Electric Wonderland
15 tracks of the month’s best new music
1 RiChaRd ThOmpsON Trying
We kick off this month with a nimble highlight from the guitarist and songwriter’s excellent new album, 13 Rivers, which shows Thompson burns with the same fire he did 50 years ago. There are echoes of Neil Finn in the melodic twists here, but the guitar work could only be RT.
2 BEak> Brean down
Geoff Barrow, Billy Fuller and Will Young (no, not that one) are back with the third Beak> album, >>>. It’s undoubtedly their best yet, with echoes of John Carpenter, Can and – on “Brean Down” – even Nirvana’s curdled grandeur.
3 LOw disarray
Double Negative, Low’s 12th album, is a grinding, punishingly beautiful record, with the Duluth trio’s elegiac harmonies coated in digital, distorted dirt. “Disarray” is the pulsating closer, and a fitting taste of the wonders within.
4 ThE OThER YEaRs adaline
Anna Krippenstapel and Heather Summers have been singing together for a decade, but are only now releasing their eponymous debut as The Other Years. A hushed delight, the record beautifully and organically evokes the backwoods of their home state of Kentucky.
5 maRissa NadLER Blue Vapor
The Boston singer-songwriter has been a mercurial presence in music over the last decade, and her new album For My Crimes is a particularly enthralling set – “Blue Vapor” is gothy, gauzy and gorgeous.
6 ThE GOON sax we Can’t win
The second album from Brisbane’s Goon Sax, We’re Not Talking, is a step up from their debut, 2016’s Up To Anything, with the trio – including Louis Forster, son of The Go-Betweens’ Robert – penning heartfelt, expansively arranged songs such as this drum machineaided gem.
7 ChRisTiNE aNd ThE QUEENs doesn’t matter
A shimmering set of retro synthpop, Chris, the eagerly awaited new LP from Héloïse Letissier, manages to marry accessibility and depth. “Doesn’t Matter” finds Christine exploring religion, sex and the nature of existence.
8 spiRiTUaLizEd i’m Your man
J Spaceman returns with the band’s first album in six years, and “I’m Your Man” is a waltzing mix of understated lyrics and overstated arrangement. Unsurprising, maybe, but certainly not unwelcome.
9 LOUdON waiNwRiGhT iii (wiTh kaTE mcGaRRiGLE) Unrequited To The Nth degree
The Wainwright patriarch has delved into his archives for Years In The Making, a 2CD set of unreleased recordings. This jaunty country cut is funny, raw and heartbreaking. Altogether now: “Ha ha ha/Ho ho ho/Yuck yuck yuck…”
10 OLiVER COaTEs Norrin Radd dreaming
Fresh from supporting Thom Yorke on tour, electronica’s favourite cellist since Arthur Russell is unveiling his latest work, Shelley’s
On Zenn-La, a glitchy, textured triumph. “Norrin Radd Dreaming” is one of the highlights.
11 swamp dOGG Lonely
Jerry Williams Jr has never stood still, and in 2018 he’s embracing Auto-Tune, with a little help from Bon Iver. This is no desperate run at the charts, however, just the latest experimental phase in an uncompromising master’s long career.
12 mUdhONEY kill Yourself Live
“When I killed myself live,” sings Mark Arm, “I got so many likes/Go on, give it a try…” Social media is just one target of the Seattle rock’n’roll rebels’ new album, Digital Garbage, though, a heady stew of Stooges and garage grooves with new, added synths.
13 aLEjaNdRO EsCOVEdO something Blue
For a Mexican-American, it must be especially hard to ignore events happening near America’s border in 2018. Escovedo’s new album, The
Crossing, then, is a hymn to the plight of the USA’s immigrants, recorded with Italian musicians. Stately as well as timely.
14 ERiC BaChmaNN murmuration song
Hushed but nowhere near mellow, No Recover finds the former Archers Of Loaf frontman mixing his heartfelt songs with picked nylon-stringed guitar and minimal drum programming. “Nobody hates you like you hate yourself,” he consoles. “They’re all busy doing, doing something else.”
15 dawN LaNdEs why They Name whiskey after men
Bringing legendary producer Fred Foster out of retirement for her new album, Meet Me At The River, Dawn Landes has swapped her Americana folk for pure, classic country. Men are like whiskey, the songwriter reckons, but presumably not because they’re made of fermented grain mash. Enjoy, y’all.