By their very nature, alt-J are leftfield, travelling through time at the same pace as us, but slightly detached. There’s no pressure to reinvent the wheel.
Fourth album ‘The Dream’ has the same relationship to reality as its predecessors, however alt-J have more offbeat storytelling fodder at their disposal than ever before: true crime obsession, crypto fanaticism and insidious corporations are just a few of what’s reflected on the record, all through a fun house mirror of stratospheric soundscapes.
Their tangentially psychedelic weavings of music and lyrics more poke and prod at the contemporary psyche than challenge: ‘Hard Drive Gold’’s tongue-in-cheek jibes at crypto bros come dressed up in a Beach Boys B-side sound; pseudo-cautionary tale ‘The Actor’ leans perhaps a little too much into its story and ends up feeling a little Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas sensationalised.
The most unusual, but most impactful moments are where alt-J go for timeless: ‘Get Better’, the record’s most unadventurous in sound with just an acoustic guitar strumming isn’t typical alt-J, but its intentional simplicity is shattering. Similarly, ‘Walk A Mile’’s crooning chorus is a little more sonically intriguing, but still quietly unsettling with its trudging orchestral interjections.
‘The Dream’’s strength is in packing not just alt-J’s usual futuristic twist, but a heavy side serving of nostalgia too. It’s a perfect, subtle, and unpretentious combo.
The first week of January 2022 was thin for indie rock and alt album releases.
But second week of the new year made-up the slack with a slate of solid new releases from Silverbacks, The Wombats, The Lumineers, to mention a few. (We’ll post about Jan 21 and Jan 28 releases next.)
Included below are the most recent music video singles for each album – all officially dropped on January 14,2022.
IRC’s Top Album Picks, Jan. 2022, Vol. I
Artist/Band
Homebase
Album Title
Record Label
Genre
Silverbacks
Dublin, Ireland
Archive Material
Full Time Hobby
(alt./indie rock)
The Wombats
Liverpool, England
Fix Yourself, Not The World
AWAL
(indie rock/pop)
The Lumineers
Denver, Colorado
Brightside
Dualtone/Decca
(indie folk)
Cat Power
Miami, Florida
Covers
Domino
(indie rock/pop)
Elvis Costello & the Imposters
London, England
The Boy Named If
EMI
(pop/rock)
Blood Red Shoes
Brighton, England
Ghosts on Tape
Velveteen Records
(alt.rock)
Silverbacks’Archive Material was already one of the hottest new albums of the year thanks to a number of pre-release singles dropped in the past months. The Irish keep bringing the rock.
Paste Magazine(75): “Whether all our efforts on this dying world will be for naught is an open question, but Silverbacks bear witness nonetheless on Archive Material, advancing their craft even as the ship sinks beneath their feet…”
No Ripcord (70): “Archive Material is a strong release for fans of Fad or newcomers to Silverbacks, the type of album that feels like it’ll only get better with time…”
The Quietus (80): “With Archive Material, Silverbacks bring so much fun, personality, and excellent musicianship across their songs. It’s a record that, once again, confirms a bright future ahead.
Already one of the biggest-selling and charting albums in the U.K. so far this year, The Wombats’Fix Yourself, Not The World is the band’s fifth studio album.
New Musical Express (80): “‘Ready For The High’ barely sits still for a verse at a time, ducking between buzz-rock, falsetto funk and bits that seem written for the first dance at the marriage of MGMT and Jungle. The rest of the album further delivers: confident funk pop (‘Wildfire’, ‘Worry’) and inventive future disco (‘This Car Drives All By Itself’, ‘People Don’t Change People, Time Does’) are staples, but the palette is wide here, the brushstrokes bold.
Clash Music (80) “Perhaps it’s their captivating storytelling taking a psychological turn, or maybe it’s the way they’ve incorporated cutting edge electronica, pop and R&B elements into the melodic energies of classic new wave, alt-rock and indietronica, but, ‘Fix Yourself, Not The World’ is a record that will appeal. It is arguably their best work yet.
The Guardian (60) “Fix Yourself, Not the World isn’t going to change the face of music, but nor is it going to do anything to impede the Wombats’ latter-day progress.
From MusicGuyMack (7): “Solid (if unremarkable) songwriting and peppy, spirited performances help ensure that The Wombats’ latest at least remains engaging and appealing to pop/indie rock fans throughout, although the group’s largely inside-the-box approach of rigid adherence to the tried and tested tropes of these genres may prove frustrating and ultimately experience-shortening for more demanding listeners.””
Choice Cuts: “This Car Drives All by Itself,” “If You Ever Leave, I’m Coming With You,” “Ready for the High”
The Lumineers have managed to attract a good deal of chatter and streams for their new album, Brightside, dropped officially on Jan 14th. The title track alone is approaching 16 million streams just on Spotify.
AllMusic (80): “The easy melodic hooks that drew fans to the Lumineers in the first place remain, but the combination of stronger material and looser performances make for a strong fourth outing.
No Ripcord (60): “Brightside is no different: belt out vibrant and occasionally resonant anthems that are easy to grasp even if somewhat oversimplified. The nuance is altogether lost, though, like most of their discography, it’ll win you over with its scrappy, can-do charm.
Bandcamper KingandMoon (9): “The film-making of this album is amazing. It gets me emotional and it makes me feel some experience that I’ve never had before.”
It hit like getting hit hard with a heavy pillow: Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, is going to release another covers album in 2022 (we said in 2021)?
Then it hit – ‘hold on!’ she dropped her first covers album – The Covers Record – 21 years ago. Whaaaaaat! 21 years.
Marshall’s raspy, sincere and soft vocals set to heartfelt and introspective songs have attracted fans to Cat Power from the start and to the present day.
On Covers, Marshall pays tribute to songs from Jackson Brown, Nick Cave, Lana Del Rey, Billie Holiday, Iggy Pop, Frank Ocean, The Replacements and Kitty Wells.
The reaction from Marshall’s fans is on display all over the web. On Cat Power’s Bandcamp page are comments like:
“That moment when a Cat Power song has you is like walking through an art gallery and coming upon a piece of art that stops you in your tracks. Erwin Schrödinger famously said that the total number of minds in the universe is one. Listen to a Cat Power record and try to feel alone. I can’t do it. Favorite track: Stay. – via Bandcamper Raymond Stewart
And:
” Covers has been be a great addition to my Cat Power collection :-) Avid Cat Power aficionados will revel in this new ‘audiogasmic’ release. Turn the lights off, pour a whiskey – bliss…” – via Bandcamper Hassles
Critics have largely welcomed the new collection of Marshall covers:
Mojo (80): “This album again showcases Marshall’s exceptional ability to burrow right into the marrow of a song…”
Beats Per Minute (75): “Though the nature of Covers makes it slightly scattershot, and nothing quite hits the heights of some of her past covers, it is decidedly more engaging and diverse than her last album, the lowkey-to-the-point-of-disappearing Wanderer.
The Guardian (60): “Not so much fresh takes on old favourites, Covers is more like watered-down versions of semi-hidden gems.”
Under The Radar(70): “While it doesn’t feature her own lyrics, the record still ambles through archetypal Cat Power moods—insouciance, worry, bliss—steering clear of the pulsating synths à la ‘Manhattan’ and sticking with the stripped-back worry-pop of Wanderer.
It’s amazing in a way that Elvis Costello is still pumping out acclaimed albums after, what, 35-40 years? But he still amazes many critics, as his latest LP, The Boy Named If, demonstrates:
Slant Magazine (80): The tail-end of The Boy Named If finds Costello suddenly back in crooner mode with the soft-shoe swing of “Trick Out the Truth” and the moonstruck “Mr. Crescent.” Both tracks are quietly exquisite and provide a comedown from the adrenaline-fueled highs of the album’s first half. They underscore the ways in which The Boy Named If is as complete and often thrilling as anything Costello has recorded in years.
Pitchfork (75): Costello fans will find many delights in The Boy Named If. For one, his 32nd studio album sounds smashing. Sebastian Krys’ mix stresses the textures of acoustic instruments without walloping listeners; Costello’s guitar, as restless as a child at a symphony even on solid albums like When I Was Cruel and Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, burrows right between Faragher’s bass and Nieve’s keyboards, enunciating hook after hook.
Ghosts on Tape – Blood Red Shoes The sixth full-length release for British duo Blood Red Shoes was inspired in part by true crime documentaries and podcasts.
musicOMH.com (70): “There’s very little here to dislike, so stick it on loud, turn off the lights and sit back and enjoy.”
Mojo (60) “An accomplished study in post-punk boom, synth whoosh and creepy-crawl vocals.”
David Bazan ended Phoenix, his 2019 album as Pedro the Lion, with a big question mark. The album was a reflection on the singer’s youth in Phoenix, where he was born and grew up until moving away when he was in (or about to start) seventh grade. In “Leaving the Valley,” the last song on the album, Bazan faced the unknown as his family pulled out in a U-Haul. “Where the wheel stops, no one knows,” Bazan sang.
As it happens, the wheel stopped next at Lake Havasu, a vast reservoir in northwest Arizona, on the border with California. The biggest municipality in the area, Lake Havasu City, is probably best known as the place where London Bridge ended up, after an oil magnate bought it in 1968 and had the structure reassembled there, block by block. Bridge or no, Lake Havasu was not a place young David Bazan wanted to be, yet his stint there proved formative enough for him to write about it on Pedro the Lion’s latest album, Havasu.
If Phoenix had an air of wide-eyed, sometimes bemused nostalgia, Havasu is more conflicted—and not just about the location. Pedro the Lion’s latest is really an album about starting to come of age. Bazan evokes the tumult of emotion that accompanies the middle school years, sometimes so well that it’s uncomfortable, as he chronicles the year or so he spent in Lake Havasu before his family moved again.
He depicts the anxiety of being the new kid in school, the thrill of a first kiss, the longing to find his place and fit in—a quest made more complicated in Bazan’s case by a religious upbringing that left him in fear of eternal damnation. His lyrics here are unflinching throughout and feel honest to a fault, whether he’s taking too long to think of something cool to say to a new classmate on “Too Much,” or misreading all the signals from everyone and making a hash of things on “My Own Valentine.”
Beach House‘s new album Once Twice Melody drops on February 18 via Sub Pop and Bella Union.
Baltimore’s famous indie dream pop duo Beach House has just released Chapter 3′ from Once Twice Melody featuring five new tracks, including the seductive “Masquerade”.
The releasing of tracks from the double album via installments over the past months is a smart strategy as it slowly builds anticipation of Beach House fans by revealing a few synth-glazed tracks at a time rather than all at once – or even just one single at a time (which is a more common tactic).
Here’s what one fan, mattyb01, wrote on Bandcamp: “already some of the best dream pop/shoegaze I’ve heard since Ceres & Calypso in the Deep Time by Candy Claws.
“The absurd amount of time and talent that must have went into making this album shows, and I’ll be patiently waiting for the rest of the parts as they come out. The mix of synths and drum machines with guitars, as well as the absolutely gorgeous string arrangements make for a extremely entertaining listening experience. Favorite track: Pink Funeral.
Many fan comments selected “Starstruck” as the best of the new tracks.
Once Twice Melody is Beach House’s eighth studio album release.
Despite chapter after chapter drops it’s going to be very interesting to hear the entire project all at once when it officially drops next month.
In all, 13 of the 18 tracks are available to stream via the duo’s Bandcamp page:
