STACK #152 Jun 2017

MUSIC REVIEWS

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Fleet Foxes Crack-Up

The Charlatans Different Days

Tigers Jaw Spin With their hearts on their sleeves, Tigers Jaw deliver an album equal parts upbeat melodic power-pop and sullen emo revivalism. Spin is their fifth album, and like the records which precede it, it takes two paths – each led by one of the band's vocalists, Ben Walsh and Brianna Collins. While both move through a mixture of lo-fi indie and zealous shoegaze, Walsh’s leads are succinct, moody and heart-achingly precise ( Follows and Guardian ) while Collins' resonate with more optimism and heart ( June and Same Stone ). This is the group's major label debut (Will Yip’s Atlantic offshoot Black Cement), and they're punching way above their weight class; all 12 tracks are meticulously engineered, while lyrically, Spin touches on anxiety, heartbreak and weakness, expressing these vulnerabilities without coming off self-indulgently. (Warner)Tim Lambert

Rancid Trouble Maker If you are familiar with Californian legends Rancid, then you already know what I'm going to say. The best thing about the four-piece, a quarter of a century into their musical careers, is their consistency of quality: they're nine top-notch albums in with no signs of slowing down. Trouble Maker builds on the band’s well-laid foundations: their blue collar attitude, and frontman Tim Armstrong’s gravelly growl. Ghost Of A Chance bounces along appropriately, Street Punk Trouble Maker will have you looking for your closest mosh pit and Say Goodbye To Our Heroes is a solemn obituary. By always sticking to the punk roots that have inspired so many bands, Rancid continue to brandish the torch-lit traditions and sprit of an early punk era that seems almost forgotten. (Epitaph)Tim Lambert

Six long years after releasing their last, highly acclaimed album Helplessness Blues , Fleet Foxes return with new record Crack-Up . The first minute of epic six-minute opener I Am All That I Need/Arroyo Seco/ Thumbprint Scar has Robin Pecknold gently drawling before an explosion of sound. Conversely, field recordings of ocean waves are soothing on Cassius , with the song expanding into a bigger and bolder vision before transitioning perfectly into Naidas, Cassadies . The stripped back If You Need To, Keep Time On Me has Pecknold at his most candid, while the superb closing track Crack-Up concludes the album on a majestic note. With their sound grander and more uplifting than ever, Fleet Foxes truly assert their status as one of the greatest folk bands of our time. (Warner) Holly Pereira

Following on from 2015’s Modern Nature , a record made under the cloud of the death of founding member and drummer Jon Brookes, Different Days is The Charlatans' 13th studio album. It’s a diverse long player, imbued with positivity – a conscious effort from the band to keep the ball rolling. Different Days and Let’s Go Together are songs constructed with The Charlatan’s DNA, while the dance- oriented Over Again and The Same House were written with New Order’s Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert. In fact, the album features contributions from an array of poets, writers and indeed musicians including Johnny Marr and Paul Weller. While not every song works here, The Charlatans still possess the ability to write and compose some very good music. (Liberator) Paul Jones

anathema.ws kscopemusic.com/ana

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JUNE 2017

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