Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Dec 25

 

THE AVETT BROTHERS & MIKE PATTON – AVTT/PTTN
In the strangest, most head-scratching collaboration of the year, arena folk-rockers team up with Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Fantomas…). The sound is much more AVTT than PTTN but you really can’t tell if Patton is sincere or just taking the piss, in other words it’s typical Patton. (8)

BARREN PATH – Grieving
Gridlink fans will appreciate this as the band is essentially Gridlink with a different vocalist. Relentless grindcore, 12 tracks in less than 14 minutes, the way it should be. (8)

CHEAP TRICK – All Washed Up
Cheap Trick is like pizza, even a not very good Cheap Trick album is a very good Cheap Trick album. (7)

FUZZY LIGHTS – Fen Creatures
English pastoral folk played with sludge metal intensity, better than you probably think it would be. (8)

MAJOR STARS – More Colors Of Sound
Major Stars could never be major stars as their brand of psychedelic garage rock hasn’t been the stuff of chart-topping hits since, probably, Jefferson Airplane of something, but they deserve to be – this is fuckin’ awesome. (8)

SABINE McCALLA – Don’t Call Me Baby
A New Orleans gumbo made with R&B, blues, samba, and everything in between. Dan Auerbach co-writes some stuff here. (8)

OLAN MONK – Songs for Nothing
Doom ‘n’ gloom goth shoegaze dirges influenced by the sounds and sights of his native Ireland. Not if you’re in a party mood. (7)

PEPE DELUXE – Super Sound 25 (Reissue)
I could make a case that 2012’s maximalistic “Queen Of The Wave” is probably the best album of the 21st century. Their debut from 2000 is quite a different affair – pretty good but a pure Big Beat album that owes a lot to then chart-topping artists like Fatboy Slim and the Chemical Brothers. (8)

NOURA MINT SEYMALI – Yenbett
The Queen of desert blues is finally back – it’s psychedelic, it’s exotic, it’s noisy and transcendent. (8)

JESSE SYKES AND THE SWEET HEREAFTER – Forever, I’ve Been Being Born
Is this Folky Psychedelia or is it Psychedelic Folk? Maybe it’s Cosmic Americana? In any case it sounds like something out of the “Truckers, Kickers, Cowboy Angels” 70’s Country Rock compilation series, like it was recorded in 1973 or something, and it’s beautiful. (8)