Black Francis keeps trying. He is trying really hard. Sadly, something essential just isn't there. Some vital chord, a subversive twist. These post-reunion albums (which already outnumber Pixies' classic four) bring no sense of resolution. The Night The Zombies Came, for instance, has the catchy melodies and the vocal hooks, but still comes off as a middling Frank Black solo album. "Chicken" is interesting and "Motoroller" is infectious, but much of it lands between the obvious and the vaguely intriguing.
Oddly, I enjoy these albums by The Smile a lot more than anything Thom Yorke-related since 2007. It is especially odd because they have now released three albums in three years (this is their second in 2024), and this sudden prolificacy is somewhat mystifying. But, and I'm as surprised as the next person, Cutouts could be the best of the three. It is loose but the inner dynamics pull you in. Not everything works equally well, but even something as flimsy and sparse as "Don't Get Me Started" lures me with its tasteful understatement. Plus, whatever the hell "Zero Sum" is, its funky urgency is absolutely delightful.
La Femme require their own article (coming soon), but for now let's just say that Rock Machine is a slight, if ever so slight, return to form. Tragically, they have made the full transition to the English language, and even recorded a song titled "Ciao Paris!" With the path now clear to a complete loss of identity, they are only saved by the increasingly erratic pop sensibilities that are not yet completely gone.
The first solo album by Geordie Greep is adventurous and inventive and fascinating and intense and everything else all at once, and while I admire the scope and the talent, I simply do not enjoy these songs all that much. The New Sound is a bit like black midi, Greep's previous band, only more unhinged and extremely Latin-flavoured. A little like Steely Dan on steroids (the man's voice resembles Donald Fagen's). I respect the hell out of this artsy and brainy record, it is just that I do not love any of it.
The Indelicates have returned after a seven-year hiatus with a satirical concept album titled Avenue QAnon. Show tunes, rockabilly, piano balladry, rock anthems, even a little reggae - it is all in here, in this cleverly constructed takedown of conspiracy theorists and 4chan pornographers (the lyrics are a little too on the nose sometimes, but they are still great fun). The melodies do not reach the heights of David Koresh Superstar and Songs For Swinging Lovers (both are near-classics in my eyes), and the piano ballad "A Song For Roseanne" is a little bland and "We Are The Carbon They Want To Reduce" survives on pretty much one groove, but Avenue QAnon is a great little LP that deserves to be heard by many people. The infectious melodic twists of "Hotwheels" are worth of the price of admission all on their own.
The Hard Quartet is something of a supergroup made up of Stephen Malkmus, Matt Sweeney, Emmett Kelly and Jim White, and if not for a cunning surprise by a certain German/Italian duo, their debut would be my album of the month. Quite simply, The Hard Quartet is the best Stephen Malkmus-related album since the days of Pavement. Fifteen songs of superior indie rock, sometimes informed by punk ("Chrome Mess", "Renegade") and sometimes alt country ("Our Hometown Boy", "Six Dead Rats"). Hooks, distortion, beauty. "Action For Military Boys" goes from Pavement-like slacker rock to Libertines-style anthemic glory in such an effortless manner that I just surrender in complete admiration.
Songs of the Month:
"Renegade" - The Hard Quartet
"Child of Mine" - Laura Marling
"Fountain of You" - Peter Perrett
"I Shall Sleep Again" - Blixa Bargeld & Teho Teardo
"A Fragile Thing" - The Cure
"Wandering In The Wild" - Cold Specks
"Waiting in the Dark" - La Femme
"Little Bobby" - The Indelicates
"Next Big Thing" - Du Blonde
"Instant Psalm" - The Smile
"Chicken" - Pixies
