Making it fit together
The 1975 A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships Universal
THE 1975 has never been short of ideas or the confidence to pursue them. But the British band’s previous two albums (and the associated promotions) were decidedly hit and miss.
However, on new album A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships,
The 1975 manages to make all its ambitious pieces fit together. Somehow, The Man Who Married A Robot/Love Theme, a spoken-word piece read by the British male version of Siri about a man who falls in love with the internet and ends up lonely, is poignant.
Somehow, It’s Not Living (If It’s
Not With You), which sounds like it came straight from country-pop radio in the mid-90s, is an upbeat revelation about singer Matty Healy’s heroin addiction.
And yes, somehow, the spare, John Coltrane-inspired jazz standard Mine is stunningly beautiful as Healy is “looking back on 2009” amid horn solos and the swell of string sections to build a genuine millennial wedding song.
What makes all of that even more remarkable is that none of those songs even come close to The 1975’s wheelhouse, shimmery synth-pop and clever, often sad, rock grandeur. And Brief Inquiry has plenty of those things too.
The tropical dance single
TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME is as fizzy as Justin Bieber’s What Do
You Mean? only the catchy club hit about temptation has some lyrical depth. Even the peppy leadoff single Give Yourself A Try is actually a call for teenage self-esteem.
On Love It If We Made It, Healy combines wild current event headlines with shout-outs to the late Long Beach rapper Lil Peep to try to make an argument for hope in an era of despair.
The 1975’s Brief Inquiry concludes with the epic rock ballad I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes), where Healy battles against sadness with soaring rock atmospherics. It turns out that’s a pretty great strategy. – Glenn Gamboa/ Newsday/Tribune News Service
Smashing Pumpkins
Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. Napalm
MAYBE the reunion with guitar monster James Iha, bringing threefourths of the old magic back into the fold, and a tour promising only the old (good) stuff, was enough to make you check on Infowarssupporting, D’arcy Wretskygaslighting Billy Corgan in 2018 Because it sure wasn’t their album Teargarden By Kaleidyscope. Plus maybe even the concise, howcould-he-screw-it-up run time of 32 minutes.
But these one-time, er, zeitgeist, heroes are still fully commandeered by Corgan, whose nasal drip is mixed terribly loud on
Marchin’ On and who has no riffs nor thoughts left worth entertaining. Rick Rubin even-keels all the force out of Jimmy Chamberlin’s still-combustible drumming, and only the canned Pixies riffage of
Solara approaches the intense old times on the worst-titled album in a career of contenders.
And yet it’s fully listenable, even radio-ready, which some will term a success. But Corgan’s lying about the past, may have a point about his future, and could use a little sun. — Dan Weiss/Tribune News Service Michael Buble love
Warner
WHEN people claim they are stepping away from it all to spend more time with their family, it’s usually a front. When Michael Buble said he’d do the same, it really was to take care of son Noah, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2016.
With his boy recovering, the Canadian crooner has returned to his career, including a new album and a big US tour starting in February. love (represented by a red heart on the album cover) sounds like a new start for Buble, who has won four Grammys since his 2003 major-label debut by relying on a well-chosen mix of jazz standards and pop songs.
Like that album, love has David Foster in the producer’s chair and most of the tunes are evergreens, including When I Fall Love, Unforgettable, When You’re Smiling and I Only Have Eyes For You.
Buble sounds totally at ease with the repertoire and the arrangements harken back to the 50s and 60s, with the string section especially effective.
Kris Kristofferson’s Help Me Make It Through The Night has a Mariachi mood and vocal accompaniment from Loren Allred, while Buble duets with Cecile McLorin Salvant on La Vie En Rose. The only song co-written by Buble is Forever Now, clearly a message of love to Noah.
A pair of tunes come from the 1937 Rodgers & Hart musical Babes In Arms – an ominous-sounding My Funny Valentine fit for a spy movie and Where Or When, the album closer where Buble seems to achieve a degree of catharsis, really ripping loose on the last notes.
Buble stays within comfortable confines on love, but sometimes there’s nothing wrong with being safe at home. – Pablo Gorondi/AP
Anderson .Paak Oxnard Aftermath
OXNARD is the third in Anderson .Paak’s series of albums that take their titles from California locales crucial to the singer-rapper-drummer’s artistic development. It follows 2014’s Venice and 2016’s breakout Malibu, and it’s the first to be released on .Paak’s mentor Dr. Dre’s label.
It’s an impressive display of all of .Paak’s various skills. As a vocalist, he has deeply relaxed throaty raps that conjure up R&B masters like Curtis Mayfield and Freddie Jackson, and his easy way with sinewy gangsta funk makes for a natural alliance with Dre, who employed the younger artist on multiple features on 2015’s Compton collection.
Dre executive-produced Oxnard and surely had much to do with bringing in the array of featured artists, including Kendrick Lamar, Pusha T, and Snoop Dogg on the standout Anywhere. So many guests end up adding to Oxnard’s lack of focus, however.
It’s amusing enough, but I’m not sure what the point is of sampling an old Rodney Dangerfield Tonight Show bit at the start of Trippy (which also features J. Cole).
.Paak is a tremendous talent, but Oxnard’s songs don’t invite you in with personal details as effectively as those on Malibu did, and this is not the album where he puts it all together. – Dan DeLuca/Tribune News Service