STACK J#165 Jul 2018

MUSIC REVIEWS

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Melody's Echo Chamber Bon Voyage It’s been five years since Melody Prochet first turned heads as Melody’s Echo Chamber, combining her native tongue French with dreamy psychedelic soundscapes, with Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker behind the controls. While Parker isn’t present on this album, his influence is still heard across Bon Voyage – aptly named, given that it takes the listener on an eclectic sonic journey. There are plenty of twists and turns, with Cross My Heart boasting flutes, strings and even a sudden breakdown, while the glitch-pop of Desert Horse would make Grimes proud. It’s a real mixed bag, but across the album’s seven tracks there’s something that will appeal to everyone ranging between pop fanatics and experimental music purveyors. (Pod/Inertia) Holly Pereira

Cosmo's Midnight What Comes Next These Sydney fellas, once scrappy upstarts of Australia’s indie beatmaking scene, are now fully entrenched as standard-bearers now? Libidinal R'n'B ( Lowkey ), heartbreak disco ( Talk To Me ), cloud rap ( Where You Been ), dreamerific near-instrumentals ( Polarised ) and sultry come-ons ( History ). The double fist of the last two are record highlights: where CM mostly go straight for the dancefloor, Polarised aims for the festival with Passion Pit-ish allure, while Paige IV’s vocals on History shoot for Rihanna while riding a propulsive beat. Throw vox turns fromWoodes and Tove Styrke in the bag and What Comes Next puts homegrown radio in a pretty good place. (RCA Records/Sony) Jake Cleland for swanky EDM. So what’s the sound of Australian pop

Florence + the Machine High As Hope Baroque pop: it’s what Florence Welch does, and she does it with the abandon of someone who admits she’s far from perfect but revels in the grace of that flawed state anyway. High As Hope is her fourth album as Florence + the Machine (with fellow musician and producer Isabella Summers), and it performs a trapeze act, catching at themes with each swoop on the wire. Gripping lead single Hunger ends with the line “And for a moment I forget

to worry…” before the other feelings crest and thunder in: South London Forever is a love letter to Welch’s youth, with the grand pageant of Mother Britain’s horns marching her nostalgia home. Big God is ominous and huge, but slow, like a ferris wheel on fire. Sky Full Of Song is an ascent into madness: “I want you so badly but you could be anyone,” she sings alongside sleigh bells and cello – “Grab me by my ankles, hold me down.” The End Of Love takes you to the absolute zenith of this hymnbook – it even ends with that tuneless echo which presses into your eardrums after a church organ has abruptly stopped playing – and contains the most explicit reference we’ve ever heard to Florence witnessing her grandmother’s suicide at age nine. High As Hope sets up flags of intimate confession at each stage of the climb, and suggests Welch isn't gunning for a summit of perfection, but is committed to an ongoing odyssey of honesty and self-belief. (Universal) Zoë Radas

Didirri Measurements EP

Amy Shark Love Monster

Fraser A. Gorman Easy Dazy

The Vines In Miracle Land

When you first hear Didirri’s voice it almost feels like all your worries in the world have instantly gone away, such is the power of his remarkable vocal. Didirri is a romantic through and through, and in just seven tracks we gain an intimate insight into that crazy little thing called love, with opening track Blind You setting the scene perfectly. Didirri possesses a remarkable maturity despite his relative youth, with a track like Formaldehyde reflecting poignantly on artist Frida Kahlo’s miscarriage and the process of holding on to pain you’re not ready to let go of yet. Measurements is sure to move, inspire and dazzle, and is proof that Didirri is a

First she adored us. Then, she wanted to spend her weekends with us. Now all she wants to do is say 'Hi.' Amy Shark is on a rollercoaster that only goes up, riding the slipstream of her Hottest 100 success all the way to the release of her first full studio album – featuring a song with Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus, no less. Love Monster ’s tracks are about love, lust, and childhood crushes, spoken of in the way only a veteran of relationships ever could. I’m A Liar and I Got You are both stand-outs, but you’ll easily find something to enjoy in simply sitting down with a cuppa and letting your adolescent romances flow over you in song form. (Sony) Alesha Kolbe

Fraser A. Gorman has a lovely way with words: “Your words flow like golden peaches drippin’ from a can,” he sings on his second album, a cruisy collection of songs that instantly sound like old friends. He’s self- deprecating, name-checking Tim Buckley’s 1972 classic in The World Sure Looks Dark (Through These Sunglasses) : “Now I’m listening to Greetings From LA , as if there’s anything more that I could say.” Don’t believe it – Gorman has got plenty to offer. “I feel the dark is about to pass over,” he declares in album opener, My Own Sunshine . Not all of the record is sunny, but every track is warm and inviting. Easy Dazy is a delight. (Caroline) Jeff Jenkins

Rewind 16 years and The Vines were the first Aussie band since Men At Work to grace the US cover of Rolling Stone . “Meet The Vines,” the mag roared. “Rock is back.” But then rock disappeared again, and Craig Nicholls – the only original member on this, The Vines’ seventh studio album, and their first in four years – battled some personal problems. “I want you to leave me alone,” he declares here. “Just listen to me sing.” Fair enough. He’s still capable of delivering songs that are short, sharp jabs. And though the frenetic, nervous energy of the band’s early work has mostly gone, In Miracle Land shows that The Vines have still got the vibe. (MGM) Jeff Jenkins

formidable songwriter. (Sony) Holly Pereira

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JULY 2018

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