The Best New Releases
Push The Sky Away NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS – Mute
This is the fifteenth album from this most prolific of Antipodean bands but it represents a significant change in musical style from their back catalogue. This change in direction is driven largely by the departure of Mick Harvey after 25 years with The Bad Seeds and 36 years collaboration with Nick Cave, leaving Nick Cave as the only original band member. Here the musical void left by Harvey is ably filled by Warren Ellis stepping up to the crease.
In recent times, Cave and Ellis have also worked together as the chief grinders in Grinderman but in spite of that (and maybe even because of it) this record could not be more different from its salacious alter-ego.
The centrepiece of this album is the great languid “Jubilee Street”, a snapshot of the perverted end of any town; the part of the town with a tale to tell every day of the week. The character played by Cave is almost ashamed to be there; weighed down by guilt to be where he is; “a ten ton catastrophe on a 60 pound chain”. Yet there is something here which builds transforms and elevates him and it is Warren Ellis’ violin that leads the listener down that road with Cave rising up “Look at me now”. Check out the official video here.
The Higgs Boson Blues is a sprawling post-apocalyptic narrative with a disparate focus. Higgs Boson is of course the name of the “God particle” that physicists only last week proved the existence of. The character played by Cave witnesses a string of events that all add up to the end of spirituality which parallels the disproved metaphysical “God”. Cave discusses a series of events which all combine to describe the end of spirituality. He watches as Robert Johnson does his deal with the Devil but doesn’t know “who is gonna rip off who”. He visits the Lorraine Motel in Memphis the scene where Martin Luther King Jr was killed. He recalls the flophouses of Jubilee Street. He sees Miley Cyrus floating in the swimming pool. Is he also witnessing the death of celebrity as another god? All things must pass, right? Here is a live version from Brisbane a few weeks ago.
The album finishes with the beautiful title track which is a simple reflection of a man well-past middle age but still in the middle of his artistic zenith.
This record grows with every listen and is a number one album across the world. And for good reason because it is Nick Cave pushing the envelope towards a wonderful new sound as he pushes that sky away. I was fortunate enough to see these guys a few weeks ago in Sydney. They are in great form.
Big Inner MATTHEW E WHITE – Domino
Matthew E White is better known as the creator of Spacebomb Records. Spacebomb, White says “was inspired by the Motown and Stax soul labels”. This is true in the sense that the label uses a single house band as the rhythm section core of a label, giving all Spacebomb releases their own specific style. Prior to creating Spacebomb, 29 year old White was a session musician without a singer or song-writing credit to his name. It came as some surprise then when White decided to make an album of his own as a way of demonstrating the capacity of his setup in Richmond, Virginia.
Big Inner starts quietly, just like White’s murmur of a voice, with “One Of These Days” but then builds as new instruments are introduced into the mix.
Second track Big Love starts with White singing over the top of strings and avant-jazz piano. As White skats over the strings and handclaps, we are delivered a menagerie of sounds that appear to be gloriously duelling with each other. There is a staccato horn track mixing it with a row of soulful female backing vocals. This is all underpinned by a rhythmical loop of male vocalists which could be sampled from an Alan Lomax field recording. White’s gentle soulful voice stands alone at the apex of this bustling beautiful noise. Listen here.
The coda of the final song “Brazos” builds piece by piece, instrument by instrument into a Gospel exaltation rave-up you won’t forget quickly.
The joy of Big Inner for me is how White marries his vibrant soul-gospel-jazz of his players to his low-fi vocal which is reminiscent of Bill Callahan or Kurt Wagner (Lambchop), both exceptional songwriters of the last ten years. Matthew E White succeeds here in building a bridge across all of these and remarkably comes up with something new. The results make this an essential Cosmic American release and the first great album of the year.
{Awayland} VILLAGERS – Domino
Villagers are a 5-piece Irish prog-folk band and {Awayland} is their second full-length release after their 2010 Mercury Prize-nominated debut. The band is, essentially, the creation of songwriter Conor o’Brien who is also lead singer.
This is a large leap forward from their debut, Becoming a Jackal, as it introduces a far broader palette of sounds including some inventive electronica as well as some textured wide-screen string arrangements to accompany the quirky and clever vocals that we were accustomed to.
“Nothing Arrived” is a marvellous song which loops some beautiful piano around the pitfall of waiting for something to happen in life. Watch the marvellous video here.
“The Waves” kicks off with some rhythm defining bleeps before gentle percussive beats are joined by o’Brien’s vocals telling an abstract story of the arrival of the waves. While there appear to be references to the relationship between mankind and the natural order of things, the beauty of the song is that the impact of the arrival of this force is never really clear, and, in fact, the choice of lyric by o’Brien is more about the rhythmic texture of each word than the meaning. The song ends in abrupt dissonance with O’Brien repeating the line “approaching the shore” ad finitum. Catch the cosmic video here.
Overall there is so much joy to be appreciated in this record and much of this comes from the sheer variety of styles that Villagers manage to weave together into a cohesive and entertaining piece.
Regions Of Light And Sound of God JIM JAMES – V2
This is the debut solo album of the front man of Kentucky southern country rock band My Morning Jacket. I highly recommend you delve into their back catalogue. They are one of the most unique soulful bands to emerge out of the USA in recent years. Everything they do is brilliant.
Track one “State Of The Art (A,E,I,O,U)” record starts with the crackly sound of a vinyl record over which a short piano break is played out of which Jim James emerges. The whole thing turns funky as Jim ponders emergence of technology as it takes over life and reality before ending with the power going out. This extremely powerful imagery of doom partners with the soulful funk of James strong but high pitched voice to complete a marvellous opening track which sets the tone for the record.
Track Four “A New Life” is the song which best showcases James beautifully vocals. It starts very simply and then one minute in the beat and the handclaps kick in. Trace elements of Stand By Me era John Lennon can be found here and the song ends like a Righteous Brothers rave up. The video is hilariously poignant and you can find it here. I was desparately trying to find the live version from Jimmy Fallon from last month but NBC seem to have barred it from the internet – even from its own site!
