Disc Reviews
by Max Ink Staff Writers
Róisín Murphy - Róisín Machine
Róisín Murphy
Album title: Róisín Machine
By John Noyd
Posted: Sep 2020
Label: Skint
(902) Page Views
Rallying elaborate nostalgia as an updated and outspoken disco queen, cyber-maestro Róisín Murphy’s groovy tutelage streams glamorous anthems bubbling beneath irresistible beats, processing stroboscopic gospel into boombox boogie and smoldering techno-soul. Nightlife highlights meet tungsten funk, invoking bold Moroder brushstrokes onto a seething cerebral sensuality where astute moves build emancipated declarations with effervescent tension. Decades into her career, this iconoclastic talent peddles edgy futurism alongside trendy escapism for brazen innovations rich in roller-skate bass, chanking guitar, old-school synths and supple strings. While several tracks have been dropped over the last few years, “Machine,” preens and gleams as one seamless dancefloor odyssey; taunting sauntering struts whose glittery surfaces birth teasing hedonism as elated persuasions turn glossy options empowering slick wit and slinky thinking into hip-swiveling visions.
Travis - 10 Songs
Travis
Album title: 10 Songs
By John Noyd
Posted: Sep 2020
Label: BMG
(869) Page Views
Travis’ latest shows a band after thirty years together, casually savvy, impeccably connected and solidly melodic. Classic passive pop lavished in ravishing passions, “10 Songs,” soars with unforced rhymes primed in sizzling sophistication. The ninth studio album from Glasgow’s indie icons is the first album powered exclusively by frontman Fran Healy’s songwriting since 2003’s, “Twelve Memories,” and four years since their last release, “Everything At Once.” Admitting he cruised through the last few albums, Healy felt rejuvenated with the prospect of working on, “10 Songs,” and says he probably produced ten albums worth of material in the past four years to get these ten, “really good things.” Evidence backs his assertion as each subtly muscular track unfolds with lyrical grace, harmonious sincerity and romantic candor.
Squarewave - Hazy
Squarewave
Album title: Hazy
By John Noyd
Posted: Aug 2020
Label: Artisanal Records
(1210) Page Views
Ephemeral memories dispatch crackling clashes between steadfast head-trips dripping in pensive entropy and nebulous indie-rock webs stretched and caressed, strung from fruitless pursuits and sung with aching radiance, ‘Hazy,” weightlessly braves prickly wickedness, muted ambiguity and regal fatigue with Martian guitars, respiratory synths and wily violin. Battling salvation born from after the storm poignancy, the album’s stately chord progressions, engaging arrangements and meditative lyrics float over atmospheric theatrics practiced in prudent disillusion. Cloud-chamber lion-tamers launched into space; raw, beating hearts on their sleeves, lost among the stars and crashing into the sea, Squarewave’s anchored patience, yearning turns and marathoner’s second wind fold shoegaze jangle into origami mirages, simmering hymns abandoned, rescued and tossed adrift onto cosmic symphonics whispering beneath folk-melody sweetness plucked from steampunk reductions.
Nadine Shah - Kitchen Sink
Nadine Shah
Album title: Kitchen Sink
By John Noyd
Posted: May 2020
Label: BMG
(1234) Page Views
Coiled in bold, majestic strangleholds and restless feather-boa smolder, Shah’s writhing grace and sultry embrace go hard on glam-rock grinds and suave with tropical gloss-pop teases. Rich in catfish bewitchment channeling quicksand-trance ambushes, “Sink,” challenges and balances, bending sensibilities. Swift in execution, cool in elocution, basking in fleeting intrigue, each track casts shadow moments among savvy impacts; dissecting institutional thoughts with discerning social burns accompanied by voodoo grooves whose fussy, gutsy, frank and funky struts rumble in space-age role-playing engagements, ominous comedies performed by foxy cosmonauts. Coy, supple couplets subtly rupturing percussion-driven sizzle, Shah’s provocateur suffragettes sum up slinky thinking in regal seizures wrecking eclectic testaments with hip-swiveling hypnosis, dressing up purring put-downs in rhythmic whimsy, tickling stony ceremonies with flirty verses and steely theories.
The Dears - Lovers Rock
The Dears
Album title: Lovers Rock
By John Noyd
Posted: Apr 2020
Label: Dangerbird Records
(1320) Page Views
Built on the sublime force of a solid pop chorus, “Lovers Rock,” wrestles expressive devils, doctoring desperate reflections and deploying royal contortions, cobra focus and cultivated cunning. Fearlessly conjuring outlier’s choirs, the Canadian’s eighth studio album’s profound art-lounge, fiery diary pile-drivers and swarthy warrior power-chords support told-you-so emotions and succinct living-on-the-brink thinking. Apocalyptic philosophy greased in sonic feasts and harmonic treats, The Dears redefine refined survival through caustic yacht-rock dodging sugar-coated explosions among glamorous land-slides. Lost innocence rinsed in somber promises and reasonable pleads beseeching valiant gallantry, soothing chivalry and fashionable castle-burning; the band’s timely diatribes simmer wound-licking symphonies in suave barbs, inhaling an air of nonchalant taunting beneath seething beliefs and cinematic conceits leaping and creeping between scorched metaphors, startled karma and noble commotion.
Half-handed Cloud - Gathered Out of Thin Air
Half-handed Cloud
Album title: Gathered Out of Thin Air
By John Noyd
Posted: Nov 2019
Label: Asthmatic Kitty
(20875) Page Views
Sixty newly-mastered, non-LP singles from the band’s second decade, including compositions commissioned for a London printmaking event that had cloud-master John Ringhofer leading group sing-a-longs from a giant spinning plywood record player, “Thin Air,” disburse harmonic mirth with invigorating play, inventing colorful exemptions to overturn conventions while willfully lobbing lyrical hobgoblins. There are songs written to benefit breast cancer research and songs wrestling with 16th century exploration, Christmas songs and songs intended as devotionals for walking. Logic defied and imaginations indulged, Half-Handed Cloud lives life singing through every moment as the mundane is blessed in wonder, his observational conversations slipping between insistent whimsy and gleeful upheaval; twisted pixie fictions dipped in dizzying divinity, delivered with wind-up toy melodies spouting doubtful mouthfuls and uttering supple mumbles.
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Album title: Gathered Out of Thin Air
By {review_writers_name}
Posted: Nov 2019
Label: {review_record_label}
(20890) Page Views
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Vagabon - Vagabon
Vagabon
Album title: Vagabon
By John Noyd
Posted: Oct 2019
Label: Nonesuch
(2399) Page Views
A wonderful step forward in musical emancipation, the self in Vagabon’s self-titled release sounds refreshed and confident. Redefining her indie roots, the Cameroon singer-songwriter happenstance wanders throughout the album in pursuit of vibrant ideas and new settings for recurring questions. Flushed in hushed colors, “Vagabon,” spawns exhilarating tranquility and congenial critiques; an uncaged song-bird sweetening smart beats and carving lusty harmonies from Afro-pop perches basking under soul-folk skies, tweaking close-cropped philosophy dusted in day-glo R&B. Strong, sauntering melodies coalesce into dreamy getaways as tribal choirs and soft, translucent electronics spill over hip bass and quivering rhythms while important words and casual phrases turn serious moments intimate and vital. Do not miss Vagabon opening up for the exquisite Angel Olsen November 13th at Madison’s The Sylvee.
Abram Shook - The Neon Machine
Abram Shook
Album title: The Neon Machine
By John Noyd
Posted: Sep 2019
Label: Western Vinyl
(32193) Page Views
Between catwalk catechism swimming in champagne confessions and mystical mathematics bringing sizzling calisthenics into slinky, mincing funk, Shook’s direct yet slippery dance-floor metaphors exert flirtatious glam-rock struts over carnivorous mischief lit in glow-stick falsettos and velvet grinds that is both savage in its slap-downs and pretty in its delivery. Dosed with flipped synth-pop squiggles and buzzing rock-guitar rebuttals, “The Neon Machine,” pushes all the right buttons, heating apocalyptic fevers inside midnight jive greasing double-dare teases with electric menace for super-pumped satin-sheet seductions. Barely breaking a sweat, the non-stop onslaught breaks down and holds back only to rise again as the album’s cat and mouse playhouse keeps the smarmy, party moving, cruising and begging for more. Catch the Texas wonder Oct 16th at Milwaukee’s Cactus Club.
The Police - “Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out”
The Police
Album title: “Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out”
By Michael Sherer
Posted: Sep 2019
Label:
(28107) Page Views
Stewart Copeland, drummer and founding member of The Police, bought a Super 8 film camera in 1978. Then 26, The Police, formed only a year earlier in London England, were beginning to gain real momentum, having been signed to A & M Records and releasing their debut record “Outlandos d’Amour” in 1978. It was while on tour for this release that Copeland began filming extensively with his new camera. This continued throughout their career, which ended in 1986 with The Police being one of the biggest groups in the world, if not the biggest.
This documentary type DVD film was initially released in 2006, a year before The Police reformed for a very successful 2007 - 2008 tour, marking their 30th anniversary of formation. In the summer of this year 2019, it was released in Blue Ray.
Made entirely by Copeland, it consists of the footage (with audio) he filmed, still photos taken by photographers, with a continual narration/story line provided by Copeland. It’s essentially a running commentary filled with insightful and thoughtful musings of a paradox and scenario all hugely successful groups/solo artists face: How does one deal with being so intensely in the public eye whilst being in your own bubble year after year while churning out a new record and then tour over and over and over again? Copeland alludes to how it became increasingly isolating and difficult to endure certain aspects of it, with the initial “all for one one for all” spirit becoming increasingly more about Sting, their front man, singer/bassist and chief songwriter, presenting the band with essentially finished songs with little or no room for the others’ input as they used to have. On the other hand, Copeland notes that it was, of course, nice to travel in much comfort and not in a cramped van as they started with.
It was a family affair with The Police, with Copland’s older brothers, Miles and Ian, as their manager and booking agent, respectively. We see plenty of them in action, within the very decent footage of the band performing throughout the world, all the members talking and their activities, the dizzying fan outcry, scenery of their extensive travels, them in the studio and a lot of funny horsing around between the three band mates. This last part became less and less as the demands of being in an increasingly big time juggernaut sapped their energy and time.
The footage and film ends in 1984, with them literally and metaphorically handcuffed to a railing at a hotel in France while on tour for their most last and most successful record “Synchronicity.” (It that had their huge and biggest hit by far “Every Breathe You Take.”) Although cuffed as a goof and play on their band name, it was poignantly symbolic for being trapped by their own major success in many respects.
An alternative title for this fun, introspective, personal and footage rich documentary could be “Copeland coping.” A must see for any Police fan. Go to eagle-rock.com for it and many more.
Vibrationland - Private Bits
Vibrationland
Album title: Private Bits
By John Noyd
Posted: Jan 2019
Label: self-release
(17146) Page Views
Despair flares and restless questions pester as woozy blues slip through psychedelic grooves to cruise into stereoscopic honky-tonk stained in uncurbed reverb and slightly toasted overdrive, Vibrationland’s latest rubber-band rock concoction oozes in organic banter well-versed in preposterous philosophies; roots-rocked fantasies blazed in fuzz-phased delays and merry prankster strangeness, grandstanding anthems born from narcoleptic revelations embracing zany mental-vacation getaways lined in fearless hall-of-mirror launch-pads and plush, carpeted landing-strips. A psychotic collection of conventional instruments melted into fun, unconventional arrangements, “Private,” ranges from opulent to ominous, hosting tympanis and banjos, harpsichords and brass, for monumental love-matches between eerie and cheery, spiked in riled off-course spirals and dizzy indie mysteries. Assembling unparalleled carousels of dreamy cohesiveness and informal non-conformity, Vibrationland leads brave, persuasive parades down exploratory detours.
Cold Black River - Tales Of Death And The Devil
Cold Black River
Album title: Tales Of Death And The Devil
By Sal Serio
Posted: Nov 2018
Label: Cold Black River
(20636) Page Views
Today we discuss the 3rd album from Madison’s resident purveyors of doom metal, Cold Black River. In a nutshell, the formula remains the same but the songcraft continues to improve. Generally speaking, “doom” compositions have a tendency to bog down with plodding riffs that take forever to reward with thrills and audience payoff, kind of like a porno that never reaches the climax. Fortunately this CBR release includes all the money shots in the final edit, which is to say thank goodness there truly IS a happy ending here!
A rock trio is like the opposite of a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. It’s only got three components. Four, if you count the vocals. Every one of the ingredients has to be of the highest quality, and all have to pull their own weight. Most importantly, each one must compliment each other and complete the big picture. I feel like CBR understands that, and with each successive visit to the studio they’ve executed a more impressive “painting”.
I’d like to see this progression continue on to the next CBR project. Since the doom genre can be so predictable and formulaic, I think this group can continue to set themselves apart from the pack with this trend toward increased creativity in their song structure, proving there really is room for “artistic vision” within the context of hard rock music.
Recommended tracks: “Keep Rollin’”, “Among The Stars”, “Anywhere Ya Wanna”.
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