06/10
Vondelpark Seabed (R&S) By Sam Walton. In stores Apr 1 Much is made of albums being “stolen” every day by Pirate Bay’s massed ranks, but regardless of your stance there, spare a thought for Vondelpark; victims of theft in a far more real sense.Two years ago, following a pair of promising EPs, a laptop containing the only existing files for what was to be their debut album was nicked during a gig. ‘Seabed’ is not that album rerecorded, but a new collection of songs, and, perhaps accordingly, a whiff of second-album syndrome – technical competence but stylistic uncertainty and mustiness – runs through the London trio’s debut. At its best, on the woozy hypnagogic pop of ‘Bananas’, that uncertainty is a virtue, as dismembered rave vocals singing “Maybe I’ve seen you before” soar above blissed-out Balearic instrumentation to create an oddly dislocating, beatific sense of nostalgia.The opening ‘Quest’, too, smoothes the remaining edges off James Blake’s blubstep template to leave a seductively warm slip of a song. Elsewhere though, ‘Seabed’ feels forced: the obsequiously named ‘Outro for Ariel’ is chillwave by numbers, and successive songs in the album’s middle drift by so horizontally they barely register. Under the circumstances, that staleness is a shame – were ‘Seabed’ to have arrived alongside its contemporaries like James Blake and Teengirl Fantasy, and not two years late, it might’ve sounded far fresher.
07/10
Phoenix
!!!
Bankrupt
Thr!!!er
(Atlantic) By Sam Walton. In stores Apr 22
(Warp) By Amy Pettifer. In stores Apr 29
It’s been four years since Phoenix made the leap from European indie curios to chart-topping conquerors of America, and this follow-up to their breakthrough ‘Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’ is careful not to fix anything that ain’t broke. Accordingly, ‘Bankrupt!’ sticks to its predecessor’s formula of modish new romanticism combined with the sunshine prog of ELO, delivering a set of punchy, compact pop songs almost custom designed to be blaring from a radio at some point this summer.That said, however,‘Bankrupt!’ is not a complete rewrite: the title track, twice as long as any other on the album, dabbles in Floydish symphonic flourishes, with mixed success, and elsewhere it’s clear that Phoenix are keen to borrow from more serious parts of pop’s past than before.That makes for a progression, of sorts, but while there’s nothing on ‘Bankrupt!’ that packs the same irresistible melodic punch of ‘1901’, its best moments, especially the closing ‘Oblique City’, come when the band are trying their least.
‘Thr!!!er’, in all its heart to drumbeat matching glory, is a dextrous, foot stomping meta-tussle with the notion of the career defining album.The bi-coastal six piece of !!! insert their interchangeable, tri-syllabic moniker into a title that will always be synonymous with Michael Jackson’s benchmark release – the point being that just as their leash of exclamation points can stand in for any set of sounds, so the notion of a career high can mean whatever it needs to for the band in question. If their idea of a critical apex was finally capturing the spontaneous adrenaline of their infamous live shows on record, then Spoon drummer Jim Eno has done a solid job of shaping a heady approximation of the perfect gig.They’ve loosened up by sharpening up and the groove is spandex tight. Moving through post-disco incantations, the ecstatic pop perfection of ‘One Boy/One Girl’, darker freak-outs and a heavy, cataclysmic climax, ‘Thr!!!er’ feels inclusive, escapist and celebratory.
08/10
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