Music RECORDS
POP GRIMES Visions (4AD) ●●●●●
Visions is Claire Boucher’s fourth release in less than two years, and shows the Vancouver-born music-maker feverishly developing her sound at a rate of knots. Since she moved to Montreal in 2006 and birthed performance art, video and audio project Grimes, she’s given us a slew of wonderfully off-kilter offerings. But Boucher’s latest is by far her most impressive to date; as she takes her love of Enya, TLC and Aphex Twin (yes, really) and turns it into a compelling and utterly distinctive creep-pop masterpiece. Opening with the discordant sweetness of ‘Infinite Love Without Fulfillment’ [sic], these thirteen tracks are mesmerising. Genres that really shouldn’t work merge seamlessly, glued tightly by Boucher’s smooth falsetto and magnificently swooping melodies. ‘Eight’ is K-pop meets industrial goth, ‘Circumambient’ takes us to rhythmic glitch heaven and ‘Be A Body’ is the kind of New Wave baroque pop ballad Talk Talk might have penned. Oh, and new jack swing and opera? Yeah, they’re in there too.
Now you might be thinking what kind of ridiculous genre-strewn madness is this? And you’d be right, Visions is properly deranged. But in a brilliant, ‘why the hell aren’t other people as insanely inventive as this?’ way. This jaw- dropping record makes you look at your music collection and realise just how safe and downright lazy a lot of is. (Camilla Pia)
ROCK/ POP THE WEDDING PRESENT Valentina (Scopitones) ●●●●● The last time this reviewer looked, which wasn’t yesterday admittedly, The Wedding Present were a bracing proposition, the musical equivalent of being dragged along a cobbled street in Halifax with one leg tied to a Raleigh Chopper. Flat and furiously-strummed, The Wedding Present were none more northern; the fanatically non-florid sound of some blokes banging away in the back bedroom then getting chips. Five prime ministers later and the template’s changed to some small extent, to work in a few spindly strands of Pavement, some stabs at the hummability of the Arctic Monkeys and the dynamics of later Sonic Youth. Ultimately, though, songs like ‘Back A Bit... Stop’ remain as grudging and colourless, and as fatiguingly guitar- y, as ever they were. (Allan Brown)
INDIE FOLK RANDOLPH’S LEAP The Curse of the Haunted Headphones (Peenko Records) ●●●●● Do not be misled by this bedroom recording, or its cassette-hissing, lo-fi aesthetic. While Glasgow indie- folk rabble, RL are known and loved for their elaborate, philharmonic live shows, this homespun tape (and download) is the ideal format to showcase the stripped-back charms of the band’s distinctive singer-songwriter, Adam Ross. The album’s funny, poignant acoustic arias include the wistful skewed-folk of ‘Sunday Morning’, the love-sick shanty, ‘Deep Blue Sea’ and existential kitchen-sink serenade, ‘Falling in Love’. Occasionally recalling fellow literate Scottish indie-poppers Belle & Sebastian and ballboy, otherwise RL are in an endearing, harmonious league of their own. (Nicola Meighan)
DISCO/ POP KINDNESS World, You Need A Change Of Mind (Polydor) ●●●●● FOLK POP DEAN OWENS New York Hummingbird (Songboy Records) ●●●●●
ROCK & POP COMPILATION BELLE AND SEBASTIAN Late Night Tales Volume 2 (Late Night Tales) ●●●●● INDIE ROCK THE SHINS Port Of Morrow (Columbia) ●●●●●
You could be forgiven for thinking Kindness is little more than hipster ‘lolz’. Tracks have trickled out with cryptic soundbites and moody photos. Then there’s the boy behind them: former Peterborough- born photography student Adam Bainbridge turned globetrotting creative (recent bases include Paris, Philadelphia and Berlin) whose impeccable style would give Alexa Chung a case of the green-eyed monsters. He’s even got the guts/is ridiculous enough to cover both Anita Dobson on this debut, but pulls it off, because ultimately Kindness is just superb, spell- binding pop. When you can combine Ariel Pink-isms, with style tips from Grace Jones, and beats nicked off that Balearic lot, you’re onto something. (Camilla Pia)
Could it be that Dean Owens suffers from Ron Sexsmith Syndrome? RSS is that little-known but extremely frustrating affliction which strikes talented singer- songwriters perfectly capable of crafting a gloriously melodic tune but, for reasons best known to themselves, they refuse to do so on a more regular basis. As with being invited to perform stand-up on Letterman or to guest- host Have I Got News for You, some people might only feel vindicated in their cultural pursuit when they are asked back. And so the people behind the Late Night Tales mixed-CD initiative have made B&S’s day by unleashing them onto another compilation.
Edinburgh-based Owens’ fourth As you’d expect, it’s an eclectic
LP, features enough examples of tunesmithery gone right (see the lovely ‘No One’s a Failure’) to make the flat downsides all-too troubling to hear. Unlike Sexsmith, he is occasionally prone to bum- clenchingly icky lyrical interludes, and a title track namechecking a list of folk-pop icons who Owens presumably wishes he might one day emulate. (Brian Donaldson) old hoot with lush instrumentals (Remember Remember, Broad- cast), smoked jazz (Stan Tracey Quartet), 60s guitar interludes (Joe Pass) and the rare duffer (Blood, Sweat and Tears). Curiously, many tracks would just as accurately get you hopping out of bed of a morning rather than keeping you from it. But that’s just how B&S must roll. (Brian Donaldson)
Oh, James Mercer, we’ve missed you. This is The Shins’ first new material in four years and in a world where the young‘uns are dabbling in skew-whiff electronica and art funk ‘jams’ with varying results, this glorious record is a timely reminder of how to craft good, solid indie rock with smart storytelling and melodies that go straight for the heart. Highly unfashionable, yes, and not a huge departure for the band admittedly, but why deviate from a formula that produces music as swoonsome as ‘The Rifle’s Spiral’, buzzing riff-tinged ode to existential angst ‘It’s Only Life’ and ‘No Way Down’ and thundering drums-led epic ‘Simple Song’? These are love-on-first-listen songs that have made us fall for The Shins all over again. (Camilla Pia)
84 THE LIST 1–29 Mar 2012