Album Reviews: Yuck, Gorillaz, Bob Geldof, Alex Turner

Yuck- s/t  (Fat Possum Records, released 2/15/11)

A couple years back, there was a band called Cajun Dance Party.  I adored them; they recorded one album of glorious shimmering brilliance, and then they split up.  Their vocalist and bassist (Daniel Blumberg and Max Bloom) have now formed Yuck, and the chiming harmonics and Britpop vibes of their old group have been swapped for an arsenal of fuzz and distortion and detuned guitars.  And the great news is, these kids can’t help but make fantastic music – subgenres and categorizations be damned.  The yearning melodies that CDP made their stock in trade are still present, but they’re now wrapped in an crunchy blend of shoegaze and indierock– feedback, yelping, searing guitars, and the occasional pause for strumming acoustic guitars and harmonizing.  The combination of good tunes and youthful abandon is potent, irresistible, and an ideal prescription for anyone requiring a new favorite band.

Gorillaz- The Fall  (self-release online 12/25/10, Parlaphone CD release 4/19/11)

Less a finished work and more a collection of ideas, this latest missive from Damon Albarn’s headspace is a fascinating listen. Recorded on an iPad during Gorillaz’s 2010 US tour, and released to their fanclub on Christmas day, it’s a soft-focus travelogue sketchbook of the American landscape, a record floating far from home.

The fifteen songs here drift by like half-remebered dreams: bits of melody peek their heads out before evaporating half-formed; glimpses of things-that-may-someday-be-something pass in the breeze.  Vocoders and programmed percussion chug along; organ and synth tones swirl and burble; filtered noises screech, chatter, and end up discarded in a pile by the door.  Damon’s vocals find different places to fit inside each song, dropping to a low rumble here, rising to eerie falsetto over there, reverbed and distorted and floating between found sounds and bursts of static.  There’s understated guest appearances by Bobby Womack, Mick Jones,  and regular Albarn collaborator Paul Simonon, each fitting seamlessly into the overall vibe.  Unlike previous Gorillaz records, there’s no key singles or radio-ready hits, just 40-odd minutes of good music and unpolished inspiration.

Bob Geldof- How To Compose Popular Songs That Will Sell  (Fontana, released 3/15/11)

Bob Geldof isn’t someone whose work I have much familiarity with, so I can’t really compare this record to what he’s done in the past; I can only consider it on its own merits…  And given that, I rather like it.  It’s a mish-mash of styles, one moment a gentle folky thing,  the next a distorted bluesy stomp, the next a tune that sounds like a ballad for voice, accordion, and helicopter sample.  There’s also a couple straight-up slick pop songs in the middle (complete with female backing vocals), but by the time they come around,  the musical whiplash of the preceding makes them sound as unusual and out-of-place as anything else on the record.  It doesn’t make any sense, but it also never sounds anything other than committed and heartfelt (even when he’s emulating George Harrison a little too closely, or tossing off an autobiographical piano-and-spoons ditty as the hidden bonus track).  It’s fascinating, it’s bizarre, and it just might prompt me to go back and start exploring Mr. Geldof’s musical career from the beginning.

Alex Turner- Submarine [original songs]  (Domino Recording Co, released 3/15/11)


In the space of a thirty-second intro and five songs, Alex Turner (frontman of the Arctic Monkeys and copilot of the Last Shadow Puppets) makes a breathtaking solo debut.  There’s none of the edgy dramatics of the Arctics or the Shadow Puppets’ sweeping grandiosity, just a voice and some sparse arrengements; the music resonates all the stronger for its lack of adornment.  The instrumentation builds gently over the course of 19 minutes – the vocals weaving around tempo changes, observational details and intricate wordplay drifting by – each tune a little more assured than the last.  It’s reflective and intimate and charmingly unselfconscious; great songs delivered without affectations or distractions.  It’s not often that I hear something so masterfully understated that it demands my complete attention, but this EP is that exact rare and wonderful item…  Buy it, put it on headphones, and listen.

Album titles and covers above link to Amazon for your purchasing convenience.