SOUND JUDGEMENT
THE LATEST ALBUM RELEASES RATED AND REVIEWED
SONS OF KEMET – YOUR QUEEN IS A REPTILE ★★★★★ MERCURY-NOMINATED saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings and his band
Sons Of Kemet are used to acclaim, and while their latest record may be their first on a major label, make no mistake: there’s no compromise.
This is bristling, unapologetic jazz with a punk attitude. Every track rejects Britain’s monarch and celebrates an alternative Queen drawn from black history – figures as diverse in time and place as Harriet Tubman, Yaa Asantewaa and Baroness Lawrence, but all who, in Hutchings’ words, “led by action, by example” and “made bright futures out of cruel and unfair pasts”.
British jazz at large may be at its most nascent in decades, and with a record this thrillingly vital, Sons Of Kemet look to have pushed themselves to the crest of that new wave.
KATE NASH – YESTERDAY WAS FOREVER ★★★★★ FRAMED around the revisiting of teenage diaries, Yesterday Was Forever doesn’t mourn lost youth: it reconnects to the appetites and loyalties of late adolescence, with the joyous screams and musical moodswings that might imply.
The Buffy references and Elastica riffs – both in Take Away – are a delight, and there’s no lack of melody. Twisted Up seems to be two songs: one a volume-peaking Bikini Kill buzzfest, the other a horny Lily Allen cover.
Fortunately Nash’s commitment to her concept allows for wild stylistic reach, and singles like Life In Pink speak for themselves.
THE VACCINES – COMBAT SPORTS ★★★★★ IN 2011 The Vaccines swept the indie rock scene with a fistful of fun, upbeat indie pop bangers. Their songs were simple, effective and endearing. Seven years later, Justin Young and his band’s new release maintains the simplicity but lack the charm.
The missing ingredient is their sense of fun. Without it, as is the case in Combat Sports, there are only hookdriven tunes that feel uncomfortable in their own skin. While Someone To Love starts out crisp and strong, it soon devolves into a repeating refrain that packs a pat not a punch. Similarly the lead single, I Can’t Quit, falls short of its potential.
It is an attempt to shift in a new direction, but unfortunately the recipe is less effective without the characteristic thrum of excitement, leaving a slightly turgid collection of misfires.