STACK #184 Feb 2020

MUSIC REVIEWS

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Banoffee Look At Us Now Dad Look At Us Now Dad is explicitly sympathetic. Every part seems designed to reach out to the listener. The interludes punctuating the record give it the feeling of a play, shifting the sets between acts while Banoffee soliloquizes through the fourth wall. Although these are more direct than the other tracks, it’s not by much: Banoffee’s lyrics are generous in making the feelings plain, and insofar as they’re autobiographical, she makes plenty of room for the listener. Intimate, private, melancholy but embracing, Look At Us Now Dad will get in your heart. (Dot Dash/Remote Control) Jake Cleland

Caribou Suddenly Our first taste of Suddenly , Home – based around a Gloria Barnes sample – delivers all of the sentimental feels, follow-up single You And I is aural sun-glitter, and another standout album moment, Like I Loved You , evokes stumbling across a love letter from that long-forgotten 'one who got away' – do they still trouble your heart? Elsewhere, penultimate track Ravi employs a jubilant beat akin to Call On Me by Eric Prydz (seriously!) before closer Cloud Song 's lovelorn confession – "I'm broken, so tired of crying/ Can't seem to find my way to you" – descends upon deliciously wonky synth noodling. From "new first kiss" to (ahem) Suddenly waking up alone, Caribou's seventh album comes with added gravitas thanks to Dan Snaith's gorgeous- yet-bereft vocal tone. Can I please have a hug? (Inertia) Bryget Chrisfield

Kesha High Road On her 2017 album Rainbow , in the shadow of horrific circumstances, Kesha Rose Sebert recast herself as a musician of “balance”. The result was a record where the artist felt welcomely present, in contrast with the apocalyptic distance of her sunrise-defying past work. High Road takes that further, and betters it: for every turn-up belter ( Tonight with its drunken party

chants; the hyperjoyous Raising Hell ft. Big Freedia, Kinky ft. herself) there’s a stunning ballad (chiefly Resentment ft. Sturgill Simpson, Brian Wilson, and Wrabel, a genuine heart-render), wryly funny confessional ( Cowboy Blues ), or swelling self-bigup anthem (the Ezra Miller-quoting High Road ). Start to finish, her strongest record to date. (Sony) Jake Cleland

La Roux Supervision

Grimes Miss Anthropocene

At just eight tracks, you could mistake Supervision for being unsubstantial. But it would be a mistake. La Roux’s third album is a perfectly considered slice of synth-pop that shines on Elly Jackson’s strengths, revisiting the more prominent disco influences which came to bear on 2014’s Trouble In Paradise (most prominently on International Woman of Leisure and Otherside ) alongside the glacial melodies which have become her trademark. Throughout, Jackson – on her first record completely solo – struts as boldly as ever over slinky self-affirmation ( Do You Feel ) and breezy tropical pop ( Everything I Live For ). It’s a welcome return. (Supercolour Records) Jake Cleland

Since 2015’s wide-ranging Art Angels , Grimes has spent the time between spreading herself between collaborations with television and other musicians. focused. Named after the current era, 'anthropocene' has become synonymous with climate destruction and late stage capitalism, and that purpose indirectly drives the record. Grimy drum'n'bass chaos tears at Grimes’ angel’s chorus vocals, daring doom to challenge hope and vice versa. This is Grimes engaged with the world and the people in it, a collaborative tendency that evokes the record’s founding ethos, suggesting the only way we’re gonna get through this is together. (4AD/Remote Control) Jake Cleland Far from diluting her aesthetic, Miss Anthropocene feels newly

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FEBRUARY 2020

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