Beth Hart "37 Days" (2007)

37 Days
release date: Jul. 30, 2007
format: cd / cd (2008 reissue)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,62]
producer: Rune Westberg & The Beth Hart Band
label: Universal Music Group - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Good as It Gets" (live) - 4. "Over You" (4 / 5) - 5. "Sick" - 6. "Face Forward" - 9. "Easy" - 11. "Missing You"

4th studio album by Beth Hart released four years following Leave the Light On (2003) is exclusively issued in the EU and comes in various versions with a slightly differing tracklist. A 2008 and 2011 reissue contains an additional three bonus tracks both of which strangely have the fine "Over You" exchanged with "Beautiful Child".

Mogwai "The Hawk Is Howling" (2008)

The Hawk Is Howling

release date: Sep. 2008

format: digital (10 x File, MP3)

[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,22]

producer: Andy Miller

label: Wall Of Sound / [PIAS] Entertainment Group - nationality: Scotland, UK

Track highlights: 1. "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead" - 2. "Batcat" - 3. "Danphe and the Brain" - 5. "The Sun Smells Too Loud" - 10. "The Precipice"

6th studio album by Mogwai following 2½ years after Mr. Beast (Mar. 2006) and 2 years after the two soundtrack albums Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait - a documentary for which Mogwai exclusively made the music score - and The Fountain - a fictional film by Darren Aronofsky with musical score composed by Clint Mansell and music written in collaboration with Mansell, Mogwai, and The Kronos Quartet.

The Hawk Is Howling comes with 10 brand new compositions and a total of 63 minutes of playing time that doesn't add much new to the band's discography - neither in terms of stylistic improvements, nor in adding great compositions to the band's vast tracklist. The track Batcat was chosen for ep release in a slightly alternate version together with two other compositions (released Sep. 2008) including one song with lyrics by Roky Erickson. It's as if they try to relaunch themselves by looking slightly too much in the rearview mirror. There are certainly elements from their first albums out with soft / hard, or slow / fast contrapositioning together with piano / electronic parts, and at the same time a few new albeit out-of context of the full experience we hear temptations of more traditionally 4-4 metric composed songs and something that could be inspired by say Sigur Rós, but everything just sounds too familiar. Perhaps they have been inspired or provoked by their experiences in making two soundtrack albums 'cause they throw in long bits of ambient-like harmonies, and also turn to noise rock metal but don't really succeed well in establishing a coherent whole - perhaps for the first time they really lack consistency. That said, the album still contains some really fine music and Mogwai never sound like anyone else.

Not recommended.

[ bandcamp ]

[ allmusic.com, The Guardian 4 / 5, PopMatters 3,5 / 5, 👍Q Magazine 3 / 5, Pitchfork 4,5 / 10 stars ]

I Break Horses "Chiaroscuro" (2014)

Chiaroscuro

release date: Jan. 21, 2014

format: digital

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]

producer: Maria Lindén

label: Bella Union - nationality: Sweden

Track highlights: 1. "You Burn" - 2. "Faith" - 3. "Ascension" - 4. "Denial" - 7. "Disclosure"

2nd studio album by Swedish duo I Break Horses following the 2011 debut album Hearts consists of 9 cuts with a total running length of just under 46 minutes.

Maria Lindén is the band's multi-instrumentalist, who has also composed the music, while the lyrics have been created in collaboration with percussionist Fredrik Balck.

Chiaroscuro is a markedly different from Hearts, which largely departed from a familiar scene crowded by bands such as My Bloody Valentine and Jesus and Mary Chain, and which was an album you would be tempted to label as shoegaze revival. Compared to that, this new album sounds as the music from a completely different artist. Here, the duo steps into the keyboard universe of electropop filled with keyboards, synthesizers, sequencers, drum programming, and various software programs as elementary instruments. In this way, the guitar has stepped much into the background or is completely out of a soundscape, which is far from a copy, but in terms of style nevertheless builds on music that reminds of The Knife, Crystal Castles, Cocteau Twins, and Beach House (another Bella Union band). If you enjoyed the band's grinding 90s sound, you will probably be disappointed or think that it's completely different people behind the music here, but just as the debut was Lindén and Balck, Chiaroscuro is made by the same duo, and it also proves how inspiration is a thing you collect from various places.

It's both a happy-go-lucky pop atmosphere, certified dance beats, and gloomy timbres without losing a sense of coherence. It's a fine and artistically challenging album that may not be called the best of the year, but Chiaroscuro garnered international praise and is quite an exciting and original follow-up to Hearts.

[ allmusic.com, Drowned in Sound 4 / 5, PopMatters, Uncut 3,5 / 5, Gaffa.dk 5 / 6 stars ]

Grant McLennan "In Your Bright Ray" (1997)

In Your Bright Ray

release date: Jul. 1997

format: cd

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,86]

producer: Wayne Connolly

label: Cortex - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "In Your Bright Ray" (4 / 5) - 2. "Cave In" - 3. "One Plus One" - 5. "Malibu 69" - 6. "Who Said Love Was Dead" - 8. "All Them Pretty Angels" (4 / 5) - 10. "Down Here" - 11. "Lamp by Lamp" - 12. "Do You See the Lights?" - 13. "The Parade of Shadows"

4th and final studio album by Grant McLennan following three years after the double album Horsebreaker Star (Dec. 1994) - in between these two albums he shortly returned to the duo-project Jack Snow together with The Church frontman Steve Kilbey and assisted by drummer Tim Powless (also The Church) and together they released the loose follow-up album Snow Job in '95 after which they shelved the project. Prior to the recordings of this album (Dec. '96), McLennan found his way back to performing with Robert Forster but plans about reforming their old band were still in the melting pot as Forster and Karin Baümler were about to become parents and McLennan was busy touring with his new album and writing new music for his new band, Far Out Corporation.

In Your Bright Ray is McLennan when he shines the brightest. The album contains 13 songs all by McLennan with a total running time right on 50 minutes, and it's recorded with Australian producer and multi-instrumentalist Wayne Connolly (from The Whipper Snappers - he also produced for Underground Lovers and Died Pretty) and drummer Tim Powless (from The Church and Jack Frost) together with guitarist Brett Myers (from Died Pretty) and bassist Maurice Argiro (from Underground Lovers).

Musically, this is probably McLennan's cleanest rock-album - with a sheer amount of jangle pop. Imho, this is easily McLennan's best solo album. Where the predecessor was his boldest singer / songwriter album this is something as unusual from this gifted bard as a lush and bright pop / rock album and primarily a collection of uptempo songs where McLennan shows his worth as one of Australia's best songwriters ever. It documents what Robert Forster meant, when he described Grant as ahead of him. Forster claimed that where he had to work hard to write his stuff and to come up with a good song - for Grant, it just came naturally - like opening a hose.

Highly recommended.

[ allmusic.com 4 / 5, Gaffa.dk 5 / 6 stars ]

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark "The Punishment of Luxury" (2017)

The Punishment of Luxury
release date: Sep. 1, 2017
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,78]
producer: OMD
label: 100% Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "The Punishment of Luxury" - 2. "Isotype" (4 / 5) - 4. "What Have We Done" (4 / 5) - 5. "Precision & Decay" - 9. "One More Time"

13th studio album release by OMD is the band's third after the reformation though the line-up has changed after drummer Malcolm Holmes collapsed at a concert during the band's live tour after English Electric (2013) in Toronto, 2013. Holmes recovered but soon after left the band and was replaced by Stuart Kershaw, who also played on Liberator (1993). Stylistically, it's not a big move into new territory, neither is it an album which incorporates new styles - in fact it's modelled much in the same expression as the predecessor from 2013. It's, however, the first album since Crush (1985) to be written and composed solely by the duo McCluskey / Humphreys as was the normal procedure on the band's first six studio albums.

Like the 2013 album, this one was met with in a general positive spirit, which hasn't been seen welcoming since Dazzle Ships (1983). The album peaked at #4 on the UK albums chart list making it the band's third highest charting studio album - ever.

I perfectly understand the positive reviews - of course fine charts must always be considered in a broader perspective, as also the 2013 album was well-received, as well as the fine live album Architecture & Morality / Dazzle Ships (5.16) from (May) 2016, which of course attracts more attention to new material.

Now, where it took me a few years to digest the previous album this one had an immediate appeal, and frankly, I find it bettering the 2013 album. Not with a broad margin, but as a whole, it's quite an accomplishment. It has the same fine balance between signature sound and contemporary synthpop, which goes perfectly hand in hand. McCluskey's voice sounds as if he had only just finished Dazzle Ships, and the songs are a fine combo of classic OMD pop-material and more experimental electronic synthpop sending tribute to both Kraftwerk, Jarre and their contemporaries of New Order. I like it. It's goood.

Imho, the album is top-10 material of 2017, and not to forget: it's bettering the last 33 years of OMD studio albums, which naturally makes it recommendable.

[ allmusic.com, Uncut, PopMatters 3,5 / 5, The Press, Classic Pop 4 / 5 stars ]