SOUND JUDGEMENT
THE LATEST ALBUM RELEASES RATED AND REVIEWED
AWOLNATION HERE COME THE RUNTS ★★★★★ CONTRARY to what its name might suggest, Here Come The Runts is a top drawer smack in the face of unadulterated, melodic, anthemic, rock ‘n’ roll tinged with pop: all killer, no filler.
Frontman Aaron Bruno says: “It’s like a non-GMO record. There’s no fake on there,. It’s all real playing.”
From opener Here Come The Runts – an electro-rock track with a tantalising medley of tempos – through Killers-esque romp Miracle Man and final track Stop That Train, which smashes your senses with chunky guitars and a haunting layer of sounds, Awolnation have delivered possibly their best record yet.
RAE MORRIS SOMEONE OUT THERE ★★★★★ RAE MORRIS’S second album has finally arrived. We have been teased with singles Reborn, Do It and Atletico (The Only One). Reborn was an introduction to a more electronic sound, while Do It is heart-achingly lovely in its positivity as a relationship tentatively goes to the next level.
The newer tracks take a few listens, but it will be rewarding. Physical Form slowly builds up into an epic track with thundering drums. And Rose Garden’s piano parts have touches of Kate Bush. Morris’s vocals are ethereal and intimate, and this collection never loses hope even when love ends, because something else begins.
THOMAS TRUAX ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS ★★★★★ TROUBADOUR Thomas Truax is a teller of wry, noirish stories whose live shows feature self-invented, noise-making contraptions that have fixed him in the imaginations of a cult following. Even when you can’t see the cogs whirring, on record he packs in melodies equally indebted to Tom Waits’s whiskey-spiked wells as to Brill Building aerodynamism.
While keeping it surreal, International Homeland Security also allies musings on migration to the album’s most propulsive beat; opener Swimming Back to Wowtown is a guitar, accordion, and slapback-laced grower.
Eerie glockenspiels and couplets about horse weddings may not be to all tastes, but so many of these ideas hit the mark, and rough edges in this recording bring some humanity to Truax’s dreamworld.