Music RECORDS
PSYCH POP ANIMAL COLLECTIVE Centipede Hz (Domino) ●●●●●
Animal Collective have lost the ability to truly surprise the listener, but they can still enthral. As their sound has evolved, the band has smoothed off their more experimental edges and embraced a more linear sonic narrative, shedding fans drawn to their early, outer limits psychedelic vanguardism, and recruiting a following lured by melody and songcraft. The shift continues on Centipede Hz, the group’s first album since their breakout, 2009’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, and the first to feature all four band members, Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist and Deakin, since 2007’s Strawberry Jam. This ongoing trade off still strikes more as an act of pragmatism than a dogmatic shift in ideals: the signature tropes of the Animal Collective sound – the layered vocals, the polyrhythmic flourishes, the charged, pop-psych phantasmagoria – are no longer feral, but corralled into bright, structured bursts of glistening euphoria. After MPP the band could have retreated to their offbeat hatchery and returned to their roots of wilful compositional free-wheeling. Instead they refocused and continued to channel their ideas into an egalitarian, fully realised collection of big tunes. (Mark Keane)
INDIE ROCK VACCINES Come of Age (Columbia) ●●●●●
It’s hard to reconcile the fact that this record sounds more constructed than an Ikea bookcase with its compelling charms as a pop album. If however, you’re looking for a bit of guitar-laden indie-pop with a certain anthemic quality, it’s unlikely to let you down. The Vaccines have stepped up
from their debut, with the Strokes- aping ‘No Hope’ (featuring some prime youthful narcissism in the lyric ‘I don’t care about anybody else / when I don’t have my own life figured out’), the ‘Telstar’ whine of ‘I Always Knew’, the La’s holler of ‘All in Vain’ and the moody rockabilly of ‘Ghost Town’ all hitting various spots. If you want to hear passion and an unconquerable desire to say something in a whole new way, on the other hand, then listen elsewhere. (David Pollock)
FOLK-POP STATE BROADCASTERS Ghosts We Must Carry (Olive Grove) ●●●●●
The second album from the wistful pop collective has a deep-rooted resonance that pays tribute to many of the fallen heroes that inspired its inception. Opening track ‘The Only Way Home’ tips its hat to the expressive burdens of folk troubadours Sparklehorse and Vic Chesnutt, whose influence populates the album throughout. Buried beneath melancholic
string arrangements and melodic twists, the band’s latest offering is reminiscent of The Delgados at their most mournful and reflective. Plaintive horn sections drift in and out, a touch which provides reassuring warmth to a record that carefully wraps itself around the listener, with each track musing deeper into the introspective themes that dominate its lush soundscapes. (Jack Taylor)
FOLK NUALA KENNEDY Noble Stranger (Compass Records) ●●●●● INDIE-POP JENS LEKMAN I Know What Love Isn’t (Secretly Canadian) ●●●●●
NO-WAVE METAL DIVORCE Divorce (Night School) ●●●●●
While imaginary old folksters in woolly jumpers wave disapproving fingers, the younger generation continues to update the genre. Here acclaimed flautist Nuala Kennedy mixes traditional songs and instrumentals such as ‘My Bonny Labouring Boy’ and ‘Matt Hyland’ with newer compositions inspired by a vintage Casio keyboard given to her by Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake. As adept as she is at the
classics, the newer tracks stand out. ‘Gabriel Sings’ is a cracking opener that’s almost Ani Difranco in its wonderful weirdness. ‘Lonely City’, meanwhile, conjures up heartrending, burning sorrow in the way the best folk ballads do. On this evidence the Casio is a good fit. (Rachel Devine)
Five years since Night Falls Over Kortedala, which enshrined this Gothenburger as one of the most downright romantic bastards in pop, Jens Lekman has chased a girl all the way to Melbourne and returned, rejected. His way with a winsome melody and a thought- ful lyric turns more sparsely this time to the tune for the chucked – heartbreak being something he theorises you can’t overcome, but merely learn to carry with dignity. There’s sadness, sure. But be it when philosophically finding a cosmic context for heartache (‘The End of the World is Bigger Than Love’), or pondering scorning monogamy by marrying an Aussie for citizenship (‘I Know What Love Isn’t’), for Lekman not even the blues are just blue. (Malcolm Jack)
Hail Divorce, femme-metal overlords (overladies?) of every stage they’ve ever desecrated with their racket. In fairness, this debut album from a Glasgow quartet who have been around the houses could only ever be a disappointment. There’s just no way of capturing the delicious effrontery of their live set, but it’s to everyone’s credit that they’ve given it a good go. The opening ‘Cunts in a Circle’ is a wall of vaguely sculpted feedback, ‘Bill Murray’ and ‘Stabby (Stabby) Stab’ are underpinned by deceptively skilled post-punk rhythms and Jennie Fulk’s vocals are vomit- raw throughout. File under ‘uncompromising’. (David Pollock) ■ Launch party at Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, Glasgow, Sat 8 Sep. See page 65.
ALT-ROCK DINOSAUR JR. I Bet On Sky (Play It Again Sam) ●●●●●
With Bassist Lou Barlow’s one- time rival unit Sebadoh wriggling back out of the woodwork and axemaster J Mascis embarking on further solo efforts, you could be forgiven for thinking that another Dinosaur Jr album was pretty low down on the band’s collective to do list. But thankfully it’s not. Just when
you might have worried they’ve run out of steam, they produce an album as charming, messy and catchy as I Bet On Sky. Bearing some resemblance to the less erratic work in their latter day catalogue, for example, the likes of Green Mind, these ten tracks are solid examples of the band’s melodic prowess with plenty of solos to boot. (Ryan Drever)
66 THE LIST 23 Aug–20 Sep 2012