New Album Reviews
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Adam Lambert performs onstage during 103.5 KTU’s KTUphoria 2015, at Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, on Sunday, May 31, 2015, in Wantagh, N.Y. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP)
Source: AP
Does Adam Lambert soar high like Freddie all the way to Mercury? Is Methyl Ethyl the new Tame Impala? Has Paul Weller paid the cost to be the boss? How delicious is Alpine’s Yuck, yum? And what has Giorgio Moroder done to his legacy?
THE ORIGINAL HIGH
ADAM LAMBERT
[WARNER]
****
Adam Lambert album cover
Source: Supplied
On his third album Adam Lambert (accidentally) references the titles of two new Madonna songs — Ghost Town and Rebel Heart.
Ironically, The Original High is the kind of clever, modern pop album Madonna didn’t quite make this year.
Avoiding cool DJs and trends over tunes, Lambert went straight to the epicentre of smart, direct pop — Sweden.
Hitmen Max Martin and Shellback took time out of making Taylor Swift’s 1989 to oversee The Original High.
They help craft a record that soars effortlessly through genres, often in the same song.
The stunning title track recalls the deep, euphoric house of Madonna circa Vogue and Rescue Me. Evil In the Night channels Nile Rodgers disco with ’90s piano house grooves.
It speaks volumes about Lambert’s genre orgy here that he can riff with cutting edge Swede Tove Lo on moody pop banger Rumours one minute, then score guitar riffs from Queen mate Brian May on Lucy the next. Lucy fires up the kind of classy ‘80s rock Lambert nailed last year with Queen.
Soon you’re dropped on a dancefloor at 3am with The Light, which is trance-tinged electronic music minus the cheese. And autotune.
Max Martin’s Another Lonely Night is a bruised ballad with club bangery to lighten the mood while even the bonus tracks on the deluxe edition are more thriller than filler.
The highlight is ballad There I Said It, bursting with demons, doubt and tour de force vocals. It is the kind of raw, personal anthem to keep him ahead of the pack and one he’ll be singing for decades to come. And like much of The Original High, it somehow manages to be futuristic and retro at once. / CAMERON ADAMS
SOUNDS LIKE: smartpop
IN A WORD: elevated
Adam Lambert performs onstage during 103.5 KTU’s KTUphoria 2015, at Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, on Sunday, May 31, 2015, in Wantagh, N.Y. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP)
Source: AP
OH INHUMANE SPECTACLE
METHYL ETHEL
[DOT DASH/REMOTE CONTROL]
*****
Oh Inhumane Spectacle – Methyl Ethel (Dot Dash)
Source: Supplied
Dot Dash did it. They found the next Kevin Parker (Tame Impala). His name is Jake Webb and he’s running the show here, taking shadowy pop songs from his Perth bedroom to the world and even the aliens (!) on Rogues, which won the WAM Pop Song Of the Year. Also Gesellschaft blade-runs its fingers through your hair, a driving-then-pulling-over song for sexy escapades. It’s also, SCOOP, the next single. Unbalancing Act is a ‘Post Pavillion-era Animal Collective AA side, Osbcura is Beetlebum II, while retaining its own wiry, nutty character. “Twilight driving gotta watch out for the roos/ Well it’s the early morning baby I said why don’t you hit the snooze” is the unlikely chorus o’ the year. Buy now! / MIKEY CAHILL
SOUNDS LIKE: waking up content from a Siamese Dream
IN A WORD: deb(ea)ut(iful)
The band Methyl Ethyl will perform in Hobart. For Pulse
Source: Supplied
SATURNS PATTERN
PAUL WELLER
[PARLOPHONE/WARNER]
****
Paul Weller
Source: Supplied
Paul Weller is the original Jack White — making music under a succession of different guises (The Jam, The Style Council …) yet with even greater panache. He cut a (neglected) deep house album in 1989 (!) and lately credibly strayed into Krautrock. The Modfather’s stellar 12th solo outing is psychedelic and experimental but never poignantly “retro”. Weller journeys through warped heavy blues rock (he gets Drenge-y on White Sky, assisted by acid house kids Amorphous Androgynous), deep soul, spaghetti western scores, and kosmische. A supreme songwriter, he transcends indulgence with serpentine tracks, such as Pick It Up. The piano-led Going My Way is Bowie-meets-Beach Boys pop bliss. / CYCLONE WEHNER
SOUNDS LIKE: across the universe
IN A WORD: expansive
English musician Paul Weller poses for photographs at Parlophone Records in central London, Thursday, 30 April, 2015, ahead of the launch of his new album ‘Saturns Pattern’, his 12th studio album which will be released on May 18th via Parlophone Records. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP)
Source: AP
YUCK
ALPINE
[IVY LEAGUE]
***
Yuck – Alpine (Ivy League)
Source: Supplied
Alpine’s debut A is For Alpine was expertly sequenced, you always felt like you were in good hands with the loving one-two caress of Lou James and Phoebe Baker’s voices and the songwriting was blue chip. Yuck is an expansive, jumpy listen, lead single Foolish comes into its own after a flogging, like Frente at their peak, Crunches chops ‘n’ changes, Jellyfish does a neat Coco Rosie impression, Shot Fox is a trap-esque cut that scuttles along with a nod to Warp Records and Lil Wayne. Things don’t always jell. Damn Baby and Standing Not Sleeping feel more like genre exercises than fluid pop and Up For Air is better as an instrumental so we can come up for air. You’ll need to spend a lot of time with Yuck … but you’ll get there. / MIKEY CAHILL
SOUNDS LIKE: ambitious sextet stretching its wings
IN A WORD: eager
Alpine – Melbourne alternative pop band sextet with second album Yuck out through Ivy League.
Source: Supplied
DEJA VU
GIORGIO MORODER
[SONY]
** 1/2
Giorgio Moroder album cover
Source: Supplied
Creatively exhumed by Daft Punk, Moroder, the man who invented the future of dance with Donna Summer, got a second wind aged 74. But this comeback album is on the nose. Flashbacks like 4U With Love, 74 Is the New 24 and La Disco recreate the same era that Daft Punk’s tribute Giorgio by Moroder did, just not as well. Kylie’s disco banger Right Here Right Now is a work of art compared to Britney Spears’ lazy robotic rework of Tom’s Diner and Kelis’s soulless Back and Forth. Charli XCX’s Diamonds at least channels Moroder’s work while Blondie, Foxes and Sia also deliver on generic new songs that just don’t match his legacy. This should have been star remakes of his classic hits not dull facsimiles. / CAMERON ADAMS
SOUNDS LIKE: the sound of a legacy being soiled
IN A WORD: disappointing
Giorgio Moroder. Disco/dance music pioneer, aged 74, currently on tour with Kylie Minogue and about to release an album featuring her along with Sia, Britney Spears and others.
Source: News Corp Australia
Agree? Disagree? Like the look of Adam’s apples? Tweet us: @joeylightbulb@cameron_adams@therealcyclone
