ALBUM OF THE WEEK
MADONNA
Rebel Heart
Polydor
Long, long before “the Cape”, there were clear signs that the queen of pop had mislaid both her crown and her aura of infallibility. Her last two albums, Hard Candy and MDNA, were a pair of shockers, and her fumbling handling of social media reinforced the impression of an artist no longer setting the agenda, but chasing after it. Where was that uncanny knack for challenging, headline-grabbing reinvention? Whenever Madonna has dropped a clanger in the past, it is her songs that have come to the rescue: unimpeachable, provocative, ear-worm pop that put her rivals in their place. The serial leaking (once is unlucky, twice just seems inept) of much of this new album bedevilled her planned return; her response, likening the leaks to an act of terrorism, made her sound crass and absurd. Yet when a too tightly bound cape sent her tumbling backwards down the stairs at the Brits, the depressingly gleeful reaction was a wake-up call to non-haters everywhere. Madonna, people! Daring to still express herself sexually at 56. Going on with the show despite being in acute pain. Singing some songs. Ah, the songs — all 14 of them, in Rebel Heart’s case (or 19 if you buy the deluxe version), created with an eye-on-the-zeitgeist cast including Kanye, Diplo, Avicii, Ariel Rechtshaid and Ryan Tedder, with guest spots from Alicia Keys, Chance the Rapper, Nas and, um, Mike Tyson. Neither bona fide classic nor copper-bottomed stinker, the singer’s 13th studio album joins the dots with her past career peaks, yet its impact isn’t blunted by the comparison. There are many instances — the verses of the La Isla Bonita-like Devil Pray, the Papa Don’t Preach-recalling bridge on Iconic, the pop perfection of the school-of-Cherish Joan of Arc — where her vocals zoom you straight back to the glory days. There are miscues (the non-song of a single that is Living for Love), oddities (the beyond-camp melodramatics of Heartbreak City) and lashings of our old friends sex (Body Shop is an absolute belter) and religious sin (Holy Water). Does it hang together? Just about. Up there with her best? Not quite. But, to paraphrase one of the song titles here, bitch, it’s Madonna. DC
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FYFE
Control
Believe
As David’s Lyre, Paul Dixon signed to a major label, recorded an album of quirky electro-folk and, before it was released, was dropped. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. But I think shark-free waters probably suit the Londoner better — he can wallow and bask and mull. Control is the result of that mulling: a succession of contemplative, laid-bare songs on which his childhood classical training combines with glitchy alt-R&B beats, lyrics of remarkable self-awareness (along with a fair bit of self-laceration) and the voice of a jaded angel. Standouts include Conversations and the celestial Polythene Love. Worth the wait. DC
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GHOSTFACE KILLAH AND BADBADNOTGOOD
Sour Soul
Lex Records
Few rappers have embraced middle age as inventively as Ghostface Killah, the Wu-Tang Clan stalwart with so many comic-book alter egos, he must wake up and wonder which city he’s supposed to be saving. On two recent albums, the 44-year-old has soundtracked his rap with old-school soul played by real musicians. Here he teams up with BadBadNotGood, a young Canadian jazz trio, on a Tarantino-style trip back to the 1970s. Sonically, it’s a sublime match, Ghostface’s brash raps starkly relocated to murky jazz clubs and blaxploitation movies. Lyrically, it’s hit and miss, with the star often eclipsed by guests such as Danny Brown. LV
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MATTHEW E WHITE
Fresh Blood
Domino/Spacebomb
We are told that robots will soon replace us all. But that’s OK, because shortly after that, Matthew E White will replace all the robots with cool, funky musicians who play real instruments. So far, admittedly, he’s only been operating in the music industry, where he has replaced laptops and plug-ins with a good old-fashioned studio and house band; but the formula worked brilliantly on his debut, Big Inner, and continues to thrill on this follow-up, whether he is ruminating on the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman (Tranquility), examining child abuse in the church (Holy Moly) or offering Randy Newman-esque provocations (the wondrous Rock & Roll Is Cold). ME
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COLLEEN GREEN
I Want to Grow Up
Hardly Art
I think it would be fair to say that the Los Angeles-based Colleen Green is an unreliable narrator. “Gonna stop doing things that are bad for me,” she sings on Things That Are Bad for Me (Part 1), before adding, on Things That Are Bad for Me (Part 2): “I’m gonna do drugs right now/I’m gonna get f***** up, I don’t care how.” The desire for maturity smashing against the day-to-day reality of self-defeating thoughts and habits lie at the heart of Green’s work, but a dark, frustrated, self-hating lyrical obsession can’t prevent I Want to Grow Up being an accessible and hugely enjoyable mix of the Breeders, Liz Phair, Blink-182 and Best Coast. ME
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REBECCA FERGUSON
Lady Sings the Blues
RCA 88875053342
The Lady Day tribute albums are beginning to pile up, now that her centenary is almost upon us. (There’s Sinatra’s at the end of the year, too.) Of all the candidates so far, the X Factor contestant is, unsurprisingly, the least jazzy. But that doesn’t mean she disgraces herself. Far from it. If Ferguson’s R&B voice is much closer to Aretha’s, the producer and Laura Mvula collaborator Troy Miller drapes it in inventive, swinging arrangements. OK, Summertime and All of Me are a tad creaky, but the rest of the set works fine on its own soulful terms. CD
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Must-have reissue
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BROADCAST
Haha Sound
The second of the Birmingham band’s five albums, 2003’s Haha Sound perfected their bewitching sonic brew, setting Trish Keenan’s detached vocals, nursery-rhyme melodies and lyrics of alienation and ennui to soundscapes that drew on 1960s Gallic pop, motorik minimalism and Californian psychedelia, all given a busy, Joe Meek-like coating. The conflict between pop-bright optimism and something much darker and more complicated is captured compellingly. Keenan’s tragic death in 2011 robbed alt-pop of a singular talent.
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Dan Cairns
Breaking act
PALE HONEY
Who are they?
A duo from Gothenburg, Tuva Lodmark and Nelly Daltrey eschew the synth pop most often associated with their country, favouring instead a White Stripesian voice-drums-guitar spareness, with a plinky keyboard sometimes thrown in, that suddenly explodes into violent colour. Their new song, Youth, follows last year’s brilliant Fiction EP, and captures the menace that lurks at the heart of their music. An album is due in May.
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When’s the music available?
Listen to Youth at palehoney.com.
Dan Cairns
The hottest tracks
Hannah Cohen: Fake It From the American’s imminent new album: eerie, organ-driven glitch-pop magnificence.
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Alex G: Change A beautiful Elliott Smith-like lament from the stupendously good Philly singer.
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Icky Blossoms: In Folds The Omaha three-piece preview their second album with a blast of brutal, glacial electro.
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Dan Cairns
Hear and now
Listen to chief pop critic Dan Cairns’s new-music playlist