The first of this week’s bangers is Whirlwind, a daringly honest look into multi-platinum Grammy award-winning artist Lainey Wilson’s life and journey through Nashville. The 14-track album, which was produced by Jay Joyce, follows on the heels of seven Country Music Association awards, including Entertainer of The Year, six Academy of Country Music awards and a Grammy for Best Country Album.
In connecting with The Band Geeks in New York in 2023, iconic vocalist Jon Anderson found a group of musicians that he felt could collaborate with him to create a body of work that rivalled the classic Yes sound of the ’70s and ’80s. The result of this collaboration is Jon’s new 9-song album, True, which features compositions of all lengths, with the centrepiece being the 16-minute ‘Once Upon a Dream’.
Almost forty years after it was initially released, The Moon and The Melodies by Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd is being reissued on vinyl for the first time – remastered, from the original tapes, by Robin Guthrie himself. The Moon and the Melodies is a singular record within the Cocteau Twins’ catalogue – unusually ethereal, even by their standards, and largely instrumental, guided by the free-form improvisations of Harold Budd, an ambient pioneer who had drifted into their orbit as if by divine intervention. Building on the atmospheric bliss of Victorialand, released earlier the same year, it signalled a possible future for the trio, yet it was a path they’d never take again.
Neigh!! is an album of ‘songs that won’t fit on an album’ – the non-concept of all concepts – a home for strays and runaways perhaps, but more importantly a bunch of tunes Motorpsycho are finally happy with, that found their purpose and now have a home: songs that the band are proud to be able, finally, to present to the world. Some songs just don’t seem to fit in, seemingly insisting on remaining outside your control no matter how many stylistic or production tricks you try to pull. Usually such songs eventually fall by the wayside, are left behind or butchered for parts a few years later. But sometimes quite a few of them show up at the door, at the same time, unruly and ready to shake things up a bit. Sometimes there is trouble.
3+5, the long-awaited eighth album from Tokyo-based noise-rockers Melt-Banana, showcases the duo’s visionary musical approach and extraordinary abilities as performers: Yasuko Onuki’s giddy, hyperactive vocalising and Ichiro Agata’s glitchy cyberpunk guitar, delivered at dizzying speed, bathed in aggressive electronic sounds. Their aesthetic approach is exultantly experimental, fusing diverse genres imbued with chaotic energy. As on their previous works, the music on 3+5 is unpredictable, always filled with surprises and excitement. 3+5 synthesises elements of a variety of extreme music, hyper-pop, classic punk, vintage metal and noise. It partakes of Japanese culture overall, especially the subcultures of gaming, anime and underground music.
Our release of the week is Romance, which is without doubt the most assured, inventive and sonically adventurous record yet from Fontaines D.C. The Dublin-made, now London-based band, who bared their teeth in early records with antagonistic punk sensibilities, now accommodate grungier breaks, dystopian electronica, hip-hop percussion and dreamy Slowdive-esque textures that may surprise fans. The shoegaze touchpoints first pressed on Skinty Fia unfold on Romance like a purpling bruise. Reflecting on the impending release, vocalist Grian Chatten says, “We say things on this record we’ve wanted to say for a long time. I never feel like it’s over, but it’s nice to feel lighter.” The fantasy is felt for better or worse, and Fontaines D.C welcome either end of oblivion.
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