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REVIEWS MUSIC

Quasi Breaking the Balls of History Pacific Northwest duo Quasi have reunited in the face of global uncertainty, ten years since their last record – and they've delivered their most incisive work yet. Recorded live in a mere five days, Janet Weiss and Sam Coomes possess a musical language that only three decades of performing together can achieve. Riots & Jokes is a perfect example of their meticulous timing, the duo maintaining immaculate cohesion even as the song rapidly changes gear. The band’s high energy is the defining quality of the record, though this pace is beautifully contrasted with the spacious electronica of Inbetweenness , Weiss’ vocal giving the tracks a dreamlike quality that offers a more tender side to the project. (Sub Pop) Holly Pereira

Kelela Raven Though it’s been nearly six years since Kelela Mizanekristos’s acclaimed debut, it feels like no time has passed at all, with Raven picking up where Take Me Apart left off. Described as a celebration of the black femme perspective, proud Ethiopian-American Mizanekristos bends her steps down more electronic routes as she explores her identity, with the compositions' intoxicating downtempo perfectly complementing Mizanekristos's honeyed vocals. Subtle dancefloor fillers come in the form of Contact , while the minimal production of Holier induces a meditative state. The album’s title track is significant, a poignant statement of reclamation that demands your full attention. Raven is unabashed and self-assured, firmly reasserting Mizanekristos as one of alternative R'n'B’s most compelling artists. (NinjaTune/Inertia) Holly Pereira

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Shania Twain Queen of Me “You'd have to use a sledgehammer to knock her down,” says a Mercury Records executive in last year's Shania Twain doco Not Just a Girl – “and she'd get up.” Queen of Me exhibits Twain not just getting up, but executing a spry leap to horseback with mic in hand; there's no sauce lost in her playful, and proudly feminist material. She can swing a

TikTok-ready linedance gem ( Giddy Up! ) alongside one of her beautifully poignant 'Life: Be in It' anthems like InhaleExhale AIR (“What you gonna do with all that air?/ Don't wait another minute, there's life out there”). The title track is neat as a pin (“You can't be king of everything/ 'Cos I'm busy being queen of me”), and includes a repeated motif of a harp gliss; the sound is almost like the 'Turn the page!' effect of audiobooks of yore, except that it's descending, not ascending. It gives the strangely magical impression of encouraging forward movement, but looking within yourself to do so. If that's too analytical, consider Not Just a Girl , in which Twain attests “I'm not just a four-letter word” – poetically direct! Album closer The Hardest Stone is an epiphany; kudos to producer Mark Ralph for arranging this trip-hop/R'n'B masterstroke whose beat gives Clubbed to Death . Queen of Me will lasso you in and have you cupid-shuffling your boots off within its first bars; all aboard the Twain Train! (Universal) ZKR

Robert Forster The Candle and the Flame

John Cale Mercy Legendary The Velvet Underground member and accomplished musician in his own right, John Cale, has worked with a slew of collaborators on new album Mercy , including Weyes Blood, Animal Collective and Fat White Family. His first record of original music in a decade, the now 80-year-old Cale sets the coda for the album with the opening title track, which features avant-garde luminary Laurel Halo. Cale pays tribute to his enigmatic Velvet Underground bandmate Nico on Moonstruck (Nico’s Song) , with an awe-inspiring and cosmic combination of violin and synths. Mercy is the culmination of a prolific 60-year career, evidence of Cale’s genius and enduring legacy as one of the most unique and celebrated artists of his generation. (Double Six/Domino Recordings) Holly Pereira

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“Great bands don’t have members making solo albums,” Robert Forster wrote when compiling his ten rules of rock and roll. But this is his eighth solo album. Of course, his band, The Go-Betweens, came to a premature end with the sad passing of Grant McLennan. And the curse of mortality hangs over this record; Forster’s wife, Karin Bäumler, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2021. Forster opens the album with a sense of urgency, repeating just six words: “She’s a fighter, fighting for good.” The following track, Tender Years , is as poetically beautiful as any love song you’ll hear this year. “She’s a book of a thousand pages… her beauty has not withered from her entrance in chapter one… I can’t live without her.” It’s a reminder that there are no real solo albums – and that time is limited. (EMI) Jeff Jenkins

Bob Dylan Fragments - Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996 - 1997): The Bootleg Series, Vol. 17 (Deluxe Boxset) On Dylan's 17th installment of his infamous ‘Bootleg Series’, the artistic luminary commemorates his legendary Time Out of Mind sessions, giving us insight as to what went down in those recording rooms, and stirring our imaginations as to what

might have been if things turned out differently. There is just so much to uncover within these gatefold sleeves; the 2022 mixes of the original songs feel enlivened, remastered with warmer and richer tones that accentuate their moody aesthetic. Dylan’s rendition of the Scottish folk song The Water Is Wide is delivered with absolute conviction and sincerity, as are his performances of original compositions Dreamin’ of You and Red River Shore , outtakes from the Time Out of Mind sessions that never made it to the final studio release. Listeners will be endlessly fascinated tracing the lineages of these songs from their original versions through to their final forms, and this collection proffers the experience in abundance; of particular note are classics Not Dark Yet and Mississippi , which sound worlds apart from their progenitors. Fragments is a collection that has to be experienced to understand its importance, and each encounter will offer something entirely new and enlightening. (Sony) Alex Burgess

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