|
May 2009
|
Hot As Rice
PJ Harvey's previous album with John Parish is 1998's Dance Hall At Louse Point, but the 12-year wait is worth it. Harvey's brutal doctrine - that nothing should sound like anything either of them has done before - has produced a thrilling, boundless work. The songs are riots of changing themes and multiple musical personalities. "Black Hearted Love," in which Parish's granite riff fuels one of Harvey's best rockers, finds two lovers frolicking in the abyss, while "Pointless, Passionless" chillingly catalogues a stone-cold relationship. "April", with its snail's pace, is plaintive and purifying. Harvey's vocals range from animalistic shrieks to haunted narratives, as she depicts everything from the gleeful humiliation of a cuckold ("lily-livered balls") to the days that follow a death. It all hangs together brilliantly, suggesting the mutual understanding of two artists at the peak of their powers. (Island, www.islandrecords.com) Dave Simpson
This is a full-fledged rock opera as unabashedly committed to the form as its more famous predecessors such as David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The music is as strong as anything the band have done, although the album is distinctly different from their others - sparser in timbre and in instrumentation, but more varied in style. Listening to The Hazards of Love is thrilling, both because of the music itself, and because the disc was such a sheer gamble from the first. Improbable as it seems, they just might pull it off. But then again, if anyone could, wouldn't you expect it to be Colin Meloy and The Decemberists? (Capitol) Kyle Deas
Royksopp introduce their third album with a chuckle before ratcheting forward into its first single "Happy Up Here". The Norwegian duo seems determined to be optimistic and extroverted throughout, and the album may just end up being their best yet. "This Must Be It" is one of two tracks to feature The Knife/Fever Ray's Karin Dreijer, and it's deep and enveloping. Dreijer's other track "Tricky Tricky" is coke paranoia turned into buzzing electro-house, all adolescent jokes, running up walls and uninterpretable words. While we're on vocalists, the record showcases a hefty list of Scandinavian indie princesses, in addition to Dreijer, Lykke Li, Robyn and Anneli Drecker (Astralwerks, www.astralwerks.com) Dan Raper Send your comments to info@betamusic.com.sg
© Beta Music 2009
|
PJ Harvey and John Parish-A Woman a Man Walked By (Island)
The Decemberists-The Hazards of Love (Capitol)
Royksopp-Junior (Astralwerks)
