STACK #224 June 2023

REVIEWS MUSIC

Trophy Eyes Suicide and Sunshine

Swans The Beggar

Protomartyr Formal Growth in the Desert Detroit post-punk quartet Protomartyr’s sixth record is a cathartic release in the face of crushing realities and significant loss, the band achieving moments of beauty among a cacophony of glorious noise. Vocalist Joseph Kevin Barry Casey’s baritone possesses great emotional depth across the album, his voice raw on opening track Make Way before he spits out his words on Fun in Hi Skool. The band’s brooding energy is in full force on Graft Vs. Host , the track showcasing masterful percussion and melodic guitar work. Meanwhile, 3800 Tigers is a frenzied rush of stop-start instrumentation and, similarly, Fulfillment Center packs a punch just short of two minutes with its dissonant, thunderous guitars. (Domino) Holly Pereira

Body Type Expired Candy

One of the most devastatingly emotive and raw pieces of music in recent memory, Suicide and Sunshine takes your hand in a vice grip and refuses to let go through the tears. Lead singer John Floreani’s distinct vocals and staggeringly personal lyrics are at the centre of this beautiful record, leading the listener down a path that is at times a gut wrenching exercise in tragedy, and others a call to celebrate life. An unflinching and incredibly generous insight into haunted souls and the scars that loss can leave upon one’s life, this is a record to return to over and over as it offers us a chance to

Sprawling and gargantuan, The Beggar is a brutal and explosive offering from American post-rock veterans Swans. A deep and wide ranging rumination on existence and stagnation, the band's 16th record disorients and engulfs the listener with a track list that meanders to false finishes, and trips between experimental rock and pure pagan prayer. Dark lyrical work – bolstered by lead singer Michael Gira’s deep, gravel-for-breakfast vocals – fills the record with a sense of foreboding, and never allows the listener to quite get comfortable. Expansive, ritualistic and with a touch of the supernatural, The Beggar sees Swans continuing to push the envelope on what it means to innovate within rock, and create some truly exceptional work. (Mute/PIAS) Jacqui Picone Alison Goldfrapp The Love Invention Best known as one half of Goldfrapp, her stylistically diverse ongoing project with keyboardist/producer Will Gregory, Alison Goldfrapp goes it alone for the first time. With its alluring, pulsating beat, opener NeverStop airlifts us straight onto a podium inside a heaving Balearic superclub, and we simply refuse to come down until soothing closer SloFlo , which acts like a deep tissue massage to ease us into noddy land after a wicked weekend out on the tiles. Alison’s breathy, seductive vocal delivery is right up there with our Kylie, particularly during the tantalisingly measured The Beat Divine and Fever , which signals liftoff for the litty committee with its cascading synth arpeggios showering down like rainbow glitter. From go to woo-HOO!, this solo debut is back-to-back bangers (plus one soul-soother). (BMG) Bryget Chrisfield

A joyful and brash follow-up to their thunderous debut, Expired Candy stands to prove that Sydney outfit Body Type could not be living further away from the dreaded sophomore slump. Filled with biting, distorted and acerbic lyrical work, the record nestles itself comfortably between power-pop and experimental punk, with sunny guitar fills reminiscent of Albert Hammond Jr’s solo work. Leaping between genres, the record ebbs and flows with a precision that is a testament to clean and clever production work, and shows once more that Body Type are a band to keep firmly in your eyeline. (Poison City Records) Jacqui Picone

be truly vulnerable. (Hopeless Records) Jacqui Picone

Bad//Dreems HOO HA!

Samantha Fish & Jesse Dayton Death Wish Blues Emotionally charged blues rock is alive and well. Award-winning singer-songwriter guitarist Samantha Fish recently joined forces with fellow musician Jesse Dayton – whose guitar playing includes recordings with artists as diverse as Johnny Cash, X, and Waylon Jennings – for this frenetic bunch of songs that chronicle life on the road as experienced by these two outstanding musicians. Sharing lead vocals and lead guitar, they complement each other throughout this powerhouse album section, the album celebrates the resurgence of rock guitar at its creative best. (Rounder Records) Billy Pinnell recorded in just ten days. Driven by a funky rhythm

Ed Sheeran - They're some stormy seas that Ed's been navigating these last few years, but there are more than a few cracks to let the light in on the best outing of his career, which convincingly surpasses the beauty of 2017's ÷ (" Divide") . Sheeran has re-harnessed his mastery of the melodic filigree (see the line “let it go”, during the chorus of End of Youth ), and closer Moving has a touch of Bon Iver's Justin Vernon about its refrain – it's in the control of the delicate tremolo Sheeran has mostly only whispered at in the past. We get glimpses of homelife: Dusty is a quiet burner which celebrates the small things, in this case, yer boy listening to Dusty Springfield records with his toddler, daughter Lyra. When Ed says this is the album he's been waiting years to release, it's clear he's perfectly aware of where his heart's core (and the kernel of his talent) lies. (Warner) ZKR

Bad//Dreems have always had an innate ability to create a sense of simmering chaos with their music. It's like there’s something feral and dark dancing just below the surface of their charging, purring guitars. On their fourth record, HOO HA! , the Adelaide four-piece appear to have perfected the art, with lyrical work and a production quality that feels like a culmination of their ten year tenure together. Lead singer Ben Marwe’s punching, furious vocals have never sounded so crisp, delivering homilies on the state of the world with a mesmerisingly sharp tone of indignation. Demanding, raucous, and engrossingly intelligent, Bad// Dreems continue to be one of the most fascinating and gifted bands in the country. (BMG/Farmer & the Owl) Jacqui Picone

89