing a warm sonic
cushion for all of Ramolo’s strengths to be on full display.
Throw it on late at night, turn it up
loud, and chase it with a glass of your finest red. (May 4, 2017)
Stream: “You’re Everywhere,” “Hey Hey
Hey,” “Edge of Love”
David
Rawlings – Poor David's Almanack
(Acony)
Gillian Welch doesn’t make many records. Perhaps the
single most acclaimed singer-songwriter to emerge from the folk boom after
2000’s O Brother Where Art Thou
phenomenon, Welch has only put out three records since then, the last one being
six years ago.
But by her side that whole time has been her partner,
David Rawlings, whose harmonies and guitar playing complement Welch perfectly.
She returns the favour on his solo records—this is his third, and the one that
most deserves to stand beside anything in her songbook. Whereas Welch rarely
employs a backing band, Rawlings alternates between sparse duo tracks and
full-band arrangements. In either mode, economy reigns supreme: every note
sounds heavier than an anvil. Meanwhile, it’s interesting to hear their vocal
roles reversed. Welch likes to sneak up and around her notes while Rawlings
plays it straight; on her work he’s an anchor, whereas here she colours his
lead in enigmatic ways without ever being a distraction.
It’s hard to imagine these two making music apart.
Let’s hope they never do. (Aug. 10, 2017)
Stream: “Midnight Train,” “Cumberland Gap,” “Good God
a Woman”
Ride – Lannoy
Point (Wichita)
“Their first new album
in more than 20 years!” Nine words that should strike fear in the heart of
every music fan. Precious few are the bands who reunite decades later and
record an album that even the most forgiving fan might consider an essential
part of the discography. But it’s not impossible. Ride prove that here.
Ride were a beloved
British band of the early 90s, considered more psychedelic than their peers in
the so-called “shoegaze” scene. When they split over an internal debate about
whether or not to become more of a dance band, guitarist Andy Bell joined Oasis
as the bass player, a move that led many fans to decry the squandering of a
major talent. As the original shoegaze scene splintered, the sound remained
influential and the legend of Ride persisted. A reunion tour a couple of years
ago led to this new material, mixed by the sonic architect of their earliest
work, Alan Moulder.
It works. Normally
it’s all but impossible to restore the magic and mystery one stumbles upon in
youth, but Ride have returned in full form: any edges that have been sanded off
are best left to the 90s anyway. Bell and Mark Gardener’s guitars still shimmer
and swirl, while the rhythm section surf the sonic waves to full effect. And
years of experience have made them even better songwriters.
Turns out this Ride is
going to last a lot longer than anyone expected. (June 15, 2017)
Stream: “Lannoy
Point,” “Rocket Silver Symphony,” “Impermanence”
Rostam – Half-Light (Nonesuch)
The sonic architect of
Vampire Weekend was the former guitarist, keyboardist, string arranger and
producer, Rostam Batmanglij. He split early last year, although he’s said he
may still work on future records. In the meantime, he’s unleashed his wildest
ideas on his debut solo record—which basically sounds like all the weird parts
of Vampire Weekend records strung together. Processed vocals, heavily treated
guitars, choirs, string quartets, tabla, harpsichords, talking drums, backward
tape: they’re all here, as any fan of his former band’s last record might
expect, as Batmanglij is one of the most interesting producers to come out of a
rock band this side of Tame Impala. His own lead vocals are endearing; he’s
more than just a classically trained knob-twiddler. That said, while Half-Light is certainly pleasant and
interesting, it very much sounds like an artist finding their own feet as a
solo performer. It’s more than obvious what exactly it was he brought to
Vampire Weekend, but Half-Light’s best moments, like “Wood,” are those that
stray the most from his past. (Sept. 29, 2017)
Stream: “Gwan,” “Bike
Dream,” “Wood”
Serena Ryder – Utopia
(Atlantic)
Serena Ryder’s
unadorned voice can and will stop you cold if you ever have the good fortune to
hear it—which you won’t on one of her records. She may well be the greatest
female voice in pop music since k.d. lang. She knows, however, that in the age
of AutoTune, that matters not a whit, which is probably why Utopia arrives a
year after her last single, “Got Your Number” (included here), and five years
after her breakthrough album Harmony,
which featured the hits “Stompa” and “What I Wouldn’t Do.” Ryder makes sure she
throws all her cards on the table: every track here is aimed at the top of the
pops, jammed with hooks and production that sounds like a million bucks. Serena
Ryder is capable of many subtle charms, but there’s no time for that here.
It works. Ryder is far
better as a pop artist than a rock artist, which she realized on Harmony; when her voice has to compete
with loud guitars, nobody wins. Here, everything is centred around her vocal,
and the songwriting gives her plenty of expansive melodies to work with. “Got
Your Number” is almost formulaic in its approach to hitmaking, throwing every
numeric cliché in existence (and shamelessly riding the coattails of Elle
King’s “Exes and Ohs”). Much better is the title track, a disco stomper that
demands to be remixed in time for Pride weekends across the country this
summer. And the ballad “Rollercoaster” is sure to be a show-stopper in her live
set. (June 1, 2017)
Stream: “Wild and
Free,” “Utopia,” “Rollercoaster”
Buffy Sainte-Marie – Medicine Songs (True North)
Though many music fans
know Buffy Sainte-Marie’s name, few actually know her music. Her 2015 album Power in the Blood, winner of that
year’s Polaris Music Prize, thrust her back on the radar 50 years after her
debut. In between, of course, is a rich discography waiting to be rediscovered.
Sainte-Marie has the usual greatest hits packages out there, as well as an
excellent compilation of her out-of-print late ’70s albums (The Pathfinder), and a thematic
collection compiling her songs directly addressing Indigenous issues (Native North American Child).
Medicine
Songs is a round-up of her most political songs, of which
the rousing rabble-rouser has more than a few, starting with her oft-covered
classic “Universal Soldier,” and including two new songs. “You Got to Run,” a
collaboration with Tanya Tagaq, and “The War Racket,” which is more of a
spoken-word piece over an electronic groove. Two songs from Power in the Blood are included, the
title track and the inspiring “Carry It On.” Seeing how she re-recorded and
recontextualized some older material on that album—and album that rescued her
from poor production choices in recent decades—she could easily have done the
same here: her devastating classic “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” released in
1992, is screaming out for a new recording that captures the song’s visceral
energy—and the same could be said of “No No Keshagesh” or other songs from the
last 20 years.
Those are minor
quibbles from a major fan. If you’re new to this living legend, this is a
welcome introduction to several stages of her career, thematically linked only
through the lyrics. There are many sides of Buffy Sainte-Marie, however, and
you should get to know all of them before a new biography by Andrea Warner
appears on shelves next year. (Nov. 9, 2017)
Stream: “You Got to
Run (Spirit of the Wind)” feat. Tanya Tagaq, “Starwalker,” “Bury My Heart at
Wounded Knee”
Oumou Sangaré – Mogoya
(No Format)
Les Amazones d’Afrique
is missing some of the biggest names in West African music, like Rokia Traoré
and Oumou Sangaré. Like Les Amazones, Sangaré too has always prioritized
politics in her music; unless you speak Wassoulou, however, this will be lost
on Western ears. Sangaré, though one of Mali’s biggest stars, is not terribly
prolific: this is only her fifth album in almost 30 years of recording. She’s
an entrepreneur and hotelier most of the time, so when she graces us with her
presence it’s worth paying attention. This time out, seeking a modern sound,
she worked with sympathetic French producers and musicians associated with her
new record label; it’s a refreshing new sound for her, even though there are plenty
of groundbreaking new musicians at home who are pushing Western pop music in
new directions and could have challenged her to even braver territory. She also
enlists Fela Kuti’s drummer and Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen on drums for one
track, and closing track “Mogoya” is haunting, featuring just Sangaré’s voice
over an upright bass and a very sparse string arrangement.
(Jan. 12, 2018)
Stream: “Yere Faga”
feat. Tony Allen, “Djoukourou,” “Mogoya”
Shabazz Palaces – Quazarz
vs. the Jealous Machines (Sub Pop)
Shabazz Palaces – Quazarz:
Born on a Gangster Star (Sub Pop)
When Ishmael Butler
was known as Butterfly and fronted the mid-90s hip-hop group Digable Planets,
he was one of the first to explicitly reference the genre’s lineage back to
jazz. Gang Starr and Tribe Called Quest got there first, but Digable Planets
pushed it further into the abstract, not just sonic signifiers and samples.
Twenty years later, Butler is doing the same with his new project, Shabazz
Palaces, who released two new albums simultaneously in the middle of a
sweltering summer.
Perfect timing: Butler
and his creative partner Tendai Maraire eschew
trap and boom-bap and anything else you might expect in summer hip-hop jams, in
favour of a truly potent brew of psychedelia, dub reggae, spiritual jazz,
science fiction, Parliament/Funkadelic and futurist Detroit techno. Hip-hop
barely registers, other than the fact that there’s an MC up front. Shabazz
Palaces is “a glitch in the matrix,” they boast. Repetition? Choruses? That’s for
suckers. For earthlings—because this music is clearly from another galaxy.
Quazarz
vs. the Jealous Machines is the proper album, the one rich
with lyrical detail and sonic intent. Apparently it’s about aliens—who knows?
Butler is engaging enough with wordplay and imagery that it doesn’t matter is
his overarching narrative is impenetrable. Plus, he easily wins Best Song Title
of the Year: “Love in the Time of Kanye.” Most important, the music is
consistently inventive and frequently surreal.
Born on a Gangster
Star was created quickly from an inspired session meant to produce some
B-sides. Drunk on a creative bender, Shabazz Palaces kept going and ended up
with a companion album that’s just as worthy, albeit one that’s considerably
looser and even more abstract than the main attraction. “Moon Whip Quäz”
borrows a bit too heavily from Kraftwerk’s “The Model”—not a terrible source,
by any means, but it’s the longest track on Gangster Star, for no discernible
reason. But when a group like this hits a stride, it’s all good.
(July 27, 2017)
Stream Jealous
Machines: “Welcome to Quazarz,” “30 Clip Extension,” “Love in the time of
Kanye”
Stream Gangster Star:
“Shine a Light,” “The Neurochem Mixalogue,” “That’s How City Life Goes”
Jon Stancer – For
the Birds (independent)
Here’s a tiny little
record that sounds like a million bucks. Bedroom demos by a dormant sideman
reworked at a Toronto studio by a film composer come out sounding like a new
Belle and Sebastian album, or a lush solo record by Sloan’s Jay Ferguson. Jon
Stancer was a sideman for various Toronto acts in the late ’90s and early
2000s, including for songwriter John Southworth on 1997’s underrated classic Mars Pennsylvania, a project where
Stancer met producer Jono Grant. With the exception of a horn section and
female backing vocals—and one track with upright bass—everything here is played
by Stancer and Grant, who creates a massive sound worthy of L.A.’s legendary
Wrecking Crew in the ’60s. Lush (faux) strings, hints of bossa nova, honkytonk
piano, ’70s NYC sax solos, and plenty of Beach Boys harmonies combine to
decorate Stancer’s more-than-pleasant pop songs. (Aug. 17, 2017)
Stream: “Dance in the
Sun,” “Now That Summer is Gone,” “Perfect Place to Hide”
Mavis Staples – If
All I Was Was Black (Anti)
Mavis Staples has
every right to be pissed.
As a member of family
band the Staple Singers in the ’50s and ’60s, she performed at Martin Luther
King rallies and provided a soundtrack of uplift to the civil rights movement.
Sixty years later, the political climate looks even worse than it did back
then. And yet here she is: 78 years old and addressing the divisions in her
country by talking about love and empathy and echoing the words of Michelle
Obama: “When they go low, we go high.” At a time of a serious empathy deficit,
Staples wants to love her enemies, to admit to evil thoughts in herself, to
bring people together.
This new album was
written by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, who has worked extensively with Staples in the
last seven years, and who says he didn’t write a single lyric for the record
that he didn’t feel Staples would write herself. On her last record, Staples
had songs commissioned from a dozen different songwriters; none of them
understood her the way Tweedy does. Their relationship continues to pay musical
dividends: Staples sounds relaxed and in full control, as she did on the
high-water mark One True Vine, even
if some of the electric guitar solos underneath her here veer toward Wilco’s
Velvet Underground side.
If
All I Was Was Black is a decidedly political record, it’s
also a reconciliatory one—which seems almost quaint amidst the daily outrage
cycle. But this is exactly a time when we need elders like Staples to see us
through the depths, to see the long game. “No time for tears,” she sings.
“We’ve got work to do.”
Stream: “No Time For
Crying,” “Little Bit,” “Who Told You That?”
Colin
Stetson – All This I Do For Glory (Kartel)
Colin Stetson does one thing and he
does it very, very well. He makes solo saxophone records, recorded live, with
no overdubs, using a variety of microphone techniques that amplify the sound of
his fingers hitting the keys; he also manages to somehow intone independent
melodies while playing arpeggiated melodies. In short, Stetson takes a
nose-to-tail approach to his instrument.
It’s incredibly impressive—once.
Stetson runs the serious risk of being a one-trick pony, of being known for
just that one thing—like, say “continuous music” pianist Lubomyr Melnyk, or Philip
Glass. Or, for that matter, the Ramones.
But here’s the thing—he keeps getting
better. Not in his technique, necessarily, which was astounding to begin with,
but in the role of dynamics in his composition, and his melodies. Part of that
might be a result of his album-length collaboration with his partner, Sarah
Neufeld, or Sorrow, his 2016 interpretation of Gorecki’s Third Symphony, where
his role was of arranger rather than featured instrumentalist. Whatever the
reason, All This I Do For Glory is easily
the most accessible, if not necessarily the best, album of Stetson’s career of
bringing avant-garde music to a larger audience. (April 27, 2017)
Stream: “All This I Do For Glory,”
“Like Wolves on the Fold,” “The Lure of the Mine”
St. Vincent – Masseduction (Universal)
Annie Clark, a.k.a.
St. Vincent, is a fascinating thinker, an interesting lyricist and a
forward-thinking musician who, among other things, is out to redefine the
guitar in pop music in ways not heard since Adrian Belew. All that said, Masseduction is far more interesting to
read about than to listen to. Everything about Clark sounds tightly controlled
and perfectionist, in ways that don’t necessarily serve her music. Yes, she
gets lots of comparisons to David Bowie or Bjork—but both those artists used
their vocals in ways that humanized their sometimes arch musical vision. Here,
Clark sounds like she bleeds the humanity out of her music. Knowing her, that’s
probably on purpose. But it’s also alienating. She sure makes for a great New Yorker profile, though. (Oct. 19,
2017)
Stream St. Vincent:
“Happy Birthday, Johnny,” “Los Ageless,” “Sugarboy”
Moses
Sumney – Aromanticism (Jagjaguwar)
This has to be the most astounding
debut album of 2017, surpassing even the likes of Sampha or Daniel Caesar—two
men who had a banner year with novel approaches to gospel-tinged R&B. Like
them, Moses Sumney has a wonderfully elastic voice that lends itself well to
R&B seduction, but this 26-year-old L.A. singer is not bound to genre or
expectations of any kind: he owes far more to Joni Mitchell, Radiohead or Jeff
Buckley than he does Frank Ocean or Solange (he sings on Solange’s album A Seat at the Table). His voice is
drop-dead gorgeous and downright hypnotizing, enticing the listener to follow
him just about anywhere, and he employs it with the skill of a veteran jazz
stylist. His instrumental arrangements steer away from conventional structure
or harmonies. His layered backing vocals are swirling and complex, creating one
of the most important textures of his music—in the case of “Self-Help Tape,”
that’s all there is to the entire song, other than a delicate electric guitar
accompaniment.
For all the seductive powers of
Sumney’s music, he claims Aromanticism
is a concept album decrying coupledom, about the societal scorn heaped on those
who choose to remain single. (“If lovelessness is godlessness, will you cast me
to the wayside?”) If true, there’s a lot of cognitive dissonance going on for
those who fall hard and fast for this man’s music, with which you want to cozy
up beside and spend the rest of the long winter in bed. (Jan. 5, 2018)
Stream: “Lonely World,” “Quarrel,”
“Doomed”
Trio Da Kali and Kronos Quartet - Ladilikan (World Circuit)
No one can be expected
to keep up with everything the Kronos Quartet does, but every so often one of
their cross-cultural collaborations simply can’t be ignored, like their 2000
album Caravan, or their 2005
collaboration with Bollywood star Asha Bhosle. This is one of them. Trio Da
Kali are a Malian trio comprised of just a female vocalist, a guy who plays the
bass ngoni (a string instrument), and a guy who plays the marimba-like balafon.
The two instruments provide both harmony and bottom end underneath singer Hawa
Kassé Mady Diabate, creating a full and rich sound even before the strings come
in. Diabate is a strong, calm voice whose melodies stay steady while the
balafon dances and skitters underneath. In everything they do, Kronos are
extremely sympathetic players: they’re not there to hog any kind of spotlight,
or to impose Western musical traditions to wherever they’re visiting. They’re
there to embellish and illuminate but generally stay out of the way whenever
possible--which is exactly the case here. (Sept. 21, 2017)
Stream: “Kanimba,”
“Lila Bambo,” “Ladilikan”
Shania Twain – Now
(Universal)
Margo Price – All
American Made (Third Man)
Why yes, the new
Shania Twain album does open with a reggae song. Why wouldn’t it? She
single-handedly rewrote the rules about what modern country pop is supposed to
sound like. She can mess with it all she wants. And it works: “Swinging With My
Eyes Closed” is the kind of big-chorus, radio anthem we’d expect her to return
with.
It’s her first in 15
years. It’s also her first without ex-husband Robert “Mutt” Lange, who got a
lot of credit for co-writing and producing her blockbuster records. Twain
writes all the material here herself, and enlists four different hitmakers in
the producer’s chair. She’s taken full control, and it’s paid off. Now is everything that Twain does best:
affirmational anthems with catch-phrase lyrics. The only knock here is the
corniness of some of the cliches: “You can’t buy love / but you can make it.”
Or, “Because of you, I’m me.”
The only major
disappointment here is that after all this time, it would’ve been nice to hear
her sing--naturally. Instead, even acoustic ballads here have the stench of
AutoTune, which Twain neither needs nor, now that she’s no longer working with
Def Leppard’s producer, does she deserve.
The flip side of
Shania Twain is Margo Price, a young Nashville singer-songwriter whose sound
skews toward the traditional: live instruments, no AutoTune, no eye on the pop
charts. No surprise, then, that she records for Third Man Records--owned by
Jack White, the man who resurrected Loretta Lynn’s career. This is Price’s
second album, and it’s a star-is-born moment with fiery performances, an
absolutely ace studio band, and some piercing lyrics that don’t shy away from
politics. If feminism is a big F-word in Nashville, Price bites back with “Pay
Gap”: “Pay gap / why don’t you do the math / pay gap / ripping my dollars in
half.” That might set her apart from other current country artists, with the
obvious exception of Jason Isbell, but she’s mostly just a plain-spoken country
writer par excellence, with an eye for all kinds of social detail. “Sometimes
I’m Virginia Woolf / sometimes I’m James Dean,” she sings.
All
American Made is not just a star turn for Price as a
vocalist and songwriter. The musical touches throughout elevate everything on
this album, recorded at Sam Phillips’s Memphis studio: the Tex-Mex accordion on
“Pay Gap,” R&B organ flourishes on “A Little Pain,” the gospel quartet on
“Do Right By Me.”
Shania who? (Oct. 19,
2017)
Stream Shania Twain:
“Swinging With My Eyes Closed,” “Poor Me,” “We Got Something They Don't”
Stream Margo Price:
“Don’t Say It,” “A Little Pain,” “Pay Gap”
Chad VanGaalen – Light
Information (Sub Pop)
A mad scientist at
work in his Calgary garage, Chad Van Gaalen is a psychedelic animator (Shabazz
Palaces, Timber Timbre, Tagaq), a scrappy record producer (Alvvays, Women), an
avant-garde electronic soundscaper, and an ace songwriter who combines all his
interests—and contributions from his two young children—into a shocking
cohesive new album of songs that suggest where Neil Young might have ended up
had he continued turning left after 1982’s Trans.
Over the course of six albums and side projects, the scattershot VanGaalen
isn’t always as focused as he is here, on an album that easily stands beside
his classic debut, 2005’s recently re-released Infiniheart, and 2008’s Soft
Airplane. (Sept. 14, 2017)
Stream: “Mind
Hijacker’s Curse,” “Mystery Elementals,” “Old Heads”
The
Wooden Sky – Swimming in Strange Waters
(Nevado)
This Toronto mainstay has always been a
solid contribution to the city’s roots-rock scene, for lack of a better word. A
rock-solid live show, a serious songwriting force in frontman Gavin Gardiner
and a talented band—multi-instrumentalists Simon Walker and Andrew Wyatt,
drummer Andrew Kekewich and Puslinch violinist Edwin Huizinga—have made them
dependable, if not remarkable. Until now.
Swimming in
Strange Waters, their fifth album, finds them stepping up their game all
around, recording the raw tracks largely at home before handing them off to
John Agnello (Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr.) to mix in New Jersey. Agnello’s touch
certainly makes this best-sounding Wooden Sky record to date, but that has just
as much to do with the performances and instrumental choices and the songs
themselves. Gardiner has always carried the weight of the world, but here he
writing about pipelines, refugees, singing a beautiful song about how “we’re
born to die” and quoting Frank Herbert’s Dune.
Yet he’s never preachy; the messages and intent is there if you’re listening
closely, but the melodies come first. (April 13, 2017)
Stream: “Swimming in Strange Waters,”
“Life is Pain, Pain is Beauty,” “Born to Die”
