THIS WEEK’S NEW ALBUMS REVIEWED | FEATURE
The Resurrection (Ill Gotten)
From the opening title track of Bugzy Malone’s latest, the mood and scene is set: the Mancunian grime flexer doesn’t mince his words and nothing is to be taken lightly, as he explains. Some very serious true tales are duly told, Salvador and Ride Out highlights in this regard. Welcome To The Hood, featuring the consistently wonderful Scottish vocalist Emeli Sande, is a cinematic wave of emotion that holds your focus throughout, but really the whole of The Resurrection is engaging and impressive with a no-punches-pulled approach.
On Notorious, meanwhile, Chip-formerly-Chipmunk crops up and the pair of them celebrate the halcyon days of Biggie and 2Pac with some style, also throwing in John Gotti references to boot. I saw Bugzy at an NME show a couple of years ago and thought back then he was the real deal. Turns out I was right.
words JUSTIN EVANS
Cinema (Decca)
It has been difficult this year to avoid Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland, a BAFTA-winning movie depicting drifters surviving on the fringes of humanity in modern day America, yet it’s worth every bit of praise heaped on it. This includes its soundtrack, by composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi [pictured, top – credit Ray Tarantino] and which captures the desolate beauty of Nomadland perfectly.
For over 30 years, Einaudi’s music has featured in both independent film and TV dramatisations. Cinema compiles 28 Einaudi tracks which have featured in dramas such as Dr Foster and Shane Meadows’ This Is England, as well as recent big screen gems including The Father and Nomadland itself.
Einaudi’s cinematic style lies somewhere between Ennio Moriconne and Max Richter: not quite as minimal as the latter, but as soul-stirring as the former. In album format, it amounts to an arresting, affecting listening experience, and makes one want to dive deeper into Ludovico Einaudi’s cinematic back catalogue.
words DAVID NOBAKHT
Fantastic Company (Bubblewrap)
I enjoyed this Cardiff band last time I reviewed them and it’s the same story this time around – even though their sound has evolved significantly. The three-piece have shelved their self-described “prolific and terrific” approach, which birthed 18 lo-fi indiepop releases in a decade, to take their time over this one, coming back with a more synthpop sound while maintaining their distinct brand of local wit.
What’s The Point sees the band reinventing Baz Luhrmann’s …Wear Sunscreen for the cynical generation, with a chorus of “What’s the point, just give up, go to hell, life’s a trap” by way of Beta Band’s Dry The Rain. The Usual Stuff is a slice of Casio VL-Tone tropicalia, sporting the entertaining couplet “You have a good heart like Feargal Sharkey / The life and soul of every party”.
When they focus on the songcraft, My Name Is Ian can write some lovely tunes: For Love, an irresistible disco mash up between Colonel Abrahams’ Trapped and an excitable fruit machine; Where Is The Time’s fizzing synths and vocodered vocals; Boop Boop, a bubbling dayglo instrumental which could have graced New Order’s Technique, while A Thousand And One Songs To Hear Before You Die is a lively tribute to music itself.
words CHRIS SEAL
VARIOUS
Taliesin’s Songbook (Tŷ Cerdd)
Featuring songs by Welsh composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, Taliesin’s Songbook has been curated and created by pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen, who brought many vocal luminaries of the Welsh classical world to Cardiff’s Tŷ Cerdd to record over the last year – an accomplishment in itself. Compositions come from the well-known and recently deceased, such as Alun Hoddinott, to the lesser known and very much alive – including the excellent Mark Bowen. The music is treated with warmth, understanding and sensitivity, but without any unnecessary reverence.
This collection is designed to keep the exceptional tradition of Welsh composition alive in its home nation, and to spread the word of its successes around the world. Based on the level of performance and standard of writing on these 22 pieces, the task will be easily met. Standout performance, for me, came early on with Rebecca Evans’ stunning soprano voice gliding over Edward-Evans’ setting of Yeats’ Cloths Of Heaven, while Elin Malhan-Thomas’ dexterity on Rhian Samuel’s unaccompanied Yr Arlach is a real treat and shows just how far the art song medium has been carried forward by Welsh hands and Welsh voices.
words JOHN-PAUL DAVIES
Blue Weekend (Dirty Hit)
The third album from the genre-spanning London four-piece is bold, confident, polished and vulnerable in equal measure, and a more than satisfying followup to their Mercury-winning 2017 album Visions Of Life. Vocalist and songwriter Ellie Rowsell’s lyrics are proudly and beautifully feminist, but don’t call her mad – she’s just angry, as she tells us in the hypnotic Smile. Rowsell portrays a less guarded, take-me-or-leave-me attitude on this album: a confidence that goes hand-in-hand with those late 20s anxieties.
Blue Weekend as a whole is a study on relationships – romantic, platonic and everything in between. No Hard Feelings punches you with that gutwrenching nausea that comes with heartbreak; contrast that, though, with tranquil piano ballad Last Man On Earth. Still showcasing their established shoegazey grunge-punk style, Wolf Alice chose to use lockdown to polish an album they already thought was finished – and they polished it down to a shiny nugget of finely produced tracks, cohesive and confident with stone-cold honest lyrics.
words DENIECE CUSACK
