Disc Reviews
by Max Ink Staff Writers
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets
Album title: SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound
By John Noyd
Posted: Jan 2021
Label: Marathon Artists
(788) Page Views
Zesty express-lane court jesters finessing delectable confections from joyous pedalboard orgies cavorting in prismatic flash, sizzling precision and fleeting stampedes, Australia’s excessively heavy, psychedelic prog-rockers launch ballistic mischief in riff-filled missiles. Flirting in immersive excursions, these teasing speed demons reek spectacular havoc beneath chomping at the bit stomps, edgy skyscraper shreds and paisley power-pop pomp. Vintage whimsy dosed in baroque-folk, gleaming daydreams and cosmic harmonics, “SHYGA!” layers eclectic tendencies into refreshing energy for cleansing mind-bending frolics as rug-cutting struts hustle space-rock boogie shaking in contagious rakish playfulness. Jet-propelled helter-skelter celebrating inebriated races down rainbow-coated rabbit holes, PPC’s earnest urgency, adventurous chemistry and liberated mayhem fuel unhampered fretwork fantasies packed in elastic lysergic lyrics; dare-devil heavens channeling frantic kickass antics with weaselly glee and booming grooves.
Joan of Arc - Tim Melina Theo Bobby
Joan of Arc
Album title: Tim Melina Theo Bobby
By John Noyd
Posted: Nov 2020
Label: Joyful Noise
(1031) Page Views
As a final statement, “Tim Melina Theo Bobby,” also serves as a great introduction. After 20 albums, Chicago’s Joan of Arc remain successfully eclectic balancing quirky curiosity for the mundane and staunch fondness for non-conformity, the album’s nimble inroads into slacker nostalgia follow enigmatic maps leading to solid post-rock observations and hypnotic avant-garage electronics. Simultaneously comforting and confronting, keen on pariah irony, meta-fiction visions and first-person certainty, “TMTB,” candidly examine mechanical humanity where assembled memories and experimental speculation intersect without regret, suspicion or repercussion; a theoretical playhouse of wires and feelings sheltering devilish embellishments and developing a well-kept fetish for post-millennial ghosts in the machine. The quartet, left after years of rotating members, exits the stage oddly confident and beautifully puzzling, equally open and impervious.
The Bird and The Bee - Put Up The Lights
The Bird and The Bee
Album title: Put Up The Lights
By John Noyd
Posted: Nov 2020
Label: Release Me Records
(964) Page Views
A match made in heaven where Tinsel Town meets Santa’s Midnight Reindeer Lounge, L.A.’s incomparable The Bird and The Bee work their special electro-pop jazz magic on traditional carols, holiday standards and fireside originals for a welcome holiday escape. Smooth grooves, upbeat takes and glowing vocals create cozy rose-colored comfort and sophisticated sugar-coated joy as, “Lights,” entertains gift-wrapped happiness and romantic notions bundled underneath candlelit mistletoe with friendly synths, tight harmonies and swinging arrangements that bounce from bright, bossa novas to frosted waltzes and swooning ballroom ballads. The duo’s immaculate gala balances enchanting singer Inara George’s polished sunshine with savvy multi-instrumentalist Greg Kurstin’s smart, sparkling solos; lending lively, inspiring good cheer to a well-coordinated production whose cool proficiency supports shiny kindness inside a warm rapport.
Raye Zaragoza - Woman In Color
Raye Zaragoza
Album title: Woman In Color
By John Noyd
Posted: Oct 2020
Label: River Rebel Records
(1002) Page Views
A nomadic daughter of immigrants, singer-songwriter Raye Zaragoza is also a tireless fighter and defiant survivor whose calm resolve and fearless perseverance seeks unity in community with a lyrical spirituality rooted in nature and family. The solid, polished folk-songs on her Tucker Martine produced sophomore release, “Woman In Color,” build willful wonders animated with lively bass, sparkling electric guitars and tugging percussion cushioned in placid brass and soaring strings. Centered in subtle strengths, Zaragoza’s dark lustrous voice cuts through cantering anthems and galloping ballads while tackling biographical passions with hints of hurt behind touches of dreaminess to deliver poignant life lessons brimming in encouragement and concern. Political and personal, brave and sincere, Raye’s unwavering story-songs face injustice head on with nurturing certainty and liberated faith.
Róisín Murphy - Róisín Machine
Róisín Murphy
Album title: Róisín Machine
By John Noyd
Posted: Sep 2020
Label: Skint
(969) Page Views
Rallying elaborate nostalgia as an updated and outspoken disco queen, cyber-maestro Róisín Murphy’s groovy tutelage streams glamorous anthems bubbling beneath irresistible beats, processing stroboscopic gospel into boombox boogie and smoldering techno-soul. Nightlife highlights meet tungsten funk, invoking bold Moroder brushstrokes onto a seething cerebral sensuality where astute moves build emancipated declarations with effervescent tension. Decades into her career, this iconoclastic talent peddles edgy futurism alongside trendy escapism for brazen innovations rich in roller-skate bass, chanking guitar, old-school synths and supple strings. While several tracks have been dropped over the last few years, “Machine,” preens and gleams as one seamless dancefloor odyssey; taunting sauntering struts whose glittery surfaces birth teasing hedonism as elated persuasions turn glossy options empowering slick wit and slinky thinking into hip-swiveling visions.
Travis - 10 Songs
Travis
Album title: 10 Songs
By John Noyd
Posted: Sep 2020
Label: BMG
(929) Page Views
Travis’ latest shows a band after thirty years together, casually savvy, impeccably connected and solidly melodic. Classic passive pop lavished in ravishing passions, “10 Songs,” soars with unforced rhymes primed in sizzling sophistication. The ninth studio album from Glasgow’s indie icons is the first album powered exclusively by frontman Fran Healy’s songwriting since 2003’s, “Twelve Memories,” and four years since their last release, “Everything At Once.” Admitting he cruised through the last few albums, Healy felt rejuvenated with the prospect of working on, “10 Songs,” and says he probably produced ten albums worth of material in the past four years to get these ten, “really good things.” Evidence backs his assertion as each subtly muscular track unfolds with lyrical grace, harmonious sincerity and romantic candor.
Squarewave - Hazy
Squarewave
Album title: Hazy
By John Noyd
Posted: Aug 2020
Label: Artisanal Records
(1292) Page Views
Ephemeral memories dispatch crackling clashes between steadfast head-trips dripping in pensive entropy and nebulous indie-rock webs stretched and caressed, strung from fruitless pursuits and sung with aching radiance, ‘Hazy,” weightlessly braves prickly wickedness, muted ambiguity and regal fatigue with Martian guitars, respiratory synths and wily violin. Battling salvation born from after the storm poignancy, the album’s stately chord progressions, engaging arrangements and meditative lyrics float over atmospheric theatrics practiced in prudent disillusion. Cloud-chamber lion-tamers launched into space; raw, beating hearts on their sleeves, lost among the stars and crashing into the sea, Squarewave’s anchored patience, yearning turns and marathoner’s second wind fold shoegaze jangle into origami mirages, simmering hymns abandoned, rescued and tossed adrift onto cosmic symphonics whispering beneath folk-melody sweetness plucked from steampunk reductions.
Nadine Shah - Kitchen Sink
Nadine Shah
Album title: Kitchen Sink
By John Noyd
Posted: May 2020
Label: BMG
(1301) Page Views
Coiled in bold, majestic strangleholds and restless feather-boa smolder, Shah’s writhing grace and sultry embrace go hard on glam-rock grinds and suave with tropical gloss-pop teases. Rich in catfish bewitchment channeling quicksand-trance ambushes, “Sink,” challenges and balances, bending sensibilities. Swift in execution, cool in elocution, basking in fleeting intrigue, each track casts shadow moments among savvy impacts; dissecting institutional thoughts with discerning social burns accompanied by voodoo grooves whose fussy, gutsy, frank and funky struts rumble in space-age role-playing engagements, ominous comedies performed by foxy cosmonauts. Coy, supple couplets subtly rupturing percussion-driven sizzle, Shah’s provocateur suffragettes sum up slinky thinking in regal seizures wrecking eclectic testaments with hip-swiveling hypnosis, dressing up purring put-downs in rhythmic whimsy, tickling stony ceremonies with flirty verses and steely theories.
The Dears - Lovers Rock
The Dears
Album title: Lovers Rock
By John Noyd
Posted: Apr 2020
Label: Dangerbird Records
(1394) Page Views
Built on the sublime force of a solid pop chorus, “Lovers Rock,” wrestles expressive devils, doctoring desperate reflections and deploying royal contortions, cobra focus and cultivated cunning. Fearlessly conjuring outlier’s choirs, the Canadian’s eighth studio album’s profound art-lounge, fiery diary pile-drivers and swarthy warrior power-chords support told-you-so emotions and succinct living-on-the-brink thinking. Apocalyptic philosophy greased in sonic feasts and harmonic treats, The Dears redefine refined survival through caustic yacht-rock dodging sugar-coated explosions among glamorous land-slides. Lost innocence rinsed in somber promises and reasonable pleads beseeching valiant gallantry, soothing chivalry and fashionable castle-burning; the band’s timely diatribes simmer wound-licking symphonies in suave barbs, inhaling an air of nonchalant taunting beneath seething beliefs and cinematic conceits leaping and creeping between scorched metaphors, startled karma and noble commotion.
Half-handed Cloud - Gathered Out of Thin Air
Half-handed Cloud
Album title: Gathered Out of Thin Air
By John Noyd
Posted: Nov 2019
Label: Asthmatic Kitty
(23766) Page Views
Sixty newly-mastered, non-LP singles from the band’s second decade, including compositions commissioned for a London printmaking event that had cloud-master John Ringhofer leading group sing-a-longs from a giant spinning plywood record player, “Thin Air,” disburse harmonic mirth with invigorating play, inventing colorful exemptions to overturn conventions while willfully lobbing lyrical hobgoblins. There are songs written to benefit breast cancer research and songs wrestling with 16th century exploration, Christmas songs and songs intended as devotionals for walking. Logic defied and imaginations indulged, Half-Handed Cloud lives life singing through every moment as the mundane is blessed in wonder, his observational conversations slipping between insistent whimsy and gleeful upheaval; twisted pixie fictions dipped in dizzying divinity, delivered with wind-up toy melodies spouting doubtful mouthfuls and uttering supple mumbles.
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Album title: Gathered Out of Thin Air
By {review_writers_name}
Posted: Nov 2019
Label: {review_record_label}
(23781) Page Views
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Vagabon - Vagabon
Vagabon
Album title: Vagabon
By John Noyd
Posted: Oct 2019
Label: Nonesuch
(2459) Page Views
A wonderful step forward in musical emancipation, the self in Vagabon’s self-titled release sounds refreshed and confident. Redefining her indie roots, the Cameroon singer-songwriter happenstance wanders throughout the album in pursuit of vibrant ideas and new settings for recurring questions. Flushed in hushed colors, “Vagabon,” spawns exhilarating tranquility and congenial critiques; an uncaged song-bird sweetening smart beats and carving lusty harmonies from Afro-pop perches basking under soul-folk skies, tweaking close-cropped philosophy dusted in day-glo R&B. Strong, sauntering melodies coalesce into dreamy getaways as tribal choirs and soft, translucent electronics spill over hip bass and quivering rhythms while important words and casual phrases turn serious moments intimate and vital. Do not miss Vagabon opening up for the exquisite Angel Olsen November 13th at Madison’s The Sylvee.
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