STACK #193 Nov 2020

MUSIC REVIEWS

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The Cribs Night Network On the brink of breakup, this Yorkshire punk-rock trio put legal woes aside to create their first entirely self-produced record. The Jarman brothers see off the tumultuous time with the Motown- inspired opening track Goodbye , their striking softer side on full display. Reinvigorated and unstoppable, the band reunite with previous collaborator and Sonic Youth member Lee Ranaldo on I Don’t KnowWho I Am , utilising the guitarist’s signature noise with the Jarmans' sweeping pop sensibility. Across the record the trio wear their hearts on their sleeves, with some of the album’s lyrics their most passionate and endearing. Eight albums in, The Cribs are still as vital as ever – in their own words, “still the same kids screaming in suburbia”. (Sonic Blew/PIAS) Holly Pereira

The Mountain Goats Getting Into Knives This album's title evokes the kind of YouTube esoterica one finds oneself deep within when there’s so much going on, so overwhelming, that a new obsession is called for just to drown it all out. John Darnielle, a purveyor of unexpected interests, might sympathise. Bouncing sincerity off snark through the warmth of horn-laden, literate rock, Getting Into Knives captures the often contradictory pursuit of trying to be oneself to the max while revelling in the shibboleths of a small community. Heaped with wry first-person narratives and precise observation, Darnielle et al. are still at the height of their powers. (Merge Records) Jake Cleland

Adrianne Lenker songs and instrumentals

With no touring prospects in sight, Big Thief vocalist and songwriter Adrianne Lenker bunkered down in Massachusetts with a humble eight-track to record two distinctly sounding records: songs and instrumentals . Lenker’s folk roots shine through on tracks with acoustic guitars layered over one another

to create warm, comforting soundscapes. Evocative lyrics that revolve around nature, fragmented memories and intimate moments swell with little instrumental fanfare as Lenker’s stripped-back instrumentation gives her words further weight. Nature is an important feature across the records with the calming sound of rain introducing the track come and the buzzing of a bee ending zombie girl . The first track on instrumentals is dedicated to Lenker’s partner and fellow musician Indigo Sparke; music for indigo features delicate chimes, gently plucked guitars and the sound of a heavy downpour alongside a scattered xylophone. Raw but not unrefined, the song is wonderfully meditative and is the perfect accompaniment to the second and final instrumental track mostly chimes , yet another soothing balm in Lenker’s rich discography. (Remote Control/4AD) Holly Pereira

Sam Smith Love Goes Written throughout their late twenties, a period during which Smith reckoned publicly for the first time as non-binary, Love Goes is a disco-winged strut through, mostly, heartbreak. But although the second person is employed liberally, it equally serves as a wrestle with inner turmoil. E.g., Another One has Smith falsetto-ing over spectral melodies about accepting an ex finding love, but reads just as much like pleading for acceptance for themselves. The smooth R'n'B of So Serious is self-doubt and inquiry as interrogating a past relationship. Taken on the surface though, it’s a galvanising, sometimes vicious, always beautiful breakup record, and should be Smith’s defining work. (Universal) Jake Cleland

Ball Park Music Ball Park Music Ball Park Music are groove gurus: they find one magnetic vertebrae and then let it scuttle loose, trusting it to attract the right elements, allowing each bone to click into place without overcrowding the ideas. It’s a gift of restraint, which isn’t the same as sparsity – the songs on their sixth, self-titled album are lush lessons in energetic and gracefully-crafted dynamics, bearing few of the flighty, twee quirks which (paradoxically) bogged down some of their earlier material. That catalyst-vertebrae can come from any corner, too: on Spark Up! it's the skintight, syncopated funk of an absolutely nailed bassline/ drum connection; on the outrageously beautiful Cherub , it’s a melody which blooms in fractals, flowering outwards into a gorgeous cacophony. Ball Park Music is a worthy follow-up to 2018's triple-ARIA-nommed Good Mood and sees the Brisbane five-piece reach new planes of sophistication. (Inertia) ZKR

Gorillaz Song Machine Season One: Strange Timez “It’s one of the best albums I’ve

ever made,” Gorillaz mastermind Damon Albarn declares of Song Machine Season One (and we’re all well aware of this geezer’s back catalogue). The set opens with this drip-fed Gorillaz project’s crowning moment: the luminous

Robert Smith-featuring Strange Timez , with its demented keys that sound like they’re being played by a posse of spiders on crack. Elsewhere, there’s animated Elton John crooning “on a peach blossom highway” ( The Pink Phantom ); the unmistakable, show-offy thrumming of Hooky’s low-slung bass ( Aries ); Damon/2D playing melodica and evoking retro Clint Eastwood vibes ( MLS ); and the late, great Tony Allen’s unparalleled drumming finesse (closer, How Far? ). Idiosyncratic, buoyant and brimming with innovation, Song Machine sounds like way too much studio fun, bottled and distributed. (Warner) Bryget Chrisfield

92 NOVEMBER 2020

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