STACK #163 May 2018

MUSIC REVIEWS

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Laura Jean Devotion Laura Jean is a leading cartographer of the inner world. Her songs trace the rocky peaks and shaky shores of our interior lives with rare precision. Where previous albums filled these maps with folk and rock arrangements, in Devotion she projects her words with atmospheric R&B and evocative synth-pop tones. NZ artist Lorde praised first single Touchstone as "maybe the sharpest communication of the spooky, all-consuming nature of feminine love I’ve ever seen." Devotion looks at the connections that span vast distances and time. Laura explains it's "about how a lonely coastal childhood filters into a contemporary adult life... I wrote this album for my mum, middle sister and myself as we were at that time – eccentric, romantically- unfulfilled teens and a stressed-out single mum trying to have a love life." In this way Devotion offers a detailed chart of evolving lives with ever- shifting boundaries. (Chapter/Inertia) SimonWinkler

Anne-Marie Speak Your Mind Some feature artists will pop up on a track or two, make a bit of noise, and then disappear. Others will materialise on tracks beside Rudimental, Illy, and Clean Bandit, and go on to prove themselves as solo acts. Anne- Marie is the latter. Her debut album Speak Your Mind brings her staple British inflections and feminine humour to the radio waves once again. You’ll have heard Alarm , Marshmello collab FRIENDS , and Ciao Adios by now, and the rest of the album is similarly infused with love songs and break-up songs alike. Anne-Marie clearly understands her lovestruck audience, and if this is her debut effort, I can’t wait to see what’s yet to come. (Warner) Alesha Kolbe

Arctic Monkeys Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino

For a group that have built an entire career on being a guitar band, Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino is a bold statement – not that the Sheffield quartet have ever had any problem making bold statements. If debut Whatever People Say I Am was a larrikin’s first tussle with success, Favourite Worst Nightmare was the

drug-fuelled rise to superstardom, and AM was the dingy underside of afterparty culture, then Tranquillity Base feels like a cigarette smoke-filled cabaret club, where Alex Turner reflects on lost love and mistakes, and ponders the future. At the centre of the album is a classic piano – Turner has shied away from his guitar-driven monologues, for a newfound love of his Steinway Vertegrand. Star Treatment seduces over a humming bassline, Four Out Of Five slinks through tales of gentrification, Golden Trunks disturbingly imagines Donald Trump as an '80s wrestler, guitarist Jamie Cook shines on One Point Perspective , and closer The Ultracheese is a sober admission: “I’ve done some things that I shouldn’t have done, but I haven’t stopped loving you once,” Turner moans. Get comfortable being uncomfortable, and welcome to the Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino. Please enjoy your stay. (Domino)Tim Lambert

Josh Piterman Josh Piterman It's so refreshing to find classically- trained singer Josh Piterman – currently playing Gerry Goffin in the hit production Beautiful: The Carole King Musical – taking so many chances on his debut album of mostly pop hits. Recorded with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, Piterman resists the temptation of attempting to reach notes only dogs can hear by offering sensitive renditions of Unchained Melody , Hallelujah and Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova's Falling Slowly. To emphasise the melodic appeal of Radiohead's Creep , Chris Isaak's Wicked Game , John Farnham's Burn For You, and Goo Goo Dolls' Iris , he sings them in Italian, while offering a Spanish version of John

Samantha Jade Best Of My Love

Simian Mobile Disco Murmurations A defining act of the fluorescent- v-necks-and-tiny jackets age, who could’ve predicted Simian Mobile Disco would come this far? Since 2014’s Whorl , SMD have reined in the jagged dancefloor riot of those earlier tracks in favour of more pensive, early-hours house, leaning into some of the less EDM-obvious influences like prog and krautrock. In this case, that slyness particularly favours the voices of East London’s Deep Throat Choir, heard all throughout Murmurations . Curling and unfurling around the wordless vocals, Murmurations gives nothing away at once, carefully placing its cards over six-, seven-, eight-minute tracks. It’s a natural continuation for the band, and more than that, invigorating. (PIAS) Jake Cleland

Lanks Twentyseven Twentyseven is partly about growing up. Specifically, the part where you stop worshipping death, as the youngs do, wittingly or not. The myth of The 27 Club looms over Lanks’ self-reckoning; where his heroes were immolated on pyres of their fans’ building, the newly married Will Cuming is finding the virtues of fading away. If the epiphanies of aging hipsters don’t interest you, twentyseven races and smoulders in turn like Future Islands meets Chet Faker (with whom Lanks shares co-producer Andrei Eremin), switching modes between slinky R&B, contemplative slow-burns, and blood-pumping anthems. Plus, the last track is his proposal song. Cute. (THAA Records) Jake Cleland

Win a reality singing show and it appears you’re destined for a lifetime of covers albums. For her third release, Samantha Jade – winner of 2012’s The X Factor – has delivered a disco record, showcasing songs from the genre’s iconic artists such as Donna Summer, Diana Ross and Gloria Gaynor. The tracklist doesn’t take too many chances, including I Will Survive , Dancing Queen , Hot Stuff, We Are Family and I’m Coming Out , but Jade’s voice – breezy and bright – is perfectly suited to the euphoric and exuberant sound. The album concludes with a couple of impressive originals – Roller Skates and Let Me Love You . (Sony) Jeff Jenkins

Legend's All Of Me . (Sony) Billy Pinnell

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MAY 2018

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