Table Of Contents:
- Animal Collective – Time Skiffs
- Arcade Fire – WE
- Arctic Monkeys – The Car
- Beach House – Once Twice Melody
- Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up There
- black midi – Hellfire
- Charli xcx – CRASH
- Jack White – Fear Of The Dawn
- Jack White – Entering Heaven Alive
- Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
- The Mars Volta – The Mars Volta
- Muse – Will Of The People
- Porcupine Tree – CLOSURE / CONTINUATION
- Pusha T – It’s Almost Dry
- Red Hot Chili Peppers – Unlimited Love
- Red Hot Chili Peppers – Return Of The Dream Canteen
- The Smile – A Light For Attracting Attention
Animal Collective – Time Skiffs
AnCo (somewhat) bounces back, 6 years after the abysmal Painting With.
Painting With sounded like what Animal Collective sounds like to people that hate Animal Collective. That album was annoying, hyperactive and downright grating. Gone were the Beach Boys-on-acid vocal melodies and psychedelic experimentation, in was some of the most annoying call-and-response singing I’ve ever heard. The album dove too deep into the pools of pop convention and worst of all, it was far worse than the disappointing Centipede Hz., which followed their magnum opus, Merriweather Post Pavilion.
Just like that, Animal Collective went from being Pitchfork indie darlings to a washed up and irrelevant band.
So does Time Skiffs make up for the lost time? Not really. It’s a lot better than anything else they’ve done in a decade (which isn’t saying a lot), but it’s lacking that bite that made albums like Strawberry Jam or MPP such classics. This album strikes a better balance of accessibility and stronger songwriting, but it fails to experiment too much or have much to say. It is a better album than their past few LPs (including the soundtrack album, Tangerine Reef), but that bar was quite low.
Time Skiffs is alright, but it doesn’t do enough to make up for a decade of irrelevancy.
★★★
Arcade Fire – WE
Arcade Fire works with Nigel Godrich.
After the slightly disappointing (but not entirely bad) Everything Now, Arcade Fire returns with a record closer to the high quality they were once known for, the Nigel Godrich produced WE. While it may not reach the lyrical heights of their first four albums, the music itself sounds like the next logical step for the band, following the path set by Reflektor. It’s not nearly as good as that album, but it achieves what Everything Now didn’t as a follow-up.
Age Of Anxiety I and II are both excellent. The Lightning I, II (one track, assuming you have the CD and weren’t streaming it) harkens back to Arcade Fire’s indie days and is a glorious triumph of a song. End Of The Empire I-IV is probably the closest they’ve come to a Bohemian Rhapsody-type epic and Unconditional II (Race And Religion) has an appearance from the one and only Peter Gabriel. The title track is a sparse acoustic track that sounds somewhat similar to Led-Zeppelin’s Tangerine. The only song that somewhat misses is Unconditional I (Lookout Kid), which recalls some of the silliness of EN, but is not bad enough to bring the rest of the album down.
An underrated record, held back only by some (relatively) weaker lyricism.
★★★★½
Arctic Monkeys – The Car
The Monkeys go orchestral.
On Arctic Monkeys’ lush seventh album, they successfully reinvent themselves (yet again), creating a beautiful work of art in the process. James Ford produces (as per usual), continuing to be the bands’ own Nigel Godrich.
Lead single, There’d Better Be A Mirrorball is one of the strangest lead singles by the band, and is a fantastic opener and one of the most elegant songs they’ve ever recorded. There’s the funky-Monkeys, I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am, which has some killer harmonies, and the ominous and confrontational synth-driven Sculptures Of Anything Goes, as well as the soulful, wah guitar-filled Jet Skis On The Moat and the majestic, Beatlesy Body Paint.
The title track is a dark acoustic and piano-led track, with a nice guitar solo. Big Ideas is grandiose and beautiful. Hello You is a gem. Then we have the bossanova showcase of Mr. Schwartz and Perfect Sense, a Pet Sounds-esque closer.
The Car feels like a continuation of 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino, despite the change in style and concept. Where that album was a neo-psychedelic, sci-fi, lounge rock album about a hotel and casino on the moon, The Car is grounded on Earth, feeling more personal than TBH+C did, with Alex Turner swapping out the characters he portrayed on that album with himself. But, these two albums still have far more in common with each other than the rest of their discography. You still have Alex Turner doing his Bowie-like crooning voice, singing witty, weird lyrics and increasingly blurring the lines between his side-project The Last Shadow Puppets and Arctic Monkeys.
Because of the resemblance to TLSP, a lot of fans were unhappy with this direction and felt like this should have been a Last Shadow Puppets album, but a handful of Arctic Monkeys fans have been notoriously difficult to please since the band’s first two albums, constantly criticizing the many left turns of the band. That very sense of adventure and unpredictability is what has made Arctic Monkeys such a fascinating band. You never know what’s going to come next and despite the risk-taking, the band always delivers.
One of my favourite albums of the decade so far. A masterpiece.
★★★★★
Beach House – Once Twice Melody
Beach House releases a double album.
Modern masters of some of the most serene dream pop imaginable return after four years with a double serving of celestial bliss.
The title track is one of the band’s best songs yet. Songs like Superstar and Runaway sound like they could have been on the soundtrack to the classic 2011 Ryan Gosling film Drive. Pink Funeral is dreamy as a lullaby. ESP is otherworldly. Modern Love Stories wraps the album up nicely.
Like every Beach House album before, a lot of the songs tend to sound the same, but they excel at this type of music and have a formula that justworks.
A gorgeous, ethereal album.
★★★★
Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up There
The Cambridge group gets even more ambitious and creates the Funeral of the 2020s.
Where their debut was full of math rock, post rock, free jazz and a generally darker atmosphere, Ants From Up There feels more rustic in sound and sanguine in tone.
An intro that would make Frank Zappa proud leads off into the violin-barrage of Chaos Space Marine, one of the band’s greatest singles. Concorde is a waltz that could have easily been schmaltzy, but is instead earnest, genuine and beautiful. Good Will Hunting (named after the Ben Affleck/Matt Damon/Robin Williams film) has a memorable Billie Eilish-referencing chorus and could have easily been a single. Snow Globes and Basketball Shoes are the longest songs on the album and are slow-building epics.
One of the best parts about Ants From Up There, is how it differs so much from its predecessor, but still feels like the same band. And while I do prefer the debut (if I had a gun to my head and had to choose), I’d argue that this might be the more accomplished record.
A monumental album that is deserving of all the praise it has gotten since it came out and I’m not the first person to make comparison’s to Arcade Fire’s legendary 2004 debut Funeral.
★★★★½
black midi – Hellfire
black midi releases their final album (for now).
Expanding on the chaotic jazz of the previous year’s Cavalcade, Hellfire sees black midi get even crazier with their brand of demented prog rock, as evident by songs like Sugar/Tzu, Welcome To Hell and Dangerous Liaisons, the latter of which also blends in some of the sensuality of previous songs like Marlene Dietrich. There are also country stylings that adorn songs like Still, The Defence and 27 Questions, showing a mix of anarchy and bliss.
While this album shares a lot in common with its predecessor, it’s just as good and is a hell of a way for the band to bow out.
★★★★½
Charli xcx – CRASH
Charli releases a more traditional pop album, foregoing her usual experimentation.
After releasing her best album yet with how i’m feeling now, an album ripe with both hooks and experimental production, Charli xcx releases CRASH, her most conventional project since her first two albums. Although it foregoes the experimentation, it’s still an LP of accomplished pop.
The title track is throwback 80s pop with a dash of funk. The synths in Good Ones bring to mind Eurythmic’s Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This). Baby sounds like a late 2000s Britney Spears track (à la Toxic).
CRASH produced six singles (Good Ones, New Shapes, Beg For You, Baby, Every Rule, Used To Know Me), but any song here had the potential to have been one. Despite its strengths, the album lacks that special ingredient that made her last album such a masterpiece and indulges a bit too much in 1980s revivalism.
Despite its flaws and the missing “wow” factor, this is still grade A pop music and significantly better than most of her contemporaries. In fact, I abhor most pop music (Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Bruno Mars, Max Martin, etc., can all fuck off), but Charli xcx manages to always win me over.
★★★★
Jack White – Fear Of The Dawn
Jack White releases an album of all electric songs on his first album of 2022.
Jack White continues with the experimentation of Boarding House Reach, but refines it, tones it down a bit and gives it more of a hard rock edge this time. As all the acoustic songs were put on the weaker Entering Heaven Alive (which released a few months later), this album is nothing but electrified rock songs throughout. No ballads or acoustic songs in sight.
Out of the gate, Taking Me Back is one of White’s best straightforward rock songs in his entire solo output. The title track is quite possibly the heaviest thing he’s ever written since White Stripes songs like Little Cream Soda and is easily my favourite song here.
Hi-De-Ho features Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, and is one of the most bizarre songs Jack White has made in any of his many projects. The White Raven is a fuzzed-out rocker. What’s The Trick is a classic Jack White blues rock exercise. Shedding My Velvet closes the album off with a downtempo highlight.
Fear Of The Dawn is easily Jack White’s best and most consistent solo album since Blunderbuss, but is still inferior to his work with The White Stripes. I’m not overly fond of Morning, Noon And Night or Eosophobia and its reprise, Dusk is a pointless 30 second interlude and Into The Twilight feels like one of the failed experiments from Boarding House Reach. Some of these tracks could have benefitted from being stripped down, with some of the experimentation seeming forced, but elsewhere it added to the songs.
Overall, this is still his second best solo LP yet and a success nonetheless.
★★★★
Jack White – Entering Heaven Alive
Jack White releases an album of all acoustic songs on his second album of 2022.
Following the all electric Fear Of The Dawn, Entering Heaven Alive is the all acoustic companion and is frankly quite boring and dull compared to that album.
This album is quite a mixed bag, but A Tip From Me To You, If I Die Tomorrow and A Madman From Manhattan are decent tracks. Queen Of The Bees is one of the worst songs Jack White has ever recorded and Taking Me Back (Gently) is vastly inferior to the version found on Fear Of The Dawn.
Very disappointing after the revitalized Fear Of The Dawn. but not necessarily a bad album.
★★★
Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
Kendrick Lamar confronts his inner demons and generational trauma.
Kendrick Lamar gets extra introspective on his fifth album, crafting his most intimate work yet, as well as one of the most unique sounding rap albums I’ve ever heard.
Where previous albums were more to do with his relationship with different environments at different levels (his neighbourhood, city, country and world), this time everything goes from macro to micro, as Kendrick opens up about himself more than ever before.
United In Grief has a brilliantly jarring beat, accompanied by some lovely piano (which is all over this album). N95 gets confrontational, using covid masks as an analogy. Worldwide Steppers has another cool, unconventional beat. Die Hard is a beautiful pop gem that follows up on a similar template to his previous track LOYALTY.
Father Time has Kendrick opening up over daddy issues and how important having a good father figure is, and that it’s up to parents to break the cycle of abuse from continuing on into the next generation. We Cry Together is an experimental, avant garde track where a heated, profanity-laced argument between a couple acts as the vocals.
Silent Hill (named after the survival horror video game) is one of Kendrick’s moodiest instrumentals. Mr. Morale is an all time banger, opening with a sample of a youtuber criticizing the Dallas Cowboys. Auntie Diaries deals with the transsexualism of a family member in a non-preachy, nor offensive way and Mother I Sober features the always wonderful Beth Gibbons of Portishead.
This was the longest wait between Kendrick’s albums (5 years) and was definitely worth the wait. One of the greatest albums of the decade, and another master work by the Compton poet, full of introspective reflection and vulnerability.
Trivia: Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers won Best Rap Album at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards.
★★★★★
The Mars Volta – The Mars Volta
The Mars Volta reinvents themselves as a Latin pop band.
It had been 10 years since The Mars Volta’s last album, Noctourniquet. In the time between then, Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala had reunited At The Drive-In and released their first album as a band in 17 years. It wasn’t a very successful reunion, despite the album being surprisingly good, and the band broke up again soon after. But it opened the door for a Mars Volta reunion.
It finally happened in 2022, but this is not what fans were expecting, nor wanting.
Instead of the progressive hijinx they were known for in the 2000s, the band’s eponymous album is a bunch of pop music, with a Latin touch. Sure, the production is quite good, in fact, it might be one of their best-sounding albums in terms of the production, but it’s rather neutered; completely devoid of the boldness and sheer lunacy that the group achieved in their prime.
I’m not against reinventions and I understand wanting to achieve commercial success and accessibility, but The Mars Volta get rid of everything they did so well on this record and focus too much on Cedric’s vocals and a general sense of convention.
★★½
Muse – Will Of The People
Muse releases another dud.
Just when you thought that Muse had hit rock bottom with 2018’s Simulation Theory, they drop Will Of The People, possibly their worst album yet.
The title track is straight up plagiarism of Marilyn Manson’s The Beautiful People, which wasn’t that good of a song to begin with. We Are Fucking Fucked sounds like it was written by a teenager. You Make Me Feel Like It’s Halloween is a pathetic attempt at crafting a Halloween hit (Thriller, this is not). The only song here that’s worth a listen is Kill Or Be Killed and maybe Compliance.
Muse still puts on one of the best live shows, but they haven’t put out a good studio album since 2006’s Black Holes And Revelations. A sad continuation of their fall from grace.
★★
Porcupine Tree – CLOSURE / CONTINUATION
Porcupine Tree returns after 13 years.
The legendary progressive rock outfit was finally back, but would it lead to closure or continuation?
Within the time between The Incident and this, Steven Wilson has released five more solo albums and his fanbase was growing with every release. During that time, Porcupine Tree had become a significant cult band, respected by prog and metal fans alike, held in high regard in the upper echelons of modern music (though still cult status). There was an increasing demand for Wilson to revive PT, though it seemed unlikely to happen.
In late 2021, Harridan came out as a lead single and blew away any doubts about whether a reunion would be a good idea or not. Harridan is hands down my favourite track on the album and was a wise choice for first single, but the rest of the album can hold its own. Closer Chimera’s Wreck is this album’s sprawling epic. Rats Return has one of Wilson’s best metal riffs and Of The New Day features many impressive time signature and chord changes, almost more-so than typical PT.
While C/C doesn’t beat anything that the band released between 2002-2007, I think most fans would still be optimistic about a continuation after this.
Worth checking out the bonus tracks, particularly Love In the Past Tense.
★★★★
Pusha T – It’s Almost Dry
Kanye West and Pharrell Williams split production duties for Pusha T.
Four years after Pusha T’s best solo album yet, DAYTONA and the now legendary Drake diss track The Story Of Adidon, comes It’s Almost Dry, which more than delivered on being another jewel in Pusha’s coke-laced crown.
This time, instead of production being exclusively handled by West, the production duties were split halfway between him and longtime Pusha T collaborator, Pharrell Williams (who was integral to Clipse’s success). Despite this, the album isn’t bipolar or in schism. In fact, many of the best tracks on the album are split between both producers.
Brambleton and Let The Smokers Shine The Coupes begin the album with some of Pharrell’s best beats and compensate for that abomination that was Happy. There’s also Neck & Wrist, which features a semi-retired Jay-Z. As for West’s contributions, Dreamin’ of The Past makes use of a soul rendition of John Lennon’s Jealous Guy and Diet Coke is one of the finest instrumentals he’s crafted for Pusha. Just So You Remember is another gem.
As good as DAYTONA and Clipse’s Hell Hath No Fury. A modern classic.
★★★★★
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Unlimited Love
RHCP releases its first album of 2022.
It’s another 75 minutes of Red Hot Chili Peppers doing the exact same thing they’ve done for the past 25 years, but with dimishing returns. Boring!
★★½
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Return Of The Dream Canteen
RHCP releases its second album of 2022.
See the above review for Unlimited Love.
★★½
The Smile – A Light For Attracting Attention
Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood finally start making music together again, (but not as Radiohead).
It had already been six years since the most recent Radiohead album (2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool) and fans were getting anxious. It had now been a longer wait than ever for a new RH album. And seemingly out of nowhere, from the ashes of the pandemic came The Smile, a side project featuring Radiohead’s two primary forces: Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood. Joined alongside them was Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, who brings a jazzy edge to Thom and Jonny’s music, distinguishing it immensely from Radiohead’s sound.
Produced by longtime Radiohead and Thom Yorke collaborator, Nigel Godrich, this may initially come off as Radiohead-lite, but upon listening to this album, you will see that The Smile and Radiohead are two very different outfits. Of course, there will be commonalities found amongst both groups, but this project allowed for Thom and Johnny to explore ideas that perhaps the rest of Radiohead weren’t keen on.
The Smile has also allowed them to release music at a much quicker pace than what Radiohead is known for. As Thom and Johnny are the most prolific writers of the band (Thom, with Atoms for Peace, his solo albums and soundtracks) and Jonny (with his award winning film scores), The Smile is where they can pump out as much material as they please without the usually drawn out Radiohead process, but this is by no means a quantity over quality situation.
For Radiohead fans that yearned for something more guitar-heavy, along the lines of their 90’s albums or Hail To The Thief, then this is the album for you. Here, Thom and Jonny enjoy an excursion into math rock, progressive and jazz stylings.
The Same starts the album off with a clear sense of doom. The Opposite is a jazzier number that showcases Tom Skinner’s jazz drumming abilities and proves why he was able to end up working with such esteemed artists. You Will Never Work In Television Again is one of the punkiest things Thom and Jonny have ever made together.
Pana-Vision is led by the piano, though a different beast than something like Pyramid Song. The Smoke and Thin Thing display The Smile’s penchant for math rock riffing, with Jonny Greenwood sounding fantastic as ever. And Thom Yorke’s bass playing is just as impressive. Speech Bubbles, Free In The Knowledge and Open The Floodgates provide some slowed down balladry to the project.
And at the end of the album, there’s the brilliantly titled We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings (a somewhat Street Spirit-like downtempo song), and the remarkable Skrting On The Surface.
As much as I enjoyed Thom Yorke’s solo work and Atoms for Peace, this band has provided the essence of Radiohead more than either, and The Smile is essential for any fan of RH.
★★★★★
FIN
Britain Chambers
