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Passenger “Whispers” (Universal/Island)– I got into Passenger when his song “Let her go” was a hit on Adult Alternative charts, which means everyone around me was sick of that song a good four months before everyone else in America was sick of that song. In a post-Mumford world, Cat Stevens would have probably had a monster comeback, but Cat being Yusuf, that isn’t going to happen. Passenger seemed to capture that moment, but seems quickly relegated to ‘one hit wonder’ status. He is not adored for his songwriting skills like say Lorde or Taylor Swift, is too mistral-y to catch on with the Mumford crowd and can’t seem to latch on with the charts like his best friend Ed Sheerhan. The surprise of his one hit, was that “All the Little Lights” was a really good album, and Mr Rosenberg aka Passenger is a solid songwriter in his genre. “Whispers” is as solid as that previous album. There’s no obvious hit like “Let her go”, although the songs are all strong (“27” comes closest to a single with its singalong melody, though slower songs could make the jump too) and this feels shelved in some kind of radio netherworld where Van Morrison is king, but commercial returns are few. In any case, worth checking out if this sounds like your cup of tea.
Prince & 3rd Eye Girl “Plectrum Electrum” (Warner Bros)- 2014 was heralded as Prince’s big comeback (as every move he makes usually is). “Art Official Age” got rave reviews, but I am not convinced. It sounds like Prince grinding it out, and I can’t imagine that it will still hold that reputation 5 or 10 years down the road. Which is part of Prince’s problem. He’s overprolific. Recent years are filled with triple albums, double albums, give away albums, expansive jazz instrumental albums. I haven’t been impressed for the most part with Prince’s output since the 90s. (I do really enjoy most of his 90s stuff, though which I know others do not). Which is his other problem. Anything the Purple One does is compared to his back catalogue (which is stellar), and not only that, but anything that sounds Purple since. So a new Prince album not only has to be as good as Purple Rain or Dirty Mind, but also has to be as good as the new Andre3000, Janelle Monae, D’Angelo or Lenny Kravitz. I am not going to say PE is quite there, but it has its moments. Leave it to Prince to make his most cockrock album in years and do it with an all-female power trio. I wasn’t impressed by 3EG on first listen, and the quality of this record does depend on where you drop the needle, but it is Prince ascending once again, and on songs like “Anotherlove” delivering a single that is the best thing he has done since (calendar year) 1999.
Springtime Carnivore- s/t (Autumn Tone)- While I didn’t have a lot of great new artist finds, I did find this artist that got plugged heavy by Sirius XM’s indie channel (an oxymoron), and because I needed a great new twee pop artist. She falls inbetween Belle and Sebastian and that resulting lineage and the K Records bands of the 90s. She comes from indie rock, so there is a certain amount of rock blast that informs her, but she also at times seems positively entrenched in the 60s. In any case, the rest of the album is as almost as strong as the single (or what sounds like the single “Name on a Matchbook”), and one can see her either being a great underappreciated indie treasure like April March or finding a moment in the mainstream a la the Cardigans.
U2- “Songs of Innocence” (Interscope/Island)- You may already own this album. The top Google hit is CNET’s instructions on removing it from your electronic device. U2 firmly stay in the ‘love or loathe’ camp with everything they do. “In Rainbows”-style populism or ultimate sellout? The 2 clearly are in the post-“Emotional Rescue” part of their career. Although improbable, it now seems unlikely we will ever be surprised by U2 again, and though they were surely record, tour, and repeat, one assumes “Beautiful Day” will be the last great single. So nothing new here. It is U2 reaching back to their roots and if anyone should be ripping off Edge riffs, it should be the man himself. Indeed, U2 revisting the early days should not be treated much differently than Peter Hook playing Joy Division songs or Jah Wobble and Keith Levene reuniting. Yet, since U2 never went away, and on top of that, became the biggest band in the world. It sort of rings hollow. There are some very good moments. “Volcano” and “Raised by Wolves” would probably fit fine on a 1985 setlist. “This is where you can reach me now” might not sound like classic U2 but it does sound like a song by one of those bands that came along and opened for U2 in the ‘80s. Truth be told, the album is a bummer in that not one of these songs would be likely to make the cut on War or Boy, or for that matter, October. Otherwise, there really isn’t a bad song here, and if you can accept that U2 have reached the point in their career that there are no surprises left, then as a collection of songs, it’s quite good. Largely ditching the usual group of Lanois/Eno/Lillywhite/Flood for Danger Mouse and Ryan Tedder (the OneRepublic leader who is responsible for some of the very best and very worst songs on pop radio in recent years) does seem an inspired move, and probably is more positive than negative, but Bono and the boys just aren’t as hungry as they were back in 81, and that shows as well too.
Kristeen Young “The Knife Shift” (Test Tube Baby)- For as ‘futuristic’ as this album wants to sound, it sounds like it should have been made ten years ago. I am not sure that there is much room for an album like this in indierock. Ten years ago, it would have been perfect in an atmosphere where Amanda Palmer was more known as a musician than a social media presence, Tori Amos was a mainstream radio staple and you could name your band Rasputina and be taken seriously. (Not that Kristeen hasn’t been trying for years, around this time, she was pairing up with Brian Molko and Bowie trying to hit it big). Even 20 years ago, this could have gotten her on Lilith Fair or touring with Garbage, or 30 years ago would have fit in fine in a world with artists pushing boundaries like Nina Hagen or Missing Persons. This does have help from Dave Grohl, Tony Visconti, and Boz Boorer, but it’s Kristeen’s show of course; and like the male rock Gods (which she may despise), Kristeen is so loud and aggressive that she’s either genius or silly. Lyrics like “The Virgin (Mary) should have had an abortion” lets you know what you should be expecting. KY is good at it though, and if you buy in, then this is a real good piece of vinyl.
Neil Young “A Letter Home” (Reprise)- What is one to make of a new Neil Young album? I expected to hate “Americana” because it was covers of traditional American songs, which sounds like a buzzkill, but ended up being brilliant. So this is covers right? But it’s recorded on some weird 1940s technology called the Voice-O-Graph (where you could make your own record by putting voice directly to vinyl). That makes it a hard pill to swallow, when it sounds worse than even some old Alan Lomax recordings. Still, who’s going to stop Neil from doing what he is going to do. It actually ends up being a great record. I didn’t expect much as these are songs that are well known and well played (Springsteen’s “My Hometown”, ”Girl from the North Country”,a couple well known Gordon Lightfoot tunes). Neil makes them his own though. It doesn’t sound like it would work on paper, but it does. I also didn’t expect to have many repeated listenings of this album, but I did.
Prince & 3rd Eye Girl “Plectrum Electrum” (Warner Bros)- 2014 was heralded as Prince’s big comeback (as every move he makes usually is). “Art Official Age” got rave reviews, but I am not convinced. It sounds like Prince grinding it out, and I can’t imagine that it will still hold that reputation 5 or 10 years down the road. Which is part of Prince’s problem. He’s overprolific. Recent years are filled with triple albums, double albums, give away albums, expansive jazz instrumental albums. I haven’t been impressed for the most part with Prince’s output since the 90s. (I do really enjoy most of his 90s stuff, though which I know others do not). Which is his other problem. Anything the Purple One does is compared to his back catalogue (which is stellar), and not only that, but anything that sounds Purple since. So a new Prince album not only has to be as good as Purple Rain or Dirty Mind, but also has to be as good as the new Andre3000, Janelle Monae, D’Angelo or Lenny Kravitz. I am not going to say PE is quite there, but it has its moments. Leave it to Prince to make his most cockrock album in years and do it with an all-female power trio. I wasn’t impressed by 3EG on first listen, and the quality of this record does depend on where you drop the needle, but it is Prince ascending once again, and on songs like “Anotherlove” delivering a single that is the best thing he has done since (calendar year) 1999.
Springtime Carnivore- s/t (Autumn Tone)- While I didn’t have a lot of great new artist finds, I did find this artist that got plugged heavy by Sirius XM’s indie channel (an oxymoron), and because I needed a great new twee pop artist. She falls inbetween Belle and Sebastian and that resulting lineage and the K Records bands of the 90s. She comes from indie rock, so there is a certain amount of rock blast that informs her, but she also at times seems positively entrenched in the 60s. In any case, the rest of the album is as almost as strong as the single (or what sounds like the single “Name on a Matchbook”), and one can see her either being a great underappreciated indie treasure like April March or finding a moment in the mainstream a la the Cardigans.
U2- “Songs of Innocence” (Interscope/Island)- You may already own this album. The top Google hit is CNET’s instructions on removing it from your electronic device. U2 firmly stay in the ‘love or loathe’ camp with everything they do. “In Rainbows”-style populism or ultimate sellout? The 2 clearly are in the post-“Emotional Rescue” part of their career. Although improbable, it now seems unlikely we will ever be surprised by U2 again, and though they were surely record, tour, and repeat, one assumes “Beautiful Day” will be the last great single. So nothing new here. It is U2 reaching back to their roots and if anyone should be ripping off Edge riffs, it should be the man himself. Indeed, U2 revisting the early days should not be treated much differently than Peter Hook playing Joy Division songs or Jah Wobble and Keith Levene reuniting. Yet, since U2 never went away, and on top of that, became the biggest band in the world. It sort of rings hollow. There are some very good moments. “Volcano” and “Raised by Wolves” would probably fit fine on a 1985 setlist. “This is where you can reach me now” might not sound like classic U2 but it does sound like a song by one of those bands that came along and opened for U2 in the ‘80s. Truth be told, the album is a bummer in that not one of these songs would be likely to make the cut on War or Boy, or for that matter, October. Otherwise, there really isn’t a bad song here, and if you can accept that U2 have reached the point in their career that there are no surprises left, then as a collection of songs, it’s quite good. Largely ditching the usual group of Lanois/Eno/Lillywhite/Flood for Danger Mouse and Ryan Tedder (the OneRepublic leader who is responsible for some of the very best and very worst songs on pop radio in recent years) does seem an inspired move, and probably is more positive than negative, but Bono and the boys just aren’t as hungry as they were back in 81, and that shows as well too.
Kristeen Young “The Knife Shift” (Test Tube Baby)- For as ‘futuristic’ as this album wants to sound, it sounds like it should have been made ten years ago. I am not sure that there is much room for an album like this in indierock. Ten years ago, it would have been perfect in an atmosphere where Amanda Palmer was more known as a musician than a social media presence, Tori Amos was a mainstream radio staple and you could name your band Rasputina and be taken seriously. (Not that Kristeen hasn’t been trying for years, around this time, she was pairing up with Brian Molko and Bowie trying to hit it big). Even 20 years ago, this could have gotten her on Lilith Fair or touring with Garbage, or 30 years ago would have fit in fine in a world with artists pushing boundaries like Nina Hagen or Missing Persons. This does have help from Dave Grohl, Tony Visconti, and Boz Boorer, but it’s Kristeen’s show of course; and like the male rock Gods (which she may despise), Kristeen is so loud and aggressive that she’s either genius or silly. Lyrics like “The Virgin (Mary) should have had an abortion” lets you know what you should be expecting. KY is good at it though, and if you buy in, then this is a real good piece of vinyl.
Neil Young “A Letter Home” (Reprise)- What is one to make of a new Neil Young album? I expected to hate “Americana” because it was covers of traditional American songs, which sounds like a buzzkill, but ended up being brilliant. So this is covers right? But it’s recorded on some weird 1940s technology called the Voice-O-Graph (where you could make your own record by putting voice directly to vinyl). That makes it a hard pill to swallow, when it sounds worse than even some old Alan Lomax recordings. Still, who’s going to stop Neil from doing what he is going to do. It actually ends up being a great record. I didn’t expect much as these are songs that are well known and well played (Springsteen’s “My Hometown”, ”Girl from the North Country”,a couple well known Gordon Lightfoot tunes). Neil makes them his own though. It doesn’t sound like it would work on paper, but it does. I also didn’t expect to have many repeated listenings of this album, but I did.
