After a small break to record some music in the folky “superband” (we’re guilty, but can we all please forget this concept?) Bonny Light Horseman, Eric D. Johnson celebrates 20 years of Fruit Bats with a brand new record. “The Pet Parade” shows Johnson, one of the best melody crafters of the game, at his most dreamy and contemplative so far.
Seems like Nick Cave has had enough of being quiet. The standout track of CARNAGE, his new LP with long-time collaborator Warren Ellis, has to be “White Elephant”. Halfway through the menacing sounding song, the whole thing turns into a full fledged gospel hymn and we’re left wondering whether Jason Pierce is pulling the strings behind the scenes. It was then we knew it would be fairly easy to pick our album of the week.
The Hold Steady was the last band (part of) our team saw before the world has changed, in a year that started recreational, but ended kinda medical. Our yearly pilgrimage to London will unfortunately not happen in 2021, but they’re making up for it with their first proper album since 2014 (not counting 2019’s single collection “Thrashing Thru the Passion”). Our favourite rock band is back. Let’s celebrate like it’s early March 2020, minus the getting ourselves crammed inside a room with no masks on. At least for now.
Black Country, New Road was supposed to have exploded all over Europe in 2020, but the world had different plans for them. The hype created by a band with two released songs to their name was unusual, but it had roots on their explosive live shows that some of us were fortunate to witness before all of this crashed down. Dubbed (by themselves) the world’s second best Slint tribute act, the London post-punk-ish septet sounds like nothing we’ve heard recently, except maybe their peers Black Midi (probably the best Slint tribute act, who knows). Here’s a band whose entire first record managed to find its way into our playlist. Enjoy.
Tamara Lindeman’s work as The Weather Station is finally getting the critical acclaim it deserves. In “Ignorance”, and following what she started with the already superb self-titled album, the Canadian singer-songwriter goes way beyond her folkish roots and employs a constellation of musicians to dress up her stellar songs in lush instrumentation. We’ll be very surprised if this ends up outside our top three albums of the year.