> BEN RAYNER’S REASONS TO LIVE
Sisters, doing it for themselves.
1. Anna Calvi, One Breath ( Domino). Anna Calvi’s eponymous 2011 debut was one of the year’s most striking and durable and, in short, an altogether tough act to follow. Follow it in fine style Calvi has, though, and in a rather more raucous manner than the sweaty twang-noir of the first record might have led you to expect.
Not that there isn’t a lot of sweaty twang-noir to go around on One Breath — “Sing to Me” and “Bleed Into Me,” for instance, cover that end of the Calvi oeuvre off nicely — but the spooky Twickenham, England native stakes out a far broader dynamic range this time around, letting that gutsy alto of hers out at full roar over some remarkably assertive and eruptive arrangements while also finding occasional time to shred serious guitar along the way. Earworm opener “Suddenly” and the galloping first single “Eliza” signal that things are gonna be a bit more blustery on One Breath, but that doesn’t really prepare you for the blistering fuzz to come on “Love of My Life” or the inviting anthemics of “Carry Me Over,” which might pass for a more tastefully restrained Florence and the Machine tune were it not for the mesmerizing Krautrock midsection. Calvi’s a record or two away from shaking the P.J. Harvey comparisons, maybe (see: “Piece by Piece” and “Tristan”) but this is the one that would seem to confirm our suspicions that she’ll be around for a long time.
2. Icona Pop, This Is . . . Icona Pop (Warner). Icona Pop’s nihilist-pop masterpiece “I Love It” is such a beast that it’s now stuck around long enough to qualify as one of the singles of the year for the second year running. Those are impossibly big shoes to fill, but This Is . . . Icona
Pop, the second full-length album by rowdy Swedish BFFs Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo, has a few more monsters of nearly equal might tucked away in the quiver. “All Night” is a tingly ode to feeling invincible on the dance floor, “Ready for the Weekend” is a suitably grinding party joint, “Then We Kiss” is a giddily pogoing Bonnie and Clyde fantasy in the CSS vein and “Girlfriend” nicks a few lyrics from Tupac in service of an anthem to female friendship so ooey-gooily perfect it makes me wish I was a teenage girl with a BFF of my own with whom I could shout along to it whilst dancing around — I don’t know — a pink ghetto blaster in my bedroom. It’s ABBA gone mildly electropunk and total bubble gum, yes, but it’s top-of-the-line bubble gum. With a bit of a dark side, no less: “Steppin’ on the cracks in the pavement / Just another night of being wasted,” goes the ballad “Just Another Night,” hinting that even in Icona Pop’s candy-coloured universe the inevitable comedown must be faced.
Anna Calvi stakes out a far broader dynamic range this time around, letting that gutsy alto of hers out at full roar over some remarkably assertive and eruptive arrangements
3. Jessy Lanza, Pull My Hair Back (Hyperdub/Geej Recordings). Speaking of comedowns, the debut long-player from Hamilton singer, songwriter and producer Jessy Lanza brings back fond memories of all the classy chillout fare (remember those awesome Rebirth of Cool compilations?) circulating in the ’90s as balm to many a bleary-eyed sunup during the original rave era. Pull My Hair Back, coproduced by fellow Hamiltonian Jeremy Greenspan of Junior Boys — with whom Lanza definitely shares a complementary affinity for high-gloss electronic soul — offers a moist, minimalist take on machine-age R&B coloured by flashes of slick ’ 80s electro-funk, oscillating Kraftwerk synths and after-hours Chicago. Much of it is vaporous stuff, with airy tunes like “Kathy Lee” and “As If” often floating Lanza’s barely-there coo over little more than a few watery synth chords, some skittering snare hits and a kick drum. “F--- Diamond” gilds itself with a bit of sinister low-end bite on its way to a nudging 4/4 thump, however, while “Against the Wall” similarly benefits from a welcome crust of late-night tech-house momentum. “Keep Moving,” for its part, is a confidently sashaying disco-pop keeper entirely aware that in a parallel dimension it’s already at the top of the charts.