ALBUM OF THE WEEK
THE WEEKND
Beauty Behind the Madness
Island
Witnessing Abel Tesfaye’s transformation from purveyor of misanthropic, narcoticised alt-R&B to chart-topping superstar has been a fascinating experience. On the surface, little in the Canadian’s early work — his three acclaimed mixtapes and his 2013 album, Kiss Land — suggested an ability, let alone a desire, to score huge hit singles. If you dig a little deeper, though, his distinctive falsetto and those mellifluous top lines begin to sound like songs seeking that little bit of extra focus and rigour needed to gain radio traction. The hit single Can’t Feel My Face was Tesfaye’s tipping point; the rest of Beauty Behind the Madness steps up to the plate. Loosely conceptual (yup, another obsessive but doomed love affair), musically the album posits the 25-year-old as Michael Jackson’s natural heir. The self-loathing of old may show no sign of abating, but, on standouts such as In the Night, Shameless, Tell Your Friends, Real Life and the Lana Del Rey-featuring Prisoner, he balances lyrics of chilling bleakness with sublime, heart-tugging music. A true star. DC
MIKKY EKKO
Time
Columbia
Maybe it’s because Mikky Ekko is best known for Stay, his 2013 megahit duet with Rihanna, that you can’t help wondering how his debut album would sound with some powerful female vocals. Or perhaps he simply writes songs more suited to women. The opener, Watch Me Rise, cries out for Beyoncé’s quivering lip; Lana Del Rey would make a masterpiece of Mourning Doves; Katy Perry could blast Loner into the stratosphere. Not that Ekko’s tremulous tenor isn’t lovely; it’s just that these smartly penned, beautifully produced R&B-, rock- and pop-blending songs lack drama in his hands. For whichever diva trawls Time first, there are hits aplenty here. LV
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ANE BRUN
When I’m Free
Balloon Ranger
Most albums containing a song as spine-tinglingly good as Black Notebook would be a letdown, the other tracks overshadowed by its brilliance. And it is brilliant: ghostly, minimalist backing, a lyric and vocal that play like a confiding conversation between friends about a lost love affair — full of asides and sharp realisation, with phrasing so perfect, so innate, it puts most of this Norwegian’s contemporaries to shame. But the rest of When I’m Free pulls its weight: the lilting, intimate, Abba-like Miss You More; the timpani-pocked, piano-speckled Directions; the visceral, defiant, feminist polemic of You Lit My Fire. Sensational. DC
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THE ARCS
Yours, Dreamily
Nonesuch
Moonlighting from the Black Keys, Dan Auerbach has assembled a dream ticket, with the Dap-Kings’ Homer Steinweiss and the indie veteran Richard Swift among the cast. The resulting album has none of the drawbacks — pals noodling in the studio, quality control abandoned at the door — that ventures of this type often have. Lennon, T Rex, Cream and the Doobie Brothers jostle for space on a crowded template. The sleazy Big Easy shuffle of Come & Go, Velvet Ditch’s ambling gait, the bared teeth of Everything You Do (You Do for You), Auerbach’s serpentine guitar-playing: this sounds like so much more than a mere side project. DC
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ADMIRAL FALLOW
Tiny Rewards
Nettwerk
A contender for 2015’s most criminally overlooked album, Tiny Rewards, first released in May, saw this Glasgow band swap acoustic rock for skyscraping, synth-built, flute- and clarinet-strewn songs of such heartbreaking beauty, they could make Guy Garvey cry. This rerelease with three additional tracks — notably the kaleidoscopic Posted Little Victories, which nods to a noisier new direction — is a second chance to hear Louis Abbott’s wonderfully blunt Scottish voice question the meaning of life as he nears 30. Anyone debating whether to become a parent simply has to hear Evangeline. LV
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VOODOO LOVE ORCHESTRA
Amor y Muerte
Movimientos Records MOV007
There’s no end to the Latin-tinged high jinks from this homegrown brass-meets-drums outfit. Any band brave enough to take on the ferocious stop-go rhythms of Fela Kuti’s Zombie has to be worth hearing, and there’s intoxicating, klezmerish soloing on Clarinete y Bombardino. The ensemble playing is crisp and bright, and the whole package is assembled with just the right helping of tongue-in-cheek humour. Peggy Lee fans will enjoy the Fever cover. CD
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REUBEN JAMES RICHARDS
About Time
Jigsaw SAW5
Much like that petite American fireball Sharon Jones (of Dap-Kings fame), the British singer is a disciple of the venerable Stax/Muscle Shoals tradition of R&B. And, as with Jones, the original songs tend to lapse into polite pastiche. Still, there’s plenty to admire in these performances, laid down in a Norfolk studio. Richards caught the ear of the veteran producer Jerry Wexler two decades ago, but it has taken until now for him to record his debut. Let’s hope we get a chance to hear him live before long. CD
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GRUMP OF THE WEEK
PIL
WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW...
PiL Official
“What, you f****** nagging again? About what? What?” The second John Lydon snarls the opening lines to PiL’s 10th studio album, you know you’re in safe hands. Which is sort of the problem. The man responsible for some of the most menacing, raging music that pop has produced has begun to sound like a cabaret turn — albeit a cabaret far removed from the supper-club crooning we tend to associate with the word. With his anger and outrage, like the band’s angular, wailing, bass-heavy sonic assault, sounding increasingly contrived, Lydon is reduced to pastiche. DC
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Must-have reissue
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DAFT PUNK
Tron Legacy
Disney
Huge fans of the 1982 film, and of Wendy Carlos’s score, the French duo were the perfect choice to handle the music for the 2010 sequel. News of both the film and the choice of composers was greeted with dismay by some, yet Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter’s work to that point was full of evidence of grand designs and an itching for a broader canvas. Within the film, their score, melding glacial electronica and orchestral agitation, worked brilliantly; on its own, it was just as persuasive. This vinyl reissue reinforces that truth.
Dan Cairns
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Breaking act
LITTLE SIMZ
Who is she?
Simbi Ajikawo, a north London rapper, singer and actor whose mixtapes have been name-checked by Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Andre 3000 and Timbaland. Her songs document London life with bracing originality and unblinking realism, made even more compelling by her distinctive delivery — equal parts staccato and drawl. Her debut album, A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons, confirms Little Simz’s huge promise.
When’s the music available?
September 18, on Age 101; soundcloud.com/littlesimz
Dan Cairns
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The hottest tracks
Izzy Bizu: Give Me Love The Londoner’s new single is a stunner — the lyrics wistful, the soul-pop melody unstoppable.
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The Bohicas: Swarm Playlisted at Radio 1 18 months after it came out, this wigged-out racket still sounds box-fresh — and brilliant.
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White: Blush The hotly tipped Scots justify the hype here: this is art-rock at its most feral and menacing.
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Hear and now
Listen to chief pop critic Dan Cairns’s new-music playlist at spoti.fi/dancairns