Albums
THE SKINNY
Frances Quinlan Likewise [Saddle Creek, 31 Jan]
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isten to: Your Reply, Rare Thing, L Now That I’m Back
Wolf Parade Thin Mind [Sub Pop, 24 Jan]
January 2020 — Review
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isten to: Under Glass, L Wandering Son
The distinctive sound of Hop Along is inseparable from the startling voice of Frances Quinlan. Yet Quinlan’s debut solo release achieves something that is quite distinct: Likewise operates mostly in major keys. The soundscapes are lively and bright, and moments of despair are gorgeously balanced. Quinlan is a remarkable and intimate storyteller, her unpredictable narratives illuminating even the most ordinary of details. Piltdown Man recalls camping in a friend’s garden, while Your Reply describes the novel Quinlan is reading. On Rare Thing, she examines an unsettling dream she had about her baby niece, addressing the beloved child as her equal. The joy she finds in their bond is unbounded, bringing with it a new understanding of the power of pure, unconditional love. ‘We should try again to talk’ is Quinlan’s imploration on Now That I’m Back, as she yearns for a human connection in relationships that have been neglected, lost or simply never formed. ‘We are torn between our love and our shame’, says Quinlan, asking people to communicate better with their loved ones. Likewise is an empathetic nod to the listener; an invitation to openness. [Katie Cutforth] Thin Mind is mostly back to basics Wolf Parade. Under Glass opens the album with a mission statement: we’re still ‘free in our minds’ but ‘nobody knows what they want anymore’. It’s a sharp, polished song with typical Wolf Parade chords and Dan Boeckner’s paranoid croon. The album is a little more experimental than previous efforts, especially in their liberal use of synths. In Julia Take Your Man Home, Spencer Krug imagines a more toxic version of himself in various ‘drunken jerk’ situations, and it’s kept chugging with some kooky percussion and wacked-out synth work. Despite the synth prevalence, the band manage to avoid sci-fi pastiche until Against the Day goes all in while telling a story of ‘Lovecraftian, geological love’. It was hinted at throughout, particularly the outro to Forest Green and on Wandering Son, but they throw caution to the wind here. It’s a striking pose for a band with such a consistent sound, but they pull it off well and it’s a welcome jolt of energy before Town Square ends things in more familiar territory. Overall, Wolf Parade have carefully crafted another winning record. Maybe not one to win over new fans, but Thin Mind is a solid addition to a sparkling oeuvre. [Lewis Wade]
Isobel Campbell There Is No Other [Cooking Vinyl, 31 Jan]
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isten to: The Heart of It All, Hey L World, The National Bird of India
Destroyer Have We Met [Dead Oceans, 31 Jan]
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isten to: Crimson Tide, It Just L Doesn’t Happen
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There’s a story behind Isobel Campbell’s first solo material in 14 years: her record company closed and it took a year to take back the rights to her album. Another couple of years passed before she signed to Cooking Vinyl and waited for the legalities to be completed. “It felt like I’d retired or was in prison,” she has said. “But if you’re lucky to live long enough, there are always going to be peaks and troughs.” There Is No Other is a career peak. A record full of shimmering indie folk and shaky synths, its wobbles lull you into a false sense of security that all is right in the world. But, lean in closer, and you can hear the hard miles travelled in the making of this lilting and lullabydominated music. Those hard miles can be heard in the clipped electric guitars and stacked vocals of Hey World, while The National Bird of India fades in on swooping strings, Campbell whispering secrets in your ear. It’s not all warm and tender, however, as the taut and tough Below Zero reveals. There Is No Other is a gentle masterpiece, but there’s leather located behind the silk and the record packs an emotional punch. [Alan O’Hare]
The original concept for Dan Bejar’s latest album as Destroyer was ‘Y2K’ and, though it was scrapped, there is a sense of paranoia and dread in his second-guessing lyrics. ‘Look at the world around you / Actually don’t look’, he advises on The Raven, before a pretty kooky synth arrangement busts in, almost an impromptu bridge that arrives after the first line. Sometimes this sort of unconstrained ‘whatever goes’ attitude works, but there’s also a lot more repetition on the album, as well as songs that feel undercooked. Bejar is in full lounge-lizard mode on Have We Met. His signature vocals sound as good as ever, but his lyrics walk a fine line between intriguingly inscrutable and just plain nonsense. Cue Synthesizer is a nice experiment, the lyrics providing a meta-commentary on composition in real-time, but it still feels disconnected from the whole. The two singles – Crimson Tide and It Just Doesn’t Happen – are fantastic, vintage Destroyer. But much of the album feels like it was cobbled together from odds and ends, Bejar relying on his ability to freestyle ideas and come up with gold. It’s a surprisingly spotty album from an artist who rarely puts a foot wrong. [Lewis Wade]