We kick off this week’s picks with Deadbeat, on which Kevin Parker sculpts a collection of wickedly potent club-psych explorations as a vehicle for some of his most direct, brain-wormy songwriting to date, recasting Tame Impala as a kind of future-primitive rave act in the process. Deadbeat sounds like the work of an artist with a levelled-up mastery and bristles with a revitalised energy for experimentation, crafted with the renowned perfectionist’s new-found embrace of spontaneity. That manifests as a distinct minimalism and crunch to many of the tracks, with a clutch of crucial details, timbres and textures that add an ineffably new dimension to the sound, as well as a richer, more playful vocal range than ever.
The Luck and Strange Concerts features live performances from the acclaimed tour for David Gilmour’s most recent album. The CD and LP versions contain 23 live tracks and include a 24-page booklet, featuring photographs from the tour. The Blu-ray features a film of the concert at the Circus Maximus in Rome, plus audio concert of tracks from the tour, additional behind-the-scenes documentaries, tour rehearsal footage and music videos.
Sunlight in the Shadows, the latest solo album from acclaimed English rocker Miles Kane – who co-founded The Last Shadow Puppets with Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner – showcases a new side of his sound and artistry. Produced by Grammy-winner Dan Auerbach and co-written with Auerbach, Patrick Carney, Daniel Tashian and Pat McLaughlin, this guitar-driven album signals a fresh direction in Kane’s ever-evolving solo career.
Celebrated rock icon Chrissie Hynde brings us a new album entitled Duets Special, which consists of 13 extraordinary duets, beautifully arranged and featuring a host of world-class collaborators, including k.d.lang, the late Mark Lanegan, Dave Gahan, Cat Power, Brandon Flowers, Debbie Harry, Shirley Manson and more.
IAN bring a sense of jovial camaraderie through their heavy, loud and droning post-rock dirges on debut album Come on Everybody, Let’s Do Nothing. The East London-based quintet are refreshing newcomers in the UK’s heavy underground, and their striking debut delivers five dirges that merge earth-swallowing riffs with the atmospheres and dynamics of their post-rock heroes such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor and the bite and visceral heft of Cult of Luna and Amenra. This project is the culmination of 25 years of musical comradeship and the need to find inspiration in films, noise and the drudgery of middle-aged life.
Our release of the week is The Last Dinner Party’s new album, From the Pyre – a collection of stories bound by the concept of album-as-mythos. ‘The Pyre’ itself is an allegorical place in which these tales originate, a place of violence and destruction but also of regeneration, passion and light. Being ghosted becomes a Western dance with a killer, and heartbreak laughs in the face of the apocalypse. Lyrics invoke rifles, scythes, sailors, saints, cowboys, floods, Mother Earth, Joan of Arc and blazing infernos. This record feels a little darker, more raw and more earthy; it takes place looking out at a sublime landscape rather than seated an opulent table.
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