Soft Cell recapture the dark energy
There is also new music from Arcade Fire and Blossoms
ARCADE FIRE — WE
CANADIAN Indie Rock band Arcade Fire (pictured) are back with their sixth studio album, WE — an instalment that may have been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, but one that is definitely worth the wait.
The album, their first in five years since 2017’s Everything Now, is a two-sided offering, the first side, I, and the second, WE, delivering poignant lyrics and music with meaning.
Their album return is layered with lyrics that reflect the world of isolation, fear and loneliness, indicative of the global collective during the pandemic.
But fans need not fear they will be weighed down by concept or intention, because the resulting music is still upbeat, highly listenable and catchy.
It’s a glittering musical return for the band.
8/10
(Review by Kathy Iffly)
BLOSSOMS — RIBBON AROUND THE BOMB
BLOSSOMS have taken a leap forward on their fourth album, forging a new and distinctive sound from their love of folksy Americana and classic rock.
The Stockport band’s previous albums have sometimes leaned so heavily on their influences as to stray into pastiche.
Foolish Loving Spaces, released in 2020, was sometimes guilty of this, cribbing the best of Primal Scream’s Screamadelica and U2’s The Joshua Tree before adding a contemporary twist.
Ribbon Around The Bomb, however, oozes personality while retaining the playful, energetic vibe of their previous work.
Frontman Tom Ogden suffered something of an existential crisis before the pandemic.
He confronts this on the twinkling Americanatinted Visions, where he considers where life will take him next, not yet 30 but already a married man with two number one albums under his belt.
Clearly he has put his imposter syndrome behind him: these tracks sound supremely confident and Ogden’s voice jumps easily between singalong choruses (on the title track) to quiet reflection and folksy crooning (on The Writer).
The band have cited Simon & Garfunkel as inspirations for this record, and their musical breadth and songwriting chops have definitely bled into it, producing perhaps Blossoms’ finest album yet.
8/10
(Review by Alex Green)
SOFT CELL — INCLUDED *HAPPINESS NOT
SOFT Cell’s first album in 20 years opens with a vivid depiction of a future filled with androgynous, leather-clad boys and girls, flying cars and devices that control the weather.
This was the seedy, albeit optimistic, vision imagined by singer Marc Almond and producer Dave Ball during their pomp in the late Seventies and early Eighties, where hits like Tainted Love came thick and fast.
Things have turned out a little differently, but Soft Cell, for good or ill, have largely remained the same, exploring the darker seams of society.
At its best, *Happiness Not Included captures the erratic energy and high drama that lifted them from dank London bedsits to the 20,000-capacity O2 Arena over a four-decade career.
Their collaboration with Pet Shop Boys, Purple Zone, is a dancefloor beast — with stabbing synths and an almost unbearably catchy hook.
Nostalgia Machine, meanwhile, pays tribute to the the disco of Studio 54 as well as British touchstones like T Rex and David Essex.
The album falls down when the duo turn towards slower, more atmospheric material.
Heart Like Chernobyl contains some ungainly metaphors (Almond tries to rhyme the titular nuclear disaster with “waste disposal”), while album closer New Eden reaches for grandeur but only plods at a glacial pace.
*Happiness Not Included is an uneven album but one that shows, 40 years after meeting at Leeds Polytechnic, Soft Cell are still testing the boundaries of their art.
6/10
(Review by Robert Jones)