Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Oct 2020 Vol. II

 THE LOUDER STUFF

ARMORED SAINT – Punching The Sky
Heavy fucking metal. (8)

ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS – Apocrypha
Burton C. Bell quits Fear Factory and does post-punk/semi-goth. Lots to like here for Killing Joke fans, but the Deftones crowd should also appreciate. (7)

JELLO BIAFRA & THE GUANTANAMO SCHOOL OF MEDICINE – Tea Party Revenge Porn
The timing is perfect for a new Jello album featuring songs like “Satan’s Combover” and “Taliban USA”, which I figure the Trump campaign won’t be using anytime soon. (8)

DEAD LORD – Surrender
Shameless Thin Lizzy worship. We like that. (7)

FUZZ – III
They call themselves FUZZ for chrissakes, what do you think this sounds like? (7)

PALLBEARER – Forgotten Days
The best doom metal album of the year, probably. (8)

PUP – This Place Sucks Ass
Leftovers from the 2019 sessions for one of last year’s best albums, plus one new track, from Canadian pop-punks. (8)

ZEAL & ARDOR – Wake Of A Nation
Moving further away from black metal and getting more political, less satanic. Still interesting. (8)


THE OTHER STUFF

CLIPPING. – Visions Of Bodies Being Burned
The Yin to Run The Jewels’ Yang. (8)

FAITHLESS – All Blessed
I was listening to these guys in 1995. We were ALL listening to these guys in 1995. And I stopped listening to these guys around 2004, and a new Faithless album in 2020 when the idea of a rave or a big club night seems preposterous for all kinds of different reasons makes me feel really fucking old. But if you were even into the whole 90’s UK dance/post-trance scene, these guys were the cream of the crop back in the day and still deliver, even without Maxi Jazz. (8)

FUZZTONES – NYC
Garage rock revivalists celebrate their 40th anniversary with a tribute to their hometown covering the Ramones, New York Dolls, Patti Smith, Cramps, Blue Oyster Cult and, of course, Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York”. Fun as a novelty, but there are better Fuzztones albums out there. (6)

STURGILL SIMPSON – Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1
After being declared the Savior of Country Music he released a WTF synth-rock album, and now he does bluegrass versions of his songs. Obviously, this guy has zero fucks left to give. (7)

SONGHOY BLUES – Optimisme
Africa’s best band rocks like Tinariwen on steroids on spectacular third album. (8)

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – Letter To You
Recorded live in the studio with the E Street Band over just 5 days, this feels urgent and sounds epic and it’s his best album since 1984’s “Born In The USA”, if not since 1980’s “The River”: A true late-career masterpiece. (9)

THIS IS THE KIT – Off Off On
Kate Stables’ strong fifth album is one of the better folk-infused albums to come out of the UK in the past few years. She brings to mind a strange time-warp combination of Sand Denny fronting a bearded Brooklyn-based indie rock band. (8)

FRANK TURNER & JON SNODGRASS – Buddies II: Still Buddies
Musician buddies kill some time during quarantine on distance collaboration album. Written in just one day and sounds like it. (6)

LAURA VEIRS – My Echo
Produced by her (now ex-) husband and this midst of them growing apart, Veirs’ new album can be read in multiple ways but every time it’s still a strong modern folk record, with rich, expansive strings adding texture to her storytelling. (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Oct 2020

THE LOUDER STUFF

DEFTONES – Ohms
They’ve never made a bad album and “Ohms” is actually their best since “Diamond Eyes”. Heavy, chaotic but beautiful. (8)

ENSLAVED – Utgard
Pink Floyd with distortion pedals. In Viking costumes. (8)

LAURA JANE GRACE – Stay Alive
Songs originally intended (pre-Coronavirus) to be the next Against Me! album but recorded solo out of necessity, with just one guitar, over four days in Steve Albini’s studio. Basically sketches of punk rock anthems, I can’t wait to hear these fleshed out, with a full band. (7)

ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF – All Thoughts Fly
Instrumental album played exclusively on a church organ reinforces her status as the new Queen of Goths. (7)

BOB MOULD – Blue Hearts
A perfect amalgam of Mould’s career, “Blue Hearts” combines Husker Du’s ferocity with Sugar’s pop sensibilities and “Black Sheets Of Rain”’s anger/pessimism. (8)

THE OCEAN COLLECTIVE – Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic / Cenozoic
If you add a hint of Toolishness to some Isis karaoke, you end up with the new Ocean album which feels like it’s only slightly shorter than the 200 million-year period it’s named after. (6)

GREG PUCIATO – Child Soldier: Creator of God
First solo album by Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato, plays all instruments except drums himself, sounds like Trent Reznor raping Mike Patton. (7)

COREY TAYLOR – CMFT
What’s recorded in Vegas, sounds like Vegas: Slipknot/Stone Sour frontman’s party rock record. (7)
 

THE OTHER STUFF

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS – The New OK
Southern rockers can’t tour so here’s a second album in 2020. Some leftovers from the great “Unraveling”, some new stuff, as good as they’ve ever been. (8)

FLEET FOXES – Shore
A nice folk-ish rock record, but comparisons with ex-Fleet Fox Father John Misty are unavoidable and these guys lose. (7)

PJ HARVEY – To Bring You My Love: Demos
Polly Jean’s demos for one of the best albums of the last 30 years. Rawer without the strings and the pianos, it leaves more room for the lyrics to hit harder and makes for a chilling listen. A must-hear for all fans of the proper album. (9)

HEN OGLEDD – Free Humans
Second album by Richard Dawson side project, more indie-electropop oriented but still very weird and very English. (7)

DIANA JONES – Song To A Refugee
US folk singer releases touching song cycle dedicated to refugees around the world, inspired by a friendship with actress/activist Emma Thompson and a speech by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Guests include other left-leaning folkies like Richard Thomspon, Steve Earle and Peggy Seeger. (8)

LYDIA LOVELESS – Daughter
Four years, one divorce, one new record deal, one move from Ohio to North Carolina, and one occasion of coming forward with accusations of sexual harassment later, it’s no surprise her new album sounds very different: A bit more polished, a bit more mature, a bit more lived-in, a bit closer to Jason Isbell territory. (8)

MARC RIBOT’S CERAMIC DOG – What I Did On My Long Vacation
Ribot is Tom Waits’ guitarist from “Rain Dogs” onwards and he is also a regular John Zorn collaborator so he’s obviously not afraid to go to weird places, and his own band is a Venn diagram where no wave, free jazz, funk and noise rock overlap. (7)

SQUIRREL NUT ZIPPERS – Lost Songs Of Doc Souchon
New Orleans vintage jazz/swing/big band blues revivalists on fun new album combining covers and originals. (7)

RICHARD & LINDA THOMPSON – Hard Luck Stories 1972–1982
Practically everything that Britain’s Royal Folk-Rock Couple ever recorded before falling apart. 8-CD box set including one true masterpiece (“I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight”), three more really good albums, two duds, and a whole bunch of rare/unreleased tracks. A valuable addition to any record collection. (9)