Album of the Month: CONTINUE AS A GUEST by The New Pornographers

Of all the bands spawned by this century, The New Pornographers are among the very best. Two major songwriting talents (three, in fact, but Neko Case is just a performer here) in one band is a rare occurrence, and if you couple that with inventive arrangements and intense hooks, you get records as good as Mass Romantic and Twin Cinema. I would argue that the run from Mass Romantic (a five-star album if there ever was one) to Together is all gold. I would not say that it went wrong after that - it is just that starting with Brill Bruisers, and especially with the departure of Dan Bejar, the band has lost something. I cannot quite put my finger on what that is, exactly, but it is as if the melodies started to lose their substance. 

It was not critical, and their subsequent albums still had plenty of classic tunes ("Champions Of Red Wine", "This Is The World Of The Theatre", "Falling Down The Stairs Of Your Smile"), but I could not quite do away with the sense of diminishing returns (same as Destroyer, if we are being honest here). Is Continue As A Guest a miraculous return to form? Hard to say - but this does feel like their strongest set of songs in more than a decade.

Continue As A Guest is a reinvention of sorts. It sounds different without giving you a clear idea of what has changed. Yet somehow there is more urgency to these songs, as if this time The New Pornographers and A.C. Newman in particular have a lot to say - both sonically and melodically. What is there about the Neko Case sung "Cat And Mouse With The Light" that makes it special, really? It should sound monotonous - but it feels like subtle magic instead, with that intricate and inventive arrangement riding along the downbeat groove. 

The opening "Really Really Light" (co-written by Dan Bejar, no less) is a perfect tone-setter whose hooks do not quite reach the Mass Romantic heights but which do not sound laboured either. "Firework In The Snow" is a mellow pop song that could have been on Newman's underrated Shut Down The Streets, and "Last And Beautiful" and especially the single "Angelcover" are worthy of anything from their past catalogue. The lengthy and seemingly uneventful "Marie And The Undersea" should be a problem, but, again, it still has more ideas (both in its melody and in the instrumentation) than most bands could conjure over entire albums. Also, I am impressed by the epic "Wish Automatic Suite" that closes the album. A magnificent slow-burner that grows in intensity and climaxes with a two-minute coda whose restraint makes it all the more compelling.

As ever with AC Newman's songwriting - this album will keep growing on you with time, and on my second listen already I was discovering new depths and melodic nuances that make Continue As A Guest tower well above their latest output. Mind you, their fifth or sixth best is still an unmissable experience. 

Rating: ★★★★

March Round-Up

The cold, impassionate vocals of Depeche Mode have never done it for me. I have liked the odd song ("Everything Counts" for the cheese, "Personal Jesus" for the style), but even their most lauded albums, like Black Celebration and Violator, have been chasing the head and not the heart. Memento Mori (★★★½), their latest comeback, is much the same. "My Cosmos Is Mine" sets the tone beautifully and even monumentally, and there are a few excellent songs along the way (the Spandau Ballet-styled "Soul With Me" is not one of them). Engaging, enjoyable... and a little vapid. If you just want vapid, without engaging and enjoyable, let me point you in the direction of The Zombies' Different Game (★★). The guys do indeed sound like their name at this point. I guess the brittle ballad "Love You While I Can" is rather lovely but nothing else on this bland and generic album will betray to you that Odessey & Oracle is one of the greatest albums of all time. 

As for Shana Cleveland's critically acclaimed second album, Manzanita (★★★½), I am undecided as of yet. It is an album to come back to, again and again, because it constantly threatens to reveal hidden depths. It is a laidback folk album with subtle, tasteful arrangements and a somewhat mystical vibe. I am already transfixed by the eerie "A Ghost" as well as the melodically intriguing songs like "Babe" and "Mayonnaise" (the combination of piano and pedal steel works really well) and, with time, I might end up loving the whole thing. Who knows, this album may end up being mentioned in the same breath with Sibylle Baier's legendary Colour Green.

Brix Smith's new album, in its turn, was a slight disappointment. Without Mark, her music just lacks subtlety (nobody has spoken of Mark E. Smith as of a purveyor of subtlety and I'm on very shaky ground here) - especially when she tries to do those aggressive, high-octane rockers that dominate Valley Of The Dolls (★★★). I loved the two side closers, the tuneful ballad "Changing" and the epic "Black Butterfly", as well as a few spots in between, but overall this is very patchy. The Hold Steady's consistency, however, shows no signs of slowing down. The Price Of Progess (★★★½) is yet another quietly excellent album from the American band. The tough, heartbreaking single "Sixers" is the standout.

Finally, a dramatic black and white cover, a far-fetched allusion to a Wim Wenders film, a line about fucking her to death... In other words, the new LP from Lana Del Rey has arrived. Listening to these 16 new songs stretched to almost 80 minutes of running time, I wonder if she will ever realise that there is nothing as sexy as a 30 minute album... Her desire to experiment is commendable (the fact that most of those experiments fall flat is a different matter), but overall Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (★★★) is the usual deal: a vaguely intriguing mess of an album that throws up a few delights ("Paris, Texas", ironically) amid the sea of uneventful, if always tasteful, mush. 

Songs of the Month:

Baxter Dury - "Aylesbury Boy" 

The New Pornographers - "Angelcover"

Shana Cleveland - "A Ghost" 

Brix Smith - "Changing"

The Hold Steady - "Sixers"

Lana Del Rey - "Paris, Texas" (feat. SYML)

My Latest Discoveries: GABI GARBUTT

I discovered Gabi Garbutt a month ago, back when I found out that Du Blonde had recorded a new song. It was called "Panic", and it was that recognisable brand of infectious guitar pop that has it all: melody, attitude, style. The song turned out to be a collaboration with the English artist Gabi Garbutt who is about to release her EP (end of April) with "Panic" being its leading single. This made me investigate further, and this is what I have discovered. 

Much, not everything, can be said about you through association. Gabi Garbutt used to tour with Edwyn Collins. In my eyes, that alone should count as an endorsement. I have seen enough opening acts that made me want to slash my wrists or at the very least roll my eyes in bored impatience, but somehow the association with Edwyn Collins could not let me down. 

So far, Gabi Garbutt and her band The Illuminations have recorded two LPs. The first one, The Discredited Language of Angels (★★★★) was released in 2019, and as soon as the swirling organ kicks in and the power chords burst out, I was won over. This is confident, soulful music with brassy arrangements and undeniable hooks. It just never lets go. Gabi's melodies are convincing and effortless, whether she goes for propulsive energy of soulful punk ("Lady Matador") or does something more wistful and introspective ("Down By The Waterside"). There is even time for a blistering guitar solo that can be heard during the intense fade-out of the closing "Ravens And Angels". 

Cockerel (★★★★), last year's follow-up, is just as good. "Bad Boy Bird" is a classic opener that mixes rockabilly energy, Beatlesque melodies, Dexys Midnight Runners' playfulness and a line that brings up Mayakovsky. What is not to like? Once again, she is consistent and she never overstays her welcome. The anthemic "Never Never" is a heady pop song, and "I Can't Win" reaches orgasmic heights during the chorus. What else is there to say, really? Great musicianship, another excellent guitar solo (towards the end of "Angel Of 3rd Ave"), and a verbose piano ballad to finish things off. "Our Dying World" is both disarming and a little over-serious, but Jesus what a tune. 

Should Gabi Garbutt be huge? She should, but that is a misleading question. Her music is good for what it actually is, and there is no question that it should get a wider recognition. Here's hoping that it happens, and that when it does happen, it will take nothing away from her appeal and her songwriting talent. 

"Heat Of The Machine" comes from her first album. If you start your morning playing this song, the day won't let you down (also, bonus points for crowbarring Old-Fashioned into the chorus).

Polish Diary. "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?" at Teatr Polonia.

Somehow, the play Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? has been a constant presence in my life. 

I watched it back when I was a kid, late at night, with my sister, when the adults were not at home. We watched the famous movie adaptation from 1966 starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. I do not believe I understood it back then but it still had a profound effect on me - the kind that grips you and you cannot quite explain why. It felt funny and it felt tragic and then Elizabeth Taylor delivered those final words and I just wanted to become a playwright. 

Later, I read the play when I was twenty and bedridden in hospital. By then, the worst days were behind me and I needed to read something as part of my recuperation process. One of the books that I requested was, quite inexplicably, Edward Albee's Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? It provided a lot of hysterical laughter but it also delivered a few hard-hitting blows that brought me ever closer to understanding the play.

Later still, I used it (along with Edward Albee's other famous piece, The Zoo Story) in my University thesis on effects of the Theatre of the Absurd. Here, I delved deep into the play and its two main protagonists and even the title that had always intrigued me to no end. 

And now, years later, I finally did it last night. I saw the stage adaptation of Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? at Teatr Polonia in Warsaw. Needless to say, anything less than special would not have done it - and, thankfully, they did it justice. Which means it was very special indeed.

                                  photo by Krzysztof Bieliński

Directed by Jacek Poniedziałek (he also translated the play into Polish) and starring Ewa Kasprzyk in the role of Martha, this turned out to be a very faithful rendition in a relatively small and intimate theatre packed to its absolute limit... And of course it only takes the main actress to say "What a dump!" at the beginning (in Polish, obviously), for Albee's play to get its claws into you. And all of a sudden, it is just as gripping as ever. Martha and George are a middle-aged couple who return home after a University party (George teaches at the History Department). They quarrel, they make jokes, they are tender and they are at each other's throats. Martha has invited a young couple to visit them later tonight, and this is were the story really takes off. From the very first moment, the young guests are hurled into the complex games of Martha and George's relationship. Games which are by turns entertaining and downright savage. 

The audience was very much alive, to a fault - but that is the sinister magic of Albee's play, that masterful interplay of humour and deadly seriousness. This interplay repeatedly catches the audience unawares, and time and time again the fallout of laughter gets in the way of another line that is absolutely devastating in its brutal and unforgiving gravity. These are awkward moments, but they were planted into the devious tapestry of the play from the very beginning. In a way, they are the whole point of what you are witnessing.

And they, too, are the trap (similar to the one that the young couple fall into, naively and continuously), for placing them alongside each other in such a rapid and incessant succession requires utmost concentration and taste on the part of the director and the cast. But even taking into account the degree of difficulty, the Polish adaptation is a great success and adds a new power and poignancy to Martha's affectionate monologue towards the end of the second act. This version was not perfect (none of them are), and the decorations seemed a little too faceless and unimaginative to my liking, and sometimes the 1966 film is conjured  followed too closely, but in the end - all my complaints fade away and cease to matter. Because each adaptation is different, and each throws a great surprise when you least expect it (the Pink Floyd song at the start of Act Two was not on the cards). Because, crucially, with every adaptation you get closer to the truth which is never too obvious and always elusive in the case of Albee's play. 

Needless to say, the performances were entirely in Polish and I would not have been as ecstatic had I not learned the play by heart ages ago. Some lines are hissed, some are whispered, and your grip on the language has to be sublime. Sadly, the two girls who were leaving the theatre behind me were not as fortunate. They were Americans, and they kept complaining about how they had not understood anything that was going on in the play. All that arguing, all those accusations... They kept bringing it up again and again, and at some point and in my mind their words and their questions started to string themselves together into the immortal catchphrase coined by Edward Albee. The one that is also the title of this classic play.

Фільм. "ХРОНІКІ РТУЦІ" (2019) / Аляксандра Кулак.

З літаратурай усё проста. Бяры ды пішы. Раман, аповесць, апавяданне - усё, што заўгодна, былі б талент і крыху часу. Вядома, трэба яшчэ знайсці выдавецтва і надрукаваць свой твор, але нічога не перашкаджае творчаму працэсу. Нічога не паўстае паміж натхненнем і фізіялагічным задавальненнем ад апошняй кропкі. З музыкай цяжэй. Трэба купіць гітару альбо трамбон, трэба знайсці студыю, музыкаў і добрага прадзюсера - але ж і без трох апошніх умоваў можна ствараць музыку. Акорды вісяць на дрэвах. Было б жаданне. З кіно, на жаль, усё вельмі складана, бо тут мастак не належыць самому сабе. Не цалкам. Так, ёсць Мікіта Лаўрэцкі са сваім home-made кіно (пра якое гаворка пойдзе пазней), але ў большасці выпадкаў кіно - гэта спалучэнне людзей, грошай і збегу акалічнасцей. 

Таму з кіно ў нас цяжка. Асабліва з мастацкім, асабліва з якасным, асабліва з беларускамоўным. А сёння нават і з тым, што здымаецца ў Беларусі. З вышэйпералічанага фільм Аляксандры Кулак "Хронікі ртуці" адпавядае толькі адной умове: гэта выдатнае, сапраўды якаснае кіно. 

Фільм здымаўся ў Амерыцы, і распавядае пра закінутую частку Каліфорніі. Калісьці Новая Ідрыя была шахцёрскім гарадком, дзе здабывалі ртуць. Сёння (дзеянне фільма звязана з перыядам да і пасля выбрання Трампа, то бок з 2017 годам) насельніцтва Новай Ідрыі складаецца з двух чалавек, брата і сястры Кемп і Кейт Вудс. Калісьці Новая Ідрыя была горадам магчымасцяў, маленькім рухавіком амерыканскай мары. Сёння гэта горад-прывід, і мы сустракаем яго ў сумным, пакамечаным, занядбаным стане. Тым не менш, сярод пустэчы і неахайнай расліннасці па-ранейшаму тлее жыццё. Бо Кейт і Кемп жывуць - не існуюць, а менавіта жывуць. Яны бавяць час у Інтэрнэце, слухаюць джаз, заўзята размаўляюць пра космас, даглядаюць сабак і люта ненавідзяць рэспубліканцаў. 

Вось на гэтым супрацьпастаўленні змрочнага краявіда і нязгаснага жыцця і існуе гэты фільм. Ён трымае ў напружанні, у ім ёсць рух - і ў ім ёсць другі акт, павольны, эмацыйны і непазбежны. Гэта спалучэнне выдатнай працы рэжысёраў і прыцягальнай моцы характараў - тое, што галоўныя персанажы так зацягваюць не робячы, здаецца, нічога асаблівага. Ёсць у іх гэтая шчырасць, гэтая неўмяручая прага да жыцця, якое, дарэчы, паўстае тут у кожным кадры. Менавіта праз гэта я і абраў "Хронікі ртуці" для першага аповеду пра беларускае кіно. Бо калі казаць шчыра - то што ў ім беларускага (дарэчы, нават Кейт Вудс кажа пра Russkis са здымачнай групы)? Фільм на ангельскай мове, з субтытрамі на расейскай... І тым не менш - для мяне гэта фільм беларускай рэжысёркі. Я не бачыў яшчэ яе стужкі "Мара" пра падзеі 2020 года, але мне падаецца, што - свядома ці не - менавіта беларускі фон, з гэтымі страчанымі вёскамі і незагойнымі асяродкамі жыцця, дазволіў так дасканала і так дасціпна перадаць другі, і значна менш прывабны, бок амерыканскай мары.

Фільм зняты ў прыгожых, прыглушаных колерах - нібыта ў лёгкім тумане. Гэта не тая Каліфорнія, якая паўстае ў нашым уяўленні, калі мы думаем пра Галівуд ды Сан-Францыска. Але гэта таксама Каліфорнія - нават калі часам падаецца, што яна існуе ў нейкім паралельным сусвеце. Зразумела, што ў значнай ступені менавіта краявід сфармаваў Кейт і Кемпа Вудс - такіх сапраўдных і неідэальных. Тых, што не маюць дзяцей (бо як адважыцца нарадзіць дзяцей у гэты свет), вераць у НЛА (бо чаму не верыць) і шмат разважаюць пра смерць (бо яна паўсюль). Яны, дарэчы, і прыцягваюць нас сваёй неідэальнасцю і сваёй сапраўднасцю. А яшчы гэтымі вачыма, аднолькавымі і поўнымі нейкай змрочнай глыбіні.

Ртуць - гэта вадкі метал шэрага колеру. Ртуць, пара і злучэнні ртуці атрутныя. Назапашваюцца ў арганізме, пашкоджваюць нервовую сістэму і парушаюць абмен рэчываў. Ртуць - адзін з двух хімічных элементаў (і адзіны метал), простыя рэчывы якіх пры нармальных умовах знаходзяцца ў вадкім агрэгатным стане. У многіх краінах элементарная ртуць выкарыстоўваецца ў саматужнай і дробнамаштабнай здабычы золата. Ртуць змешваюць з золатазмяшчальнымі матэрыяламі, утвараючы ртутна-залатую амальгаму, якая затым награваецца, выпараючы ртуць, каб атрымаць золата.