CD reviews
SZA Ctrl
LOVE songs, breakups, revenge, longing, SZA’s debut album has got it all. As the loan R&B act on Top Dawg, home of Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q, it has seemed for years that Ctrl was finished but would never release. Why the delay? Who knows? What we do know is Ctrl was well worth the wait. Unlike the pop end of R&B, SZA’s album comes out of the gates swinging. She quickly establishes the album as “for adults” with the explicit, promiscuous, saucy themes on Supermodel. Produced by Scum, whoever that is, the song teams muffled guitars and back end drums to give her a pallet on which to sing like a jazz vocalist in full
flight. Drew Barrymore is a clear standout song that bursts with empowerment. For anyone feeling some post-breakup blues, this will be your jam. Unafraid of risk taking, SZA dips a toe into the land of electro-jazz on Pretty Little Birds with Top Dawg youngster Isaiah Rashad. Through three songs she shows off some very different sides of her personality. Heartbreaker Normal Girl pines for a good guy to take her home to his parents while Love Galore pitches its fastball straight for the bedroom. Then on the woozy The Weekend she gets saucy and cheeky. How it happened is not clear, but SZA has (finally!) delivered her debut album and it has the self-assured confidence of peak Sade, Lauryn Hill or Mary J. Blige — amazing.
Slowdive Slowdive
REMEMBER English shoegazers Slowdive? Probably not, huh. Never as popular as My Bloody Valentine but arguably as influential, Slowdive is one of those bands that kicked a bunch of butt for an album or three in the ‘90s and then vanished. It has been a minute since they have released anything. Actually, it’s been about 11.5 million minutes but who is counting? The indie rockers deliver the goods on this self-titled comeback album. Textural, rich soundscapes swirl throughout these eight songs. Breathy dreamy vocals slink around the place, half the time that are incomprehensible but it hardly matters, they get their work done as pretty melodies rather than vessels to deliver a lyrical message. I am a sucker for bands that employ a male and female singer — it just gives them so much scope to be creative. Slowdive opens with the quiet, ethereal Slomo before picking up the pace with Star Roving that has the vibe of Sonic Youth in their less noisy college rock mould. Later, Go Get It is an urgent post-rocker that tricks the ears early with a quiet twominute intro before launching skyward with soaring guitars and duelling vocals. This propulsive album works as eight songs or a single movement. It is one of the best, genuine surprises of the year.