Short Attention Span Record Reviews, April 2020

THE LOUDER STUFF

CONCEPTION – State Of Deception
The best Queensryche album in quite a while. (8)

ME AND THAT MAN – New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1
Behemoth’s Nergal invites his friends (Corey Taylor, Ihsahn, Matt Heafy…) and has them sing country/blues/americana. Best moment is Mat McMerney (Hexvessel/Dodheimsgard/Beastmilk/Grave Pleasures) doing his best “Satanic Hank Williams” impression but the basic takeaway of the album is this, what we always suspected: Every metal singer singing anything other than metal ends up sounding like Nick Cave karaoke. (7)

NINE INCH NAILS – Ghosts V: Together / Ghosts VI: Locusts
Two new instrumental albums simultaneously released, V is more tranquil and VI more disturbing, both closer to Reznor’s soundtrack work with Atticus Ross than to proper NIN records. (7)

OLD MAN GLOOM – Seminar IX: Darkness Of Being
The usual awesome heavy experimental doom, the main difference this time around being that the tragically deceased bassist Caleb Scofield has been replaced by his Cave In bandmate Stephen Brodsky. (8)

PEARL JAM – Gigaton
From the garage rock of “Superblood Wolfmoon” to the Talking Heads-esque angular white boy funk of “Dance Of The Clairvoyants” to the Who-like attack of “Never Destination” to the ballad-heavy second half of the album, Pearl Jam defy expectations on their best release since “Riot Act”. (8)

PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS – Viscerals
Best band name ever, and don’t call them “stoner rock” – this is a far messier, sludgier, more fun affair. (8)

TESTAMENT – Titans of Creation
The all-star thrash lineup shreds, but the songs just chug along and drag on and on and on without a single hook really standing out. (6)

TĒTĒMA – Necroscape
The zillionth Mike Patton project is one of the weirdest and most cacophonous, certainly on the left of Mr. Bungle. You have been warned. (7)


THE OTHER STUFF

BRIAN FALLON – Local Honey
Gaslight Anthem frontman and Springsteen disciple Fallon on personal, mostly acoustic set of songs. (7)

CHILDISH GAMBINO – 3.15.20
Overrated. (6)

JAMES ELKINGTON – Ever-Roving Eye
Drawing from a variety of sources like British folk and 60’s psychedelia, Elkington’s second album is a small triumph. (8)

LILLY HIATT – Walking Proof
Country rock singer/songwriter’s fourth album is more laid back than 2017’s “Trinity Lane” and features lots of guests like Amanda Shires, Aaron Lee Tasjan, and dad John Hiatt. (7)

PHISH – Sigma Oasis
Virtually unknown outside the US of A but on home turf Phish is not just a band, it’s an institution, a cult almost, with rabid loyal fans, and they just surprise-released an album of songs they’ve already been playing live for years but had never properly recorded in a studio. If you can stand the Grateful Dead, you’ll probably enjoy this. (7)

STEFANO BOLLANI – Piano Variations On Jesus Christ Superstar
I’d never heard of this Italian jazz pianist before but obviously he has an unhealthy obsession with the music from “Jesus Christ Superstar” so I started liking him before I even listened to this, a fantastic track-by-track reworking of the epic rock opera for solo piano. Labors of love like this one is what’s it’s all about, folks. (10)

THIEVERY CORPORATION – Symphonik
Downtempo/chillout pioneers revisit 11 of their best known songs with a full classical orchestra. It works much better than Metallica’s “S&M”. (8)

WAXAHATCHEE – Saint Cloud
Katie Crutchfield moves away from grungy indie rock towards folk/Americana on her new album that most critics are absolutely ecstatic about. Can’t understand why – it’s good, but in no way spectacularly better than at least a dozen or so other 2020 albums by folky singer-songwriters. (7)

YVES TUMOR – Heaven to a Tortured Mind
Sorry but I just don’t get this modern, overproduced, deconstructed/reconstructed “pop”, what’s wrong with having some SONGS for a change? (6)