Start a voyage of self-discovery

by Saurabh & Gaurav

ALBUM OF THE MONTH
Noel weaves playfulness throughout the album
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds — Chasing Yesterday (Sour Mash)

Noel Gallagher has been doing fine in his solo post-Oasis career and with his High Flying Birds, he continues his successful spell with another solid outing, Chasing Yesterday. The album finds the 47-year-old in philosophical lyrical mode, revealing his view from middle age, trying to find peace with the past. Opening tracks Riverman and In the heat of the Moment flow through, creating an easy-listening tempo that is difficult to find in modern alternative music. The Dying of the Light is a sombre, quiet effort, which benefits from light instrumentation and a wonderfully infectious chorus. Noel displays his songwriting ability, most notably in the standout track, The Girl with X-Ray Eyes, creatively crafting lyrics like “But the girl with x-ray eyes / She’s gonna see through my disguise.” The Mexican and You Know We Can’t Go Back lift up the tempo of the album, showing that Gallagher can still belt out perfect live arena anthems. Lock All The Doors has all the hallmarks of a mid-1990s hot-selling Britpop, with Gallagher’s guitar sounding better than it’s ever done. The album closes with the power-disco of The Ballad of the Mighty I, featuring some brilliant guitar work from Johnny Marr, it’s a fine ending to a stellar piece of work. Noel’s previous album may have been slightly more consistent and more immediate but Chasing Yesterday boasts brighter highlights and has more to reveal itself beneath the surface.

Best track: Riverman Arms

Misfit: While the Song Remains the Same

Rating: ****

Commanding and sincerely mesmerising notes
Laura Marling — Short Movie (Ribbon Music)

Laura Marling hit the high point of her career with 2013’s Once I Was an Eagle. While her previous effort was a swelling rage of romantic enragement, Short Movie sounds freer and less rigorous. The first track on the album, Warrior, quickly transports the listener to the psychedelic desert land of south-eastern California with the aid of echoes and arabesque guitar picking. 

False Hope starts quietly, before the drums kick-in with the sudden unexpected force of Hurricane Sandy, with the 2012 storm being the backdrop here. Penultimate title track serve as the album’s enigmatic climax, with Marling making the laden proclamations, “I’m paying for my mistake / That’s ok / I don’t mind a little pain.” Don’t Let Me Bring You Down juxtaposes anger and self-deprecation as Marling’s voice takes on a sarcastic tone with ire. Her singing is more authoritative than we’ve heard before, reminiscent of P J Harvey rather than her usual foundation, Joni Mitchell. Short Movie’s best songs are all about Marling’s ongoing voyage of self-discovery. As she preaches on the track Gurdjieff’s Daughter: “Never consider yourself or others without knowing that you’ll change.”

The album’s final track Worship Me showcases Marling’s strength not only through unwavering guitar work but the lyrics, “Yes, I might be blind, but I am free. Don’t you try and take that away from me.” Laura’s musical ability is impressive, but her poetic lyrics are what make her songs mesmerising.

Best track: Warrior

Worst track: Strange

Rating: ***

Classic balladry dressed with sumptuous orchestra
Tobias Jesso Jr — Goon (True Panther Sounds)

The lanky Vancouver newcomer spent a good few years trying to get a foothold in the music industry, playing as a struggling band member with local bands. Today suddenly, Tobias Jesso Jr. is a familiar name, performing on the Tonight Show and Conan and even earning a fan in Adele. On Goon, successions of producers have fine-tuned the fragility of Jesso’s vocals into a 1970s-inspired production that highlights the similarities between his songs and those of various vintage songwriters. Comparison to Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson become obvious on the cheerful For You. The compositions travel back to pop music’s golden age, easily heard in pieces like Crocodile Tears, but still exhibit modern-day studio sheen. Leaving L.A. is something totally different, with lounge instrumental setting, allowing Jesso freedom to veer into unexpected territory. The Wait is a two-minute acoustic pop confection featuring Jesso on guitar, a buoyant gem that floats by like fresh mist. Drama is the hallmark of the album but there’s no truer expression of the singer’s softer sentiments than those contained in the lyrics to Just a Dream, in which he shares his joy on becoming a father, presumably for the first time. “Yesterday I had a baby,” he exclaims. “Now she’s one day old and she looks like her old lady.” Songs such as Hollywood and Tell the Truth further establish Jesso’s ability to write songs that carefully articulate his powerful emotional depth.

Best track: Just a Dream

Worst track: How Could You Babe?

Rating: ****

A phenomenal musician and a compelling storyteller
Courtney Barnett — Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (Mom+Pop))

A first proper studio album from young Australian guitarist, singer and songwriter Courtney Barnett lives up to the promise of her skillful introduction The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas. Barnett seems to know the right formula to make a pop song classic; sharp hooks, repeated choruses, and candid observations spiked with humor. Opener Elevator Operator details a jaded worker, who climbs to the roof of a building to escape his tedious daily routine and, gazing upon the empire below. The track is as touching as it is playful. Pedestrian At Best, positions Barnett in tangled thoughts that come out in dense guitars that heighten the urgency in her vocals. Majority of the songs draw on punk and garage-rock, with brash guitars and propulsive beats, but Courtney shows a melancholy side, too. She finds poignancy on the downhearted house-hunting Depreston, and turns a glum on Kim’s Caravan, singing softly through a curtain of guitar swirls. The real selling point of Barnett is her voice, mostly because it’s so refreshing to hear her detectable Aussie accent. Personal suffering seeps into An Illustration of Loneliness (Sleepless in New York) where she struggles with her surroundings as she ponders on her feelings about her partner across the ocean. Small Poppies sways with a soulfully warped Hawaiian vibe displaying apathy, while Aqua Profunda! reveals Courtney’s subtle vocal range. Courtney is at her finest and most winning when she digs deep into her experiences and pinpoints specific details to articulate her own brand of existentialism.

Best track: Pedestrian At Best

worst track: Boxing Day Blues 

Rating: ***