Sixteen years and six albums later, the band are now dads. Those same students who danced to the syncopated verses of Apply Some Pressure are now coping with the realisation that they are grown-ups with real responsibilities. They are no longer the same people with entry-level jobs and pay packets, they are now mortgage-wielding producers of children. With exciting pasts behind them, their present and futures are a mix of nappies, standing orders and debates on whether or not to risk putting an extension on the back of the house given the risk of a property crash.

Nature Always Wins deals with these anxieties. The lead single off the album, Baby, Sleep, is the best example of singer Paul Smith’s lyrics focussing on his parental responsibilities and the independent-mindedness of his child and its sleeping pattern. In their earlier work, Maxïmo Park’s music was at its most compelling. Apply Some Pressure dealt with the nervousness about a future relationship where Smith’s Newcastle howl captured the excitement and uncertainty. Now entering his forties, Smith’s lyrics are shorn of much of that uncertainty, choosing to instead focus on his grown-up responsibilities.

The album’s high point, Ardour, offers a view into Smith and his bandmates’ uncertainty, however. Featuring Penetration’s Pauline Murray, the track is a jangly number that would fit nicely on their debut. The song features an excellent chorus. He asks if he can still deliver jokes or has just become the punchline himself.

On I Don’t Know What I’m Doing, Smith sings passionately about the fact that he hasn’t changed – but that his routine has. Writing it down, it feels like mundane fare. But it’s Smith’s delivery which sells the sentiment. His candid yelps about the worries he has about passing on his frailties to his kids are compelling.

Of the bands that rose to prominence in the mid-2000s, Maxïmo Park might not have seemed like a candidate for still being relevant over fifteen years after their debut. But, by growing with their fans, they offer something lyrically that listeners can empathise with. The days of bouncing to indie tunes on a Tuesday night may be long gone, but the record’s earnestness in addressing this shift in responsibility is what makes it so sellable.

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To excavate 2121 fully will take dozens of listens. The album features an electric mix of collaborations from Future Islands lead singer Samuel Herring, Nashville rapper Namir Blade and Chicago vocalist A. Billi Free. All of whom are marshalled by The Lasso amid some ambitious composing.

The Abyss, midway through the album, begins as a pretty standard hip-hop track. Drum machine kicking, Fat Tony raps about justice and a need for change. Then, a bass guitar joins in, oozing funk. The song complicates things further with dreamy vocals echoing over the beat. And when it gets to Fat Tony’s second verse, the song accelerates beyond a simple rap track; you’re listening to something altogether more futuristic. The Houston rapper’s vocals are altered, just slightly, and you skip forward a few decades. Gradually you’ve been taken on a journey from 80s style hip-hop through to music at the very vanguard of modern hip-hop.

The third track on the album Will We Be Us Again? features a rapped verse and understated sung performance from Hemlock Ernst (the hip-hop performing name for Future Island’s Samuel Herring) with saxophones high in the mix.

The sci-fi theme is woven throughout the album, lyrically and in its production. This is a futuristic house party, existing on an astral plane. 2121‘s influences and sounds give the album the feeling of being akin to a musical version of the bookshelf sequence in Nolan’s Interstellar. It’s the past, present and future all at once.

The Lasso credits this album’s influences as Arthur C. Clarke, Motor City Funk, Van Dyke Parks, modern funk and art-rap. If that sounds confusing, it isn’t. The album feels coherent despite the disparate elements that have been fused together, Somehow the album features cellos and saxophones, an orchestra, Moogs and mellotrons. Rappers and sung vocals, some affected and altered, some not. And yet the album doesn’t sound “odd” at all.

The Lasso and his collaborators deliver on the concept; 2121 is one hundred years in the future. If this is the sound of music to come, it’s time to find a time machine or cryogenically freeze yourself. 2121 is a keeper.

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We have all heard enough of Mull of Kintyre and Driving Home For Christmas. Instead of sticking with these tried and tested – but, perhaps tired – classics, a new collection is needed. It’s time to look a little beyond the songs we all grew up with, to discover some originals and some covers.

The Killers – Joseph, Better You Than Me

The Killers called in Elton John and Pet Shop Boy, Neil Tennant for this one. The song tells the story of a beaten down Joseph struggling with fame and the rumours that he isn’t the father of Jesus. It’s ludicrous and bombastic and part of The Killers hit-and-miss collection of annual Christmas songs.

Sufjan Stevens – That Was The Worst Christmas Ever!

Sufan Stevens has delivered albums of wildly divergent styles, including an abortive attempt to write an album about each of the US States. His five-disc, 2006 compendium includes enough orchestration and tasteful Christmas covers to please parents, including three versions of  O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Somehow, he’s released over 100 Christmas songs in his career.

Kacey Musgraves & Lana Del Rey – I’ll Be Home For Christmas

Breathy chanteuse Lana Del Rey and country star Musgraves’ track is taken from an Amazon Prime Christmas special. It’s a simple song, but the collaboration is lovely. The song takes on newfound meaning this year as we look ahead to our five days of Christmas in our three-household bubbles.

Khruangbin – Christmas Time is Here 

The Laidback Texans covered Vince Guaraldi’s Christmas track from the A Charlie Brown Christmas. It doesn’t grab you by the lapels, but it’s good atmospheric psychedelic rock.

She & Him – Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Frank Loesser’s original track is over seventy-five years old, and subject to some woke controversy. But on this album, A Very She and Him Christmas ( a 70s-tinged run through of Christmas standards) Baby it’s Cold Outside is the highlight. Rufus Wainwright and Sharon Van Etten released a sinister version of Baby in 2012.

The Shins – Wonderful Christmastime

The Paul McCartney classic is updated, slightly, by The Shins. The guitar is more emphatic, and James Mercer’s voice is as bittersweet as ever. The original, with its B-Side The Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae has yet to find a modern cover.

F***ed Up and Various Artists – Do They Know It’s Christmas

A version with a little more edge. The punk band F***ed Up called upon Andrew WK, indie darlings Vampire Weekend and Tegan & Sara, amongst others, to support a recast version of the 1984 collective endeavour. The lyrics remain as stupid as ever. But it’s an excellent way for F***ed Up to have spent their Polaris Prize money and the track raised money for charities focussed on violence against indigenous women in Canada. Sadly unavailable on Spotify, you can find it on YouTube.

Bob Dylan – Must Be Santa

Featuring a rundown of reindeer which, bizarrely include several US presidents thrown in, Dylan’s cover is polka-styled and downright bizarre, It’s just about the only highlight on his 2009 Christmas record.

Cat Power – Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Cat Power, aka Chan Marshall, can deliver simple tracks with weight and emotion. The standard is subtly arranged and features none of the orchestration or bombast of previous versions. Shame it was used in an Apple advert in 2013 to flog iPhones.

Porridge Radio – The Last Time I Saw You (O Christmas)

After a mammoth 2020 where they were nominated for the Hyundai Mercury Prize, Porridge Radio’s newest track is the most recently released song on this list. The slacker indie band’s track doesn’t feature bells, but it’s an angsty nod to the experience of travelling home to your parents at Christmas and being bothered by that ex who always gets in touch.

Chilly Gonzales ft. Jarvis Cocker and Feist – Snow is Falling in Manhattan

Having collaborated in 2017 for an album about a hotel room in LA, Gonzales and Cocker add Canadian singer Feist for a festive number on the pianists 2020 Christmas record. The track is a classy, sparse cover of the David Berman Track, drawing a picture of Manhattan that we’ve seen in countless Christmas films.

Eels – Everything’s Gonna Be Cool This Christmas

Released in 1996, it’s a Christmas song of its time. It includes the immortal line “There’s a Yuletide groove waiting for you to move”.

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Nick Luscombe, the former Six Music DJ and Japanese music enthusiast, has compiled a collection of music from the famed Nippon Columbia label and its sub-label Better Days. The album is part history lesson and part DJ-set. Luscombe was let loose in Nippon Columbia’s much-guarded vaults and has come out with a compilation that tracks the development of synth-pop and the universal funk influence.

From the 1970s, developments in new Japanese-made synthesisers and drum machines meant cutting edge music was consistent in Japan. Luscombe says in the accompanying release for the album that this music still “sounds and feels like the future”, and he’s right. The opening track, The End of Asia, opens with legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s six-minute track and ends with an epic guitar line. The track then moves to its real synth coda, which must have influenced The Blade Runner soundtrack in some way.

On Mariah’s Shinzo No Tabria’s a percussive intro gives way to a synth groove, before Maria’s ethereal delivery. The track takes an edgier form, with a fraught guitar line joining the mix midway through. The track’s open brings to mind the close of Kanye West’s Love Lockdown, a song on the album 808s & Heartbreak. 

The 808 drum machine is essential. It’s a critical part of music history. The device was manufactured by the Japanese firm Roland and underpins many of the tracks on Tokyo Dreaming. It went on to be a near-constant of early hip-hop production. Hearing it in its early stages is fascinating. For American and European audiences, one of the first times it was noticeable was on Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing.

Yumi Morata’s cover of Akiko Yano’s Watashi No Bus takes Tokyo Dreaming in the direction of city pop. Tracks like Yano’s are the record is at its best and most listenable. Rainy Driver, by Hitomi Tohyama, from her debut album, Just Call Me Penny, is a classy example of slick, funky Japanese city pop. It sits neatly alongside Yano’s classic.

Strings, woodwind, and Yumi Seino elevate the album beyond drum machines and synthesisers on La Maison Est Ruine. The track is a cover of an obscure Michel Delpeche track from his 1974 album Le Chasseur and an example of how European music influenced Japanese music, though Japanese music later went on to influence Western music in equal measure.

Chinatown Rose, is the highlight of the album. It is a groovy blend blend of disco and funk and a marked tempo shift from the rest of the album. The cross-over between funk and synth-pop is displayed vividly on a danceable, high-tempo track. It’s futuristic, but of its time. On the pacey Soul Life, Haruo Chikada’s Sting-like delivery alongside the Vibratones is perfect 80s pop.

It’d be easy to dismiss the album on the basis that some of the music is forgettable. Perhaps even Muzak if you aren’t particularly keen on synth-pop. But Tokyo Dreaming is a rewarding listen for anyone with a particular penchant for Japanese music, or, for anyone who wants to understand the earliest uses of the drum sounds that became ubiquitous in the 80s – in pop, hip-hop and dance music.

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It wasn’t that West wasn’t controversial before this point, his humiliation of Swift came after claiming in 2005 that George W. Bush didn’t care about black people, and several other awards show-based incidents, it just cemented his position as antagonist-in-chief. With the jeers of the world’s media and Donald Trump (there is, always, a quote), West went into exile. The moment was to prove the catalyst for one of the most lauded American albums of the past thirty years.

Earlier in his career, Kanye West’s signature style as a producer earned him plaudits. He innovatively played with the pitch and speed of classic soul tracks, creatively employing classic Luther Vandross, Chaka Khan and the Jackson 5.

His production for Foxy Brown, Beanie Seagal and Cam’Ron offered a glimpse of his talent as a producer. But it was Kanye’s work on Jay-Z’s The Blueprint which brought him to attention. In particular Izzo (H.O.V.A.), with its slowed down use of I Want You Back by the Jackson 5 exemplifies his early production style. His relationship with Jay-Z and Damon Dash’s label, Roc-A-Fella records gave him a chance as a rapper.

His brush with death ahead of the recording of his first album The College Dropout, gave Kanye a story to accompany his debut album. The soul-tinged, Through The Fire, sampling his debut single, Through the Wire tracks his rehabilitation and was a hit on release in 2005. Throughout his career, a backstory and narrative have always been as important as the music he makes. For My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, the story of the rapper in exile, creating a record to prove his haters wrong, is as much a part as the music or the videos that accompany it.

Post-VMA exile, West visited Japan, France and then, finally, Hawaii. He booked the entirety of the Avex Recording Studio and created what he called “Rap Camp”. A revolving door of producers, rappers and singers to work on his fifth album.

From August of 2010, ahead of the release of Fantasy, West released fourteen tracks in a series that came to be known as GOOD Fridays. Some of the tracks found their way on to the final album; some did not. It offered more proof that West is a master at gaining publicity. Rather than releasing two or three singles, the series was a massive expansion on the regular run-up to an album’s release. The series guaranteed West weekly coverage, for three months. Each release increased anticipation for the upcoming album and which rappers might appear on the next tracks. From Common to Lupe Fiasco, Raekwon to Pusha T, the album features over 20 guest artists, including sixteen-year-old Justin Bieber.

The album finally appeared, clocking in at nearly 70 minutes long, spread over thirteen tracks – most tracks extending over more than five minutes. Rap tracks tend to be longer, but the statement piece of the album – Runaway is longer than Bohemian Rhapsody (a little over nine minutes in length). The duration of it isn’t the only grandiose statement; the number of guest artists on the album is hard to pin down, but it appears to be over 25 additional singers or rappers. All of the Lights, the extravagant fifth track on the album, has no less than 11 guest vocalists (including Elton John, Alicia Keys, John Legend and Rhianna).

Lyrically, the album finds Kanye at his funniest. His creative use of language is evident throughout the album. On Devil in a New Dress, he seamlessly rhymes “sin” with “sensation”. Or, on Power closing the song with the words “so exciting” gradually morphing into the word “suicide”.

As with all Kanye’s albums, he also makes several points about black identity. On Gorgeous he considers musical success (somewhat immodestly comparing himself to the Beatles).

On his previous album, West had moved away from the tried and tested sampling and interpolation that defined his first three records. On Fantasy, they return. On, Gorgeous, West interpolates and samples the same song (The Turtles You Showed Me, and the cover of the track by Enoch Light). Using samples lends a song an air of credibility, especially when taking a classic track. But the way that West chops relatively obscure songs is in itself a skill.

The track Runaway features Expo 83 by the Backyard Heavies, chopped up to make the track. Even the opening of the album is an interpolation of a kind. It opens with Nicki Minaj delivering an adapted version of Roald Dahl’s Cinderella poem in a mockney accent that would make Dick Van Dyke proud.

Alongside the album, West released a thirty-five-minute-long short film featuring most tracks from the album. Centred around and titled “Runaway”, the film tracks West’s relationship with a half-woman, half-phoenix who has crashed to earth. It’s visually arresting, it’s crescendo featuring a ballet performance to the auto-tuned section of Runaway. Inspired, in part, by Karl Lagerfeld, the short film is a further example of the egotistic nature of the whole album.

On release, the maximalist masterpiece earned near-universal praise. The spectacularly difficult to please Pitchfork music website gave the album a score of ten out of ten. Fantasy was the first to receive the honour since Wilco’s 2002 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. It’s taken the site ten years to hand another perfect score out – Fiona Apple’s 2020 album, Fetch The Bolt Cutters. Billboard, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Stereogum, Time and The Village Voice named it as their album of the year in 2010.

End-of-the-decade lists in 2019 found the album sitting atop the pile. The Rap website Complex places it first, as did Billboard. Rolling Stone named it the best album of the decade. The magazine also ranked it at number 17 in their 2020 overhaul of their famed 500 Greatest Albums of All Time List. Fantasy is nestled between The Clash’s London’s Calling and Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited.

Since that 2010 release, Kanye has, among many other things, run unsuccessfully for President, married a Kardashian, donated millions of dollars to charity, started an architecture firm, designed dozens of sneakers for Adidas and released five records. The subsequent albums don’t scale the extraordinary musical heights of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy; they do share the thing that truly special though, West’s desire to push the boundaries of rap and pop.

We’re now almost six months overdue for West’s tenth album, DONDA, named after his late mother. It’s probably too much to hope that it delivers in the way that Fantasy did ten years ago, but few albums ever will.

Jim White’s latest album, Misfits Jubilee (produced by Loose Records), is a mix of lucid tales of drug smuggling teenagers and encounters with Big Foot, and a sprinkling of US politics and self-aware national stereotypes.

White (real name Michael Pratt) has released seven albums before Jubilee. The 10 tracks in his latest are, broadly, Americana, with other influences thrown in. But this isn’t the brooding, weighty Americana of Lucinda Williams; it’s part-dark comedy and surrealism, and part storytelling, with canvasses set across small-town America.

“I’m fond of such foolish conjecture,” White sings on Wonders Never Cease. And he is. One track includes a tale of interacting with a Sasquatch, all played out over some excellent banjo work. The track mindbogglingly finishes with a popular YouTube meme playing off in the distance.

The record is irreverent, off-beat and only occasionally veers into more serious territory. The final track, The Divided States of America bemoans “That goddamn Fox News, is always on.”Midway through the song, White’s political views take the stage as a news clip about gun crime in the US follow a canned mention of the number of billionaires there are in the country (536 apparently). Despite White delivering unashamedly American music, he clearly despairs at how he views the US. After the news segment White sings “Hear Them AKs a’popping, See our school kid’s a’dropping, Our core of decency gone.”

Whether sober or frivolous, White’s lyrics are compelling and remain lodged in your head, evoking the America of Sons of Anarchy or Hell or High Water. Take Highway of Lost Hats, which follows a couple speeding in a “hopped up Pontiac GTO,” singing about loving the girl that has fallen asleep on the driver, as he drives on the “blacktop for miles and miles.” The police pull over the driver, and the song takes a more sinister turn. Is the girl actually asleep?

At times the record is a little jarring. The music accompanying it can feel almost slapstick. Still, the longer you listen to Misfits Jubilee, the more you realise that the value in this record is in the world’s that White’s lyrics build, whether serious or silly. And because of that, it inspires a trawl through his back catalogue.

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I’m organising an outdoor dining club to help my favourite restaurants stay afloat during local lockdown.

Below are some further details but if you like the idea, don’t just come to mine, set up your own.

Tier 2* restrictions mean people cannot dine indoors with anyone other than those from the same household. However, with a coat, a patio heater, blankets and generous helpings of wine, we can still dine with our friends and family who we don’t live with – outdoors.

Even with many restaurants continuing Rishi Sunak’s “Eat Out To Help Out” scheme, it is going to be a brutal winter for the industry.

So let’s (H)eat out to help out.

We need to support the cafes, restaurants and pubs that we don’t want to disappear. It’s time to wrap up warm, grab a blanket, ignore the inclement weather and eat great food and drink some fantastic wine.

How to get involved:

1. Visit opentable.co.uk and select outdoor dining.

2. Select a local restaurant/cafe that has outdoor seating.

3. Invite up to five people — friends, family or long lost work colleagues.

4. Eat great food. Have fun!

5. Share where you’ve been on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook to encourage others to do the same (use the tag #HeatOutToHelpOut).

6. Ask each of your friends who attends to do the same the week after to do steps 1–4 next week, while you do the same with a new group.

If we come together now, despite the restrictions (but complying with them), we can support the fantastic places we all enjoyed before the pandemic and help them through the winter months.

The best bit about it, all you’re doing is catching up with pals and having a great night out.

#HeatOutToHelpOut

*Tier 1 restrictions mean you can, and Tier 3 means no household mixing at pubs and bars.

Berninger’s baritone voice has never sounded warmer. It makes the album an intimate listen. It rarely reaches for bombast and, for National fans, sits neatly alongside tracks like About Today off their Cherry Tree EP from 2004. The them of insecurity crops up on a number of tracks.

Booker T. Jones handled production and a lot of instrumentation on the album. Loved So Little shows his fingerprints most of all. The track carries hallmarks of the blues, especially the harmonica and violin dancing around each other on the outro to the song. Aside from the bluesier aspects of the album, the record is packed with delicate musicianship. Jones doesn’t crowd the vocals, Berninger’s late-night ruminations shine through.

The Cincinnati native’s lyrics are always heartfelt, occasionally tortured. On this record, the words can be downright devastating. On One More Second Berninger eschews metaphor entirely, singing:

The last time we were together
Lately, it feels like forever
And the way we talked last night
It felt like a different kind of fight

The track is the highlight of the album, a window into the melancholy musings of someone whose relationship is collapsing around them.

On Collar of Your Shirt, insecurity is again at the fore, perhaps the same person from One More Second, imagining losing his partner. Berninger somehow manages to sing a line as earnest as “I’m so afraid your love is leaving me”, without it ever getting close to being corny. It’s in equal parts down to the quality of his voice and how he delivers the line, understated and a little helpless.

All For Nothing is the one track which edges closest to Berninger’s day job. The forlorn horns building through the song in a way familiar to anyone who has attended a National gig. It’s a welcome moment on the album, and Berningner singing “It’s all for nothing” repeatedly is moving.

Beyond Jones, there is a fine cast supporting Berninger. Gail Ann Dorsey, who performed as part of David Bowie’s touring band, appears with Berninger on Silver Springs. Other guests on the album read like a Pitchfork dream. Andrew Bird throws in some backing vocals and violin work (including the plucked violin flourishes towards the end of Collar of Your Shirt), fellow National bandmate Scott Devendorf plays bass on tracks and Walter Martin of the (frustratingly) on hiatus Walkmen playing across several instruments on several tracks.

Serpentine Prison is a totally different proposition to his last effort outside The National, a tie up with Meonomena’s Brent Knopf, under the monicker El Vy. It’s similar to his work with the National, but different enough to mark it as his individual sound.

The spotlight first fell when their performance on the Late Show with David Letterman went viral some years ago. The band’s popularity since rests on the emotional weight of Samuel T Herring’s lyrics and the consistently gorgeous synths accompanying them.

New album As Long As You Are was recorded by the band in their home town of Baltimore. The founding trio of William Cashion, Gerrit Welmers and Herring has expanded to a four-piece, with drummer Mike Lowry joining as an official member and songwriter on this album, having previously been a touring member of the band.  The album is the product of significant evolution in their sound too; it is their best music yet.

Future Islands are one of the most exciting live acts you’ll ever see. The romantic synth songs on this record will be played out alongside Herring’s over-the-top dancing, chest-beating and throaty delivery when we can eventually see live music again. I can’t wait.

Lead singer Herring’s voice is distinctive. He manages to convey the sensitivity of the subject he’s singing about, while only ever being several seconds from sounding more primal, perhaps exhibited best on For Sure, one of the quicker tracks on the album.

Herring has said that he is now “happy for the first time in a long time,” which allowed him to feel freer to explore [himself] and accept “certain truths” in his new music. While the album isn’t universally happy in tone, or in lyric, there are moments which capture his newfound contentedness. On Plastic Beach, he sings about the happiness he’s found in accepting himself and the excitement he feels for the future with his new partner. If that sounds saccharine, wait till you hear it. The passion and urgency in his delivery makes it both authentic and captivating.

Gerrit Welmers’ synth work on this, and Future Islands’ other records, add a romantic and emotional depth to their music. New addition Mike Lowry makes his presence known with his drumming on the track Moonlight. It’s one of the gentler tracks on the album, but the drumming coda on the record allows the song to linger long after Herring has finished singing. It’s meditative.

Born in a War is my favourite pick of the album’s eleven tracks, starting out as a mid-tempo song, with a guitar line to die for. The song transforms midway through into a rave, complete with 90s house synths to close out the track. The anti-gun anthem questioning those who feel it necessary to have “shotgun shells under every roof,” Herring yelps, “Look into a strong man’s eyes.” The devastating, quiet line at the end of the song, “Bloody hell”, tells us everything we need to know about Herring’s view on guns in the USA.

Herring is happier, his band sound better than ever. Future Islands continue to impress.

Track Pick: ‘Born in a War’.

Listen to the album on Spotify or Apple Music now.

With the Autumn equinox comes the fourth Fleet Foxes album. While the cast list changes every album, the band remains unchangeably impressive.

Josh Tillman (Father John Misty) once played the drums for the band, but neither Tillman nor Foxes have suffered since he put down the sticks and started his sarcastic, sardonic solo career. Pecknold himself has worked with other impressive artists, Hamilton Leithauser, Daniel Rossen and Ed Droeste (both of Grizzly bear), as well as taking time away from music to study at Columbia University. Now 34, his fourth album presents a man wise beyond his years, prepared to fully open up to complex feelings.

The album is introspective, but without being too soft. “My clothes are torn, but it’s right on me”, Pecknold sings on Cradling Mother, Cradling Woman. Pecknold is unafraid of exploring more negative thoughts, but there are also moments of unbridled joy on the album. Sunrise, the album’s second track features Pecknold praising his heroes like Richard Swift and Bill Withers.

The third track on Shore, Can I Believe You is one of the best songs of the year. Dramatic without being heavy, the piece features some of the finest vocals that Pecknold has ever delivered. While restrained, his repeated questions of his partner and his anxiety about a new relationship echo the early day worries of a new relationship. Remarkably the track features several hundred fans who sent in vocals to feature on the album.

Fans of the Beach Boys may appreciate the Phil Spector wall-of-sound styles on the record. Aptly, Brian Wilson appears, via sample, on the album. Pecknold uses Wilson’s count in from one of his favourite recordings of Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder) on the penultimate track of the album.

Pecknold has referred to this as the “friendly brother” of Fleet Foxes 2017 album, Crack Up. That album had its bleaker, moodier moments. This album, lighter, far easier a listen is an instant classic and is endlessly listenable.

Kelly Lee Owens – Melt (Smalltown Supersound)

It is hard to make electronic music warm. It is, by its nature, clear and sharp, and because of the way it is produced filled with hard edges and precise sounds.

Kelly Lee Owens’ songwriting and repetitive lyrics mean provide a rare and warm emotional undertone in an icy genre. Her second album, even better than her well-regarded debut, offers a journey across several different electronic music sub-genres.

Re-Wild, the fourth track on the album is the absolute highlight. It features a heavy baseline and a hypnotically swirling chorus.

At times the album glides along. Then, almost jarringly, the record moves to a club setting. It is in these moments where Owens’ music stands out. At times it sounds suited to a rave in the Fortress of Solitude.

Father John Misty – real name, Josh Tillman – has released an EP of covers. The release brings together three previously recorded tracks and the newly recorded title song.

The highlight is the EP’s title song Anthem, a cover of a 1992 Leonard Cohen track. Doing away with the backing singers and orchestra of Cohen’s original, Tillman’s sparse arrangement allows his voice to take centre stage. It brings new life to the track, with a hint of sadness and despair that Cohen’s original recording perhaps lacks.

Trouble, a cover of the 1971 Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam track plods a little. But the final song on the EP, another Cohen cover, One of Us Cannot Be Wrong is exciting and features some excellent saxophone. The recording of Tillman’s voice is imperfect, with slight distortions at points, adding to Cohen’s dramatic lyrics. These two tracks alone are a stirring case for an entire album of Cohen covers.

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Seasick Steve – Love & Peace (There’s a Dead Skunk Records)

America divided. Trump vs Biden. Coast vs Rust Belt. Seasick Steve drops his eleventh album trying to reconcile his fellow countrymen. The album opens with a speech about how it is “all got tangled up, we don’t listen to each other no more.” Then, the album opener and title track moves out of neutral into a stable, blues guitar cruise. Seasick implores listeners to “stop the hatred now” and “get back to love and peace”.

The album chugs along at a pace. Most of the time it sounds like it should soundtrack a Peterbilt 379 montage video; the album is Americana and blues, expect nothing else. Seasick has not tried to expand his sound before, and it appears he will not ever. The duststorm of Church of Me is the highlight. The track builds to the sort of riff that is powered by a diet of sour mash and engine oil. The itinerant American continues to deliver.

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Ganser – Just Look At That Sky (felte)

Chicago post-punk band Ganser returns with their second full-length album. Piercing guitar lines and pneumatic rhythms are features of the energetic record. Particular highlights on Sky include Emergency Equipment and Exits.

When the singing is more melodic, the band sounds far more interesting, best exhibited on Told You So. In this case, the chorus is juxtaposed with a droned verse. A solid, if an unspectacular record, likely only attractive to post-punk enthusiasts.

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The lead in the novels, Kosuke Kindaichi, is as famous in Japan as Holmes, Marple or Poirot are to European readers. The scruffily dressed detective is an essential Japanese literary character. Kindachai was likely to be as prominent a reference point for the 2020 Olympics as Rashomon, Mount Fuji and elements of Japanese cuisine. Alas, the Olympics have been postponed due to the pandemic.

That being said, long-planned celebrations of Japanese culture to coincide with the thirty-second Olympiad are still happening. The Japan 2020 season at the BFI is one such example; a fantastic series of films with the showcase of J-Horror and the works of Kurosawa and Oju demanding particular attention.

Owing to governments around the world hitting the pause button, we have to enjoy Japan’s past, rather than revel in what should have been an upcoming spectacular blend of the Japanese people, their culture and elite sport.

But as with the BFI series, there is plenty for those keen to dig into the island nation’s cultural heritage to discover. Our musical appetite is satiated by a retrospective of Pacific Breeze 2: Japanese city pop, AOR and boogie between 1972 and 1986, released by Light in the Attic Records. The label has been delving into niche and under-represented music since 2002.

The album is a reminder to look further afield when seeking a cultural fix. The peak of this record is Anri’s Last Summer Whisper a song that, if sung by Diana Ross, would be one of the most famous in the world. It’s a compelling post-break-up song in which Anri agonises over wanting to see someone one last time, featuring the line “At the very least I want to try not to hate you.” The opening song on the album Pink Shadow would be a guaranteed hit in the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtracks.

It is a very “cool” album. Louche West London twenty-somethings will delight in playing the album at a barbecue while ignoring government social distancing mandates. Vibration is the type of song that invites you to play it as a subtle flex in the background of a seven-person-on-a-small-balcony-barbecue. It is guaranteed to make guests ask about the unique sound.

Kindaichi himself makes two appearances on the record. The better of the two is Kindaichi Kosuke No Theme by The Mystery Kindaichi Band (starting to see how popular the character is?). It features horns and towards the end of the track, Motown-esque strings swell. It’s a perfect accompaniment to reading about Japan’s famous sleuth.

It’s easy to underestimate the work done in compiling a compilation like this. Pacific Breeze isn’t merely a neatly packaged Spotify playlist. Many of the tracks aren’t available to stream digitally. Extensive remastering work means the tracks sound excellent. On YouTube you will only find poorly uploaded bootlegs, they aren’t a patch on the presentation of these tracks.

Light in the Attic has done a stellar job of pulling together a broad, exciting and listenable collection of Japanese music from the 70s and 80s. It’s a reminder to those of us who will happily spend much of our time taking our music cues from America that great music exists outside the West.

Track Pick: Last Summer Whisper – Anri 
Spotify / Apple Music

Buy the album at Light in the Attic.

That’s probably an oversimplistic comparison. And an unfair one to Will Toledo’s band. Where the Strokes repeatedly fail in their attempts to expand their sound, Car Seat Headrest have managed to do so on their (at times) bonkers new album. Car Seat Headrest has managed to be prolific and maintain critical acclaim – something Casablancas et al. could only hope to pull off.  

Since 2010, Car Seat Headrest have released 17 albums. Early, self-released, albums featured less traditional song structures and stream-of-consciousness lyrics. Later albums feature memorable and better known tracks like ‘Drunk Driver/Killer Whale‘. 

On Making a Door Less Open, the band, led by founder and singer Will Toledo, has departed from their traditional indie sound that featured a regular sprinkling of electronic instruments. 

Toledo, unusually for a musician, acknowledges that listening habits have changed. Empowered by Spotify and its mega-playlists, fewer people are listening to albums in their entirety. Given that acceptance, the band have released an album which is a collection of songs which the group described as each having a “special energy” with differing visions underpinning them. Translation: they’ve released an album with a load of songs that don’t naturally fit together. It’s no bad thing. 

The album opener, “Weightlifters,” is punchy and bright. Toledo’s drawl high in the mix above electronic drum patterns and occasional guitars piercing like lightning. A delicate guitar line midway through signals the track comes together. The slow, bright, build of the song giving way to a frenetic two and a half minutes cramming in three verses and two repeats of the chorus. It’s a good opener. 

“Making A Door Less Open” is at its best when juxtaposing Toledo’s drawling delivery against bright tracks. One of the singles off the album, “Martin” being a good illustration (while also having a delightful bit of trumpet joining towards the end).  

The high point of the album has to be “Hollywood”. A mad track which takes aim at the LA Neighbourhood with scathing lyrics. In particular, “They don’t talk about the / 12 year olds on pills waking up in beds of big producers”. No wonder the delightfully immature chorus repeats “Hollywood makes me wanna puke”. Toledo’s disdain is visceral. In the first verse, he puts down aspirant actors with the arch lines “You’ve got a face that you think / Will last as long as the Sphinx / But the poster’s painted over in a week if it stinks”. It’s the peak of the album. 

For long time fans of the band, I imagine there will be disquiet. The influence of electronic music on this album is hefty. It’s not subtle and is an absorption of a whole new style. The seventh track on the LP, “Deadlines (Thoughtful)”, takes the EDM sound to its most extreme. Kicking off at pace, it sounds like a Hot Chip track. But the thing that draws you back is Toledo’s drawl. A heavy bassline, no guitars of any note, synths in their place. 

If there’s one track which lets the album down, it’s the closing track “famous”. It’s just a bit “meh” and adds little to the record. It’s the weakest example of the band trying to harness the sound of electronic music. Boring and unmemorable.

Toledo says that he is, on this album and when touring it live, playing a masked character called TRAIT. Perhaps he is. But what the band are definitely doing is trying bold, exciting things. Introducing new sounds and challenging their fans. And given they’ll likely release a new album next year, why not. 

Maybe the band will get back to pure guitar band music. This could be a quick detour. On the whole, it works. And if it doesn’t work for you, then just whack “Hollywood” on repeat. 

Track Pick: Hollywood

Australian seven-piece King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard’s live album isn’t their first. It’s their fourth live record. They are prolific. Somehow, the Melbourne residents have managed to release fifteen studio albums since their debut in 2012.

Here’s the thing about live albums. In the main, they’re terrible – the sort of afterthought by more prominent bands who need a release for the Christmas market. But King Gizz (as I’m now referring them to save word count) have released a beauty.

I first saw the band in 2015 at Latitude. Rake-thin members with the confidence you need to carry off both the band’s sound and their prolific release schedule. The only reason I went to see them was because of the band’s name. When the lead singer spat up in the air and caught it again (in his mouth) during the first song it was 50:50. The band either had to be brilliant or barking mad. In King Gizz’s case – it was both. Frenetic but tight. They can really play. Set up with two drummers. It was an experience. Brash, loud and memorable. And hearing this record, it’s like being taken back there.

Chunky Shrapnel (what an album title!) is beautifully recorded. Take the track ‘Wah Wah’, from a Madrid show last year. It begins with singer Stu Mackenzie (predictably) singing “Wah Wah” and the audience immediately sings along. It’s what you want from a live album. You want to smell the smoke machine and feel like you’ve spent the night pushed up against a guy who needs a better hygiene routine.

King Gizz have managed to keep things fresh. See their 2017 album where they made heavy use of a Zurna, a Turkish horn. As an aside, the album’s name was Flying Microtonal Banana. Terrific. 

The varied nature of their career means that you get such odd juxtapositions on Chunky Shrapnel. For example, ‘Hell’, an old school metal track leads directly into ‘Let Me Mend The Past’, a heartfelt bluesy song which could comfortably sit on a White Stripes album.

Admittedly, this isn’t going to be for everyone. It is heavy in parts. But if you’re willing to put the effort in, there is much here to enjoy.

The album is accompanied by a part-documentary, part-concert film. It gets you up close with the band on various dates during their European tour. Shot on film, it has the grubby quality of a gig. It’s unnarrated, but with enough conversation between the band to let you in. It’s not intended to be a behind the scenes expose. But, hearing the band moaning about having to do press, or mocking larger groups who turn up from their hotel without warming up gives you a sense of who they are.

Seeing it is the best way to enjoy the album. It’s available to stream for one day only (having been available for one day last week too). It’s worth it for anyone who is musically adventurous or a rock aficionado. And, quite honestly, given the likelihood of gigs being back on any time soon is low, why the hell not. It’s not likely you’re going to see a flute solo at a show in person this side of Christmas.

Chunky Shrapnel is King Gizz at the peak of their powers. Whether you watch it or listen to it it’s a joy to see a band having this much fun.

Track Pick: ‘A Brief History of Planet Earth’

The Loves of Your Life was written and recorded by Hamilton Leithauser in his home studio, playing almost all the instruments, with his family doing most of the backing vocals.

With New York in lockdown, you’d be forgiven for assuming this was written a couple of weeks ago and rushed out. It wasn’t.

Instead, this was a choice. Leithauser spent three years recording in his home studio (the “Struggle Hut”), playing up to eight instruments on a single song. The end result is not perfect (Leithauser freely admits that it’s not entirely “professional sounding”), but the imperfections are part of its charm.

The album is a love letter to New York City. Vignettes centred on people Leithauser has met or is friends with. Though not a native (he was born and grew up in Washington), the album contains enough reference points to be a paean through its people to the city that never sleeps. Mentions of Amsterdam Avenue, a tunnel under Broadway and 94th Street all get mentions – but it’s never saccharine or kitschy.

The album opens with strings – presumably sampled, or at least from some software, though imagine them live – on “The Garbage Men”. The very start of the track could almost be the accompaniment to the title-card of a movie from the 50s. But it quickly snaps into clearer strings, Leithauser’s vocals immediately following. It’s a classy introduction to an album that is obviously very personal to him.

The record is written about strangers and friends – one per song. Leithauser acknowledged, on a podcast to accompany the launch of the album, that he may have to send an email or two to some pals. But there is no snide here. Even ludicrous characters, like the cinema goer in “Here They Come” are lovingly written. One of the tracks is about a man he met on a New York ferry; another, “The Stars of Tomorrow”, about a woman he and his daughters met on a park bench who gave them a jar of pickled beets before driving off.

While the music isn’t as adventurous as tracks on his 2016 joint release with Rostam Batmanglij, there are some lovely moments, like the intimacy in the first minute on “Here They Come”, with Leithauser singing quietly, close to the mic, before the track switches gear and his voice becomes familiar.

As ever, the most distinctive feature of Leithauser’s music is his voice. How he hasn’t managed to wear it out is a mystery. It’s also, in some ways, an unashamedly American album. Take “Wack Jack” – the drums locomotive-like. You can almost imagine it as a lost piece written for Johnny Cash.

Highlights include the single “Here They Come” and “The Old King”, the wistful closing track – about a “funny, sad and ridiculous friend” – swinging its way to the record’s conclusion.

And then there’s “Don’t Check the Score” – lush, beautiful, with five female backing singers, and painfully lovely. While obviously not written for this virus-addled times, includes the line:

The sun is coming up

And my heart is filled with hope

The sidewalks are empty seven stories below

Like the friends Leithauser sings about, The Loves of Your Life’s imperfections are what gives it its high personal value. It is an album that, like those friends, with time, will become a great companion. For now, it’s reminder what can be achieved even in a world of social distancing.

Track Pick: Here They Come

Six years between albums is a long time, even though Vampire Weekend is a band with a good track record with three excellent albums released between 2006 and 2013. Ultimately losing original band member (and producer and co-writer) Rostam Batmanglij appears to be the source of a dramatic drop off in quality (and concision, this bloated album that comes to eighteen tracks long).

Ezra Koenig, Vampire Weekend’s lead vocalist, has the gift of a wonderful voice. And it’s captured nicely on this record. But good co-writing brought the best out of him. Even when Batmanglij does make his two appearances on the album, it is hit and miss. “Harmony Hall” is typical of the New York-based band – well-produced, lyrically interesting and sonically distinctive. The plangent chorus (“I don’t want to live like this, but I don’t want to die”) married to a delicate guitar line and a “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”-esque crescendo hit the mark.

But then “We Belong Together” is is so mis-judged – a kind of bogus parody of country music.

In fact many of the tracks seem pitched as a subversion (or homage to, it’s not clear) country music. “Married in a Gold Rush” for example – a travesty. Presumably it’ll end up being some people’s favourite simply as it has Danielle from Haim on it (she features three times on the record). It comes across like a drunken attempt to make a preppy, country version of a Johnny Cash and June Carter duet.

Koenig and Haim’s sickly lyrics on “We Belong Together” are particularly grating. Koenig has described the song as “wholesome”. It’s not. It’s ridiculous. Particularly egregious lines include: “We go together like Keats and Yeats, bowls and plates, days and dates, we stay united like these old states”.

There are some redeeming features to the album. The opener, “Hold You Now”, with it’s bombastic chorus, is a treat. The song samples a Melanesian choral song “God You Tekem Laef Along Mi”, featured in Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line. It’s interesting.

Edgier, guitar-led “Sunflower” sounds like a brilliant off-cut from their earlier records. “Unbearably White” is the nearest successor to the excellent material of their third album, Modern Vampires of the City, and points to where the band could’ve ended up with this record, without the detour into saccharine country worship. With more prudent editing, there is a good 10 track album here.

The sad thing about Father of the Bride is that it could’ve been so much more. Perhaps, if Batmanglij makes a comeback, balance will be restored. Perhaps, Vampire Weekend can improve on the near perfection of Modern Vampires of the City. Perhaps.

If you haven’t acquainted yourself with the band’s frenetic and fun debut album, the more sophisticated second record and the brilliant third album, go and do that. Miss this record out.

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Credit should go to the Russo Brothers, who directed this epic, their fourth for the studio. Having produced a grand, complex film with a Malthusian antagonist last year to critical and commercial success, it seemed inconceivable that they wouldn’t stay around for the second half of the story.

Avengers: Endgame is the final piece of a grin-inducing romp through Marvel’s comic books and it works. It does everything that it promises and, while it doesn’t excel as other films in the series have (Captain America: The Winter Solder is a stand out) it is great fun. It has enough going for it to make it required viewing for anyone who has even then slightest interest in comics, action movies or Robert Downey Jr put-downs.

After the big baddie of the last film, Thanos, obliterated half of all life in the universe, we get a first hour exploring the impact of the disaster on our heroes. Some have taken up counselling; some just booze. It shows us what happens to our heroes when they lose, a rarity for the superhero genre. Scarlett Johansen delivers the stand out performance, her character on the edge of a breakdown, and Chris Hemsworth has some brilliant comedy in this opening third. Indeed, it’s a hallmark of Marvel’s cinematic universe that there is depth beyond the bright colours, action sequences and one-liners.

After this extended prologue, we get the real meat of the story – a complex plan involving time travel (which isn’t really time travel, apparently), a conceit that allows fans to revisit some of their favourite moments in the series. It also delivers some surprising, brilliant cameos. While it feels slightly convoluted, this device helpfully reminds the casual Marvel fan of how much they’ve actually watched (or missed!) to get to this point.

Last year’s Infinity War was a triumph because of the central role given to Thanos, the antagonist. Unlike most other superhero movie villains, the purple Titan had real depth. He explained his motivations. In Endgame, he doesn’t get the same treatment. The narrative is all about our heroes. It’s an understandable decision from the filmmakers given the need to explore who the Avengers are, their interactions between each other and (for some) how their stories end. But it is a shame that the most compelling comic book movie villain since Heath Ledger’s Joker doesn’t get a satisfying concluding chapter.

This film was always going to be about The Avengers’ attempt to bring back those that they lost, and whether they could defeat Thanos in the process. Both those questions are solved in a final act which should be lauded for its scale and ambition. Not since the Lord of the Rings has a battle been so epic.

For film snobs, these films will never reach the commanding heights of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, with its gritty tenor. But we should take a step back and realise that delivering a coherent, interesting story across twenty-two movies, over eleven years is an unprecedented feat and it will be hard to repeat. So let’s enjoy all that Marvel has given us so far.

What is a life worth? What are many lives worth? What are you willing to trade to save many people? These are the complex questions facing the heroes, and villain, in Avengers: Infinity War. They are serious topics for a film series in a genre that is usually defined by levity and quip-heavy dialogue.

But the serious approach seems to be working. Even by the standards of the remarkable Marvel Studios film series this latest film is breaking records. The new movie which opened last month is outperforming Star Wars: The Force Awakens and had the biggest opening of all time.

In the process it demonstrates how the best popular culture can deal effectively with the big questions. Indeed, the most successful Marvel productions wrestle with moral dilemmas. Captain America: Civil War (released in 2016) had at its core a debate about the acceptability of government oversight (Iron Man loves regulation; Captain America less so).

Some Marvel films have dealt with less weighty issues, of course. Thor 2 (2013) was paper-thin on both plot and subtext. But even those lesser Marvel productions employ a sharp sense of humour, sadly lacking in the films being produced by Warner Brothers in the DC Universe.

Indeed, the filmmakers at Marvel Studios have been consistently the best in taking the essence of comics and translating it to the big screen.

Of course, comics have a rich history of offering a critique of governments and society’s prejudices. The X-Men have long been recognised as being influenced by the Civil Rights Movement and there are numerous examples of politics in the Marvel back catalogue.

In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the smart political thriller of the Marvel series, espionage, the use of drones and risks to privacy were the themes. Its release during the Edward Snowden affair was explained by the filmmakers, who confirmed it was written well before the whistleblower’s mass data dump. If it was a coincidence, it was timely.

The latest film goes even deeper, addressing philosophical issues.

The villain of the piece in Avengers: Infinity Wars is a large, purple, walking, talking Malthusian. Thanos, a Titan, is maniacally obsessed with the elimination of half of the population of the universe, owing to the growing scarcity of resources and population increases. He plans to deliver this atrocity dispassionately, irrespective of whether his victims are rich or poor. It is equal opportunities extermination. Thanos is quite mad, but unlike most CGI-motion-captured baddies, at least he explains himself and his motivations.

That complexity helps explain why Marvel Studios has managed to sustain this series for so long. The central characters tend to be three-dimensional and properly fleshed out. In Thanos’ case, we find out that his own planet fell into ruin because his fellow Titans did not heed his warnings about population growth.

In addition, we have the subplot of his love for his adopted daughter, Gamora. Their own relationship is complex owing to the fact that she was orphaned at his hands, her parents the victim of another mega-atrocity.

The tragedy of Thanos sacrificing Gamora builds his character. At points the viewer almost feels sorry for a multi-billion-person murderer. Then (and major spoiler alert here) he succeeds, kills half your favourite characters and the movie closes with him sitting on a hill watching a sunrise, having fulfilled his quest to deliver a more prosperous, less populated universe.

How does he win? Only because the the good guys engage in the most blisteringly idiotic behaviour. They refuse to ‘trade lives’ until we get to a point where it is irrelevant that they’ve avoided the sacrifice. Instead, half the universe is disappeared with the click of Thanos’ fingers.

In this way, a succession of over-sentimental decisions about significant others and friends leads to the Malthus-inspired catastrophe.

The message is that our heroes need to buck up and learn to act for the greater good. An inability to make sacrifices means they ultimately fail and the Malthusian catastrophe occurs. That’s the moral of the story – you need to believe in what you’re fighting for more than your opponent. Otherwise, you lose.

There’s a second part to the latest movie due out next year. Maybe by then the Avengers will have learnt to do what is needed to win. Irrespective, Marvel will continue posing big questions and making huge profits from its army of fans.

“It was a necessary thing”, Marlon Williams says, describing his second album – which is focussed on his break-up with fellow New Zealander and singer, Aldous Harding. Sitting in his label’s office in Shoreditch, he explains that the process of writing this album was cathartic, going so far as to describe it as “therapy”.

Williams (when pushed) describes his music as “baroque pop”. His second album is a departure from his self-titled debut. The first had a clear country influence and many of the songs were sung about characters and in the third person. Make Way for Love is a much more personal affair.

In eschewing the traditional and country elements of his first record, Williams has embraced sounds associated with Scott Walker. Lush strings and layered vocals give the album a distinct feeling of being of a different era.

Williams’ singing is the one constant between the two records. It’s an art he believes has been prioritised less over time. “It has become pastiche to sing too well”. Refreshingly, Williams isn’t afraid to show off his singing abilities.

There are moments of real sadness on this record, evoked by a triumvirate of the music, his voice and his songwriting. His pain is evident. The coda on “Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore” is heart-breaking, with Williams repeating: “Baby, I can’t separate us out anymore”

The album is a touching memorial to the relationship that Williams had with Harding, but what makes it startling is the duet between the two. Few artists get the opportunity to do this, and fewer still pull it off in the way that Williams and Harding have.

Despite the subject matter, the album isn’t a downer – it is a life-affirming realisation of why it is we are in relationships and why they matter. The videos accompanying the singles off the album are all light-hearted. It’s hard to understand why. Maybe having gone through the catharsis he’s in a much better place. Maybe it’s him putting a brave face on it. Either way, they accompany some of the most alluring music released recently.

Williams has bared his soul to us with the record in the most beautiful way. It’s a remarkable record from a man who deserves to be noticed.

Make Way For Love is available now

Freedom’s Goblin is a pick’n’mix of an album, genres smashed against each other. “Stomper, weeper, ballad, screamer, banger or funker-upper”, that’s the many different sounds to expect according to the note accompanying Ty Segall’s eleventh album. The note also highlights ‘multiple Tydentities” (note the capitalisation) – a byword for ‘we’ve put lots of different sounding songs on this album’.

At first, you imagine this has been over thought. But after several listens, you realise that the record doesn’t have an overarching, consistent sound or purpose. For some, that’ll be a joy and it’ll be familiar to anyone who is a fan of Segall’s other records.

The album takes you on quite a journey. In three tracks you move from the sleazy funk of “Despoiler of Cadaver” to the garage-rock of “When Mommy Kills You”, to the folksiness of “My Lady’s On Fire” (The unexpected saxophone-solo outro on the track is a real treat). The issue, as with any album that skips genres like this is that there are undoubtedly tracks which are forgettable, and just not very good. “Rain” for example, presumably unintentionally, sounds like Muse really trying to sound like Pablo Honey-era Radiohead.

On top of that, Freedom’s Goblin is long. Too long. It seems concision isn’t Mr Segall’s strong point. Given this is his eleventh album in as many years, he’s more prolific even than the famously productive Rihanna.

Take your pick as, at times, the album is great. But ultimately Freedom’s Goblin is too long and a sense of focus would do it the world of good. But do, please, listen to that Hot Chocolate cover.

Available online here.