Lisa Gerrard & Jules Maxwell "Burn" (2021)

Burn

release date: May 7, 2021

format: digital (7 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,04]

producer: James Chapman

label: Atlantic Curve - nationality: Australia / Northern Ireland, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Heleali (The Sea Will Rise)" - 2. "Noyalain (Burn)" - 3. "Deshta (Forever)" - 5. "Orion (The Weary Huntsman)" - 6. "Keson (Until My Strength Returns)"

Collaborative project between Australian Lisa Gerrard and Northern Irishman Jules Maxwell, with the latter acting as live keyboardist on several occasions in Gerrard and Brendan Perry's duo project Dead Can Dance after their reformation in 2012. The album has a duration of only 35 minutes and consists of seven compositions with running lengths from four to six minutes. Gerrard alone is credited five tracks, while two tracks (#2 and #3) are composed by Gerrard and Maxwell in collaboration.

Musically, it's neo-classical with influence from darkwave, world music, and with hints from electronica, just as it has been the case with other works by Gerrard, e.g. The Silver Tree (2006) and which has charachterised releases by Dead Can Dance. Burn is, however, something else. The rhythm sections are shaped solely by programming or by bass and synth-bass with Gerrard singing on all tracks in an unknown or indistinct language - her very own metaphysical language, where her voice only functions on an instrumental level. That said, it's quite a sonorous, distinctive, and powerful instrument Gerrard possesses. She blends her alto voice beautifully in and out of progressive rhythmic loops and occasionally swings her vocal up into higher spheres clothed in mysticism of the East and sometimes with a well-developed technique taken from the scene of opera. Multi-instrumentalist Jules Maxwell adds rhythm, electronics, synth-bass, and grandiosity in appropriate measure and otherwise lets the music unfold in beautiful harmony with Gerrard as guiding instrumentalist.

It's original, beautiful, unpretentious, and yet wide-ranging. Since the early eighties, Gerrard has been responsible for strong original releases with Dead Can Dance - together with Hans Zimmer, she created the musical counterpart to the cinematic side of "Gladiator" (2000), and she has generally become an acclaimed soundtrack composer for a long series of films starting with soundtracks under the name Dead Can Dance back in '89 for the film "El niño de la luna" (aka "Moon Child" - not released as a soundtrack until 2019). They gained more recognition with their music for Ron Fricke's remarkable "Baraka" (1992), after which they released several soundtracks. As soloist, Gerrard first collaborated with Pieter Bourke on the music for "The Insider" by Michael Mann in 1999, and most recently in 2017 she and Peter Orr stood behind the soundtrack to "2:22" by Paul Currie. Gerrard has been nominated for dozens of international awards and she has received around 10 major awards for her work as a composer.

Burn is a certified gem of an album that should find wider recognition. Highly recommended!

[ Gaffa.dk 5 / 6 stars ]

2021 Favourite releases: 1. Mogwai As the Love Continues - 2. Thåström Dom som skiner - 3. Lisa Gerrard &
Jules Maxwell Burn

Wolf Alice "Blue Weekend" (2021)

Blue Weekend

release date: Jun. 4, 2021

format: digital (11 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,32]

producer: Markus Dravs

label: Dirty Hit - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "The Beach" - 2. "Delicious Things" - 3. "Lipstick on the Glass" - 4. "Smile" - 6. "How Can I Make It OK?" - 11. "The Beach II"

3rd studio album by London-based indie rock quartet Wolf Alice follows almost four full years after the duo's Visions of a Life (Sep. 2017) and is made with super hot producer Markus Dravs, who has made his name as producer from his work with Björk, Coldplay, Arcade Fire, and Kings of Leon, to mention a few.

Musically, the band moves naturally with Dravs at the mixing desk towards a more commercial expression with a sense for dynamics and the grandiose. Dravs has a fine touch in maintaining a quirky distinctiveness and mixing it perfectly with equal parts harmony and a rocking energetic expression.

In this way, Blue Weekend appears as a well-welded piece of galvanised titanium in a pile of aluminum blocks. It's almost too perfect - and that's probably what I generally find least appealing about Dravs' productions: it's bound to be oh-so-bee.a-utiful! Beautiful arrangements, swirling guitars and a dose of quirky indie rock, but all the while held tightly to a strong chain so that everyone a able to admire the ascending airship illuminated by a setting sun. It's always dramatic and pumped-up pompous.

The album has garnered great and highly enthusiastic reviews, and it's perhaps also the band's finest release. To my ears, it reminds me of a new The Killers album that would much rather be Kings of Leon. That said, it's not particularly original, and one may wonder where the motivation lies. Then of course, it's not all music that has to push new boundaries, and Blue Weekend is by all means beautiful and almost perfect - I'm just not impressed and just feel that I've heard it all before. Lead vocalist Ellie Rowsell sings mighty fine as a British version of Lana del Rey, and if you think that's cool, so be it.

The album is by no means a poor one. I just don't find it great. It kind of lands in the big mainstream pile with so many others who want to make it big. Sometimes Wolf Alice sounds like Lana del Rey, sometimes they sound like Arcade Fire, other times they remind me of The Killers, who (again) so badly want to be Kings of Leon. Perhaps you just have to be grateful that they don't aspire to be Drake or Phoebe Bridgers, or well, Bridgers is actually also there alongside St. Vincent. But, Alice Wolf, you can only be yourselves! And this is precisely the album's greatest weakness: that it falls between so many chairs with obvious ingredients from all sorts of others that it lacks the essence of originality.

It's an album you can put on repeat without tiring of it, because it sounds like a playlist where you have no idea when it actually starts all over, but also without ever feeling overly excited. Maybe you just want to put something else on. And although the British press almost unanimously thinks this is a masterpiece - it's definitely solid craftsmanship and definitely beautifully produced - but it is! But a masterpiece it is not!

Without comparison, moreover, I rate the album Pastel by young Australian band Fritz, also from 2021, better because, despite other limitations, it lands a much stronger independent expression.

[ allmusic.com, Mojo 4 / 5, The Guardian, NME 5 / 5, 👍Pitchfork 7.2 / 10 stars ]

Marianne Faithfull "Broken English" (1979)

Broken English

release date: Nov. 2, 1979

format: cd (1994 cd reissue)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]

producer: Mark Miller Mundy

label: Isand Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Broken English" (4 / 5) - 2. "Witches' Song" - 3. "Brain Drain" - 4. "Guilt" - 5. "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" (4 / 5) - 7. "Working Class Hero" (4 / 5) - 8. "Why D'ya Do It" (4 / 5)

7th studio album by Marianne Faithfull following the release of Faithless (1978) was the first album by Faithfull that I have a recollection of listening to. Speaking of the actual number of studio albums, is a bit of a detective work, and even then it comes down to a discussion of what qualifies as 'real' studio albums. The thing is, early on, Faithfull released different albums for the European and for the North American markets, respectivily, and if only looking at her European albums, you could argue one or two are not traditional studio albums but rather alternative releases, or say 'near' compilations..., and there's another story of Rich Kids Blues from '85, which was actually recorded in '71 and rightfully precedes this one but it was shelved for 14 years, and... there you have it! It's up for someone else, to determine, I guess. Broken English is, however, most commonly identified as her seventh, and the predecessor Faithless is both regarded as her sixth studio album, although, it's basically and also what could be described as an alternate version of her fifth album Dreamin' My Dreams (1976).

Broken English came out when punk rock roared and Faithfull was one of punks' idols stemming from another era where most artists didn't find peers amongst the young and angry generation. In that regard, she stood alongside Nico, Lou Reed, Neil Young, and Iggy Pop - survivors of the needle. There's a distinct new wave- or art punk-ish seasoning to this very album, and then it's also a huge melting pot of styles. Perhaps, it's all about a naked anger and an honest attempt of unglorification. The album is like many of Faithfull's a mix of writers and composers and a ceratin amount of covers, and regardless the origin, Faithfull knows how to make songs her own. This also goes for Shel Silverstein's "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" and Lennon's "Working Class Hero".

The album is Faithfull's only to be included in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". To me, it's not her absolute best but it's close enough and a certified highly recommended listen.

[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Pitchfork 8,7 / 10, The Guardian 5 / 5, Q Magazine, 👉Record Collector, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]