Nick Cave & Warren Ellis "Carnage" (2021)

Carnage

release date: Feb. 25, 2021

format: digital (8 x File, MP3)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]

producer: Nick Cave & Warren Ellis

label: Goliath Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Hand of God" - 2. "Old Time" - 3. "Carnage" - 4. "White Elephant" - 6. "Lavender Fields" - 7. "Shattered Ground" - 8. "Balcony Man"

First actual duo-project credited Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, long time collaborators in Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, who most recently released Ghosteen in 2019. However, since 2005 when they made music for the performance "Woyzech", they have co-written music for a large number of performances and films - which are also available as soundtrack releases. Ellis has been a member of The Bad Seeds since the '97 album The Boatman's Call, but has featured on the band's albums since '92, and his role in the band has only grown over time. In '97 he had a minor part playing violin and keyboards as 'extra spice' to the band's sound, from the 2001 album No More Shall We Part he was also credited some compositions, from the 2008 album Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! he is a distinctive composer and multi-instrumentalist, and from Push the Sky Away in 2013 he is now credited as composer along with Cave on all tracks, and thus the musical center of the band has shifted to being exclusively a pair collaboration in recent years, with Cave providing lyrics and Ellis supplementing with music. Therefore, the album here is not a huge surprise, since this is how they have worked on their recent three studio albums. The music with The Bad Seeds has thus transformed over the years from being alt. rock towards an increased focus on Cave's lyrics to being a kind of poetic recitations with evocative background music.

On Push the Sky Away you'll notice percussion, bass, and guitar, but it's with instrumentation such as violin, cello, and keyboards as the main sound sources, and there's a stylistic interference with elements from jazz, Tindersticks, and something reminiscent of Tom Waits' experimental style. This new and more naked soundscape becomes even more evident on Skeleton Tree, and with Ghosteen the rhythmic element is now completely absent, replaced by Cave's insistent vocal and Ellis's keyboards as spheric tapestry.

On Carnage you'll find a progression towards more complex compositions, where guitar, bass, and percussion are occasionally heard - mostly on "Old Time". In that way it sounds more like the continuation of Skeleton Tree rather than Ghosteen, but most of all it's a new chapter in the book of human pain, sorrow, and suffering as experienced by Nick Cave. From being a direct dramatic writer who told about crooked existences and people living in the shadows of society, Cave has grown over the past decade into a more lyrical playwright who talks about existential aspects of life and death.

The album has been met by positive reviews - but that's nearly always how it works for Cave. He is, if anything, a critics' darling, and the album has landed several international top-10 positions, including number #2 in Australia, number #3 in the UK, Belgium and in the Netherlands, number #5 in Germany, and a number #1 position in Scotland and Portugal.

It's a nice and fine acquaintance without fillers but perhaps also the slightly expected release. However, the music is good, the lyrics compelling and the level high. It's an album that wins over time because Cave and Ellis are just great together.

Recommended.

[ allmusic.com, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone 4 / 5, Gaffa.dk 5 / 6, NME 5 / 5 stars ]

Ane Brun "Changing of the Seasons" (2008)

Changing of the Seasons

release date: Mar. 12, 2008

format: digital (16 x File, MP3, France)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]

producer: Valgeir Sigurðsson

label: DetErMine Records - nationality: Norway

Track highlights: 1. "The Treehouse Song" - 2. "The Fall" - 3. "The Puzzle" - 4. "My Star" - 6. "Changing of the Seasons" - 7. "Lullaby for Grown-Ups" - 9. "Armour" (live) - 10. "Round Table Conference" - 12. "Don't Leave" - *14. "True Colors" (live)

*Bonus track

4th studio album by Ane Brun released three years after A Temporary Dive (Feb. 2005). Brun has however most recently released Duets (Nov. 2005) but that album isn't a traditional studio album, nor does it contain Brun's own songs.

Stylistically, it's the continuation of the more introspective songs, and sonically there is a movement towards more orchestrated compositions with the use of strings and more traditional backing such as bass and percussion, which previously wasn't how she would typically arrange her songs. In this way, the album places itself more clearly in a traditional singer / songwriter / folk music tradition lending from country, but you will also note a move towards more experimental music with synths or piano with a touch of art pop. Some songs are cut in a traditional style, some point in the direction of the minimalist style of A Temporary Dive, and then there are songs that probably carry some of the qualities from Brun's collaborations of her Duets album. Still, it's far from another collection of songs pointing in all possible directions, as Brun makes sure to keep a clear course - and especially: a melancholic mood that lays like a duvet over another nice outing with a new inspiring touch.

The album has been issued in various editions. The standard Scandinavian and European version comes with thirteen tracks and a total playing length of approx. 46 minutes. An edition for the UK market has an additional two covers as bonus tracks, an American version comes with a single bonus track, and the French CD edition was released with three bonus tracks and with a total running time of 56 minutes.

Changing of the Seasons is another beautiful album from one of Norway's most exciting artists. Brun sings with great finesse and with an even clearer character - and where her singing voice previously had an unmistakable Joni Mitchell touch, she is now completely her own with small, insignificant lendings from Dolly Parton and Kate Bush. My only tiny 'complaint' is its dark melancholy, which ultimately comes to characterise the overall experience of a otherwise beautifully cut album.

Recommended.

[ allmusic.com, PopMatters 3,5 / 5, Slant 3 / 5, Gaffa.dk 5 / 6, Spin, Uncut 4 / 5 stars ]

Toyah "Minx" (1985)

Minx
release date: Jul. 25, 1985
format: digital
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,72]
producer: Christopher Neil
label: Portrait Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Soldier of Fortune, Terrorist of Love" - 2. "Don't Fall in Love (I Said)" - 3. "Soul Passing Through Soul" - 11. "America for Beginners"

Studio solo debut by Toyah Wilcox, although it's also the sixth album credited Toyah. After Love Is the Law (1983) the band faced declining sales figures and interest, and most of the band members became engaged in other acts, basically, leaving Wilcox and Joel Bogen alone - once again. Except this time, Toyah Wilcox now signed a contract with CBS subsidiary Portrait as a solo artist. Songwriting duo Wilcox / Bogen is here credited a single song (track #7), while most of the other tracks are credited Wilcox and keyboardist Simon Darlow. The album also feature a total of four covers - songs originally released by Rare Bird (track #4), DATA (track #6), Alice Cooper (track #9), and Latin Quarter (track #11).

Apparently, the label's money men had a much to say in terms of details about the album's sound, style, and which tracks they wanted on an album, which appears to have been produced with an American market in mind, with focus on a mainstream style within a pop / rock bubble at a time when synthpop and the contemporary soft version of new wave with toned-down art pop was state-of-the-art. The arrangements show bold use of vocal harmonies, keyboards, and a most typical '80s drum sound, as well as the use of strings. Even the front cover highlights a shift towards a different crowd with Toyah Wilcox [in a Sheena Easton / Frida / Tina Turner look-a-like] style and definitely not meant for a punk rock audience.

The album actually performed quite well, peaking at number #24 on the national albums chart, and the first single "Don't Fall in Love (I Said)" peaked here as number #22. Tracks #3 and #10 were also issued as singles and landed as No. #57 and #93 respectively.

Musically and stylistically, Toyah simply didn't appeal to me after Love Is the Law, and this very album just cemented my lack interest. I still think much of the relatively significant commercial success she experienced after all is largely due to her background as an actor in a number of British films, TV series, and in roles as TV presenter on various BBC-productions. From a musical historical perspective, the band Toyah and soloist Toyah Wilcox released only a few really fine albums, where Anthem (1981) is the only truly outstanding album.

One year following Minx, Wilcox married guitarist Robert Fripp, and she continued to release solo albums up until '96, after which the pace of new releases slowed considerably. The 2008 album In the Court of the Crimson Queen - paying tribute to husband Fripp's band King Crimson's acclaimed debut In the Court of the Crimson King from 1969 - is by the beginning of 2021 Wilcox's most recent studio album.

Not recommended.

Kings of Leon "When You See Yourself" (2021)

When You See Yourself
release date: Mar. 5, 2021
format: digital
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,77]
producer: Markus Dravs
label: RCA Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "When You See Yourself, Are You Far Away" - 2. "The Bandit" (live) - 3. "100,000 People" (4 / 5) - 4. "Stormy Weather" - 5. "A Wave" (4 / 5) - 6. "Golden Restless Age" - 8. "Supermarket"

8th studio album from Kings of Leon following 4½ år after WALLS (Oct. 2016) and it's like that produced by Markus Dravs.

Stilewise, the new album doesn't come up with great many surprises. Kings of Leon is a band set on playing their own melodic mix of alt. rock and they basically keep quite strict to a formula they have distilled on since 2008 / 2010. And yet, this one comfortly manages to place itself in the better half of the band's repertoire, thus distancing itself elegantly from the poppier WALLS, which still holds up the band's so far only to reach the glorious national first spot on Billboard 200. Saleswise, it would have been expected that the band and its record company in support then would go for a replication of success, but instead the band has successfully produced, what to me sounds like, a gracious mix of its artistic peak with Come Around Sundown (2010) and Only by the Night (2008). By doing so, you could argue that Kings of Leon have found back on the (right) course they sought out a decade ago but which instead took them on a sidetrack filled by pop-ballads - something you'll find plenty of on their previous two studio albums from 2013 and 2016, respectively. Even with some retreatment to former heydays, When You See Yourself still makes a fine updated version of one of the finest US rockbands this century.

Highly recommended

[ allmusic.com, Clash 3,5 / 5, 👍NME 4 / 5 stars ]

Les Negresses Vertes "Famille nombreuse" (1991)

Famille nombreuse
release date: (Nov.?) 1991
format: vinyl (gatefold) / digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,64]
producer: Sodi & Clive (aka Clive Martin)
label: Delabel / Razzia Disques - nationality: France

Track highlights: 1. "Famille heureuse" - 2. "Perpétuellement vôtre" - 6. "Sous le soleil de Bodega" - 8. "Hou ! Mamma mia..." - 9. "Infidèle cervelle" - 10. "La France a ses dimanches" - 12. "Car c'est un blouze"

2nd studio album by French band Les Negresses Vertes, which here enlists eleven members, although the cover photos only counts ten members. Prior to this, the band featured on the international Cole Porter tribute album Red Hot + Blue from 1990 with their version of "I Love Paris".

Here, the band attempts to continue in the same style from Mlah (1989), but nevertheless with more polished arrangements, which lacks the rebellious streak that caused the band to be compared to Madness and The Pogues. However, the album does succeed in presenting a more common tone, where Mlah pointed in various directions and also reflected music from a sea of ​​styles, and in that regard Familie nombreuse is an album that roughly stays on the same ground throughout. It's original, but in my mind it's missing that extra kick the debut contained. Having said that, the music here is by no means poor, but at times sticks out as slightly uninspired, although I personally find that the album actually improves in the latter half - perhaps simply because these songs share some of the traits from Mlah.

Familie nombreuse [meaning 'large family'] is the band's final with the its front figure, lead vocalist, and one of its major songwriters: Helno Rota, who died of an overdose in '93 (at the age of 29), after which the band's line-up changed considerably. The band continued to release albums up until around 2001, after which they have been less active. However, around 2018 and up to the 30th anniversary of this very album, Les Negresses Vertes (reformed with several of the original members) resumed their live performances, playing tracks from Mlah in particular (see here and here - and here a promotion spot for their tour).

[ 👎allmusic.com 2 / 5 stars, Popdose review ]

Elvis Costello "The Best of Elvis Costello - The First 10 Years" (2007)

The Best of Elvis Costello - The First 10 Years (compilation)
release date: May 1, 2007
format: digital
[album rate: 4,5 / 5]
producer: various
label: Hip-O Records - nationality: England, UK

Best of compilation by Elvis Costello compiled by Costello himself is a strong contender to the best single disc compilation around with his earliest - and best - material. The selection starts off from the debut album My Aim Is True (1977) and ends with his last album released on F-Beat, Blood & Chocolate (1986). A couple of fine things about the album is how all studio releases except (the shallow) Goodbye Cruel World (1984) from this ten year period are represented, and that the songs appear in chronological order. The total of 22 tracks is made up from three taken from Costello's first three albums, My Aim..., This Year's Model (1978) and Armed Forces (1979), then two from albums 4 and 5, Get Happy!! (1980) and Trust (1981), one composition from his 6th, Almost Blue (1981), then again three from his 7th, Imperial Bedroom (1982), two from his 8th, Punch the Clock (1983), two from his 10th, King of America (1986), and one song from his 11th, Blood & Chocolate. Of course there's no way he would be able to satisfy everyone's taste and personally; I miss more from Get Happy!! and Blood & Chocolate and I could live without few of the selected, but ultimately, it's impossible to pick 22 tracks only, and when going for 1-3 songs from these albums, it's a pretty decent job.

[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]