Phoenix Haunt The Louvre, Sault Offer Songs To God The Weeks Best Albums
© AFP French alt-pop group Phoenix releases new album Alpha Zulu - AFPPhoenix: Alpha Zulu ★★★★ ☆:
Phoenix celebrate 25 years as a band this year, making them veterans of modern alternative pop. On their seventh album, Alpha Zulu, they don't stray far from the core that gave them their staying power.
In the year The French band's popularity peaked in 2009 with the release of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Grammy's and, more famously, Bubby won the ears of young but grown-up indie-pop audiences. Phoenix can stop studying here and become "quality artists"; Those who create and create the same thing over and over again.
But on Alpha Zulu, like most of Wolfgang's albums, they were curious. Perhaps the engravings of the Louvre Museum were influenced during the siege; The band's classic sound mixes with new and more refined discoveries. It's a cave, like a museum. First single Alpha Zulu is typically catchy with a bit of bite. Winter Solstice is dreamy, soulful and brutal all rolled into one and very similar to their work from the late 2000s. It also exemplifies their ability to be cunning and threatening.
The centerpiece of the album is Tonight, with Ezra Koenig on vocals. First of all, the song is fun and catchy, full of their groove. But the addition of Vampire Weekend frontman Koenig takes the song to new heights. The two bands practically grew up together, with Phoenix playing the role of "big brother" and reaching the same audience; Some might say they led the musical mood of the time. So tonight fans will see yesterday's indie clubs and nights in the city very different from what they are now.
But, if motivated by passion, it would be wrong to say that Alpha Zulu is an exercise in pure nostalgia. In that case, Phoenix is a victim of their invincible combination and the essence of their identity. In other words, this release sounds like one of them, but they're still wide-eyed eccentrics trying to marry what should be mainstream pop. Alpha Zulu is a solid addition to their already acclaimed catalog. Mikel Kambasha
© The Soderbergh Sisters First Aid - PR provided by the TelegraphFirst Aid: Palomino ★★★ ☆☆
Clara and Johanna Soderberg of Palomino First Aid Kit release their fifth album, featuring high harmonies, bold bass lines, drums and steady, steely country-rock guitars. The mood is a melancholic, if sometimes melancholic, celebration of adulthood, independence, and the many female failures once lamented but now embraced.
Born in Stockholm, the siblings discovered different introverts and down-to-earth personalities as teenagers. From Bright Eyes to Bob Dylan, their deep musical enthusiasm led them to Emmylou Harris, gospel, blues and the more experimental post-rock distortions of the Velvet Underground and the Pixies. Jack White, Nashville and the British Awards all stemmed from the Scandinavian gospel vision and folk roots blues appreciation. So is the television series Sick to the Bone.
Their previous covers of Willie Nelson, Leonard Cohen and REM featured heavy and haunting lyrics about grief, isolation and beauty. However, Palomino proves that their amazing design can also be fun. Angel unleashes Stevie Nicks' haunting Fleetwood vocals ("All my life I've been scared, I'm paralyzed with worry... What did that fear do but hold me down") and thunders through her vocals in a wide and stirring way. I love myself and feel sorry for myself. "
Nobody Knows Beauty brings to mind Lena Horne's beautiful song circa 1940. The echoing, romantic atmosphere depicts Gone with the Wind. dusty floor A high-ceilinged dilapidated mansion where voices swirl and reverberate with pain and resignation.
But like a Nick Cave/PJ Harvey killer ballad, that sung gospel overstays its welcome on an album that can often descend into a crowded, funky mood. The First Aid Kit has flexible strengths in both writing and performance, offering more detailed surveys than those offered by Palomino. Forest of cats
© Provided by The Telegraph More on Ezra's joint coverage of Where I Want to Be - PREzra collection. Where should I be ★★★★ ☆?
Why the strange jazz genre seems so relevant now and the interesting demand does not seem far from this wonderful album. It vibrates with the true spirit of jazz - strict discipline and freedom of improvisation - but like other legendary bands from South London's Tomorrow Warriors programme, Ezra's set seem utterly faithful to their era. . Roots.
This new album incorporates West African flavors of make-up, reggae and pop, along with London sounds like rapper Kojay Radical, filmmaker and artist Steve McQueen and offbeat funk singer Nao. The album comes after a long retirement imposed on the group by the plague, which must be particularly brutal.
However, their forced absence did not dampen their morale. Ife Ogunjobi's trumpet blasts, approaching a single note before breaking, the Cuban-flavored piano cascades of Joe Armon-Jones and the powerful solos of saxophonist James Mollison. What's new is a beautifully layered sound that combines street sounds with the same naturalness of a string quartet and a surprisingly unexpected sound. Sometimes the number begins with a simple back-and-forth, then takes an unexpected turn, like on Live Strong, which goes from gentle, fast-paced fun to a distant, spatial anthem.
Memories of great ancestors are constantly awakened. Kojay Radical salutes Gil Scott Heron's famous line, "The revolution is not televised", and the album cover itself strongly echoes the album cover with the stage and piano player inside. Underground from 1968 by Thelonious Monk. All of this combined with the melodic beauty of the music creates something rich and immediately enjoyable. Evan Hewitt
Sault Untitled (Lord); 11; country the air Today and tomorrow ★★★★ ☆
Secret British collective Saul is doing his best to avoid attention, but it's getting harder and harder. Their producer and finalist Inflo often collaborates with Little Sims, Jungle and Michael Kiwanuka, and was recruited by Adele to assist her on 2021's 30 songs, including her latest Love Game. The British Producer of the Year award soon followed.
Saul waved. The genre-bending band has never performed live or interviewed, but released two powerful albums in 2020, including Untitled (Rise), a response to the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. The following question. Last year, 9 was only available for streaming and download for 99 days. Their latest release goes even further.
On Tuesday, Sault announced that five albums will be released for free via a password-protected Dropbox link, which will be removed tomorrow (November 5). Rather than a cut-and-dried set, this five-piece represents a complete addition to Sault's impressive back catalog. The five-track instrumental AIIR follows AIR, a surprise release in April, that evokes anxiety and paranoia with orchestral sounds. Meanwhile, an urgent set of '70s rock, punk and funk gets the party started today and tomorrow. Toca sees the band fuse soul with African rhythms, and 11 sounds like a direct sequel to 2021's Afrobeat and blues-based 9 . The gospel-inspired "Untitled" (God) is the best of the big lot, while Little Sims delivers the standout part of "Free."
Fifty-six tracks from a variety of genres and moods can be digested for even the most die-hard fans, but with this expansive limited edition, Sault continues to make music an event rather than a marketing strategy. Download it now before it's too late. Ali Shatler
Daniel Avery. Ultra true ★★★★★
In the year Following the tragic death of Andrew Weatherall in 2020 and the Apex Twins only being active on and off, Bournemouth's Daniel Avery has become the heir to Britain's top techno genius throne. The keyboardist and singer started out as a budding remix DJ around 2009 and was soon backed by Weatherroll himself.
Today, this third true album is hailed by the dance music press as Avery's masterpiece, a career-defining story with Kelly Lee Owens, Canadian Marie Davidson and, surprisingly, Matt Healy. In 1975
Listening to Ultra Truth, on tracks like Avery's shimmering wall of sleep, with the angelic vocals of Australian DJ HAAi, you can't help but feel a sense of messianic majesty, as they sound suggestive. The superior light assumed by the variables. It is equally difficult to avoid references to both Aphex and Weatherall; The abstract, hypnotic and dreamy techno of the title perfectly matches the ambient works 85-92 of the first selection, while the confusion of the second informs the distortion of electronic futurism. Groans fill the entire album, from the intro, New Faith, to the menacing finale, Heavy Rain.
Avery himself described Ultra True as "intentionally dark," saying it's "no longer about eye-popping fun." There's a rousing elegy for Weatherall called The Lonely Swordsman, but elsewhere a drive of determination and intense rage. Profound influences such as the Cure Faith album and Ryuichi Sakamoto's Yellow Magic Orchestra can be seen on Spider and Collapse Sky respectively. However, only coaches and other musicians care about Ultra True at this level.
If anything, it's a wonderfully immersive hour of music that moves from dance floor physicality to spiritual meditation with the mastery of a true master, we testify. Andrea Perry
© Provided by Telegraph Post-Dubstep Two Mountain Kimby - Bolade BanjoMount Kimbi. MK 3.5 - Cutters / City Building ★★★ ☆☆
British post-dubstep duo Mountain Kimby briefly broke up after releasing 2017's Best Love. Blake has since released a record full of collaborations. Meanwhile, in London, Kai Campos deepened his passion for dance music.
The result of their separate studies is this double album. The first half, Die Cuts, is a fantastic collection of songs based on Maker's tunes, from Slowty to Wiki and RnB-influenced vocalists including Blake and Keaaa. Part Two of "Urban Planning" hears Campos creating a virtual train ride through a futuristic city of distorted techno-vegetables.
The two halves are separated. In Die Cuts, Maker uses piano progressions and muted melodies to create simple patterns that incorporate ideas from others, such as In Your Eyes, where Slowty and Danny Brown spit violent jokes about a "hard life."
Somehow She's Still Here is an innocent little Blake, with taped strings and simple beats that make the sentiment even more poignant about one-sided relationships. KeiyaA brings a soulful melody to Tender Hearts Meet the Sky. Other tracks are easily forgettable, with the exception of F1 Racer, where singer Kuchka talks about his dream of being behind the wheel, the sounds of racing drowned out by restrained melodies.
Instrumental City Planning Camps can be heard running a complex mix of electronic music. Behind an exciting quartz technology housing, ascending and descending piano scales operate on a symbiosis (flat) conduction map. It seems that the industry will survive the cut of the audit; 8-bit synths and propulsive beats that all reflect the 24-hour city heartbeat.
Urban planning definitely evokes the feeling of traveling in a large metropolis, while Die Cuts is the opposite of dynamic sounds. But, unfortunately, you don't want to hear it all again either. Carlota Kroll
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