Album Reviews by Stefan Wenger

Kacey Musgraves , Golden Hour Nashville’s most openly progressive country singer steps farther out of the box. The album defies many of the genre’s trappings; the songs are more often about uplifting insights than heartache and loss, and neither Musgraves’ voice nor her guitars twang. The production is lush and ambient, a far cry from rustic. Exactly three of the songs embrace familiar country themes and tropes, but only whilst winking. Yet this is not a pop  or  folk  or  alt-country  or  blues album; even after all the outward manifestations have been stripped away it is still nothing other than a country album. Kacey Musgraves exalts and country music even in the act of abandoning it, showing what’s left when you strip it to its core. Highlights: “Space Cowboy,” “Slow Burn,” “Oh, What A World”

Ezra Furman ,  Transangelic Exod us Ezra Furman’s “Queer outlaw saga” wowed me at every turn. A concept album about a boy and his lover on the run from the law — after the lover undergoes illegal surgery to become an angel — Furman soars and rages his way through his most impassioned album yet. Fleeing the authorities in a red Camaro, his protagonists continually risk their lives in service to their love for each other and to their true nature. These are powerful, vulnerable songs, teaming with urgency but sweetened by magic. The album’s mysticism has its roots in Furman’s own spirituality — he’s an observant Jew who never performs Friday nights — and he liberally weaves clearly autobiographical elements into the story, which makes it all the more resonant. Like the best concept albums, the story never bogs itself down in plot details, so that its finer points aren’t necessary for the enjoyment of the individual songs. Furman’s new band, the Visions, blends the guitars, sax a

Santigold ,  I Don’t Want: The Gold Fire Sessions Philly-based rennaisance woman Santi White’s latest release is full of ridiculously catchy tunes, most of them bright, melodic pop songs undergirded by rhythms of myriad inspirations, but especially dancehall and dub. White’s voice delights in her upper ranges and bounces along with such day-glo radiance, it’s all the more satisfying when you realize the songs have both depth and lyrical dexterity, and that the music underneath is so intricately rich. This album is technically a mixtape — in the rap sense of the word, not the cassette compilations Gen X-ers made — rather than an album; there’ll be no singles, no push to make it commercially successful, she’s just releasing songs for free to get recognition. That doesn’t stop it from being one of the very best pop records of the year. Highlights: “Coo Coo Coo,” “Valley of the Dolls,” “Crashing Your Party”

Bombino, Deran Nigerian rocker Omara Moctar returns home to the Sahara after years of recording and touring in the West. It hasn’t changed his sound a lot— he’s come “back to roots” in a literal sense, and the lyrics (all in Tamasheq) are primarily engaged with the political realities he’s returned to, but musically it’s consistent with what he’s done before. Bombino’s one of Africa’s great guitar virtuosos, more inclined toward blues rock than  assouf  rock .  Whether he’s working with Dan Auerbach of the Back Keys, David Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors, or with local producers and the pan-African back-up band he‘s got here, Bombino is Bombino. Highlights: Fun, passionate and warm-hearted. Highlights: “Midiwan,” “Tenesse,” “Tamasheq”

Imarhan , Temet Imarhan are a band of Tuareg musicians who blend traditional  assouf  music native to the Sahara with reasonably psychedelic rock and roll. They hail from Algeria but play music in the vein of desert rock pioneers Tinariwen (who are from Mali). Members of that band helped produce this album and it’s crystal clear, listening to the two bands, that the Tuareg culture, the  assouf  style and the Tamasheq language do a lot more to unite them than international borders do to divide them. Imarhan may, at times, sound a bit younger and a bit spryer than their forebears; only just, but they serve as a beacon of hope that this cultural and musical legacy will live on in a new generation. Highlights: “Tumast,” “Ehad Wa Dagh,” “Alwa”

Lord Huron ,  Vide Noir Ben Schneider’s side-project-turned-breakthrough finds a brand new bag with their third record, sidelining the Americana indie folk vibe to make a straightahead rock-and-roll concept album about death, loss and uncertainty. The concept moves in and out of focus but mystical overtones and a space cowboy feel permeate the music and the story, in a series of incredibly hooky songs in which the band explores both outer space and the inner space of the astral plane. Elements of pop, folk, and doo wop rear their heads, but everything is woven into an ethereal sort of eerie, hollowed space rock sound that is 180 degrees from the warm, pastoral vibe of the band’s past, but somehow just as ethereal. Highlights: “Vide Noir,” “Ancient Names,” “Moonbeam”

Don Kipper ,  Seven Sisters This seven-piece world music collective plays “the traditional music of northeast London,” by which they mean music from the ethnic communities that thrive there. Turkish, Romani, Klezmer, North and West African, Greek and Macedonian music (and probably others) share the stage, each taking moments in the spotlight and then often weaving together in combinations. The band’s third album features a mixture of originals and traditional songs of various heritage. The band displays quite a range, with slow-build epics and chorus-y folk songs featuring the intoxicating vocals of lead singer Dunja Botic, to high every, whirling, up-tempo instrumentals like the record’s climax, “Gambrinus,” that sound remarkably tight for songs in which there is so much going on. Other highlights: “Welcome,” “Min Orkizese”

Czarface & MF Doom ,   Czarface Meets Metal Face A match made in comic book hip hop heaven, it’s easy enough to predict what happens when  Czarface Meets Metalface  and it’s even easier to love. Czarface, already a comics-inspired collaboration — between Wu Tang’s Inspectah deck and the Boston underground rap duo 7L & Esoteric — delivers top-notch, east coast, street level boop bap with densely packed rhymes. Supervillain-themed, iron mask-wearing MF Doom offers more abstract, cosmically minded lyrics but his flow is just as kinetic and his vibe is just as pulpy. The two acts commit hard to their fantastical ethos, playing the comics imagery to the hilt in both the songs and in the interludes. If you enjoy your cultural touchstones — musical and fictional — intersecting, this is a blast. Highlights: “Phantoms,” “Forever People,” “Astral Traveling”

Fantastic Negrito ,  Please Don’t Be Dead With the sophomore effort of the third incarnation of Xavier Dphrepaulezz’s musical career, the eccentric bluesman surges ahead on a wave of confidence bestowed by the long-sought success of his 2017 release The Last Days of Oakland. This album is one of a kind; blues is Fantastic Negrito’s homebase, but for the purposes of this album it’s simply springboard to a fantastically diverse array of sounds. From soulful paeans of resistance, to all-out rockers with theatrical guitar wigouts, to off-kilter grunge progressions, to anthemic chanting in exotic scales, Dphrepaulezz is unpredictable and impossible to pin down. Sometimes the only things tying the album together are the progressive message and the personal mojo of its artist, but that’s all it needs. Highlights: “A Letter To Fear,” “A Boy Named Andrew,” “A Cold November Street”

Mount Eerie ,  Now Only This is the second album Phil Elverum has devoted to dealing with the death of his wife Genevieve. As with 2017’s  A Crow Looked At Me , every word is clearly, brutally autobiographical. The words, and Elverum’s grief, take center stage and are not particularly lyrical; as before, the plucking and strumming exist in service to them. But  Now Only  displays more musical dexterity and hints of structure; one song even has a chorus. The tone, too, is more varied; they are all songs of loss, but whereas its predecessor was one dive after another into bleak, haunted desolation,  Now Only  offers different shades. All of them are difficult, and none are trite — only on the penultimate song does Elverum even begin to contemplate moving forward, and his heartache still reasserts itself plenty even after that. Elverum is still grieving, but he’s working with that grief, and we’re all lucky he’s willing to share that journey. Highlights: “Now Only,” “Earth,”

Alexander Tucker ,  Don’t Look Away Here is lush, richly textured music that moves between folk, pop and psychedelia. It is markedly English, not only due to Tucker’s accent; he seems exclusively influenced by British bands, although that spans anywhere from Richard Thompson to Depeche Mode to the Stone Roses. Tucker’s background is abstract but on this, as well as the two albums prior to it, he’s been experimenting with more tangible song structures and melodies and this album seems the crowning achievement of that venture. The sound is incredibly full and it’s easy to forget this is the work of a solo artist rather than a band. Highlights: “Visiting Again,” “Boys Names,” “Ghost on the Ledge”

Saba ,  Care For Me The most passionate rap album of 2018, Chicago rapper Saba’s sophomore effort channels the artist’s heartbreak over the senseless, random murder of his best friend into nine enthralling compositions that only deepen in their impact on repeat listens. The songs aren’t all about this loss — and in fact the album displays a tremendous range of tone, style and subject — but they are all informed by it. Every song is meaningful and each song is its own thing; it’s Saba’s examination and elucidation of his own life that gives the album its momentum and its cohesion. Saba’s lyrics are deep, they’re soul-bearing, they’re funny and they’re profoundly humble and self-effacing for a rap album. And for all this focus on the lyrics, the music is every bit as striking. Mutli-instruentalist Daoud and producer DaeDaePivot blend largely piano-based jazz sounds with trap sounds for a feel that’s both organic and modern. Saba raps a lot more than he sings but his flow is

The Reverend Horton Heat ,  Whole New Life The quintessential alternative psychobilly band has added a regular pianist, who sounds immediately at home. The new Horton Heat is firing on all cylinders, offering up a handful of textbook psychobilly tunes, interspersed with a few very different numbers, finding a nice balance between their wheelhouse and their cutting edge. Part of that edge is lyrical; while there’s plenty of raw energy in the music, these songs display a charm and a maturity I wouldn’t normally first associate with this band. The most musically aggressive song is about a dude who’s excited to propose to his girlfriend, and it’s a highlight. They’re aging well. Highlights: “Sunrise Through The Power Lines,” “Got It In My Pocket,” “Don’t Let Go Of me”

The Prodigy ,  No Tourists Music is only loud if you turn up the volume… unless you’re The Prodigy. The delightfully inescapable lesson of the rave pioneers’ seventh album is that time hasn’t mellowed them in the slightest. It’s a roaring tempest of hard techno, intense breakbeats, loudly chanted vocals, synths that sounds like metal guitars and face-melting dance beats designed to make you feel like you’ve lost your mind. It’s glorious. These are songs you can use when the caffeine isn’t working. If there’s a flaw it’s that this is same-old Prodigy. They haven’t deviated from their formula for a while now; but if this were your first Prodigy album, it’d blow your mind. Highlights: “Light Up The Sky,” “Timebomb Zone,” “Boom Boom Tap”

Anderson .Paak ,  Oxnard The artist formerly known as Breezy Lovejoy still dishes out plenty of sunshine on his major label debut but he’s also got enough runtime to experiment. This is a sprawling, ambitious, funk rap epic with a lot of different flavors, many of them accented by a host of big name guest stars, from Dr. Dre and Q-Tip to Kendrick Lamar and Pusha T. It remains fairly cohesive because Paak has such a singular voice, both as a profoundly raspy rapper and as a singer too. Thematically, this is post-gangsta, reasonably conscious rap, though the MC does love detailing his sexual exploits. It’s a bit all over the map, but it’s worth the miles. Highlights: “Who R U?,” “Tints,” “Cheers”

Vince Staples ,  FM! The Long Beach rapper follows last year’s star-studded, experimental and genre-warping  Big Fish Theory  with more streamlined hip hop record. With only eight short songs, Staples’s approach is simple, straight and to the point, and packs an awful lot into his breathless 22 minutes. The framing sequence of radio show DJ interludes fills the record out, and it does feature a variety of guest cameos — but this time around, they’re all from the worlds of rap and R&B. The beats are highly varied in style, though mostly uptempo and staccato. Lyrically Staples focuses on a blend of black pride, commentary on the disenfranchised life in America, summertime hangouts, and also plenty of tried-and-true rap self-praise. Highlights: “Outside!,” “Run The Bands,” “FUN!”

Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers ,  Bought To Rot Since she’s spearheaded her band since its inception, and two of her band mates accompany her throughout this album, this is almost an Against Me! album — but it’s not quite. For one thing, Laura Jane Grace wrote the songs solo, instead of working collaboratively as AM does. For another, the music is different. It’s still raw and unfettered and somewhat punk-flavored ,  and there are also traces of the folk-tinged stuff AM were doing way back in the day, but overall Grace moves away from the very specific stylings of her band to give us an album full of straight-up, genre-transcending, all-out rock and roll. Highlights: “Reality Bites,” “China Beach,” “Valeria Golino”

Beacon ,  Gravity Pairs A Brooklyn electronica duo, Beacon makes warm, lush, multi-layered soundscapes and uses them as the foundation for traditionally structured, R&B-influenced pop songs. Most of the instrumentation is programmed by producer Jacob Gossett, though the drums are mostly organic, or at least sound that way. While the lyrics signal emotional turmoil, the music is soothing, wrapping the listener in a blanket of warm synths — and then often energizing too, as those synth waves are punctuated by percussive melodies in the lower ranges. Thomas Mullarney’s voice, which sounds like a steadier version of Thom Yorke’s, isclear and comforting. It’s a nice blend of smooth, catchy songs supported by advanced musicianship underneath. Highlights: “Be My Organ,” “Fields,” “The Road”

Daniel Romano ,  Finally Free If you’re looking for a soundtrack to an extra-dimensional voyage, check out Canadian mystic Daniel Romano‘s tenth album. Once a punk rocker, then a country singer, now an effusively philosophical singer/songwriter doing whatever he wants, Romano launches full bore here into psychedelic British folk rock and sounds like he’s been doing it for ages. The music is fluid and florid enough to carry lyrics “an inherent whisper frames the lineage of kindred speech” without sounding heady or unmusical. The artist layers harmony upon harmony, and plays a wide array of instruments, all of which you can imagine him playing somewhere on a mountaintop while in communion with a many-armed Himalayan God. Highlights: “All The Reaching Trims,” “Have You Arrival,” “Between The Blades of Grass”

Broncho ,  Bad Behavior Bouncing along over infectious dance beats, Ryan Lyndsey and his band deliver simple, catchy, sexy post-punk pop songs about scandalous behavior. Perfect for night-time city listening, this Oklahoma band’s 4th album is a cycle of songs revolving around the misdeeds we all do. Their approach to  Bad Behavior  ranges from cheeky and playful, to sincere and repentant, but there’s probably more of the former. This is a fun, tightly constructed album, which takes its rhythmic cues from the Talking Heads and melodic cues from the Beach Boys, with a punk-informed undercurrent of badassery. Highlights: “Family Values,” “Boys Got To Go,” “Keep It In Line”

Elvis Costello & The Imposters ,  Look Now Elvis Costello emerged first as a frenetic, punk-adjacent provocateur and then morphed into a polished pop songwriter and balladeer in the within a decade. Look Now  is of the latter persuasion, as Costello and his collaborators arrange most of these songs in the style of 60s and 70s pop/rock with lots of pianos, back-up singers, and a fair bit of brass. There’s a strong vocal jazz element and a bit of Broadway too. Costello’s been writing a musical with Burt Bacharach, and that shows in the lyrics as well as the music, as he’s clearly grown to love writing in character. (A number of the narrative voices on these songs are expressly female, and it works). Some of us may be inclined to long for the younger, rawer Elvis Costello on principle, but there’s no denying his pop songcraft. Highlights: “Unwanted Number,” “He’s Given Me Things,” “Under Lime”

Oh Pep! ,  I Wasn’t Only Thinking About You… A Melbourne band centering around the harmonies of its founders and dual lead vocalists Olivia Hally and Pepita Emmerichs, Oh Pep! craft delightfully catchy songs with acoustic guitars. In an era when all of our previous genres meet and merge, this band tends to fit perfectly into a once unheard-of field called “indie folk pop.” The new album is less folky than their previous efforts on the surace, but it’s still bright and warm and lyrically engaging. Hally wrote many of these songs with with various collaborators, and then brought them to her band to record. Highlights: “Hurt Nobody,” “Bleeding Hearts,” “Up Against The World”

Boygenius ,  Boygenius EP Singer/songwriters Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus recorded a 6-song EP over the course of 4 days. All three are exceptional lyricists whose songs plumb their emotional depths. Their voices sound great together; Baker’s and Dacus’s voices have a similar richness in their mid-range and Bridgers’s brighter, wilder nature compliments both of them perfectly, and Dacus soaring through her upper range adds another element entirely — any combination of these voices satisfies. In that sense, they’re a natural combination. Stylistically speaking though, the three are fairly distinct. The record works so well because Boygenius is both a band of three like-minded, emotionally driven songwriters  and  a collaboration between diverse musical talents. Highlights: “Stay Down,” “Souvenir,” “Bite The Hand”

Eduardo “Visitante” Cabra / Vicente Garcia ,  Trending Tropics The year after his partner in Puero Rican rap duo Calle 13’s phenomenal solo debut, Eduardo “Visitante” Gabra sets out on a collaboration with Dominican singer/songwriter Vicente Garcia that‘’s about as ambitious and varied as his half-brother Residente’s. This is a reggaeton-inspired hip-hop album worthy of Cabra the producer’s considerable talents,  and  a mostly pan-American world music album which ranges from Afro-Cuban jazz to Andean flutes to reggae and beyond,  and  a modern Latin pop album. It succeeds on all three of these levels. It is also a concept album, about our relationship to technology, and when the songs are performed live, the band is fronted by a robot. Highlights: “La Enfermedad,” “Elintelné,” “Dandy Del Congo”

Kurt Vile ,  Bottle It In The soft, casual swagger of Kurt Vile permeates every atom of his seventh studio album, a timeless rock record that marries finger-plucked singer/songwriter warmth with a virtuoso’s guitar chops, and a ton of lo-fi, 1970s-style D.I.Y. candor too. At once enigmatic and approachable, Vile presents with an all-embracing, easy nonchalance, especially refreshing in a year whose best music is mostly of an intensely, understandably politically fraught nature.  Bottle It In  is uplifting without trying; the lyrics, guitar work and arrangements are so adventurous and fancy-free you have to leave at least a few of your cares behind just to follow along. The second half is more introspective, and even challenging, but it never loses sight of its transcendent sense of ease. Highlights: “One Trick Ponies,” “Come Again,” “Skinny Mini”

Eric Bachmann ,  No Recover Eric Bachmann — No Recover The arc of Eric Bachmann’s career — from the frenzy of Archers of Loaf, through the steady melancholy of Crooked Fingers, and into his solo work — is one of increasing subtlety, maturity and gravitas. By the time you get to his fourth solo album, Bachmann’s world-weary voice rings with a warmth and a wisdom that just soaks its way into everything. Driven by acoustic guitar and unagressive electronic percussion,  No Recover  is reflective, sophisticated and under-stated. While he writes many sad, sad songs, there’s an enduring patience and a hard-earned hope driving them home. Highlights: “Dead and Gone,” “Murmuration Song,” “No Recover”

Metric ,  Art of Doubt Metric — Art of Doubt In light of all the rock bands doing synth pop lately, it’s nice to see a new wave synth pop band commit to an all-out rock album. For their seventh studio release, Emily Haines and her band offer up a slew of amped up, energetic anthems powered by satisfying guitar riffs. The highly melodic rock and roll that ensues suits this Toronto band nicely, and they’re adaptable enough to take a turn like this without abandoning their core — the synths are still there, punctuating and enhancing the music. Guitarist James Shaw takes well to his newfound limelight, and Haines’ spirited vocal delivery and emotionally resonant lyrics make her a natural rock star. Highlights: “Love You Back,” “Now Or Never Now,” “Dressed To Suppress”

Dilly Dally,   Heaven Dilly Dally — Heaven For some singers, it’s the voice. For others, it’s how they use it. I’m still trying to figure out which one it is most for Dilly Dally’s Kate Monks but either way, she’s a marvel. Monks has a breathy, raspy, grainy voice whose singularity makes it even more impressive that she uses it to create such a range of tones — from a whispy, smoky sweetness to a raw, unbridled screeching that wouldn’t be entirely out of place in a black metal band. The fearless, self-possessed power of Monks’ rawness is matched, too, by her fellow frontwoman, guitarist Liz Ball, whose heavy, fuzzy 90s guitars churn away throughout. This is adventurous, edgy, thundering indie rock with a shoegaze metal sheen. Highlights: “Doom,” “Marijuana,” “Heaven”

Beak> ,  >>> Beak>->>> This album surprised me. It surprised me, in fact, at every turn and within every single song. Throughout its course it defies every expectation it has set up, and invites the listener down wildly winding paths of intrigue. An experimental, Krautrock-influenced indie rock band founded by Geoff Barrow of Portishead, Beak> engage more fully with song structure on this album but also continuously veers off into the unknown. Often music this “interesting” and unpredictable becomes impermeable or loses itself in abstraction, but Beak>’s third studio album exhilarates and engages as much as it fascinates. Only six of the ten songs have words, and I am not the easiest sell on instrumentals, but in this case they hit the spot. Highlights: “King of the Castle,” “Allé Sauvage,” “When We Fall”