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Fionn Regan — The Shadow of An Empire (Heavenly)
Best track: Violent Demeanour Worst track: Coathook Rating ** Animal Collective — Fall Be Kind (Domino)
Best track: Graze Worst track: I Think I Can Rating *** Lightspeed Champion — Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You (Domino)
Best track: Marlene Worst track: Faculty of Fears Rating **
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ON this follow-up to his 2007
debut The End of History, Irish singer-songwriter Fionn Regan has discarded his
former folksy acoustic approach for folk-rock band arrangements, influenced by
the transitional Dylan of Bringing It All Back Home. The opening track, Protection
Racket features red herring verses propelled by a tumbling tom-heavy beat
and scratchy electric guitars as Regan snarls righteously about how "These
big companies are giving us the squeeze." Lines Written In Writer
and Lord Help My Poor Soul see the songwriter at an emotional low; the
former admitting "I want to tell you that I’d make your bed, break it up
and I’d do it again, so it feels like you’ve been here, but I know that you’re
not, coming home." Genocide Matinee revolves around a skeletal
guitar figure strongly reminiscent of Leonard Cohen’s finest, and on Little
Nancy, Regan comes out swinging purely by dint of his charismatic wordplay.
Violent Demeanour portrays a brutalised society punctuated by rousing
band choruses, while House Detective applies the pungent momentum of Maggie’s
Farm. Catacombs possesses breezy finger picked acoustic guitar
effectively bolstered by some meaty electric riffs on the chorus and needling
high notes. Balanced and finely constructed, this record gives Fionn Regan many
more reasons to stand proudly in the spotlight.
The cohesive five-song
collection speaks to the continuing progression of the group’s sound. Sound
effects shimmer throughout the EP and the echoing of Animal Collective’s
characteristic otherworldly and layered vocals transport the listener into
fantastical realms. The two part opener Graze is an ethereal mix of
dream pop harmonies and sweeping pianos, which, without notice, descend into a
scene from The Magic Roundabout, complete with chirping flutes and pan
pipes, mincing around in the background to make the scene complete. Fall Be
Kind sees Animal Collective reassuringly exploring new ground and pushing the
limits of their creativity even further, while still holding onto the songs’
aesthetics. With On A Highway, that mood becomes explicit, featuring
Tare’s observations, musings and doper daydreams as the band’s tour-bus
barrels down another highway. The track evokes a trip through how you cope with
the mistakes you’ve made. "I took a mental picture/Of a place that I
knew/Now it’s living in me," acknowledging that the sadness often
accompanying our errs is only a mean to a bright end.
This is the second album
released under the Lightspeed Champion moniker by singer/songwriter Devonte
Hynes, formerly the frontman of dance-punk band Test Icicles. The album is a
vast and sprawling affair, a 15-track extravaganza that embraces indie,
post-rock, chamber pop and classical, while firmly establishing its own
maverick identity. Life Is Sweet! is a soap opera of sorts, featuring
heartbreak anthems, few intermissions and mysteriously comical saga, all
blended with classical piano, tight riffs, strings, synths, woodwind and
stomping feet. Opener Dead Head Blues sets the character reasonably
well; the ominous thump of a muted power chord is soon overlaid with stage
piano as Hynes sighs a quivering lullaby involving dreams of a future in the
Midwest turning sour. Marlene, an album standout, is an upbeat, funky
fresh tune that’s almost satirically comical, pairing jaunty tambourines
against depressive lyrics like: "Everybody knows you want a baby / And
God knows everybody wants one, too." The magnificent, slow-burning Dead
Head Blues opens proceedings by treading tentatively at first, ruminating
on past and futures lost ("I saw us in 20 years time in the Midwest
/With you in your best dress") before concluding resignedly, "I
know you’re happy / And that’s lovely /It won’t keep me complete."
Darlene is a stark, stomping anthem assembled out of disco strings,
guitar heroism, and Hynes’ snarling croon. Elsewhere, tracks like the
melancholy ballad Smooth Day (At the Library) and Middle of the Dark
mix analog-sounding synths and mournful guitar solos, and Hynes’ blissful
vocals with superb results.
In the last recording
sessions of his storied life, the Man in Black sang two albums’ worth of
songs. The first was 2006’s American V: A Hundred Highways. Now
here’s American VI: Ain’t No Grave, a disc that finds him
philosophically and spiritually resigned to the end of his earthly
existence. Throughout the American Recordings, Cash has sprinkled in his
own songs among the covers. I Corinthians 15:55 is the lone Cash
original to appear on the album. Written over the last three years of his
life, this song is structured around the biblical verse "O death,
where is thy sting/O grave, where is thy victory?" The title
track is clearly the strongest song on the album, and a perfect opener.
Beginning with an ominous guitar and some menacing ambient sounds, the man
in black’s wavering baritone rolls in declaring, "Ain’t no
grave can hold my body down." Cash’s version of folk singer Ed
McCurdy’s 1950 anti-war anthem is a sentimental Utopian waltz,
beautifully arranged for orchestra and sung with a tearful sincerity in
what must go on record as Cash’s last truly great vocal. In the midst of
all the songs about death and redemption, we do catch glimpses of playful
Cash. I Don’t Hurt Anymore features a subtly playful sway while
his version of Queen Lili’uokalani’s Aloha Oe ensures the album
doesn’t tarnish Cash’s legacy. In honour of Johnny Cash’s 78th
birthday, the release of this album, Cash’s life, and all he stood for
as a voice for those in need, the music industry is dedicating February 26
as Wear Black For Johnny Day. He will live forever.