ALTER.NATiON #20
Mercury Rev, Susanne Sundfør, LCD Soundsystem, HEALTH, Cass McCombs, Galactic, Michael Chapman, Yak, Eric Gales, Beth Hart, Flat Worms, Skinny Girl Diet
weekly favtraX
10-02-2019
Bobbie Gentry had a huge hit in 1967 with "Ode to Billie Joe," the haunting single that introduced her strong, sultry voice and flair for combining Southern Gothic drama with details so vivid that it feels like listeners are living her stories with her. She expanded on the world she built with that song on 1968's full-length The Delta Sweete, but unlike "Ode to Billie Joe," it was not a huge hit; its pioneering symphonic-country-folk-pop didn't even crack the top 100 of Billboard's Top LPs chart. Fortunately, the acclaim for Gentry's work grew as the years passed, and Mercury Rev's Bobbie Gentry's the Delta Sweete Revisited reflects her latter-day status as a country icon. Of course, Mercury Rev also knows something about being underappreciated. During the '90s, their experimental rock and dream pop earned glowing reviews, but little in the way of label support or commercial success. That changed with their 1998 breakthrough, Deserter's Songs, which added touches of Americana that they return to on Revisited...
While out on their 2018 tour behind the comeback album American Dream, the full LCD Soundsystem band swung into Electric Lady studio in New York to record their live set plus a few covers. This was something they had done before on the London Sessions back in 2010 and much like that album, this is an important document of a band at the height of their powers (again.) Snapping through lively version of songs from the album, the group balances the various synths, drums and guitars into a lively, pulsing sound for James Murphy's always trenchant vocals. It's an act they've being pulling off for a long time and it still doesn't sound at all tired... tracks that rage like Gang of Four at their best ("emotional haircut.") It also helps that the band play everything with passion and fire; like they are in a sweaty club instead of a legendary studio playing to no one...
Since their return with 2015's Death Magic, HEALTH have added purpose and focus to their music, a trend they continue with Vol. 4 :: Slaves of Fear. To confront the chaos and despair that seemed to dominate the late 2010s, they add more weight to their lyrics and sound by giving Death Magic's industrial and synth pop leanings a stomping heft. The contrast between their crushing noise assaults and hollowed-out atmospheres is starker than ever, and on tracks like "Strange Days [1999]," the results are both wounded and wounding. HEALTH's juxtaposition of Jake Duzsik's soft vocals and the hard-edged sounds around them has always been striking, but it's never sounded more relevant, especially since they haven't forsaken any of Death Magic's hooky songwriting... Sometimes, Vol. 4 :: Slaves of Fear feels almost too successful at what it sets out to do, but as bleak as it gets, there's something special about its empathy and honesty.
A little less a set of songs and more the spirit of a warm, smoke-shrouded Sunday afternoon spent somewhere in a generously upholstered chair, Tip of the Sphere arrives three years after singer/songwriter Cass McCombs' first Top 40 independent album, 2016's Mangy Love. Definitely not shooting for the charts here -- not that he ever was -- the album places McCombs' often sharp, sometimes meandering or halted ruminations in a context of a cosmic folk with sleepy '70s album rock inspirations. Musically as well as lyrically lost in thought for most of its playing time of nearly an hour... The album is bookended by its longest tracks, with the ten-minute "Rounder" closing out the proceedings with steady drums, LoCastro's Fender Rhodes, Iead's pedal steel, and McCombs' gentle, prolonged guitar riffing. While a potential gem for certain Grateful Dead-philes and possibly off-putting to some even well-established fans, the album's diversions, textures, and McCombs' particular way with words should appeal to more than merely the Garcia set.
New Orleans' Galactic is one of the most restless acts to emerge from the jam band scene of the 1990s. With every album they've expanded their musical palette to embrace other sounds and styles while keeping the musical gumbo of their hometown squarely at the center of everything they do. Already Ready Already, their tenth offering, is the shortest record in Galactic's catalog: Its eight tunes total just 24 minutes, and it plays like a mixtape... Already Ready Already is bookended by two of three high-powered instrumentals, titled appropriately enough "Already" and "Ready Already." While the former is under two minutes, and the latter is under three, they offer twin impressions of intro and outro to the proceedings...
True North couldn't be more of a contrast. This is almost a full-circle return to his earliest years as a recording artist; musically it charts directly from 1969's Rainmaker and 1970's Fully Qualified Survivor. True North couldn't be more organic. Gunn returns as producer, plays lead guitar, and alternates with Chapman on bass and drums (the latter used sparingly at best). Chapman's glorious, innovative, mantra-like fingerstyle playing guides every song, and with the exception of two fine instrumentals -- "Eleuthera" and "Caddo Lake" -- his ravaged, grizzled vocals undergird that authority. Along with Gunn, St. John is present, as is pedal steel legend B.J. Cole and cellist Sarah Smout... "Truck Song" shines as the whole band frames Chapman's searing, poetic lyric with lush accents tempered by rounded edges. The singer's voice becomes its own bassline as he juxtaposes physical apparitions with emotional ghosts. Smout's cello borrows inspiration from Nick Drake's "Hazy Jane I," in the margin, while Gunn and Cole paint the middle in subtle shades of blue...
Yak's world fell apart after the release of their debut Alas Salvation in 2016. Bassist Andy Jones split, leaving guitarist Oli Burslem as the band's clear leader, yet the group stumbled through sessions with producer Jay Watson -- best known as a member of Tame Impala -- winding up with nothing to call finished. Rallying with producer Marta Salogni, who previously worked on records by Goldfrapp and Björk. Salogni helps Yak ease into the psychedelic with Pursuit of Momentary Happiness. Where Alas Salvation teemed with physical pleasures, Pursuit of Momentary Happiness attempts to float on an astral plain, blending mind expansion with soul baring. Not that Yak decided to leave heavy guitars behind.
Eric Gales spent a good portion of his career in the wilderness -- chalk it up to a combination of bad breaks and addiction -- but he came storming back in 2017 with Middle of the Road, his first album for Provogue/Mascot Records. Peaking at four on the Billboard Blues chart, Middle of the Road brought Gales back in a big way, giving him the confidence to push himself on its 2019 sequel Bookends. Working with producer Matt Wallace -- a stalwart of '90s alt-rock who worked with Maroon 5 after spending time with the Replacements and Faith No More -- Gales doesn't reinvent the wheel, but he does place a greater emphasis on singing and song than he has in the past... By the time he teams up with guest vocalist Beth Hart for a slow-burning version of "With a Little Help from My Friends" -- the second notable cameo on the record...
If there is any cardinal sin in punk rock (or rock & roll in general), it's wasting time and boring the audience. Will Ivy, the main brain behind Flat Worms, clearly understands that, and the band have followed up their 31-minute debut album with 2019's Into the Iris, an EP that clocks in at 16 minutes and sounds leaner, meaner, and more concise all around. After an enthusiastic burst of opening feedback, Flat Worms kick off this set with the buzzy rant of "Surreal New Year," and if the tempo of the music varies a bit in the five songs that follow, the intensity does not -- this is superior-quality garage-centric noisemaking from folks who know how it's done...
Following a series of increasingly visible self-released EPs, feminist punk combo Skinny Girl Diet made their long-awaited debut with 2016's appealingly cathartic Heavy Flow. At the time, the London-based group consisted of sisters Delilah and Ursula Holliday on guitar and drums, respectively, with their cousin Amelia Cutler on bass. With the subsequent departure of Cutler, the Hollidays opted to forgo bass altogether and carry on as a duo which is where their 2018 follow-up, Ideal Woman, finds them. Maintaining their D.I.Y. independence, the band again self-released the album in the U.K. -- in late 2018 -- with HHBTM Records handling things on the American front...
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