The Fat Angel Sings

Almost certainly the only album in this list with titles in Old Norse (Blómi meaning “to bloom”), Sundfør’s first in six years was a widescreen meditation on family, spanning her linguist/theologian grandfather, Kjell Aartun, to her own daughter. Often ethereal, sometimes folk-inflected, at the heart of “Blómi” was a classical take on the piano ballad, with a gravitas that sat halfway between Kate Bush’s Aerial and Rufus Wainwright’s Want One.

It’s been six years since Sundfør’s last album, the critically acclaimed “Music For People In Trouble”. The time gap has been productive for the songwriter who became a mother, delved into regenerative farming and recorded more music. The forthcoming release is signposted by new two singles, “Alyosha” and “Leikara Ljóð“. These songs reveal different facets of Sundfør, an auteur, capable of producing impeccable pop tracks as well as haunting experimental compositions.

Dexys are back! 11 years since the release of their last album of original music, the acclaimed “One Day I’m Going to Soar”, the band return with a stunning new record. “The Feminine Divine” is Dexys’ fifth album of original material produced once again by Pete Schwier, along with acclaimed session musician and producer Toby Chapman. After taking some time out to refocus his energy, Kevin Rowland came back to music with a fresh perspective and new-found positivity. A personal, if not strictly autobiographical, record portraying a man whose views have evolved over time. Not just on women, but the whole concept of masculinity he had been raised with: an education and an un-learning that is traced across the arc of “The Feminine Divine” with dizzying effect. With two tracks on the album with Goddess in the title in ‘My Goddess Is’ and ‘Goddess Rules’, it’s no surprise Kevin chose to use a painting inspired by Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire and volcanoes, for the artwork. 

But I heard it and I have to say this – I think “The Feminine Divine” is a masterpiece recording, a brave beautiful statement where all the songs bar one are wonderfully constructed, inventive and totally irresistible. And then there is the other song….“My Submission” I believe to be the greatest song Dexys have ever produced. It is beyond categorisation. It is the music of the spheres, holy and sacred and truly other-worldly. But honestly, this album is an absolute gem.

The new single “Coming Home” taken from the forthcoming album “The Feminine Divine” out 28th July on 100% Records. The record’s first half is full of music hall-esque swagger, much of it written with original Dexys’ trombonist Big Jim Paterson. The second side of the record is like nothing Dexys have done before. A saucy, synth-heavy cabaret, written in collaboration with Sean Read and Mike Timothy. It’s steamy, fizzing and sultry, at times doom-laden and heavy and at other times raunchy and funky. Quite a heady mix.  

Long time Dexys fans have long been primed to expect the unexpected. Almost from the moment they first appeared, as the 70s became the 80s, it was apparent that this was a band that would run entirely according to their leader Kevin Rowland’s own, occasionally imponderable, internal logic. The release of a new Dexys album invariably heralded complete change: a radically different look, a new sound, a new line-up.

But even said diehard fans might raise an eyebrow at “The Feminine Divine”. It is not so much that it doesn’t look, or occasionally sound, like any previous Dexys album. The cover drawing of the Hawaiian goddess Pele looks as if it belongs on the sleeve of a psychedelic trance compilation; there are musical diversions into sleazy Prince-ish electronic funk, jangling Balearic house pianos and slow-motion breakbeats topped with spoken word vocals that bring to mind early 70s Serge Gainsbourg – but diversions are par for the course with Dexys. It’s not that Rowland spends a considerable chunk of the album excoriating his younger self, the Rowland who made the albums that diehard fans first fell in love with. That is par for the course, too, at least in Dexys’ latter-day incarnation – their first album in 27 years, 2012’s “One Day I’m Going to Soar”, was a self-flagellating exploration of Rowland’s failings, filled with self-doubt and dissatisfaction.

No, it’s that fans might be surprised “The Feminine Divine” actually exists. After all, after the release of 2016’s “Let the Record Show: Dexys Do Irish and Country Soul”, Rowland announced that he was done with music. The solitary Dexys’ release since was a radically remixed version of their biggest-selling album, 1982’s “Too-Rye-Ay”.

But clearly Rowland did a lot of rethinking during his time away: the songs on “The Feminine Divine” are meant to display a 180-degree turnaround specifically in Rowland’s attitude to women. It opens with a song he wrote in 1991, when he was in the grip of a debilitating addiction to cocaine. “The One That Loves You” bristles with condescending protective blokey energy – “You’re a very strong woman, but you’ll need my love,” sings Rowland, before offering to beat someone up on her behalf – set to the kind of perky mid-70s soul that is the initial half of the album’s default setting. You can picture these songs in an old Top 40, keeping suitable company with Billy Ocean’s Love Really Hurts Without You or Linda Carr’s High Wire. It is followed by a succession of songs that either examine Rowland’s mental health, frequently in a call-and-response style that effectively creates a dialogue between the singer and the backing vocalists, or repudiate sexism in favour of worshipping women as goddesses. “This is the only way, the way it has to be / Women have been put down for too long and it’s up to you and me,” sings Rowland on the title track, one of several lyrics you might decry as painfully earnest and on the nose were it not for the fact that complaining about painful earnestness on a Dexys album.

More questionable are the places “The Feminine Divine” goes in its second half. By “Goddess Rules” more spoken word, this time over the aforementioned sleazy electro-funk – not being sexist and worshipping women as goddesses seems to have transmuted into being a sexually submissive masochist, which feels like quite a leap. Then again, every album Rowland has made since 1985’s “Don’t Stand Me Down” has had at least one WTF moment that seems designed to leave even the most devoted fan scratching their head. “Don’t Stand Me Down’s” long journey from object of widespread ridicule to enshrinement as a wildly inventive masterpiece – and the similar journey of his 1999 solo album “My Beauty” acts as a kind of insurance policy for some of Rowland’s weirder trains of thought: if it all made sense in the long run before, who’s to say it won’t happen again? Besides, “The Feminine Divine” pulls back from the WTF brink. The piano ballad “My Submission” and the subdued electronic funk of closer “Dance With Me” are exceptionally beautiful songs that perfectly showcase Rowland’s mature voice: devoid of the old tics and yelps that betrayed the influence of Chairmen of the Board frontman General Johnson, richer, warmer.

Dexys latest “The Feminine Divine” album, out 28th July.

This is a pop record for tired times. Sugared with bits of shatterproof glass to put more crack in your strap. At long last, verse / chorus. A weathered thesaurus. This is OSEES bookend sound. Early grade garage pop meets protosynth punk suicide-repellant. Have a whack at the grass or listen while flat on your ass.

“A pop record for cruel times,” was John Dwyer’s sell for his 28th Osees album and, after the gnarly fundamentalist hardcore of 2022’s “A Foul Form”, he’d at least re-orientated his main band towards new wave. Devo sounded like a core influence on the frenzied synth-punk, as well as echoes of an old Dwyer side-project, Damaged Bug. Also noted: Dwyer’s other 2023 wheeze, a percussion improv outfit called Posh Swat.

Heaps of electronic whirling accelerants to gum up your cheapskate broadband. You can find your place here at long last. All are welcome from the get go to the finale…a distant crackling transmission of 80s synth last-dance-of-the-night tune for your lost loves. Suffering from Politic amnesia? Bored of AI-generated pop slop? Then this one is for you, our friends. Wasteland wanderer, stick around. Love y’all. For fans of Teutonic synth punk and Thee Oh Sees (who the fuck are they?)” — John Dwyer

available via In The Red Records.

If the Texan singer songwriter’s 2020 debut, “Optimism”, seemed adjacent to acid-folk, this second album provided a clearer angle on her spectral, literary art. “The Window Is The Dream” was no less subtle, but its spare and considered moves emphasised a closer affinity to art-pop than folk tradition: the vocals unforced, uncanny; the guitar lines a precise needlepoint. A candlelit Cate Le Bon, perhaps, or even a Lana Del Rey raised on Smog albums.

“The Window is the Dream” began as a failed poem. I wrote it as I was waking up… the last thing I want in this breath of existence / is not to throw myself into it / as any bird might stop flying / when the window is the dream. I think the original line was “toad breath.” My classmates were nice about it, even the teacher.

No Quarter Records Released on: 1st March 2023

“What Do We Do Now” began to come together during the waning days of the Pandemic. Utilizing his own Bisquiteen Studio, J. Mascis started working on writing a series of tunes on acoustic with a different dynamic than the stuff he creates for Dino. Both guest musicians featured (Matthew “Doc” Dunn and Ken Mauri) add beautifully to the songs here, helping to transform them from acoustic sketches into full-blown post-core power ballads

“What Do We Do Now” is the fifth solo studio LP recorded by J Mascis since 1996. This is obviously not a very aggressive release schedule, but when you figure in the live albums, guest spots, and records done with his various other bands (Dinosaur Jr., The Fog, Heavy Blanket, Witch, Sweet Apple, and so on), well, to paraphrase Lou Reed, “J’s week beats your year.”

“What Do We Do Now” began to come together during the waning days of the Pandemic. Utilizing his own Bisquiteen Studio, J started working on writing a series of tunes on acoustic with a different dynamic than the stuff he creates for Dino. “When I’m writing for the band,” he says, “I’m always trying to think of doing things Lou and Murph would fit into. For myself, I’m thinking more about what I can do with just an acoustic guitar, even for the leads. Of course, this time, I added full drums and electric leads, although the rhythm parts are still all acoustic. Usually, I try to do the solo stuff more simply so I can play it by myself, but I really wanted to add the drums. Once that started, everything else just fell into place. So it ended up sounding a lot more like a band record. I dunno why I did that exactly, but it’s just what happened.”

Two guest musicians are playing this time out; Western Mass local Ken Mauri (of the B52s) plays piano on several tracks. Since J himself has some experience with keys, when asked why he needed a hired gun, he says, “Ken is great, and he plays all the keys. I tried playing some keyboards on the first Fog album, but I’m really only comfortable playing the white notes, so it’s kind of limiting. [laughs] Nowadays, I could just turn the pitch on a mini Mellotron to play different sounds, but black keys just seem hard. For whatever reason, I just like banging on the white ones. Seems like it’s harder to figure out how to stretch your fingers around the other ones.”

Mauri has no such qualms and plays all the keys very damn well. He sounds especially great on “I Can’t Find You,” where he is Jack Nitzsche to J’s Neil Young, creating one of the album’s loveliest tunes. The other guest musician, Matthew “Doc” Dunn, is also prominent on this track. Dunn’s steel guitar manages to both widen and soften the musical edges of the music, giving it a full classicist profile. Dunn is an Ontario-based polymath who J met through Matt Valentine. After J played on Doc’s great 2022 Sub Pop single, “Your Feel,” he figured it was time for payback. Both Dunn and Mauri add beautifully to the songs here, helping to transform them from acoustic sketches into full-blown post-core power ballads.

The album ‘What Do We Do Now’, out on Sub Pop Records on 2/2/24

Whether we look for him or not, we all find God somewhere. It could be in nature. It could be in church. It could be in the metaverse. It differs for each and every one of us. In terms of where God might be, The Kills aren’t necessarily saying, but the duo – Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince – certainly sound like they’ve seen him. How else could you explain the primal call-and-response between Alison’s full body blues-soul vocal catharsis and Jamie’s swaggering, guillotine-smooth guitar transmissions on the duo’s sixth full-length offering, “God Games?”

The Kills have emerged as international rock stars, setting the pace for the genre, shaping this era’s sound, and redefining what rock music can be in the 21st century. They’re the rare force of nature who can tour with Queens of the Stone Age or Guns N’ Roses and light up Coachella. Returning home from the road in 2019, Alison and Jamie commenced writing for what would become “God Games”. However, the old adage, “Make plans, God laughs,” couldn’t have been more apropos.

Stretching boundaries, Jamie encouraged Alison to “buy this 100-dollar keyboard and try to write.” She added another creative tool to her arsenal, while he tinkered with textures, sounds and “wrote on guitar less than ever,” opting to primarily compose on piano for the first time. This powerful combination of forces gave the album its own sonic identity, a new path forged in the pair’s creative bond.

The Kills decamped to an old church (a bit ironic now isn’t it?) where they recorded with old friend and Academy and Grammy Award-winning producer Paul Epworth [Adele]. “Paul was our very first soundman in 2002,” recalls Jamie. “Since he was with us when we had two amps, a lightbulb, and a couple of mics in a van, it seemed perfect. He knew how far it had come and could trace the thread back.”

An ecstatic audience has turned out to witness PJ Harvey perform at the Paris Olympia with a combination of old hits and nuggets from her tenth studio album: “I Inside the Old Year Dying”. A magnetic, no-nonsense performance.

PJ Harvey is back with a concert film that captures a performance from this past fall.

Directed by Antoine Carlier and shot by Walter Films in collaboration with Arte Concerts, the concert was filmed at L’Olympia in Paris, France on October 13th, 2023. Over the course of a 22-song setlist, Harvey and her bandmates — John Parish, James Johnston, Giovanni Ferrario, and Jean-Marc Butty run through “I Inside the Old Year Dying” album, as well as a handful of “oldies,” including “Down by the Water,” “White Chalk,” and more.

Throughout the show, Harvey’s distinct artistry is displayed, as the visuals, lighting, costumes, and arrangements seamlessly come together to create an entrancing vibe. The concert film premiered on Arte Concerts’ YouTube channel on Wednesday, November 6th, and, according to press materials, “will be further broadcast on Arte channels” next year.

“I Inside the Old Year Dying” arrived this past July and was Harvey’s first full-length release in seven years. The album is a “masterful rebirth” that “transports listeners through an intensely vivid journey, presenting a different side to Harvey’s creative genius, one that proves profound art cannot be forced.”

This past fall, Harvey wrapped her 2023 dates in support of the album

Setlist : 0:57 Prayer at the Gate 5:40 Autumn Term 9:13 Lwonesome Tonight 13:46 Seem an I 16:56 The Nether-Edge 20:57 I Inside the Old Year Dying 23:01 All Souls 27:38 A Child’s Question, August 31:08 I Inside the Old I Dying 34:32 August 37:18 A Child’s Question, July 40:41 A Noiseless Noise Band Only 45:00 The Colour of the Earth Oldies 47:55 The Glorious Land 51:49 The Words That Maketh Murder 55:50 The Garden 1:01:10 The Desperate Kingdom of Love 1:04:09 Man-Size 1:07:30 Dress 1:11:12 Down by the Water 1:15:35 To Bring You My Love Encore 1:23:20 White Chalk

The Klittens are five musicians on a mission, untrained but unbothered. A band for those who have a knack for happy songs and sad sentiments. Their music is a surprising mix of indie-fuzz and DIY. The result: a repertoire that reaches from dark post-punk to danceable songs about grandma’s.

What initially started as a platform and creative outlet for political ideas, ended up in a group of friends that is growing into a professional band. An adventure that each of the members had always dreamed of, but never dared to make happen.

The girls are slowly crawling out of the Amsterdam underground scene: they toured the UK with York’s indie rock band Bull, supported SASAMI and Tacocat, and played shows with Dutch bands such as Personal Trainer, Pip Blom and global charming.

The band released their first three singles in 2020 which got a lot of recognition, despite the pandemic and limited possibilities. They kicked off with ‘Manic Dixi Dream Girl’ (self-released), followed by ‘Bleeding Gums’ (Permanent Creeps, UK) and ‘Liebe Resi’ (Geertruida, NL).

In April 2022 The Klittens have released their debut EP ‘Citrus’ (digital + vinyl) which included singles ‘Canned Air’, ‘Herkenbosch’, ‘Pristine Blue’ and ‘Benson’.

This new song “Atlas” is written and performed by The Klittens – Yaël Dekker, Katja Kahana, Michelle Geraerts, Winnie Conradi and Laurie Zantinge. Synthesizer by Gabriel de Oliveira.

To celebrate the album’s 25th-year anniversary, The Jesus And Mary Chain reissue their long-sold-out sixth studio album “Munki”. On Fuzz Club Records, the reissue arrives on CD and gatefold double LP. The vinyl has been remastered by Pete Maher (The Rolling Stones, Jack White, Liam Gallagher). Originally released June 2nd 1998 on Sub Pop / Creation Records, “Munki” was – up until the Mary Chain’s reformation in 2007 – an experimental rock’n’roll masterclass turned swan song for the Reid brothers, whose fractious in-fighting culminated in the band’s break-up less than a year after its release. It was perhaps fitting, then, that “Munki” is argued by some as the definitive Mary Chain record in the way it seemed to chart the full array of musical directions the band had ploughed over the five records that came before.

The decision to bookend the album with Jim’s rousing sing-along ‘I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll’ and William’s caustic white-noise anthem ‘I Hate Rock ‘N’ Roll’ perfectly captures the two-fold tension at the heart of the Mary Chain at that time – a tension between noise and melody, and warring brothers.

Across the album’s 17 tracks and 70-minute running time, there are the expected abrasive noise-rock epics ‘Cracking Up’ and ‘Degenerate’ by way of fuzzed-out pop hits like ‘Fizzy’ and the tender acoustic slow-burner ‘Never Understood’. Between the Reid’s Glaswegian snarls and unapologetically insolent lyrics – “I’m a mean motherf*cker now, but I once was cool”, “McDonald’s is sh*t!”, “Children are fools!” being just a few lyrical highlights – “Munki” also features two great guest appearances. Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval returns for another Mary Chain duet on ‘Perfume’, which has a swagger that’s equal parts menacing and bittersweet, and the Reid’s younger sister Linda (Sister Vanilla) sings beautifully on top of ‘Moe Tucker’s motorik proto-punk scuzz.

Suede perform a very special cover of Patti Smith’s, ‘Because The Night’ with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Recorded live from the BBC ‘s legendary Maida Vale Studios for Radio 2’s Piano Room Month. The full set, available on BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer also includes their classic single ‘She’s In Fashion’ and their new single ‘The Only Way I Can Love You’.