Music24

  The New Pornographers - The Former Site Of For whatever reason, Canada has something of a track record for emotive indie supergroups - The New Pornographers, Broken Social Scene, and Arcade Fire to name but three. Despite the latter two being slightly more well-known, The New Pornographers pre-date them both, having formed in 1997 and released their debut Mass Romantic  in 2000. Now, some 26 years on, they've released album number 10 The Former Site of , and the name is quite telling as to what kind of record this is. That is primarily due to the fact the album is a clear departure from the band's earlier, more energetic and boisterous material. Introspective is the perfect word to define this album, with brooding and emotive also equally suitable descriptors. While it does take a while to reach its stride, when it does, it's truly magnificent. 'Wish You Could See Me I'm Killing It' is a beautiful lament to lost loves, familial or otherwise. 'Votive' i...

  Wintersleep - Wishing Moon Rather appropriately, Wintersleep have released album number eight in the Spring, following what can only be assumed to be a winter sleep of sorts. This Canadian indie five-piece were recommended to me by a good friend via their 2010 album New Inheritors . It was an enjoyable listen on the whole, though it perhaps lacks a certain immediacy. On Wishing Moon , there is a lot more immediacy, though only in fits and starts. The album as a cohesive whole works exceptionally well, though there are a couple of less interesting tracks littered throughout. That said, highlights are certainly here to be found. There's the almost nu-metal sounding riff of 'Wait for the Tide', which somehow doesn't feel off at all, and even ascends into a rather gorgeous conclusion.  Then there's the Kurt Vile-esque arpeggiated riff that repeats through 'My Mind Always' like a mantra that's somehow both anxious and comforting. What follows is the hauntin...

 The Dandy Warhols - Pinups One could make the argument that over the course of their over three decade career, no band has been as criminally overlooked as The Dandy Warhols. "Oh, the 'Bohemian Like You' band?" Well, yes, but scratch the surface and there is a wealth of absolutely phenomenal work beyond that one (admittedly very good) hit - to my mind, none better than 1997's seminal The Dandy Warhols Come Down .  Now in their fifties, the band have decided to release a covers album, featuring a series of covers from various stages of their career. In terms of variety, Pinups  is brilliantly diverse, with covers of The Cure ('Primary), The Clash ('Straight to Hell'), Bob Dylan (a brilliant re-working of 'Lay Lady Lay'), The Beatles (a psychadelic re-working of 'Blackbird'), and countless others.  The aforementioned covers are the highlights here, and it's fair to say the album is a little bloated as a whole, and not every cover wor...

  Mitski - Nothing's About to Happen to Me It would be fair to say Mitski has developed quite a following in recent years, primarily due to many of her songs going viral on TikTok, though her career dates back to her student days in 2012. Nothing's About to Happen to Me  is album number eight in an extensive discography that continues to grow, and it's easy to see why her music and lyrics lend themselves to such popularity, particularly from the perspective of a fellow sad millennial... That said, there's rarely anything distinctive about Mitski's music - unless you listened regularly, you might find it challenging telling one song from the next. That is something of an issue on this latest album too, apart from gorgeous opening track 'In a Lake', or brilliantly raucous lead single 'Where's My Phone?'.  The rest of the album just passes by without anything of note happening. Sure, the songs about cats are quite amusing, and 'Lightning' is...

Though I've not listened to as many newer albums as last week's possibly over-cooked blog , it's still been an interesting a noteworthy week in music for me. I even notice as I type that the album titles tell a short story in themselves. What that story means exactly is up to the reader I guess, but anyway, here's a brief-ish summary of all the new albums that graced my ears this week.   Jill Scott - To Whom This May Concern I hadn't heard of Jill Scott prior to the release of this, her sixth album, and her first since 2015's Woman . At least I thought I hadn't, but she was responsible for 'Golden' back in the 2000s, which I genuinely thought was a song from the seventies, such is the soulful power of Scott. It's in full evidence here on To Whom This May Concern . A look at the features list is enough to get the juices flowing - JID, Ab-Soul, and Too $hort, not to mention the wonderfully named Trombone Shorty. 'Be Great' kicks the album o...

  Lala Lala - Heaven 2 Lala Lala is the solo vehicle of Chicago native Lily West, and it's hard to pinpoint or define her exact sound. You can certainly say it has roots in indie though - perhaps the more mellow, occasionally synth-driven side of it. My attention was first drawn to Lala Lala's music with her 2018 album The Lamb , on which the gorgeously hypnotic 'Spy' became one of my favourite songs of that year. It's gentle, sweet, and just the right side of twee.  Heaven 2  is a lot more anxious in tone overall, at least lyrically speaking on opening track 'Car Anywhere'. as well as the introspective 'Does This Go Faster?' It reminds us that perhaps we're not in heaven with its repeated mantra that  Hell is the day after the party . It's hard to disagree. It's an album that wants to escape through hazy soundscapes, and in many ways it does that successfully. But in other areas, the tracks just just kind of pass by without anything of n...