THIS WEEK’S NEW ALBUMS REVIEWED | FEATURE
The Reach (self-released)
I know it’s only February, but I’m confident in stating that I have found my album of the year. Twelve tracks amounting to what can legitimately be described as a long-awaited debut album – their debut EP is now nine years old – The Reach is textbook Afro Cluster [pictured, above] who, although from Cardiff, offer a blend of hip-hop, Afrobeat, funk and soul that flows from multiple points worldwide.
Lead MC Skunkadelic is, as ever, faultless with his flow and delivery and the rest of the eight-piece band are on point. Cardigan is a great tale of touring japes in west Wales, while Back Into It, featuring the late, much missed UK hip-hop MC Ty is a consummate banger. Further excellent guest spots on the title track, courtesy of Sparkz and Truthos Mufasa, pile on the treats.
In short: buy The Reach, get their merch (both are sold directly via Afro Cluster themselves, as well) and see them live at the first opportunity – because if you don’t like this album you are doing something wrong…
words JUSTIN EVANS
Open Door Policy (Thirty Tigers)
The sea, water, sailors and the coast are a constant theme in The Hold Steady’s eighth studio album. The songs, also, undulate and bob through their hyper-descriptive verses and marginally-less-descriptive choruses. Odd opener The Feelers, turns the tide so many times it’s hard to understand why it was placed at the start of this strong set of songs from the Brooklyn band who are obviously building on the momentum from 2019’s throw-the-doors open Thrashing Thru The Passion.
When the sudden shifts in the textural tide do work, they are genuinely fantastic – check out the outro to Unpleasant Breakfast. While Craig Finn’s almost spoken-word delivery could be inspired by Nick Cave, or late Dylan, it is the spirit of Springsteen that is most often evoked, especially when the xylophone tinkles and the horn section kick-in.
By the time Me & Magdalena shifts from its minor funk groove to a major rock-shank chorus, you start to think there’s not much this band can’t do. But, despite all the invention on display, there’s never a question that every note is chosen to serve the song, the lyric, the mood and the melody – what there is of it, but with words like this and a band like that, who needs a tune anyway?
words JOHN-PAUL DAVIES
And The Love Continues (Rock Action)
Comprised of 11 heartfelt, human mini-symphonies, Mogwai’s As The Love Continues is a wondrous guide through the musical cosmos, another engrossing and bewitching gem to add to a body of work chocked full of them. Lead single Ritchie Sacramento is a lush, straightforward track that makes great use of guitarist Stuart Braithwaite’s serene vocals, recalling second-wave shoegaze artists like Film School and Soundpool. Ceiling Granny is similarly accessible and anthemic, utilising Smashing Pumpkins-esque guitar tones and sharp, powerful dynamic contrasts.
Even the less compositionally familiar tracks manage to lodge themselves in your brain and burrow deep into your soul. Supposedly, We Were Nightmares features a linear structure and optimistic tone that sets a course straight for the heart of the sun, while Midnight Flit builds to a devastating orchestral-backed crescendo, a technical trick that only the most seasoned of pros could have pulled off.
As The Love Continues once again displays Mogwai’s adroit skill at navigating the full range of the musical and emotional spectrums. The Glasgow band are a joy to behold, and their newest album must just be their most brilliant and open-hearted statement yet.
words TOM MORGAN
When Life Was Hard And Fast (Nuclear Blast)
After decades fronting The Almighty, Thin Lizzy, and the latter’s new-material offshoot Black Star Riders, Ricky Warwick is one of the most seasoned and reliable voices in rock. And this solo album, his first of all-new material in six years, is just that – road-worn, yet solid rock songs that often take a look back at the glory days of a life lived on record and on tour.
From the opening title track to Time Don’t Seem To Matter and I Don’t Feel At Home, there’s a definite feeling of disappointment in the present day. But when Warwick asks, “Is there anybody out there still alive?” over the surging, chugging riff of Still Alive you know the answer doesn’t matter – the vocalist is here to show you what you should be living for.
There’s no lack of energy in Gunslinger or Never Corner A Rat and, individually, these are strong, pumping rock songs that you want to hear live. As an album, the negative-return of the nostalgia trip just drags the vibe down. Hearing Warwick having such fun with closer You’re My Rock ‘n Roll makes you want more. And although the opening voiceover claiming “Rock‘n’roll ain’t dead, it’s just lost its mystery,” sums up Warwick’s position well, the closing chant of the hook line tells you exactly who he’s still doing it for – you.
words JOHN-PAUL DAVIES
Distractions (City Slang)
Tindersticks are making noises that their 417th release should not be treated as a ‘lockdown album’, which is a bit of a shame as, in its hollowed-out weirdness and disjointed muddle, Distractions is kind of a perfect record of what it feels like to live through These Times. Opener Man Alone is 11 minutes of Stuart Staples’ bottom-of-the-well voice looped and echoed over spartan drum machine, rising at one point to cranium-banging anxiety levels. I Imagine You is an uncomfortably quiet meditation on an absent figure: half whispered longing, half (“hello Mrs Wilson”) a mind unspooling over musical saw.
And yet. These songs nag and pull you back. A cover of Dory Previn’s brilliant heartjerker Lady With The Braid is sweet and faithful, and adds a lovely strings and guitar coda. Another cover, this time A Man Needs A Maid, Neil Young’s peculiar song about wanting someone to clean and cook “and go away”, floats nicely between soulful backing vocals and alien guitar clang. And Tue-Moi, the band’s French-sung tribute to the Bataclan terrorist victims, just piano and voice, is fittingly stark and moving.
Distractions is a strange collection of sketches: desolate and disconnected from each other but with enough twisted warmth to keep you listening, as least until the pubs reopen.
words WILL STEEN