FEATURE:
One for the Record Collection!
IN THIS ILLUSTRATION: St. Vincent releases her sixth solo studio album, Daddy’s Home, via Loma Vista on 14th May/ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: openchested
Essential May Releases
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IT is that time of the month where I…
look forward and see which albums are arriving next month. May is a busy one for exciting albums. I am writing this on 14th April so, as I say, things can change between now and the time that this feature comes out (25th April). Let’s hope that there are no delays and rescheduled release dates, as the records due next month are ones you will want to get. I am chiselling down to the essential releases in May. 7th May is the first week for new releases. Squid’s Bright Green Field is one you will want to order. It is a much-anticipated debut album from one of Britain’s hottest young bands. This is what Rough Trade say about the album:
“At last the debut album from Squid and it's everything you wished for and more. Bright Green Field is produced by Dan Carey and released via Warp Records. It's an album of towering scope and ambition, it is deeply considered, paced and intricately constructed. With all band members playing such a vital and equal role, this album is very much the product of five heads operating as one. Some bands might be tempted to include previous singles on their debut - and the band already released two more in 2020 via ‘Sludge’ and ‘Broadcaster’ - but instead Bright Green Field is completely new.
This sense of limitlessness and perpetual forward motion is one of the key ingredients that makes Squid so loved by fans and critics alike, from BBC Radio 6 Music who have A-Listed previous singles, ‘Houseplants’, ‘The Cleaner’ and ‘Match Bet’ to publications such as, The Guardian, NME, The Face, The Quietus and countless others.
Bright Green Field features field recordings of ringing church bells, tooting bees, microphones swinging from the ceiling orbiting a room of guitar amps, a distorted choir of 30 voices as well as a horn and string ensemble featuring the likes of, Emma-Jean Thackray and Lewis Evans from Black Country, New Road. Whilst the album title conjures up imagery of pastoral England, in reality, it’s something of a decoy that captures the band’s fondness for paradox and juxtaposition. Within the geography of Bright Green Field lies monolithic concrete buildings and dystopian visions plucked from imagined cities. Squid’s music - be it agitated and discordant or groove-locked and flowing - has often been a reflection of the tumultuous world we live in and this continues that to some extent”.
I will try not to miss too many great albums out due next month. You can look at the full list of albums out next month, as it is a very packed time! The next album from 7th May that is worthy of investigation is Weezer’s Van Weezer. It is yet another album from the prolific U.S. legends. If you are a fan of Weezer, then you will want to pre-order a copy of Van Weezer. It promises to be one of their most interesting releases for years:
“Van Weezer is the 14th studio album from Weezer. The inspiration for this album derives from the deepest roots of Weezer - metal! What has metal got to do with Weezer, you ask? In his earliest years, Rivers was a huge Kiss fan; Brian was a big Black Sabbath fan; Pat worshipped at the altar of Van Halen and Rush; Scott loved Slayer and Metallica. The last time this vein of harder rock was mined by Weezer was on their much-loved 2002 album Maladroit; Van Weezer is primed to take that album's sonics many steps further courtesy of producer Suzy Shinn”.
Before moving onto the next album in May you need to order, I want to bring in a recent interview from The Forty-Five. The band’s lead, River Cuomo, talked to them about their current album, OK Human – they also looked ahead to Van Weezer:
“Their greed is matched only by Cuomo’s output. On January 29, Weezer released ‘OK Human’, an album of introspective lyrics soundtracked with a 38-piece orchestra. Drawing on classical inspirations, it’s an ambitious project with personal touches. Its lyrics, which deal precisely with being alone, are very 2020 – something Cuomo says is pure coincidence. “Most of the lyrics were written during 2018. Maybe 10% was written during the lockdown,” he tells me. Weezer started putting ‘OK Human’ together in 2018, recording the strings at Abbey Road. Just as they were finishing, however, they got booked onto Hella Mega. “We realised, we just made this classical-influenced album with strings and orchestra and piano. If we’re going to put that out and go on tour with Green Day, that just doesn’t make sense.”
They put ‘OK Human’ on hold and immediately started work on ‘Van Weezer’, wanting to “make a real stadium rock album with shredding guitars and blow those bands off the stage”. After putting the finishing touches on ‘Van Weezer’, however, everything was cancelled – making a big stadium record redundant. “We realised we just made the worst possible album for a lockdown. We couldn’t even play together as a band to promote that album!” he laughs. They went back into the studio to finish up ‘OK Human’, releasing it to comments that it was perfect for the moment. “It’s weird for me because everyone is telling us they think the album was written during the lockdown for the lockdown because they really relate to it, the way they have to live now, but that’s how I am all the time! That’s how I feel all the time.”
It’s clearly working for him: 14 albums down, and Weezer are far from done. In May, they will finally release ‘Van Weezer’, but despite releasing two full records and over 2600 demos in the span of a year, they have the next phase planned. “We’re working on a four-album set right now. I think they’re going to be eight songs a piece. They’re called Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter and together they’re called Weezer Seasons,” he says, telling me that the first one will drop on the first day of spring 2022. On top of that, he’s working on a movie musical called Buddha Superstar with the Broadway producer responsible for the Green Day musical. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long. I think I just needed somebody else to come along and really encourage me,” he says”.
14th May offers five albums that people need reserve some pennies for. Juliana Hatfield’s Blood is worth seeking out. Go and pre-order Blood, as it promises to be a fascinating album from a hugely prolific songwriter:
“Over the past four years, Juliana Hatfield has kept fans engaged and intrigued as she oscillates between impassioned original releases (Pussycat, Weird) and inspired covers collections (Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John, Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police). This year she returns with her latest album of originals, Blood, out May 14, 2021.
Her 19th solo studio album takes a deep dive into the dark side with a lens on modern human psychology and behaviour. “I think these songs are a reaction to how seriously and negatively a lot of people have been affected by the past four years,” says Juliana. “But it’s fun, musically. There’s a lot of playing around. I didn’t really have a plan when I started this project.”
With the pandemic limiting studio safety and availability, Juliana took the opportunity to learn to record at her Massachusetts home with recent collaborator Jed Davis assisting from Connecticut. “Usually I work in a studio,” explains Juliana. “I did more than half the work in my room—with Jed helping me to troubleshoot the technology, and helping with building and arranging some of the songs--and then I finished up with additional overdubs and mixing with engineer James Bridges at Q Division Studios in Somerville, MA.”
The first single, “Mouthful of Blood”, is gritty and abrasive yet groovy and melodic. That duality is represented throughout Blood. It is eminently hummable and thought-provoking. Sophisticated but catchy. Challenging but danceable.
“I always love coming up with melodies and then trying to fit words into them—it’s like doing a puzzle,” says Juliana. “And I always find places to use the Mellotron flutes and strings, on every album, because those sounds are so beautiful to me. They are a nice counterpoint to the damaged lyrical content”.
Moving on, and Paul Weller’s Fat Pop (Volume 1) is another treat. Out on 14th May, this is an album that you should go and pre-order. I am a big fan of Paul Weller, so I will be sure to check out his upcoming album from the master:
“We may be cursed to be in the midst a global pandemic, buffeted by all of its stresses and pain. But everyone knows that art provides succour, that music is the most reliable balm. And for many there is further significant comfort to be drawn from the knowledge that Paul Weller is in the midst of an unbelievably prolific purple patch. Paul Weller will not let us down when we need him most.
Paul Weller releases his 16th solo album since his self-titled debut in 1992, which comes in just under twelve months following June 2020’s magnificent, chart-topping On Sunset. It’s not hyperbole to state that this new album, titled Fat Pop (Volume 1), is among his most compelling collections. It’s an absolute scorcher.
During spring last year, after his tour dates were postponed, Paul Weller needed something else to focus on. With many ideas for new songs stored on his phone, Paul started to record them on his own with just vocals, piano and guitar which he’d send to his core band members (drummer Ben Gordelier, Steve Cradock on guitar and bassist Andy Crofts) to add their parts. Despite it being strange not being together, it kept the wheels rolling and sanity prevailing. The band reconvened at Weller’s Black Barn studio in Surrey when restrictions were lifted to finish the work with the shape of the album becoming clear to all.
Fat Pop (Volume 1) – Paul adding the “Volume 1” to keep options open for a second volume in the future - is a diverse selection of sounds. No one style dominates. There’s the synth-heavy, future-wave strut of Cosmic Fringes, the stately balladeering of Still Glides The Stream (co-written with Steve Cradock), the chunky percussive groove of Moving Canvas (a tribute to Iggy Pop no less), and the kind of dramatic immediate pop symphonies on Failed, True and Shades of Blue with which Paul Weller has hooked in generation after generation of devotee.
As ever, Fat Pop, sees a number of guests contributing including Lia Metcalfe, the young Liverpudlian singer with The Mysterines who combines her tremendous vocal as well as a song writing credit to True. Andy Fairweather Low adds his distinctive vocals to superfly strutting Testify and Paul’s daughter Leah co-wrote and features on the classic 3 minute pop kitchen sink drama Shades Of Blue which will be the first single taken from the album. Hannah Peel is back in the fray adding her classic string scores to Cobweb Connections and Still Glides The Stream”.
Another great album out that week is Sons of Kemet’s Black to the Future. They are such a thrilling and original act that are hard to categorise or ignore! They were nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2018 and are one of the most exceptional Jazz groups in the world. If you have avoided the genre before, go and get Black to the Future, as it is an album that you will love:
“Sons of Kemet returns in 2021 with their new album Black To The Future. The follow up to 2018’s Mercury Prize nominated breakout release Your Queen Is A Reptile. This release finds the UK-based quartet at their most dynamic – showcasing harmonically elegant arrangements and compositions, coupled with fierce, driving material that will be familiar to initiated fans.
Led by celebrated saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer Shabaka Hutchings, Sons of Kemet are a political, U.K.-based modern jazz supergroup comprised of musicians from across the globe.
Their sound combines modal and free jazz, African rhythms and modes, and Caribbean dub and Middle Eastern timbres, as evidenced by 2018's internationally renowned Your Queen is a Reptile.
This is their 4th record, and 2nd on Impulse! Compared with Your Queen is a Reptile, this album has featured vocalists and more of an emphasis on fuller compositions and arrangements. Guest artists include Kojey Radical, Moor Mother, Angel Bat Dawid, Joshua Idehen, D Double E”.
Perhaps the biggest album out in May arrives from St. Vincent. St. Her Daddy's Home album is one that is a must-pre-order. Annie Clark is one of the most inventive and consistently brilliant artists in the world. In this recent interview with The Forty-Five, we learn more about the album:
“Daddy’s Home‘ began in New York at Electric Lady studios before COVID hit and was finished in her studio in LA. She worked on it with “my friend Jack” [Jack Antonoff, producer for Lana Del Rey, Lorde, Taylor Swift]. Antonoff and Clark worked on ‘Masseduction’ and found a winning formula, pushing Clark’s guitar-orientated electronic universe to its poppiest maximum, without compromising her idiosyncrasies. “We’re simpatico. He’s a dream,” she says. “He played the hell outta instruments on this record. He’s crushing it on drums, crushing it on Wurlitzer.” The pair let loose. They began with ‘The Holiday Party’, one of the warmest tracks Clark’s ever written. It’s as inviting as a winter fireplace, stoked by soulful horns, acoustic guitar and backing singers. “Every time they sang something I’d say, ‘Yeah but can you do it sleazier? Make your voice sound like you’ve been up for three days.” Clark speaks of an unspoken understanding with Antonoff as regards the vibe: “Familiar sounds. The opposite of my hands coming out of the speaker to choke you till you like it. This is not submission. Just inviting. I can tell a story in a different way.”
The entire record is familiar, giving the listener the satisfaction that they’ve heard the songs before but can’t quite place them. It’s a satisfying accompaniment to a pandemic that encouraged nostalgic listening. Clark was nostalgic too. She reverted to records she enjoyed with her father: Stevie Wonder’s catalogue from the 1970s (‘Songs In The Key Of Life’, ‘Innervisions’, ‘Talking Book’) and Steely Dan. “Not to be the dude at the record store but it’s specifically post-flower child idealism of the ’60s,” she explains. “It’s when it flipped into nihilism, which I much prefer. Pre disco, pre punk. That music is in me in a deep way. It’s in my ears”.
Check out the The Black Keys’ official website, as their Blues covers album, Delta Kream, sounds really interesting (you can also pre-order it here). This is what Brooklyn Vegan had to say:
“Delta Kream (due May 14), is said to call back to the band's roots, placing emphasis on the sounds, styles, and artists that have played a key role in helping mold their sound. As described via the fan club website, it "honors [the] music of Mississippi Hill Country Blues, R.L. Burnside & Junior Kimbrough, among others who have influenced The Black Keys." Some of the other artists featured include other icons of the American country blues genre, including Ranie Burnette, "Mississippi" Fred McDowell, and Joseph Lee Williams — you can view the full tracklist and cover art below.
To get a taste of what the record might sound like, you can listen to the first single, "Crawling Kingsnake," a cover of John Lee Hooker's 1941 blues track, "Crawlin' King Snake," over at the fan club website (it's free to register). Earlier this week, the band tweeted out a link to John Lee Hooker's version of the track, a discreet teaser hinting at this cover and the forthcoming album. The record will be available for pre-order beginning Thursday, April 15”.
I will move on to 21st May. Gary Numan’s Intruder is an album from that week I would advise people to pre-order. Here is a bit more information from one of Britain’s very finest:
“Intruder is the 21st solo album from the iconic and influential Gary Numan. Intruder sees Gary reunite with producer Ade Fenton, who previously produced four critically acclaimed albums for Numan: Jagged, Dead Son Rising, Splinter and Savage.
With a career that has spanned nearly four decades, his approach to electronic music remains an inspiration to artists across genres and eras, from stadium goliaths such as Depeche Mode, Prince and Nine Inch Nails to alternative heroes such as Beck, Damon Albarn and Marilyn Manson. Even Kanye West owes him a debt, and David Bowie once credited him with “writing two of the finest songs” in British music.
Gary has had 23 top 40 singles and 15 top 40 albums in the UK. The British electro pioneer was also awarded the Inspiration Award for songwriting and composition at the Ivor Novellos in 2017”.
One album that I very much looking forward to is VWETO II. I think that it is only available digitally - but you will definitely not want to overlook this gem from a truly remarkable artist that puts out such exceptional and rich musical waves:
“VWETO III is intended for movement. It’s to be played when you birth yourself back outside after a long introspective period to get the things you need. It intends for you to be your own superhero and wants to be your theme for power.” Georgia Anne Muldrow”.
Gruff Rhys’ Seeking New Gods is also out on 21st May. I love Rhys’ work so, if you want some musical goodness, you will want to pre-order his upcoming album. As with every Gruff Rhys album, it is going to be packed with phenomenal moments:
“Gruff Rhy releases his new album Seeking New Gods through Rough Trade Records. This is Gruff’s seventh solo album. Seeking New Gods was recorded following a US tour with his band and mixed in LA with superstar producer Mario C (Beastie Boys).
The album concept was originally driven to be the biography of a mountain, Mount Paektu (an East Asian active volcano). However, as Gruff’s writing began to reflect on the inhuman timescale of a peak’s existence and the intimate features that bring it to mythological life, both the songs and the mountain became more and more personal.
“The album is about people and the civilisations, and the spaces people inhabit over periods of time. How people come and go but the geology sticks around and changes more slowly. I think it’s about memory and time,” he suggests of Seeking New Gods’ meaning. “It’s still a biography of a mountain, but now it’s a Mount Paektu of the mind. You won’t learn much about the real mountain from listening to this record but you will feel something, hopefully.”- Gruff Rhys”.
Another cracking album due on 21st May is Billie Marten’s Flora Fauna. The third album from the Yorkshire-born songwriter, I am a huge fan of her work. Make sure that you pre-order her beautiful new album. It is promising to be one of this year’s best and most interesting releases:
“Flora Fauna is the third album from Billie Marten. Raised in the rolling hills of North Yorkshire on artists such as Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, Joan Armatrading, and Kate Bush, Marten’s critically acclaimed debut album Writing of Blues and Yellows, was released in 2016 when she was still just 17, while its follow-up Feeding Seahorses By Hand was similarly lauded in 2019 (# 53 in UK album chart).
Flora Fauna, was recorded with Rich Cooper in London. Marten’s new material blends those signature hushed, resonant vocals with a rapid pulse and rich instrumentation, her inspirations now stretching from krautrockers Can, to Broadcast, Arthur Russell, and Fiona Apple.
Built on the minimalist acoustic folk foundations she made a name for herself with, Flora Fauna is a more mature, embodied album fostered around a strong backbone of bass and rhythm. Shedding the timidity of previous work in favour of a more urgent sound, the songs mark a period of personal independence for Marten as she learned to nurture herself and break free from toxic relationships - and a big part of that was returning to nature”.
Very recently, Pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo announced her debut album, Sour. After the runaway success of her single, drivers licence, many people will be keen to hear what she has to offer. Pre-order a copy from her website. Before the arrival of Sour was announced, Rodrigo spoke with Ben Barna from Interview Magazine. She was asked about the smash single and whether she feels, as such a young artist, there is room for growth and improvement:
“BARNA: It used to be that musicians weren’t able to see how many people were listening to their music in real time. What’s your relationship to the numbers?
RODRIGO: It’s a perk of the 21st century. I looked at them a lot, maybe the first week, just in total disbelief. I don’t really look at them anymore just because I cannot wrap my head around numbers like that. It’s really strange to put out music in quarantine, because I’ve actually never played a show with my own music. I’ve never met the people that are listening to the songs. So it’s just solely on social media and stuff, and sometimes that can be a weird world that feels disconnected from reality. But I hear stories. One of my friends said that yesterday she was on Melrose Avenue in L.A. and three cars pulled up next to each other and they were all blasting “Drivers License” at the same time and they just all turned it up and sang it at the same time. It’s stories like that where it’s real people listening to it that absolutely astonishes me.
BARNA: Do you fantasize about an alternate reality where “Drivers License” came out during a normal time?
RODRIGO: That’s a great question. I’ve never played a show with my own music in my life, so I’m really excited to do that one of these days. But if I could go back, I don’t think I’d change a thing. Honestly, quarantine probably contributed to its success. Lots of people are stuck in their houses, and, obviously, it’s been a hard, depressing, anxious time for all of us. I think this song is a sort of catharsis for a lot of people.
BARNA: You’re only 18 years old and you obviously have room to grow as an artist. Do you know which areas you need to improve in?
RODRIGO: I feel like I’m constantly growing. I’ll be a developing artist until I’m 85. I think the best songwriters are like that. I always listen to my songs and try to think of ways I can strengthen them. But yeah, I just turned 18. I truly don’t really know who I totally am yet. I don’t know the way I like to dress. I don’t know the way I like to act around certain people. I don’t know what my purpose is. I don’t know what people are my true friends. I’m just going to keep on making music and I’m probably going to be really confused along the way, and I think that’s the beauty of it. I’m trying not to pretend like I have everything figured out because I sure as hell don’t”.
There are three more albums I want to point people in the direction of. Coming to 28th May, there are some great albums that you will want to check out. The second album black midi, Cavalcade is one such example. The hugely praised British band stunned on their debut album , Schlagenheim. They look set to continue this on Cavalcade. Pre-order a copy and discover what they have to offer:
“black midi’s new album Cavalcade is a dynamic, hellacious, and inventive follow-up to 2019’s widely-praised Schlagenheim, “a labyrinth with hairpin-turn episodes and lyrics full of dourly corrosive observations” (New York Times, Best Albums of 2019). It scales beautiful new heights, pulling widely from a plethora of genres and influences, reaching ever upwards from an already lofty base of early achievements”.
An album I am looking forward to is k.d. lang’s makeover. I really love lang. I think that she is both one of the greatest songwriters ever, yet she remains somehow underrated! I think that makeover sounds like a really interesting album. Rough Trade explain more:
“In celebration of Pride Month, Nonesuch Records releases KD Lang’s Makeover, a new collection of classic dance remixes of some of her best-loved songs. The album brings these remixes, made between 1992 and 2000, together for the first time, and includes ‘Sexuality’, ‘Miss Chatelaine’, ‘Theme from the Valley of the Dolls’, ‘Summerfling’, and the #1 dance chart hits ‘Lifted By Love’ and ‘If I Were You’. makeover’s cover art features a previously unseen 1995 portrait of lang by David LaChapelle”.
The final May-due album that you will want to go and pre-order is Kele’s The Waves Pt. 1. This is another album from one of the country’s finest artists. Go and pre-order it, because it looks set to be a treat. Kele spoke with DIY about making the album:
“Following the release of ‘The Heart Of The Wave’ earlier this month, Kele has now confirmed that his fifth solo album ‘The Waves Pt. 1’ will be released on 28th May via his own label, KOLA Records / !K7.
Sharing new track ‘Smalltown Boy’ alongside the news, Kele says of the record, “After the first lockdown I found myself in an odd position. We were due to start working on my second musical with the Lyric Theatre but when the lockdown came into effect those plans were thrown into disarray. I became a stay at home dad of a 3 year old and a 6 month old. Those initial days were hard but looking back they were also incredibly rewarding. In the rare moments of down time I would go up to my music room and play the guitar, looping myself, making this wall of sound. it became a type of therapy for me, something to calm me down as it seemed like the whole world was losing its head. I realised in those moments that I missed the act of performing, so I joined Instagram so I could upload performances of my old songs and songs that I love. It was a lifeline for me, to still feel connected to an audience, to still feel like a musician in this time of freefall.
“What also became clear was that I still had the desire to create. Usually when I make records it’s an ensemble affair, there are usually lots of other musicians and singers I work with, but as we were in lockdown I did not have that luxury of being able to work with other musicians. I knew I had to fill in the space of this record entirely by myself, which was daunting but also very liberating. This album is literally the sound of me.
“As I didn’t have so much time in the days to work on the ideas I had to be very focused with the little time that I did have. During the night I would go for long walks around the city on my own, listening in the moonlight to what I had recorded in the day, rearranging the songs in my head, trimming the fat. It became very clear to me that I had the start of a new record and it was going to feel very different to what I had done before.
“The initial plan was that the record was going to be solely instrumental, after 2042 I knew that I wanted a break from writing words. Although making that record had been rewarding it had also at times been quite traumatic for me, as I was forced to examine a lot of my own personal fears and anxieties about race relations in this country and the US.
PHOTO CREDIT: Katherine Anne Rose/The Observer
I made 2042 in 2019, so when those same discussions about race came into sharp focus after the death of George Floyd in 2020 I personally felt that I needed a break from the heaviness, I knew that whatever I did next musically would need to cleanse me.
“Slowly I started adding words and vocal melodies to the ideas and I could see songs starting to take shape but it was important to me that the music felt fluid, that it drifted in out like the bobbing of waves, that if you let yourself succumb to it maybe it could take you somewhere else, somewhere far away from here”.
Those are a selection of albums that are announced for next month. There is a great range of artists and sound and, if you can afford it, then check out the ones that sound like your sort of thing. I am particularly looking forward to the new St. Vincent album, in addition to k.d. lang’s album. As the weather starts to warm up and we are getting closer to summer, I think that these terrific albums will help to warm the spirit and body even more. If you need some guidance regarding albums in May that are worth ordering then I hope that my suggestions…
PROVE fruitful.