Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Apr 25 Vol. 2

THE LOUDER STUFF

ALIEN WEAPONRY – Te Ra
A strong album that sounds like a Maori version of Gojira. (8)

RUSS BALLARD – Songs From The Warehouse / The Hits Rewired
A double CD from a 79-year-old who plays all instruments himself and is sort of Desmond Child’s granddaddy, having provided hits to everyone from Rainbow to Hot Chocolate. The first disc is all new material and it’s OK (he does sound like a 79-year-old sometimes), the second one is Ballard re-recording all those songs made famous by other people and it’s a delight. (7 for disc 1, 9 for disc 2)

GHOST – Skeleta
Their previous three albums all made The List but this one, even though it’s still one of the better heavy rock releases of the year, shows the first signs of tiredness? Certainly not as catchy and fun as “Impera”, let’s hope they bounce back quickly. (8)
 
HANDGEMENG – Satanic Panic Attack
The stoner bastard child of Turbonegro and Kvelertak. (8)

MACHINE HEAD – Unatoned
They’ve been repeatedly accused of jumping on bandwagons and these accusations have not been entirely unfounded. This album will certainly make the haters say that they’re just trying to align their sound with what’s going on today, but it’s really a solid late-career album that kicks the ass of what most younger thrash/metalcore bands are capable of. (8)

MELVINS – Thunderball
They throw another curveball at us with a revised line-up, bringing back the original drummer from 1983 and adding a couple of electronic/noise artists into the mix. It sounds exactly like the Melvins without sounding much like the last 25 Melvins albums. (8)

MELVINS & NAPALM DEATH – Savage Imperial Death March
Collaborative mini-album (not split – they play together) ahead of a co-headline tour, this meshes together the best of what each legendary band has to offer in 2025. It’s released on Amphetamine Reptile, which has always been a mark of quality in noise. (8)

UKANDANZ – Evil Plan
Ethiopian jazz meets hard rock in a highly entertaining hybrid. Includes a stellar cover of Sabbath’s “War Pigs”. (8)


THE OTHER STUFF

JULIEN BAKER & TORRES – Send A Prayer My Way
Lucy Dacus went pop, now Julien Baker goes country. I assume Phoebe Bridgers’ next album will be doom metal or something? (8)

BEIRUT – A Study Of Losses
If you like Beirut you’re going to like this, as it sticks relatively close to the formula of pop/rock played on non-pop/rock instruments and cheap drum machines and enriched with multilayered vocals. (7)

KRIS DELMHORST – Ghosts In The Garden
Who is this woman? How can I describe this beautiful, haunting music she makes without calling it “Americana” or “folk” because it wouldn’t do her justice? (8)

RHIANNON GIDDENS & JUSTIN ROBINSON – What Did The Blackbird Say To The Crow
Giddens reunites with a former collaborator and pays tribute to her roots: North Carolina black string music of past ages. This is recorded live, outdoors, just banjo and fiddle, so it’s a rather niche thing. (7)

WILLIE NELSON – Oh What A Wonderful World
I’m writing this on his birthday, the guy just turned 92 and he still releases albums every five months or so! May he live forever. Anyway, this one features a crack band backing Nelson on 12 great covers of songs written by Rodney Crowell. (8)

WU-TANG CLAN – Black Samson, The Bastard Swordsman
A collective that revolutionized hip-hop in the 90’s, still sounds very much like the 90’s. (7)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Apr 25

BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD – Forever Howlong
A very different band from the one that made The List in 2021, and again in 2022, they venture towards a pastoral, orchestral pop that has much more in common with, say, Joanna Newsom than Slint. (7)

BON IVER – Sable, Fable
Totemic indie figure goes easier on the experiments and sound effects, focuses more on the actual songs, and it’s all the better for it. (8)

BUTLER, BLAKE & GRANT – Butler, Blake & Grant
A supergroup featuring an ex-Suede, a guy from Teenage Fanclub and James Grant, that hasn’t made any headlines even in the UK, and I wonder why as this is the most gorgeous Crosby, Stills & Nash album since 1969. (8)

CRAIG FINN – Always Been
The Hold Steady frontman gets his buddy Adam Granduciel from War On Drugs to produce his latest solo album, so it does sound a bit like War On Drugs. It also sounds a bit 70’s L.A. singer-songwritery, in case you didn’t get the hint from the album cover which recreates the album cover of Randy Newman’s “Little Criminals”. As always, Finn’s world-class storytelling is front and centre. (8)

GALACTIC & IRMA THOMAS – Audience With The Queen
Wow, what a great old-school funk/soul album! (8)

THEA GILMORE – These Quiet Friends
English singer/songwriter doing covers of some of her favorite songs. She strips the songs bare to their essence using minimal, mainly acoustic instrumentation, and it works. Great taste too, from Liza Minelli’s “Cabaret” to G’n’R’s “Sweet Child O’Mine” to the Bunnymen’ “The Killing Moon” to Myley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball”. (8)

VALERIE JUNE – Owls, Omens, And Oracles
Singer/songwriter’s sixth album is her most ambitious and kaleidoscopic to date, building on influences from a million sources – Fats Domino’s New Orleans, Phil Spector girl groups, gospel, folk, blues, psychedelia, you’ll find it all here topped by her unique voice. (8)

THE LORD WEIRD SLOUGH FEG – Traveller Supplement I
A sequel of sorts to a 2003 album, this EP delivers the expected Maiden-esque classic metal with epic overtones, galloping riffs etc. They’ve probably listened to too much Thin Lizzy when they were younger. Pretty great if you’re into this sort of thing. (8)

THE MARS VOLTA – Lucro Sucio; Los Ojos Del Vacío
Moving away from bonkers prog rock into some weird doodling jazz shit. (6)

PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS – Death Hilarious
Doom/sludge metal band Pigs x7 instill a bit of Helmet into their formula and bring home the bacon. (8)

SOUL COUGHING – Live 2024
A reunion I thought impossible given the bad blood between Mike Doughty and the rest of the band (plus the fact that the bucks to be made out of such a reunion wouldn’t be too much), but here we go – my favorite NYC stream-of-consciousness jazz-rap art-funk band from the mid-90’s revisits its repertoire. I really missed that Gabay/Steinberg groove. (11)

THE WATERBOYS – Life, Death And Dennis Hopper
I thought these guys had broken up a hundred years ago but not only they’re still around, they just released a very high-profile concept album about a dead actor featuring guests like Bruce Springsteen and Fiona Apple. And it doesn’t suck! (8)