Jan-Feb reviews 2018

These reviews ran in the Waterloo Region Record in January and February 2018.

Rich Aucoin – Fear EP (independent)

Rich Aucoin puts on one of the best live shows in Canada. They’re so good, in fact, that nothing the Halifax performer has ever released comes close to the experience. Which is why you’d be forgiven for wanting to skip his new record and just go see him when he hits your town—except this time that would be a mistake. The Fear EP finds Aucoin toning down his manic energy and making a smooth little pop record. That’s in part because while he was on a surfing trip, he had a laptop stolen that contained what was to be his next record. Starting fresh, Aucoin has come up with the perfect marriage of anthems, subtle electro-funk and R&B songs. Part of me wants to hear a whole record like this immediately; part of me thinks this four-song EP is a perfect distillation. (Feb. 16)

Rich Aucoin plays the Drake Hotel in Toronto tonight, March 1, and the Seahorse in Halifax March 15.

  

Beams – Teach Me To Love (independent)

Isn’t that what we want from most songs? To teach us how to love? For singer/songwriter and banjo player Anna Mernieks, it’s an imperative with added weight, following a crippling depression that led her to cancel a wedding (“The people living in the apartment in my head have got to go”). Mernieks channelled that journey into her art, and so the second album by her band Beams taps into that pain but never wallows in it: this is not a minor-key, downtempo mopefest. Beams makes tasteful indie folk-rock, with vibraphones, violins, mandolins and lap steel, while harmonies from co-lead vocalist Heather Mazhar make the whole affair seem even less lonely. In your darkest days, making music with your friends can be the best therapy. It may even teach you how to love. (Feb. 16)

Beams are touring the U.S. in March and April.

  

Stream: “Berlin, Teach Me to Love,” “Pull of the Night,” “You Are an Ocean”

Hollie Cook – Vessels of Love (Merge)

Hearing a great new reggae album in the middle of a Canadian winter is either a gift or a curse. Either way, it’s an escape. Hollie Cook’s third record—and first to get a proper North American release—is a dreamlike fantasy of a modern roots reggae record, produced by Youth (Paul McCartney, Killing Joke) with lovely melodies, rich female harmonies, full horn section, psychedelic overtones, and a killer dub-heavy rhythm section that features, at times, Jah Wobble of Public Image Limited (that band’s guitarist, Keith Levene, also shows up on one track). Cook has deep roots in Britain’s post-punk scene, being the daughter of a Sex Pistol and a backing singer for Culture Club; she also served time in a reunited Slits. Her music is most definitely a throwback—there’s no trace of dancehall or any trend in reggae of the last 30 years—but her songwriting and the production here ensure this is no mere pastiche. And it will sound even better four months from now. (Feb. 2)

Stream: “Angel Fire,” “Stay Alive,” “Ghostly Fading”

Craig David – The Time is Now (Sony)

Time isn’t usually kind to R&B singers who came up in the ’90s and early 2000s; the number of young challengers seems to rise every year, and the sonic innovation in the genre can easily leave old-timers behind. Then there’s Craig David, who had an improbable but welcome comeback two years ago when he reworked Justin Bieber’s “Where Are Ü Now” into the arguably better song “16,” as well as a collaboration with Montreal producer Kaytranada, which all led to the album Following My Intuition, which was a No. 1 album in David’s native Britain. The Time is Now is the somewhat quick follow-up, the title alluding to the fact that David doesn’t want to waste a moment of his time back in the spotlight. The same formula is in effect: melodically rich R&B with thoroughly modern grooves drawing from just about every radio trend from around the world, including the misnomer Afrobeats. David has better ears for a pop hook than other artists who are infinitely more successful; he deserves to be an international superstar, not just a British one. (Feb. 9)

Craig David plays the Velvet Underground in Toronto on March 14.

Stream: “Magic,” “Somebody Like Me,” “I Know You”

Betty Davis – Nasty Gal (Light in the Attic)

Whoever it was at Light in the Attic records who decided to time this reissue for January deserves a gold star. During the most depressing month of the year (or is that February?), listening to Betty Davis just might be the most ridiculously fun thing you can do with a set of headphones.

Davis was a funk goddess of the 1970s, whose music was driven by lots of wah pedals, clavinets, distorted guitars playing tight funk licks, and a series of incredible musicians—whom Davis insisted perform shirtless and lathered in baby oil. Before Prince took licentiousness to new levels in 1980s pop music, Davis revelled in raunch. Her hyper-sexual singing is filled with shrieks, snarls and moans, making Tina Turner sound like she was sprung from a nunnery. It easily devolves into shtick (“I can’t give it to you more messier than this!” she ad libs on one track), which can mask just what a great singer Davis actually was; when she tones down the dirty funk—as on closing track “The Lone Ranger,” or the ballad “You and I,” orchestrated with the help of her ex-husband, Miles—her true range shines through. But even if it didn’t, Davis is such a delight as a performer that every track here is a total gas.

This 1976 album was Davis’s last before she retired; her earlier records were reissued almost 10 years ago. But it’s never too late to discover Betty Davis, the Nasty Gal that she was—especially when self-identifying “nasty women” are again on the rise. (Jan. 19)

Stream: “Nasty Gal,” “F.U.N.K.,” “The Lone Ranger”

Khruangbin – Con Tudo El Mundo (Dead Oceans)

This Texas trio formed 13 years ago, when they would spend their Saturday evenings listening to ’60s Thai funk music and Iranian pop music, and their Sunday mornings soundtracking a church service. Their formula hasn’t changed much since: their take on meditative and melodic mood music is set to a light but solid groove that’s as sensual as it is spiritual. Laura Lee’s supple bass lines fitting perfectly inside the ginger grooves of drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson, while guitarist Mark Speer demonstrates remarkably fluid dexterity. Speer has the jazz voicings of Gábor Szabó, the R&B finesse of Prince in his quietest moments, and the rock’n’roll style of Brian Connelly from Shadowy Men. Khruangbin excel when they’re at their most languid, but Con Tudo El Mundo shows them playing with some extra fire—“Maria También” is based around the classic hip-hop “Apache” break—that probably comes from their first extended bout of touring following their 2015 debut, The Universe Smiles Upon You.

They play Toronto on April 17 at the Mod Club. (Feb. 23)

Stream: “Lady and Man,” “Maria También,” “Evan Finds the Third Room”

Rhye – Blood (Last Gang)

Rhye is the internationally acclaimed baby-making musical duo featuring Toronto vocalist Mike Milosh, whose cooing is set to cushiony bedroom grooves. It’s shocking their songs weren’t used on any of the Fifty Shades soundtracks, but maybe Milosh has some taste.

Rhye’s 2013 debut, Woman, was lovely but lightweight: there’s a reason they decided to call the follow-up Blood. The grooves have more depth to them, and even if Milosh rarely rises above a whisper, there’s a quiet intensity to the seductive and sparse soft pop underneath him—perhaps a result of Milosh parting ways with founding member Robin Hannibal and working instead with the live band who toured behind Woman. The string arrangements could stand to be more imaginative, and the piano hook on “Feel Your Weight” is a bit too close for comfort to Arcade Fire’s “Reflektor.” But Rhye’s music doesn’t seem designed to stand up to close inspection: it’s mood music by design, meant to leap out of algorithm-designed playlists as somewhat more substantial than the rest of the musical wallpaper that normally defines this genre. Rhye is a high jump over a low bar. (Feb. 9)

Rhye play Massey Hall on Monday, March 5.

Stream: “Taste,” “Count to Five,” “Feel Your Weight”

Superchunk – What a Time to Be Alive (Merge)

The title track to this venerable punk band’s 12^th proper album is not exactly a celebration of life in the modern era. It, and the other songs here, was written between Donald Trump’s election and the period shortly after his inauguration. The chorus hasn’t aged a bit since then: “To see the rot in no disguise / oh, what a time to be alive / the scum, the shame, the fuckin’ lies / oh, what a time to be alive.”

The song works on several levels: it’s a brilliant protest song, in part because it doesn’t single out its target—it’s more than obvious, listening in 2018—and therefore could be applied to several situations. It’s also a rebuke to nostalgia, to which far too many punk bands subscribe. Most important, it’s not defeatist: in fact, almost every song here is a call to action, a rally for the like-minded to rally together and take back their country. Them’s fighting words, literally: “Fight me,” singer Mac McCaughan sings on “All for You.” “I’m not a violent person, but it can’t get any worse.”

Oh, and the band is on fire, playing like they’re raging against the dying of all lights. (Feb. 16)

Stream: “What a Time To Be Alive,” “Erasure,” “Reagan Youth”

Justin Timberlake – Man of the Woods (Sony)

I didn’t watch the SuperBowl. I did not have high expectations for a new Justin Timberlake album; the man’s obviously an exceptionally talented entertainer, but his records are spotty (witness the brilliant first instalment of The 20/20 Experience, and the completely lacklustre second half). By that measure, Man of the Woods is right on point: about half of it not only confirms Timberlake’s best talents, but points to a future where he merges a country influence from his native Tennessee with the once-futuristic funk of Timbaland and the Neptunes—the latter of which is significantly less forward-looking than it was 10 years ago, if only because their sonic footprint is now all over modern pop music. And the other half of Man of the Woods? It’s not terrible—well, lyrically it often is, but musically it’s usually several steps above the filler tracks on any other pop record.

The highlight here is the title track, where twangy guitars and country harmonies ride atop a synth bass and a drum machine—“Americana with 808s” is how the man himself described it. If more of the album sounded like this, Timberlake would have a real cross-genre game-changer on his hands. But it doesn’t. The collaboration with country star Chris Stapleton isn’t as successful, although the duet with Alicia Keys—which Stapleton had a hand in writing—is just fine. “Sauce” finds Timberlake doing a flat-out Pharrell impersonation, a song that sounds like a direct rip of Williams’s “Hunter,” from his 2014 album Girl. That said, despite the hideous lyrics, it’s a half-decent party track. The basslines on “Midnight Summer Jam” and the African-influenced “Living Off the Land” sound like a sampled talking drum pitched to the notes of the riff; that’s only one component that makes the former the most successful dance track here; the single “Filthy,” in comparison, sounds merely like a rocked-up outtake from FutureSex/LoveSounds.

We expect a lot from Justin Timberlake because he’s a big-tent pop star with an ear for musical innovation—as opposed to Bruno Mars, who shamelessly mines the past for new ideas. Nothing Timberlake has ever done or ever will do will be revolutionary or in any way deep—that’s not the point. If all he does is move the needle a bit and point other artists toward possibilities, then that’s all he has to do. That and a few choice dance moves. (Feb. 9)

Stream: “Midnight Summer Jam,” “Man of the Woods,” “Montana”

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October '16 reviews

Highly recommended this month: The Comet is Coming, John K. Samson

Highly recommended, reviewed earlier: Leonard Cohen, Gord Downie

Well worth your while: Craig David, Solange, Tagaq, Donovan Woods

As always, these reviews ran in the Waterloo Record.

Streaming is great for sample purposes, but please find a way to directly support your favourite artists financially.

Blackie and the Rodeo Kings – Kings and Kings (File Under: Music)

Boys club! The all-male trio Blackie and the Rodeo Kings—Colin Linden, Stephen Fearing and Tom Wilson—have invited some of their favourite fellow dudes to join them on duets, which means familiar faces like Bruce Cockburn, Buddy Miller and Rodney Crowell, but also relatively young pups like City and Colour, Jason Isbell, and Eric Church. Linden’s day job on the TV show Nashville helped him coerce the men of that show (a.k.a. to viewers as Deacon Claybourne, Will Montgomery, Avery Barkley, and Gunnar Scott) onto one track here. That’s one big sausage party.

To be fair, the Kings did court some Queens five years ago, on a similar star-studded duets album featuring Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Serena Ryder, Rosanne Cash and more. But if there’s a flaw here, it’s that same-sex duets—assuming they’re not romantically inclined, which is all but a safe bet in country music—don’t amount to more than a glorified role as a backing vocalist, either by the guest or by a Rodeo King taking a backseat. It’s also a strange concept for a group that was founded—a whopping 20 years ago now—on three men sharing songwriting and vocal duties in the first place.

Regardless, there are plenty of obvious highlights with this amount of talent involved. Raul Malo of the Mavericks is a joy to hear in any context, and Nick Lowe fits in so well that one suspects he might well sign for a full album as a fourth member; the same could be said of Jason Isbell. It sounds like Nashville house party for expat Canucks to which we’re all invited, and better hosts you couldn’t ask for. (Oct. 6)

Stream: “Live by the Song” feat. Rodney Crowell, “High Wire” feat. Raul Malo, “Secret of a Long Lasting Love” feat. Nick Lowe 

The Comet is Coming – Channel the Spirits (Leaf)

Who the hell is saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings? This fiery London player first crossed my radar as a member of Sons of Kemet, an award-winning jazz band with two albums under their belt, where he’s joined by two drummers and a tuba player. Here, he joins a former funk duo and ends up somewhere in outer space—not all that surprising, considering song titles like “Journey Through the Asteroid Belt,” and the fact they claim Sun Ra as a major influence (without ever trying to imitate him directly—that would be too obvious a move and counterintuitive to the spirit of the great bandleader). Indeed, Hutchings has recorded with the modern incarnation of the Sun Ra Arkestra, as well as Courtney Pine’s Jazz Warriors, the Heliocentrics and plenty more. Here, his saxophone journeys through some dubwise electronic filters, and his rhythm section delights in turning beats upside down, often at a propulsive tempo while Hutchings dips and glides above the tumult. Psychedelic, electronic jazz doesn’t come better than this. (Oct. 6)

Stream: “Space Carnival,” “Journey Through the Asteroid Belt,” “Cosmic Dust”

Craig David – Following My Intuition (Sony)

Who is Craig David? Not a household name here, but huge in his native Britain, David became a star in 2000 when he was 19 years old, with a uniquely British offshoot of R&B called “garage.” On these shores, he was long forgotten when he showed up on a track on Kaytranada’s 2016 Polaris Music Prize-winning album 99.9%; at home, he was already plotting a comeback, having released several singles in advance of this, his first album of original material in nine years (which also features that Kaytranada track, plus a new collaboration). One of those was an inspired reworking of Justin Bieber’s “Where Are Ü Now,” which David turned into a song called “16”—a number that references David’s age when he got his first break, the number of years since his 2000 debut, and the year of his (self-prophesied) comeback.

What a comeback it is: this album hit No. 1 in Britain, and it’s clear why: Following My Intuition is not only a reintroduction to a great vocal talent, but a tour de force of modern R&B songwriting and production. David cover almost all the bases: hip-hop and grime-influenced club tracks; modern British house music, the kind that drew Mary J. Blige to London for her best album in years; dancehall flavours; straight-up, stripped-down ballads like “Better With You” or “All We Needed,” produced by Dave Tozer, the man behind John Legend’s wedding classic “All of Me.”

Following My Intuition is either the result of Craig David, having nothing to lose, taking his title’s advice; or maybe it’s all cold calculation, aiming to please any many people as possible. Who cares? For a man who hasn’t had a hit on this side of the ocean in 14 years, it’s clearly working for him. (Oct. 13)

Stream: “16,” “One More Time,” “Louder Than Words”

Fantastic Negrito – The Last Days of Oakland (Believe Digital)

The only unfamiliar name on the Blackie and the Rodeo Kings’ new album was someone calling himself Fantastic Negrito. What’s this all about? The man born Xavier Dphrepaulezz is a late bloomer of sorts; the multi-instrumentalist had a kick at the can with a major label deal as a solo artist in the 1990s, which was derailed in a near-fatal car accident that put him in a coma. It took him years to recover his guitar skills, and when he did, the blues man Fantastic Negrito was born. A resident of Oakland, Calif., which is now heavily gentrified now that next-door San Francisco has been priced into oblivion, Mr. Negrito has plenty of reason to sing the blues as he witnesses socioeconomic calamity engulfing his neighbourhood. The Last Days of Oakland is very much a 21^st-century blues album: all the traditional signposts are there, with nods to the genre’s evolution over the last 100 years, but there’s no questioning in which year it was recorded. There are (thankfully) no show-offy guitar moments, but Dphrepaulezz has a, well, fantastic voice, particularly his range, from a scowling growl to a glorious falsetto. (Oct. 6)

Stream: “Working Poor,” “In the Pines,” “Lost in the Crowd”

July Talk – Touch (Sleepless)

More of the same, but better. If you’ve tuned into rock radio in the past five years, you’ve heard the hits from Toronto band July Talk’s 2011 debut album. As it picked up steam around the world, the band kept putting off the follow-up. Good on them: nothing about Touch sounds rushed or green; these songs were no doubt road-tested long before they perfected them in the studio. Nothing here departs from the band’s formula: crunchy, stomping guitar rock with co-ed lead singers, one gruff and one lovely. They harmonize and play off each other more here than they did on the debut, and to far greater effect. Tanya Tagaq shows up to help provide rhythm on “Beck and Call,” and there’s a lyrical nod to the police brutality of “starlight tours” and MMIW on “Jesus Said So.” July Talk might come across as a feel-good, visceral party band, but there’s more depth to them than that, and Touch is easily as good as mainstream rock gets in this country in 2016. (Oct. 20)

Stream: “Push and Pull,” “Strange Habit,” “Jesus Said So”

John K. Samson – Winter Wheat (Anti)

The Weakerthans’ John K. Samson has emerged from his standard four-year hibernation period with his second solo album (albeit one that features 2/3 of his former bandmates). There’s a reason his fans are willing to wait so long for new material: because it’s always worth it. As always, every track here is a short story unto itself, populated by characters at crossroads in life—including, in an unusual twist for Samson, characters that could be perceived as autobiographical, namely aging punks reflecting on how those good old days might not have been so hot after all.

Samson’s sparse new musical environs suit his songs better than the oft-raging rock band he formerly fronted; full focus is on the lyrics, while a folkie, laid-back Neil Young vibe does its best to stay out of the way. On the few tracks where the tempo picks up, they’re driven entirely by acoustic guitars.

Samson has few peers as a lyricist: Gord Downie, Neko Case are in the same class, though all of course have their own unique style. Samson’s commitment to the simplicity of melodic folk structure, much like Leonard Cohen’s, makes his prose that much more inviting, drawing you further into the lives he chooses to illuminate.

John K. Samson has never made a bad record, and he sure isn’t going to start now. (Oct. 20)

Stream: “Select All Delete,” “Winter Wheat,” “Oldest Oak at Brookside”

Solange – A Seat at the Table (Sony)

Solange Knowles is no one’s little sister anymore. Technically, of course, she’s the younger sibling of Beyoncé, but after Solange’s third album—her first full-length in eight years, and her first new music since her breakthrough 2012 EP True—landed at No. 1 on Billboard the week of its release, it’s clear that her own work stands in no one’s shadow.

There are plenty of top chefs in this kitchen—Rafael Saddiq, Q-Tip, Dirty Projectors’ Dave Longstreth, members of TV on the Radio and Vampire Weekend, with cameos from Lil Wayne, Andre 3000 and Kelela—but Solange’s musical vision is consistent throughout, somewhere between the abstraction of FKA Twigs, the hippie neo-soul of Erykah Badu and the deconstructionist pop of Santigold. In an odd Montreal twist, there are also contributions here from now-defunct confessional electro duo Majical Cloudz and eccentric songwriter Sean Michael Savage—Solange has obviously been crashing some Pop Montreal after-hours loft parties.

What it’s not is a pop record: Solange doesn’t go for the heavy hooks, doesn’t want to teach the world to sing. She claims to have written the harmonies before many of the melodies. Much of A Seat at the Table is a meditative, modern iteration of R&B—not the darkness that consumes The Weeknd or Frank Ocean, but one that repurposes the slow jam for self-care anthems and affirmations of black pride. There are undoubtedly many political messages in these songs—made more obvious by the powerful interstitial interludes, featuring her parents and, um, Master P—but the music itself is so breezy, at times even featherweight, that it’s entirely possible the point of the record could go right over your head. Which would be a shame. But musical subtlety is Solange’s strong suit. (Oct. 13)

Stream Solange: “Cranes in the Sky,” “Don’t You Wait,” “Borderline (An Ode to Self Care)”

Tanya Tagaq – Retribution (Six Shooter)

Tanya Tagaq does not f--k around. The earth is dying, we are killing it, and goddammit, this is what it sounds like. That much can be inferred by the beauty and the horror evoked by the sounds created by Tagaq and her band, violinist Jesse Zubot and percussionist Jean Martin. But mostly, of course, Tagaq, whose singing voice is can be sweet and fragile—and whose throat singing voice can be even more terrifying that Linda Blair in The Exorcist.

Despite the power of her music, the Polaris Prize-winning musician doesn’t entirely trust the listener enough to get her message. Her press release states frankly: “This album is about rape. Rape of women, rape of the land, rape of children, despoiling of traditional lands without consent.” In the event you don’t visit her website, there’s a cover of Nirvana’s “Rape Me” that closes the album, just in case you weren’t sure what it is you’ve just heard. (“I’m not the only one,” she coos, no doubt as a nod to the MMIW issue she’s been illuminating for years now, but even more powerful post-Ghomeshi/Cosby/Trump.)

She also has introduced spoken word segments into her music, again underscoring the urgency of her environmentalist message. It’s not subtle, and it’s not necessary: her music speaks volumes on its own. Some guests are welcomed into the fold: most effective are Tuvan throat singer Radik Tyülyüsh, a natural cross-cultural collaboration, and Toronto’s Element Choir, whose orchestrated shrieks and howls have often accompanied Tagaq’s Toronto shows, including performances at the Polaris gala and at Massey Hall. Shad shows up as well.

Sadly, still no sign of a dream jam with Diamanda Galas. Next time. (Oct. 20)

Stream: "Aorta," "Retribution," "Summoning"

Donovan Woods – They Are Going Away (Meant Well)

Toronto singer-songwriter Woods, who makes his living as a writer in Nashville when he’s not performing his own songs, made plenty of new fans with his breakthrough album earlier this year, Hard Settle Ain’t Troubled. That 10-song album was full of perfectly miniature narratives and character studies; one of the many great things about it is that there was no fat. What’s even greater about it, it turns out, is that Woods left some even better songs on the cutting room floor, which now surface on this four-song EP. “What They Mean (When They Say Crazy)” sounds like an instant classic: why hasn’t some top 40 country artist glossed this up and landed it on the charts already? (Oct. 13)

Stream: The whole thing. It’s four songs.