ALTER.NATION #116 (11trx 46m)
The Weather Station, Celeste, Common, Lenny Kravitz, Chuck D, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Woody Guthrie, X, Robbie Krieger, Miss Grit, TV Priest, Dry Cleaning,Iceage, Puma Blue, A.J. Croce
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"R o b b e r"
The Weather Station - Ignorance / Robber
On Loyalty and The Weather Station, Tamara Lindeman's music evolved by leaps and bounds. On Ignorance, she reaches another peak. When the Weather Station's tour for their 2017 self-titled album ended, she spent months researching the enormous impact of climate change. She attended demonstrations and hosted a series of discussions with other musicians and activists, but Lindeman had to explore the issue -- and people's resistance to addressing it -- in her music... Though she's previously shied away from theatricality, there's no denying how powerfully she uses it on the album's opening track, "Robber." Over slinky yet uneasy synths and strings, Lindeman meditates on how the privileged steal resources in a croon embodying the seductiveness of the status quo. The silvery highs of Lindeman's voice still resemble Joni Mitchell, as do the cleverly captured details of Ignorance's lyrics... While she's growing so much with each album that it seems risky to call this Lindeman's best, it's safe to say this is another outstanding achievement from the Weather Station.
Celeste - Not Your Muse / Stop This Flame
...The first new single off Not Your Muse, the mannered and grand pop-soul belter "Stop This Flame," appeared at the top of 2020 and almost cracked the Top 40 in her native U.K... Along the line, Not Your Muse had several intended release dates and at some point was supposed to be an EP. Chaotic roll-out notwithstanding, the album is sure-footed and attests to the artist's high standing among the crowd mining pre-disco R&B, jazz, and pop. Celeste and her fellow songwriters and producers -- led by main collaborators Jamie Hartman and Josh Crocker -- have all the knowing, tasteful moves down pat and exhibit some tricks of their own...
Common - A Beautiful Revolution, Pt. 1 / A Riot In My Mind feat. Lenny Kravitz, Chuck D.
Breaking stylistically with the more physically militant hip hop records that have been getting attention in recent years, Common's Beautiful Revolution is an album about mindset, the resistance from within. His lyrics call for resilience, determination, and self-love in the face of oppression, distraction, and hatred...
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Rendition Was In) / This Land Is Your Land
One of the realities of the music business is that when an artist with a degree of popularity dies, you can count on plenty of their rare and unreleased sides getting repackaged for public consumption once their obituary puts their name back in the news... Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Rendition Was In) demonstrates Sharon Jones gave 150 percent every time she stepped up to the microphone, regardless of the circumstances, and this album is a testament to her great talent as well as her gift for putting her own stamp on any song she chose to try on for size.
X - Strange Life feat. Robbie Krieger
Last year, in a true out-of-nowhere surprise, Los Angeles punk legends X returned with their new album Alphabetland. This was X’s first album since 1993’s Hey, Zeus!, and it was the first one from the band’s full original lineup since 1985’s Ain’t Love Grand. More importantly, it was good! Alphabetland wasn’t going to threaten Los Angeles or Wild Gift on anyone’s list of the best X albums, but the band was still able to summon the fiery underdog chemistry of their early days, and the contrast between John Doe and Exene Cervenka’s voices still sounded really cool. ..
Miss Grit - Grow Up To
...Miss Grit’s latest is called “Grow Up To.” It might the more straight-ahead rocker of the bunch, but in the context of Miss Grit that still means that “Grow Up To” is built on gnarled rhythm and big mutated guitar riffs. “Grow up to, grow up to, grow up to is my ongoing obsession with what’s next,” Sohn said of the track. “The lack of content with the present leads to the chaos and collapse of this song.”
...Thick walls of guitar-based throb? A pounding rhythm section making a serious wallop? A vocalist who talks rather than sings as he bellows what sounds like blank verse poetry about the sorry state of our culture? All these qualities are present and accounted for on 2021's Uppers, the first album from London quartet TV Priest... Drinkwater is a muscular, charismatic frontman and he brings a strong voice and a subtly intelligent phrasing to his rants, which manage to be direct and filled with impressionistic detail at the same time. Alex Sprogis' guitar work is artful enough to elevate his sound above the traditional post-punk clang and skronk... and bassist Nic Bueth adds occasional keyboards that bring an effective level of atmospheric menace when they rise up in the mix... Every worthwhile band needs a good drummer, and Ed Kelland has the strength and the imagination to give this music the backbone it needs...
Ever since their initial EPs prompted us to name Dry Cleaning a Band To Watch, we were looking forward to how they might expand their sound across a debut album... The band has been working on the album for a bit, though, like many artists, recent events impacted the end results. “I found the lockdown played into some of the themes I was interested in anyway, living in a small world, a feeling of alienation, paranoia and worry, but also a joyful reveling in household things,” frontwoman Florence Shaw says.
...Iceage’s latest is called “The Holding Hand.” “The song lives in a slurred world, movements are elastically stretched out and strength is found in weakness while you find it hard to tell the difference between fume and matter,” Elias Bender Rønnenfelt said in a statement. “Gently the swaying intensifies, feel it escalate. Reach out for the holding hand, it seems almost within scope now.” Musically, “The Holding Hand” seems to build on the more spaced-out, noise-tinged moments of Beyondless, sitting in an anxious cloud that builds up without ever quite releasing.
Puma Blue - In Praise of Shadows / Oil Slick
The debut full-length album from London's Puma Blue, 2021's In Praise of Shadows, showcases his hypnotic blend of lyrical indie rock and jazzy, '90s-style downtempo electronica... Similarly evocative, "Oil Slick" nicely updates the vintage trip-hop of bands like Morcheeba and Massive Attack with its frenetic groove, strings, and sax solo. It's also impressive how balanced Puma Blue's sound can be...
A.J. Croce - By Request / San Diego Serenade (Tom Waits cover)
In the wake of his wife's unexpected death from a heart ailment in 2018, AJ Croce found comfort in the past: he returned to some of his favorite music, songs he'd play at parties and jam sessions with fellow musicians. Hence the name "By Request": these are the songs he'd play to entertain a close crowd... and lingers on the poetry of Tom Waits' "San Diego Serenade." Croce's arrangements stick to the originals but don't treat them as sacred texts: as a pianist and vocalist, he glides through the changes, savoring the lyrical and melodic turns of phrases and taking solos to suit his mood. The result is a spirited, nourishing listen, a low-key testament to the restoring power of music.
The Weather Station, Celeste, Common, Lenny Kravitz, Chuck D, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Woody Guthrie, X, Robbie Krieger, Miss Grit, TV Priest, Dry Cleaning,Iceage, Puma Blue, A.J. Croce
