NEW ALBUMS

Preaching to the converted

MICHAEL SMITH, ALEXA KING

TODD SNIDER 

First Agnostic Church Of Hope And Wonder 

THIRTY TIGERS

9/10 

East Nashville renegade expands his virtual revival tent

TODD SNIDER didn’t plan on becoming a bullshit preacher. As the pandemic bit hard into his busy touring schedule last year, he also found himself processing the recent deaths of various musician friends – among them early mentor John Prine and sometime collaborator Jeff Austin, formerly of Yonder Mountain String Band. To counter his despondency, Snider conceived the idea of a virtual church or tent revival, performing a livestream show on Sunday mornings.

Starting last October, these weekly events, in which Snider would play his fairly extensive back catalogue in sequence, were billed as The First Agnostic Church Of Hope And Wonder.

Now he’s used the title as a repository for a healthy batch of new songs, delivered in the loose conceptual robes of a mischievous layman. It’s rooted in syncopated grooves and skittish funk (courtesy of drummer Robbie Crowell and multi-instrumentalist Tchad Blake), allowing Snider’s droll, sharply observational lyrical sermons to flow over the top. Or, as he puts it, “funk in back and busking up front, with White Album-y shit scattered about”.

Impishness reigns on songs such as “Stoner Yodel Number One” and the parodic “Agnostic Preacher’s Lament”, the latter a one-way dialogue with God that ends on a note of casual remorse: “I took a lot of money from these people/ And they’re starting to ask a lot of questions/So forgive me or whatever”. But it’s tempered by great compassion and a controlled sense of rage. “That Great Pacific Garbage Patch” concerns the environmental shame of floating islands of ocean plastic and the indifference that often seems to accompany the issue. “Never Let A Day Go By” urges us to seize the day; the allusive “Battle Hymn Of The Album” revives abolitionist John Brown for a divided, post-Trump America.

There’s also great tenderness here. The poignant “Sail On My Friend” was written after Austin passed away; “Handsome John” is a piano-led tribute to Prine (and his favourite cocktail) that hails his heightened command of words and simple melodies. Snider is very much a kindred spirit. 

ROB HUGHES

Ashley Monroe

CABARET VOLTAIRE

BN9Drone 

MUTE

8/10 

Drone by name… part two

There’s been a flurry of activity in the Cab rank lately: following 2020’s Shadow Of Fear came a companion EP, “Shadow Of Funk”, then one-track LP Dekadrone and now a 64-minute track. All are the solo work of Richard Kirk, whose “no nostalgia” rule still holds. If the title is a play on “benign”, it’s ironic: this is a dark, heavy and deceptively simple electronic soundscape, masterfully composed, its vast, rumbling plain recalling recent shots of Mars’ arid surface, disrupted by the urgent crackling of police comms and flares of violent white noise. Beneath it, the constant tolling of what sounds like a submarine sonar. Oddly calming, even as it chills.

SHARON O’CONNELL

CHEAP TRICK 

In Another World 

BMG

7/10 

Power-pop pathfinders’ terrific 20th

Cheap Trick have now been at this for nearly half a century. It would be tempting to suggest that they’ve learned everything knowable about the confection of breezy powerpop, were it not for the fact that they’ve known it all along. Hearing the highlights of In Another World is like watching an effortless demonstration of muscle memory by some veteran technician: “The Summer Looks Good On You” is canned sunshine interrupted by a giddy psychedelic breakdown, “Here’s Looking At You” a cheerily shameless retread of themselves circa Dream Police. As usual where Cheap Trick are concerned, the fast ones are much better than the slow ones. 

ANDREW MUELLER

THE CORAL 

Coral Island 

RUN ON

7/10

Shore thing: Wirral warhorses’ seaside fantasia

Never short of ideas, Hoylake oddballs The Coral set the early 2000s trembling with a quirky mix of beat group pop and ersatz sea shanties. Their 10th album, Coral Island splatters familiar components over a broader canvas, James Skelly and co delivering suitably uncanny distillations of the Moody Blues (“Faceless Angel”), early-’70s Byrds (“Change Your Mind”) and groovy St Etienne (“Land Of The Lost”) in a 25-track snoop on surreal goingson under the pier and behind the waltzers in an English resort town. An occasional change of pace might be welcome, but the craftsmanship is beyond reproach; swings, yes, but those roundabouts. 

JIM WIRTH

Dry Cleaning: enjoyably grubby

CHRISTOPHER OWENS , STEVE GULLICK

Back and forwards: David and Peter Brewis of Field Music

STEVE CROPPER 

Fire It Up 

PROVOGUE/MASCOT

6/10

Rare solo album from a soul legend, revisiting his R&B roots

Aguitarist, songwriter and producer at Stax Records who cofounded Booker T & The MG’s and played on most of that label’s biggest hits, Steve Cropper released his solo debut back in 1969 but has disowned his two yacht-rockin’ follow-ups from the early 1980s. Fire It Up revisits that old R&B sound without sounding precious about it. Leading a lively, often volatile band, he remains a formidable guitarist, eschewing bluesy theatrics for sharp rhythms and jazzy fills. Too often, however, he’s overshadowed by the phlegmatic vocals of pub rocker Roger C Reale, which means the most revelatory tracks here are the instrumentals.

STEPHEN DEUSNER

DINOSAUR JR 

SweepIt Into Space 

JAGJAGUWAR

8/10

Grunge heroes team up with Kurt Vile on album 12

More than 35 years since forming and 15 since reforming, a new Dinosaur Jr album now feels more like a comforting reassurance than a revolutionary step. J Mascis’ distinctly wonky yet strangely poignant voice merged with his chunky guitar riffs and sprawling solos are as familiar as a hug from an old friend. Yet the band’s knack for colliding pop melodies with thrashing drums, pummelling bass and screeching guitars is as effective as ever on tracks such as opener “I Ain’t” and the infectious “Hide Another Round”. Kurt Vile’s role as co-producer and limited contributor is a subtle one, sticking to the if-it-isn’t-broke-don’t-fi x- it model. 

DANIEL DYLAN WRAY

DRY CLEANING 

New Long Leg

4AD

8/10 

Boho Londoners’ sparky debut

A smart foursome with a working knowledge of Life Without Buildings and late-period Magazine, Dry Cleaning enlisted John Parish to add extra damp-kitchen murk to their pleasingly grubby debut LP. There’s some of Black Country, New Road’s fork-sharp humour and Sleaford Mods’ wobbly bass judder on New Long Leg0, but Florence Shaw’s absurdist deadpan lyrical collages are entirely their own. Take this from signature tune “Scratchcard Lanyard”: “I just need to be weird and hide for a bit and eat an old sandwich from my bag”. In the best possible way, a hard act to follow. 

JIM WIRTH

DU BLONDE

Homecoming 

DAEMON TV

7/10

Glitter and doom on grunge-pop rollercoaster

Opening with a full-bodied belch and ending on the floor with a torch song about clinical depression, Beth Jeans Houghton’s third album as Du Blonde is a slice of life in all its messy, complicated and ultimately doomed glory. Houghton swings from lo-fi garage growl (“Pull The Plug”) to schlock-horror power-pop (“Smoking Me Out”) and drag-queen girl-group glam (“I’m Glad That We Broke Up”, a giddy duet with Ezra Furman) leaving a trail of quotable lyrics and ferocious choruses in her wake. “Didn’t think I’d be 30, broke and happy,” she sings, on the upswing, before the misery and dirty laundry pile back up on “Take Me Away”.

LISA-MARIE FERLA

JOHN DWYER, TED BYRNES, GREG COATES, TOM DOLAS, BRAD CAULKINS 

Endless Garbage

CASTLE FACE

6/10

Curious cacophony of prog and avant-garde jazz

As well as fronting OSees, Bent Arcana and Damaged Bug, and running his own label, busy bee John Dwyer has started to act as something like an avantjazz band leader, bringing together individual players to form quartets and quintets, then letting them loose at and with each other. This follow-on from the recent Witch Egg was recorded with many of the same personnel but swapped in Ted Byrnes on drums, building pieces of scattered electronica and horn around his rhythms. It is a tumbling torrent of charming weirdness, from the droning clatter of “Pro-Death” to the bizarro world easy-listening “No Goodbyes”.

PETER WATTS

NOGA EREZ 

Kids

CITY SLANG

7/10

Tougher second from the Israeli electro-popster

Erez’s 2017 debut was a promising set that didn’t quite catch fire, switching between styles as if unsure of its identity. Kids, though, sees her punching through with aplomb, via 13 lean, attitudinal songs with a bassmusic and hip-hop/ trap chassis, fitted out with pop hooks and featuring her fine, versatile voice. Echoes of MIA remain, especially on the bouncy “Bark Loud”, but musically Lil Uzi Vert now seems to be more her (and co-producer Ori Rousso’s) style. The set’s themes – of kinship, generational divide and c o nfli ct in her homeland – pull the focus around the title track, which sets US rapper Blimes’ bars into a wonkpop soundbed. 

SHARON O’CONNELL

FIELD MUSIC 

Flat White Moon

MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES

8/10

More premier-league art pop, with addedlight

Their terrific Making A New World album was in no way a gloom fest, despite being themed around the fallout from the First World War. But, understandably, the Brewis brothers have been drawn to a few old-school comforts for their follow-up. Here, then, are echoes of The (psychedelic) Beatles, Fleetwood Mac and even Free, on opener “Orion From The Street”, “Do Me A Favour” and “No Pressure”, respectively, albeit channelled via their beloved Steely Dan and XTC. Since bittersweet is the band’s natural inclination, they’ve smuggled in sobering thoughts of isolation, loneliness and optimism’s perpetual challenge. But hope wins through with the sprightly funk and handclaps of closer “You Get Better”. 

SHARON O’CONNELL

FIELD WORKS 

Cedars

TEMPORARY RESIDENCE

8/10

Culture clash delivers peace and harmony

On this ninth album, producer Stuart Hyatt expands his musical and geographical horizons, combining English and Arabic poetry with soundscapes indebted to both the Middle East and Wild West. Like SUSS’s 2018 collection Ghost Box, his collective offers a kind of New Age Americana. But these guitar drones and Bob Hoffnar’s pedal-steel washes are augmented by less familiar instruments, including the oud and hurdy-gurdy. Lebanese musicologist Youmna Saba’s half-spoken, half-sung delivery on the first side lends the likes of “La’āli’” a timeless, sombre quality, but HC McEntire’s contributions ensure a more serene second half, like Ry Cooder scoring a tender-hearted indie flick.

WYNDHAM WALLACE

FLOCK OF DIMES 

Head Of Roses

SUB POP

8/10

Wye Oaksinger explores heartbreak on ambitious second solo outing

Despite the theme of heartbreak dominating the lyrics of Jenn Wasner’s latest, a similarly cohesive sonic thread is not as clear. Weaving between the soaring indie rock of “Price Of Blue”, the jittery electronic pop of “Two” and the tender acoustic touches of “Lightning”, it’s clear Wasner is much more concerned with communicating a feeling regardless of genre. The electronic touches merge nicely with her voice, which is often as textural in its soft whispers as it is the lead character via its rousing range. This multilayered and multigenre approach results in an album that is as deeply introspective as it is creatively bold and ambitious. 

DANIEL DYLAN WRAYD