Apocalyptic album funky yet unsettling
Listening to There Is No Year, the third album from Algiers, is a mildly unsettling experience. At times, lead singer Franklin James Fisher’s voice so closely resembles Michael Jackson that the dystopian, industrial rock music behind his sweet, soulful delivery feels out of place. Gospel sits awkwardly atop a punk fuzz guitar but, once you settle in, it works pretty well.
Algiers has toured with Depeche Mode, worked with members of Portishead and Massive Attack and boasts former Bloc Party drummer Matt Tong on the skins. It’s a band from Atlanta that seems to have a more British sonic sensibility.
Loosely based on a novel of the same name, There Is No Year awaits the apocalypse. There’s a lot of streets on fire. Ashes are everywhere and, at one point, we’re in the jaws of the beast.
It’s funkier than it sounds.
Auckland singer Navvy is proving herself to be an inventive and versatile singer and continues to write and produce well-crafted, catchy songs.
No Hard Feelings is a four-track EP that kicks off with the bewitching Safety In Numbers.
Intimate and heartfelt, synthesisers gently swell behind whispered, layered vocals, before being snatched away, leaving powerful silences as percussive punches in the chorus. It’s very effective.
Navvy is early in her career and, like many artists, heartache seems to be the impetus behind her early creative output. No Hard Feelings follows on from last year’s EP, The Break Up and, as the titles suggest, most of these songs are about finding strength at the end of a relationship.
She has a real knack for choruses. No Hard Feelings’ title track has the catchiest of them, while the verses spill the beans on what really went wrong and why.
He cheated on her, but still wants to lean on her for emotional support, which she finds hard to refuse. The relationship lasted four years, ending seven months ago, meaning she’s very much still finding her feet after losing someone she thought was a lot stronger than he actually was. On top of that, she still maintains a relationship with his mum, which doesn’t make things easier.
It’s tempting to play armchair psychologist and recommend that she focus on her own self-worth, cut herself off from his constant need for validation, accept that other people always let you down, and that young men are mostly useless and unreliable, and tell her she should move on.
But the songs are good, so let’s just enjoy how this plays out.