M&G reviewers get to grips with new music, including the Tricky remix album, the Arctic Monkeys and Pitch Black Afro’s Zonke Bonke.
7 Worlds Collide
The Sun Came Out (Sony)
New Zealand brothers Neil and Tim Finn are among the world’s finest pop and rock music songwriters. Whether with Split Enz, Crowded House, The Finn Brothers or as solo artists, they have continually produced albums of rich songwriting. In 2001, Neil Finn went out on a limb by inviting some of his favourite musicians such as Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, The Smith’s Johnny Marr, Soul Coughing’s Sebastian Steinberg and Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien and Phil Selway to join him and his brother for a series of shows in April of that year. The resultant live album and DVD were a real treat. Then, in 2008, Finn invited the same musicians — minus Vedder — as well as a few new ones such as Bic Runga, KT Tunstall and the members of Wilco, to spend Christmas with him and his family as they worked on a double studio album to be released under the 7 Worlds Collide moniker. Again, Finn has struck gold. Highlights include two beautiful Selway compositions and a rip-roaring track from O’Brien called Bodhisattva Blues, which sounds like a John Lennon rocker. Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy is also ever-present on the double album including the mournful What Could Have Been and an early version of You Never Know, which appeared on Wilco’s self-titled 2009 album. Bic Runga and KT Tunstall also deserve some credit for their haunting Black Silk Ribbon and Neil Finn’s duet with his wife Sharon, titled Little by Little, is the kind of great pop song that made his name in the first place. With Finn’s son Liam, Marr’s son Nile and Tweedy’s son Spencer all getting in on the action, this was one family Christmas that produced some superb results. — Lloyd Gedye
Tricky Meets South Rakkas Crew
Tricky Meets South Rakkas Crew (EMI)
In 2008, following a five-year hiatus, Tricky returned with a new album Knowles West Boy. Heralded as a return to form, the album still did not match his seminal work in the late 1990’s. Now we have the remix album, dubbed Tricky Meets South Rakkas Crew. Essentially this is an electro/dancehall take on Knowles West Boy and it works surprisingly well. Joseph sounds more urgent than the original, while C’Mon Baby is turned into a stomping dancehall tune, with marching band rhythm and a litany of whistles. Coalition, which references Gil Scott Heron, sounds more aggressive than the original, with its electro-funk styling and Tricky’s take on the Kylie Minogue song Slow — one of the original album’s highlights — is now a full on techno banger. It’s not all great, there are a couple of tracks your iPod could do without, but it does prompt the question, what could Tricky produce if his beats were a little more cutting edge? — Lloyd Gedye
Arctic Monkeys
Humbug (EMI)
Unless it involves some deeply subtle genius that went way over my head, this album is average, to say the least. Barring one or two tracks, Humbug makes for good background music while deciding on whether to go out or settle in for a DVD on Saturday night. The intro to the opening track, My Propeller, with its understated melodic guitar riff, is the best part of the album. It gives the misleading impression that the rest of the album will follow in this mature, sophisticated tone, but it is well known that there is a skinny line between sophistication and boredom, and Humbug, unfortunately, proves to be not as musically advanced as it promises. Granted, the production by James Ford of Simian Mobile Disco fame and Joshua Homme of Queens of the Stone Age perhaps adds to the apparent element of maturity and careless experimentation that can be respected (they mess about with castanets at one point). But namedropping on the back of a CD cover is not enough. The only tracks that stand out are the opening one, and Pretty Visitors, and that’s a reach. — Ilham Rawoot
Richard Hawley
Truelove’s Gutter (EMI)
With six albums released in the last 10-years, this Brit-pop veteran has been somewhat prolific. As a member of both the Longpigs and Pulp, he established himself as one of Sheffield’s talents, but it wasn’t until his move to Mute for his 2005 album Coles Corner that Hawley’s star really began to rise. Since then he has delivered a further two albums of magnificent songwriting, the latest of which is Truelove’s Gutter. Incredibly minimalist in nature, Truelove’s Gutter features some very restrained backing instrumentation from some very uncommon instruments such as the waterphone, megabass and crystal baschet. However, it is this minimalist instrumentation that creates the space for Hawley’s gorgeous croon to work its magic with the dark lyrical material. Gentle country number Ashes on the Fire and the sparse acoustic Remorse Code are highlights, however Don’t Get Hung Up In Your Soul is one of the most beautiful songs ever written. Allow Richard Hawley to welcome you into his world, you won’t regret it. — Lloyd Gedye
Times New Viking
Born Again Revisited (Just Music)
If three drunks were locked in a room and given a few musical instruments and a Dictaphone — a recording much like Born Again Revisited might be produced. Times New Viking is a three-piece ensemble of art students from Ohio and Born Again Revisited is their fourth studio album. The band fall into a genre described as lo-fi, which is characterised by sound recording that is intentionally flawed with distortion, background noise and the like. Times New Viking have almost certainly embraced this technique for its ability to thinly disguise their talentless songwriting skills and limited vocal range. Admittedly, the opening track to the album is promising. The staccato strumming, synthesized keyboards and deadpan vocals have touch of old-school pop sensibility. But from the second track onward, it becomes clear that this album is largely unlistenable. The repetitive droning of inaudible lyrics and three-chord song arrangements makes for an entirely irritating experience. Imagine a toddler with a tin pan and a wooden spoon. — Lisa Steyn
William Fitzsimmons
The Sparrow and the Crow (Just Music)
The Sparrow and the Crow is a concept album from an accomplished musician, dealing chiefly with love, the struggle to keep it and ultimately, its loss. The album cover carries a little epilogue telling of two birds who fight valiantly against a strong, invisible wind. They battle unsuccessfully until one changes direction, letting the wind carry it away, leaving its companion to fight on alone. For anyone who has been in love, this is easily reminiscent of the futile struggle to save a relationship that is simply not working. And this would be nauseating, self-involved schlock if it weren’t so very good. The songs carry a lyrical wisdom and have a lightness of touch that sweetens the otherwise morbid subject matter. Fitzsimmons’ tracks are pieced together beautifully — gentle banjos, layered organ, piano and guitar — and while they ring universal; they are also clearly a very personal address to someone in Fitzsimmons’ life. Given the artwork, I imagine he sees himself as the crow and his former partner as the sparrow. Despite the evident sorrow in the music, the album carries with it a note of hope. As the last song Goodmorning says: ‘Moonlight will fall, winter will end, harvest will come, your heart will mend …” — Lynley Donnelly
Pitch Black Afro
Zonke Bonke (Independent Music Distributors)
”Not another one,” I said upon receiving Pitch Black Afro’s new musical offering Zonke Bonke. My approach to listening to this one was rather pessimistic — I forced myself through all 14 tracks. And the result is: Honestly, I don’t think that Pitch Black Afro is ready — or ever will be — in a state to produce an album as hot as his 2004 Ntofontofo. Don’t get me wrong, on Zonke Bonke the Skhipha bo ma — what rap-star tries so much to keep abreast of new musical developments, with little success. Featured here are unknown artists, making it sound like a debut album. Pitch Black does not need too much introduction in the local music scene but I think with this offering, a lot of people will ask themselves: ”What went wrong?”. ‘Please support South African music,†Pitch Black writes on the sleeve. Well, to be honest, the only reason I’d bother having this one on my CD stand is because I am supportive of local music, even when it’s this bad. — Monako Dibetle
Iron and Wine
Around the Well (MIA)
Iron and Wine, AKA Sam Beam, has returned, not with the long awaited follow up to his monumental album The Shepherd’s Dog — released in 2007 — but with a double-disc compilation of rarities. Around the Well contains a whopping 24 non-album tracks, roughly divided into the intimate acoustic recordings of his first two albums on disc one and the fuller, more adventurous sound that dominated The Shepherd’s Dog on disc two. However, both discs are a testament to Beam’s craft, with hardly a dud song to be found, and these are meant to be the outtakes. So don’t be fooled, what you are actually buying here is an Iron and Wine double album that can stand among his previous three studio releases with its head held high. From the gorgeous Peng! 33, to Beam’s covers of The Flaming Lips’ Waitin’ For A Superman and The Postal Service’s Such Great Heights, disc one will remind you why Beam has quickly risen through the ranks of America’s greatest contemporary singer/songwriters. Disc two on the other hand can be seen as a companion piece to his 2007 smash hit, with the nine-minute plus epic The Trapeze Swinger standing out as the highlight. Beam is a truly special artist, a unique voice that will be remembered as one of America’s finest when he finally wraps up his career many decades from now. – Lloyd Gedye
Four Tet
There is Love in You (Domino)
The cover of Four Tet’s new album There is Love in You is composed of colourful interlocking circles, reminiscent of a view through a child’s kaleidoscope. It’s an apt description of the music of Kieran Hebden: constantly shifting, melodic, filled with awe. He’s refined his distinctive brand of metronomic electronica for over 10 years now, and Love in You is a return to the fresh ideas of Dialogue, released in 1999, and Pause, from 2001, which at the time sounded different to anything that had gone before. The music straddles the space between electronic dance music — there’s often big a bass drum holding the centre, with micro glitches and breathy vocals — to more ambient music, which is the perfect soundtrack while sprawled on the couch. Hebden is a master of his medium and his music is marked for its accessibility — there’s often a subtle melody next to a pounding bassline. There’s not a bad track on the album, but listen for the swirling, lengthy Love Cry, the looping fractured vocals in Angel Echoes, and Plastic People. — Matthew Burbidge