Fresh Album Reviews

WHAT WENT DOWN

FOALS

[WARNER]

* * * *

Foals are well aware that second place is first runner-up.

The ultra-moody, workaholic Oxford quintet don’t want fans to feel their best work was on Total Life Forever. Their fourth album What Went Down is a cobra, it repeatedly rears up and strikes at expectations, at lackadaisical listeners, at any other bands trying to take their crown.

The cobra slithers its tongue out on the opening/title track, a territorial pissing competition with a pack of hyenas (Arctic Monkeys, Temples, etc).

Then it convalesces in the scorching sun on songs like Give It All and Birch Tree, two skilfully done pieces of sound design that could pipe through the Tate Modern in London behind grotesque Chapman Brothers commissions.

Foals show off their black-belt Cobra Kai skills again in Night Swimmers (no relation to the similarly titled REM song), all funky bass burps and hurtling train rock ’n’ roll that will work the dancefloor at any self-respecting discotheque.

Albatross seasons itself with a keys mantra like cracked pepper ground over the arrangements to bring out the zest. It’s a midtempo chugger and it sounds like Axel Bowman’s Fantastic Piano has found a mate. Fit as a fiddle.

Yannis Philippakis taps into his “inner madman” and it has come out in his words and songs about identity, creeping anxiety, pessimism and heartbreak.

On album closer A Knife In the Ocean, Philippakis sings of the ennui of being the top dogs in the indie world: “Be well spoken, watch your Ps and Qs / Now that we’re older, the future is colder, what is there to do?”

The answer: make incredible albums that speak to the modern condition and give us a reason to leap out of bed. / MIKEY CAHILL

SOUNDS LIKE: plenty of life in the old horse yet

IN A WORD: discerning

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/music/browse/alternative/what-went-down-deluxe-edition/730377/

DEPRESSION CHERRY

BEACH HOUSE

[MISTLETONE]

* * * *

In this age of infobesity, Beach House comes along and clears your seven chakras and makes you think starting an album review with new-age mumbo jumbo is a wise idea. On their fifth record, Baltimore babes Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally continue their blindfolded quest to make the ultimate dream-pop song. This time they’re using scratchy Fender sounds — nail-digs that don’t break the flesh — on Sparks and Beyond Love. Legrand’s French heritage lends a formidable flourish to Levitation and 10:37, and perhaps the most noticeable thing Beach House are doing in 2015 compared to other bands is … breathing. They don’t care if they don’t make your Facebook feed, this ain’t no frenzy. Just breeeeathe. / MC

SOUNDS LIKE: a multi-sensory delight, ah, that’s the spot

IN A WORD: class

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/music/browse/alternative/depression-cherry/771055/

WOMAN

JILL SCOTT

[WARNER]

* * * 1/2

Jill Scott’s guest spot on Dr Dre’s Compton could ironically mean that her fifth album garners more attention here. Hmmm. The witty Philadelphian neo-soulstress (and accomplished spoken word poet) may be performing alongside the edgy Jhene Aiko at Soulfest, but she’s not beyond pulling hipster moves herself. Scott connects with Miguel’s producer Andrew “Pop” Wansel — and the subliminally experimental jazz highlight, Lighthouse, samples vintage SBTRKT from 2011. Woman is almost TOO expansive, though, with anomalous bursts of fervent ‘60s R&B. Still, Amy Winehouse would have sung along to Run Run Run and acquitted herself quite well, so Jill mostly gets off Scott free.

SOUNDS LIKE: straight outta Philly

IN A WORD: authentic

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/music/browse/soul-urban/woman/747265/

HIGH

ROYAL HEADACHE

[DISTANT AND VAGUE RECORDINGS]

* * * *

Six years on from Eddy Current Suppression Ring’s reign as Australia’s premier garage punk band, Sydney’s Royal Headache — replete with unhinged, wild-eyed frontman Shogun, recently painted for the Archibald Prize — seize the crown, break it up into little pieces and try to smoke it. Opener High is the aural equivalent of telling someone you love them then yelping “SAY IT BACK!” Need You is Wham! does Wire and Wouldn’t You Know is a tremolo trembler, harking back to The Troggs with Shogun’s vocal caress showing, really, he’s a big teddy bear. It’s like reading Bon Scott’s love letters. Garbage brings the clatter and biffo back: “You belong down in Melbourne!” Them’s fighting words.

SOUNDS LIKE: all the scuzz, all the fuzz, all the buzz

IN A WORD: dogged

http://royalheadache.bandcamp.com/album/high/

CAST OF YESTERDAY

TIM WHEATLEY

[SONY]

* * * 1/2

Forged by flying solo in clubs from here to L.A., Melbourne’s Tim Wheatley now knows how to be heard above the noise.

He’s got a literate way with words, delivered with a homegrown accent that demonstrates he was raised on Paul Kelly. The Heathen is power folk, all rock and rollicking. Hot For August harks back to teeth-cutting in rock bands, but with a dose of haunting emotion. The Other Woman dips into that Laurel Canyon alt-country vibe, The Messenger’s lashes of harmonica adds to the palpable blues. But it’s the title track, full of nostalgia, melodies and magic that show Wheatley has finally arrived. A complex mixture of the three artists below.

SOUNDS LIKE: Paul Kelly, Angus Stone and Jack Kerouac

IN A WORD: warm

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/music/browse/alternative-alternative-country/cast-of-yesterday/770922/

Agree? Disagree? Care to debate it over 140 characters, ya shifty character? @joeylightbulb @cameron_adams@therealcyclone

www.news.com.au/entertainment/music