Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Multi-Love (2015)

Unknown Mortal Orchestra, ex-Mint Chicks front man Ruban Nielson’s offshoot project are quickly generating a strong musical cannon, and with it a large following, as they continue to make diverse and interesting sounding indie and psychedelic pop. The band’s first two albums “Unknown Mortal Orchestra” and “Unknown Mortal Orchestra II” were two solid first up efforts, however, their latest release “Multi-Love” trumps both of these as they explore new sounds in the form of funk, jazz and soul.

“Multi-Love” has quite an old-school authentic vibe to it both in terms of its sound and instrumentation. It has a very strong rhythmic feel in the drums and bass, while the added addition of horns and keyboards means this album has quite a poppy, almost Motown feel to it in places. This is a different path for the band, as previously their music held firm to that indie pop/dreamy psychedelic line, which I might add they did very effectively. But this new direction they have taken on this album is so damn catchy and sound so, so good. This is a late-60s/early-70s sound to my ears, but produced in a very contemporary fashion, I guess also highlighting Nielson’s skills as a producer more than anything and his strong ability to get the right sound for each song he composes.

The album kicks off with the title track “Multi-Love”. This is quite a poppy song and in the opening vocals has shades of early Queen, while that piano riff which drives the whole song is so effective, indicating also straight off the bat the funkier direction this album will head down. This is followed by “Like Acid Rain” which takes a more lo-fi direction, and as a track is very similar to their previous work. Next are two of the catchier tunes on the album in the form of “Ur Life One Night” and “Can’t Keep Checking My Phone”. These two tracks are perfect for the dance floor and I can see clubs going off to these with their dance-heavy beats, funk grooves and pop melodies. At this midway point of the album, things change direction again with the alternative jazz of “Extreme Wealth and Casual Cruelty”. This is a great track which shuffles along nicely before suddenly out of nowhere the jazz horns come in and you are instantly hit by their infectiousness. This is UMO doing their take on 80s sophisti-pop, where saxophones reigned supreme, and although some might accuse Neilson of sax crimes here, I think the added presence of horns shows how Nielson is willing to try new sounds and experiment when the song demands it. This is followed by “The World is Crowded”, a track with a pounding funky bass line, and what I would call the weakest track on the album “Stage or Screen”. The album then winds down with the psychedelic funk of the fantastically good “Necessary Evil”, one of the best tracks on the album, and finally album closer “Puzzles”, another track which resembles more closely the sound of their past material.

“Multi-Love” is a fantastic record and I congratulate Nielson for again evolving UMO’s sound and experimenting on this album. There are some seriously good tunes here which might even attract the band some new followers, while I am pretty sure these new songs will be great when performed live. UMO seem to be getting better with each new release they put out and “Multi-Love” proves this yet again in what is one of the catchiest pop/funk/soul/jazz/psychedelia albums you will hear all year. Listen to it now, you will not be disappointed.

A

- Sam  

Blur - The Magic Whip (2015)

Band reunions are a thing these days, and if they don’t actually happen, every week some rumor or another pops up about the potentiality of a reunion happening. What you do not often see though, is new material, usually it’s just artists living off past glories and churning out greatest hits sets left, right and center. Why, well usually any new material is never as good, while also when artists try and pimp their new material in concert, people inevitably cue for more beer or relieve themselves in the washer rooms. Somehow, I do not think this will be the case with Blur though as they prepare to tour their first album of new material featuring all members in sixteen years.

Yes, Blur have a new album out and it is called “The Magic Whip” and yes it is very, very good, so good in fact I would say it ranks up there with their best work from the 90s. The story behind this album is also quite interesting, as it started life as a series of jam sessions in between concerts on a tour to South East Asia, after an initial gig was cancelled. The band ended up in Hong Kong in a small back ally studio and played around with their instruments for a few days, not knowing the results would yield an album a couple of years later. The influence of the big city is seen lyrically and sound-wise throughout the album, with themes of over-population, urban life, crowded streets and being lost in the city coming through strongly in the songs. While musically, the band takes the opportunity to experiment with some different sounds not seen in their previous work. Despite new sounds such as reggae, experimental, soul and folk influences coming through in many of the tracks, this album does, however, have a sense of familiarity about it and one can certainly here Blur, Gorillaz and even Damon Albarn influences in its overall sound and feel. So I guess, it’s not entirely a complete departure, but more a varied and eclectic mix of the old and the new.

So for the songs themselves. Well the album kicks off strongly with the very “Great Escape” sounding “Lonesome Street”. This is classic Blur and bounces along with driving guitar and bass, while featuring a nice homage to Syd Barrett with Graham Coxon’s mid-song vocal. This track is followed by the Damon Albarnesque “New World Towers” which takes in the urban feel of Hong Kong in what is quite a melancholy explorative track. “Go Out” harks back to the “Blur” album with its distorted guitar driven lo-fi vibe, while “Ice-Cream Man” lyrically is quite Gorillaz-like with lines such as “here comes the ice-cream man” and “with a swish of his magic whip”. “Thought I Was a Spaceman” is one of the best songs on the album and one of the band’s best tracks overall I feel. In this spacey Bowie-sounding song, it starts off with just Damon singing, classical guitar and a drum machine loop before the band kicks and it turns in to this atmospheric driving pop track. Again, like on “Lonesome Street” Coxon wrote himself a little bit in the middle in what is a very effective and quite innocent vocal line “thought I was a spaceman digging out my heart”. This track is followed by another driving guitar track “I Broadcast”, while “My Terracotta Heart is Albarn’s melancholic take on his and Coxon’s friendship. From here, things diversify even more with the 80s new wave of “There Are Too Many of Us” which is full of synths and a marching drum beat, and the fantastic “Ghost Ship”, a reggae-sounding funk track which is another album highlight and probably the most out of the ordinary Blur song ever. The album then winds down with the gorgeous “Pyongyang” about Albarn’s trip to North Korea, the happy go lucky anthem “Ong Ong” and the country twang of Mirrrorball which closes out the album.

So in conclusion, “The Magic Whip” is a great return for Blur. It is their most diverse sounding album yet and musically is very interesting as they explore new things, while at the same time retain some of the classic Blur sounds. All band members are on fine form and you can really tell the guys are enjoying being back playing new music together. The band have already previewed the album live with some promotional gigs, including a great performance in New York, and as they kick off their official tour in the next few weeks watch for these songs to be well-received live. So all up, a great edition to the Blur cannon, and if this does end up being their last album, then “The Magic Whip” will be a fantastic way for them to go out on. 

A+

- Sam 

2015 Update

So far, 2015 as a year for music is the gift that keeps on giving. As we come up to the mid-point of the year, there has already been some fantastic albums released with the promise of more good music to come. The key word here is albums, with some great long players emerging in an age where many people keep saying the album is dying. Well based on some of these releases, I beg to differ.

The albums that have impressed me the most in 2015 at this point have been

Alabama Shakes – Sound & Colour – A very new direction for the band, bringing in Curtis Mayfield psychedelic soul and a harder edge overall to their sound. Very interesting album musically, while Brittney’s vocals are still top-notch.

Blur – The Magic Whip – One of my albums of the year. A fantastic return for the British band in what is one of their best ever albums. This album has a very diverse sound musically and includes a lot of things which you would not immediately think would appear on a Blur record. Here, Albarn and Coxon again prove why they are two of the great musicians of their generation.

Noel Gallagher – Chasing Yesterday – All this talk about an Oasis reunion is nonsense. Noel is far better on his own and this album proves it. Here, he brings in other influences such as soul and even jazz on one of the best songs he has written “The Right Stuff”. I really dig this album, and is is great just having the man in the media as he gives some of the best interviews in music.

Paul Weller – Saturn’s Pattern – This one has just been released and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised as I wasn't expecting much as Weller’s last two albums for me have been patchy. But this album is quite brilliant and easily his best in years. Full of psychedelic and electronic influences in what is actually quite a trippy album, although the melody and soul you expect with Weller is still there.

Albums to come in 2015 which are wetting my appetite

Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Multi Love – the songs I have heard so far are very promising

Tame Impala – Currents – Expecting more neo-psychedelic brilliance from these Aussies.

Florence + The Machine – How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – It’s Florence so it will be good.

St Germain – St Germain – This was a surprise announcement as there has not been an album in 15 years. Will be interesting to see what this one sounds like. 

- Sam 

Style Council - Style Council: Gold (2006)

It’s always great I find when you discover that a band which you knew of turns out better than you first thought. I knew of several Style Council tracks “Shout to the Top” etc. and liked what I heard, while I have also been a big Jam and Paul Weller fan for a while, however his 80s project The Style Council had sort of passed me by, until now, and wow am I pleasantly surprised with what I have discovered.

When Paul Weller disbanded The Jam in 1982 he went on to form a new group The Style Council, a sort of jazz/R&B/pop hybrid, although some would term this fusion style of music sophisti-pop, quite ludicrously. In actual fact, with this project, Weller, the lead singer/songwriter and guitarist was exploring news sounds and styles which fell outside the punk-rock, mod revival limitations of his previous band The Jam. So there was a lot more emphasis placed on soulful melodies and rhythms. Weller would be complimented in this new group by Mick Talbot on keyboards and Hammond organ, Steve White on drums, and Dee C. Lee on backing vocals. The band went on to record some very good and stylistically interesting albums in the mid-80s, with the two stand out records being Café Bleu in 1984 as well as Our Favourite Shop in 1985. Weller would also use this project to continue with some of the socio-economic and political themes he explored in his song writing with The Jam, using it as an outlet to criticise Thatcher’s Britain and other issues such as racism and sexism. This was seen in songs such as “A Stones Throw Away”, and “Walls Come Tumbling Down”.

So, like with any band you are discovering for the first time, you often turn to compilations to get a snapshot or overview of their work, just to test the waters so to speak. Thankfully, I found this great two disc compilation The Style Council: Gold and as far as compilations go, this one is fantastic and does a great job in highlighting the stylistic diversity of the band across two discs. There’s the soul of “You’re the Best Thing” and “Headstart for Happiness”, the R&B of “Speak Like a Child” and “Our Favourite Shop”, the jazz of “Have You Ever Had It Blue” and the dance/house sound of “Promised Land”.

Although The Style Council did not have overly significant commercial success compared to some of their more successful contemporaries, they were a highly creative and stylistically interesting group, and were quite different from what else was going on at the time musically. You could not exactly pigeon hole them into one single genre and they were not scared at all to experiment with different sounds, as evident with their foray in to house music later in the decade. The band disbanded in 1989 and Weller went on to have a very successful solo career, but one thing is sure, and that is that they certainly made a splash with their creative pursuits in the mid-80s, bringing in different styles of music which might otherwise may have been left behind as the 80s forged ahead with new wave and synth pop. The Style Council are definitely worth checking out, if anything to show that there was more to the 80s than just drum machines and synths and that bands were still willing to take musical risks at a time when safe often seemed the way to go. 

A

- Sam 

She & Him - Classics (2014)

American indie pop singer-songwriter duo She & Him have gone down the covers route on their latest studio offering Classics. An album that features 13 covers of old standards, some which date back to the 1930s. The duo which is made up of guitarist and vocalist M Ward and vocalist Zoey Deschanel have released a covers album before, 2011s “A Very She and Him Christmas”. But I was very curious when I found out they were trying their hands at old standards, songs which would have no doubt influenced the material on their first two albums and the sweet pop melodies they have come to be known for.

The sound on this release is classic She & Him, excuse the pun and features a mix of vintage pop, country, jazz, and folk. Lumped together She & Him’s sound has often been described as indie pop, or indeed alt-folk. The instrumentation on this album is quite simplistic despite the duo being backed by a 20-piece orchestra, but it aids beautifully the tenderness of these old songs and the melodic pop sensibilities which She & Him aim for. M Ward’s delicate country jazz guitar playing shines throughout and is a standout feature on the album, while Zoey’s sweet melodic vocals are gorgeous as always, adding in many respects an authentic touch to proceedings. The orchestral arrangements do a fantastic job in complementing the main vocal track without being overbearing in any way, with the subtle strings and horns moving between a jazz and pop style to delicately support the centre piece of the tracks and that is Zoe’s voice and M Ward’s guitar. The horns in particular are a highlight and give the recordings a vintage feel, making them sound like they could have been recorded when the originals were.

As for the tracks themselves, well the album kicks off with a cover of the old jazz standard “Stars Fell on Alabama” which the duo turn into a nice duet all be it low-key. Thing pick up a bit on the Goffin and King track “Oh No, Not My Baby”, which is one of the album’s standout tracks with its shuffling guitar and drum track and Zoe’s sweet vocal flourishes, and a sweet melodic interpretation of “It’s Not for Me to Say”. This great start to the album continues with a stellar cover of the Dusty Springfield track “Stay Awhile”, one of the more up-tempo tracks on the record. This rendition has a country-pop vibe to it sounding completely different from the Wall of Sound-like original and features some cool rockabilly guitar playing from M Ward. Next up is the classic Bacharach and David track “This Girl’s in Love with You” of which the duo do a very understated and melodic take on. The instrumental track is a standout on this one, with a very delicate orchestral performance, trombone solo and yet more fantastic jazz playing from M Ward. The first half of the album then comes to an end with a beautiful duet, Frank Sinatra’s “Time After Time” and an absolutely stunning “She” which M Ward take the lead vocal on. A midst a wonderful jazz arrangement that includes some splendid trumpet playing, I would say M Ward steals the limelight off Zoey with this rare solo vocal performance in what is arguably the cornerstone of the album. Moving into the second half of the record, things kick off positively with a very jazzy “Teach Me Tonight” in what contains a bubbly Deschanel vocal, before the album then begins to labour a bit with “It’s Always You” and a very disappointing version of the classic track “Unchained Melody”. Thankfully, the album does not end this way, and concludes with some solid renditions of “I’ll Never Be Free”, “Would You Like to Take a Walk” and the war-time standard “We’ll Meet Again”. A rendition which has a nice folk vibe to it.

All in all I think the duo to a more than adequate job in their take on these old standards. Zoe’s vocals shine through as they always do, but it is M Ward who steals the show on here, more so than on other She & Him records. His guitar playing is nothing short of brilliant as he moves between jazz, folk, country and rockabilly, while he also has more of a role vocally on this album, something which culminates in his fantastic vocal performance on “She”. There is nothing new, or indeed unusual sound-wise on here, although the added dimension of an orchestra spices things up a bit and the fact they recorded live with the orchestra does make things quite interesting as a listener in terms of hearing how the vocals and guitar fit in and combine with the other instruments. Classics is a solid job by this unlikely combination and puts an indie pop/alt-folk slant on some very old, but classic songs. 

A-

- Sam