Just how many babies has Robert Smith killed in his life to still have a voice like that?!
Back in 2008, I was a university student and did not even care for The Cure. 4:13 Dream came and went without leaving much of an impression. Sixteen years have passed, though, and boy do I care now. Ever since I heard the gorgeous, monumental "And Nothing Is Forever" at a concert in 2022, I have been waiting for the announcement that kept being pushed back in that inimitable Robert Smith fashion. So what do we have here?.. Songs Of A Lost World sounds like a warmer, deeper Disintegration, and that is all I ever wanted from The Cure at this point. They won't give me another Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (live, Smith sleepwalks through his pop songs anyway), but this is a near-masterpiece. Classic build-ups, beautiful tunes, and that fucking voice. Wow.
Sadly, for every great album this month (and there have been a few), we got something of the 'good but who cares' variety. Kim Deal, for instance, has released her first ever solo album. Nobody Loves You More is full of snappy, neat little songs (the whole thing is over in 35 minutes) but other than the closing, soaring "A Good Time Pushed", the album has diversity but lacks truly signature tunes. Beats Frank Black's latest quite handily, anyway.
Du Blonde's new album is this incessant, slightly obnoxious glam pop of absolutely killer quality. I do miss the underproduced, understated charms of Homecoming, her previous album, but Sniff More Gritty is pretty much impeccable. Clearly songs do not get any catchier than "TV Star" and "Next Big Thing", but her softer side is rather heard-hitting, too (the sweeping ballad "Out of a Million" is almost as good as "After the Show" from 2015). Elsewhere, the pop punk verses of "Solitary Individual" are a little too Green Day for my tastes, but "ICU" is like this great understated hook-line that lasts for almost three minutes and never lets go. Aesthetically I may have questions, and the lyrics do not always work, but God what a great songwriter she is.
Not something I could say about the Mount Eerie guy. He may be a big hit with music critics and RYM fanatics, but his new album that everyone is going crazy about is just this endless lo-fi mess. The man can't hold a tune to save his life and this idea that he should release whatever noise loop or a snippet of a drone or a figment of a primitive folk melody that come into his head is just plain wrong. A Crow Looked at Me was massively overrated, and so is Night Palace. I'm this close to calling him a charlatan and this whole thing a pathetic hoax. Rarely have I seen such egregious disproportion between talent and acclaim.
Slightly better is the situation with Joshua Tillman (better known as Father John Misty - oh God how I hate that name) who has just released his sixth solo album. Mahashmashana starts off beautifully with a lengthy, sweeping title song that is like a cross between George Harrison and Elton John. The rest of the album is a somewhat frustrating listen, veering from overlong and dull ("Mental Health") to overlong and playfully entertaining ("I Guess Time Just Makes Fools Of Us All"). I find him pretentious but not unbearably so.
I would have totally missed the new Wussy album had it not been for a timely reminder from Spotify. The only problem (or perhaps its biggest asset?) with Cincinnati Ohio is that it is pretty much exactly what you would expect: confident indie Americana drowned in tasteful raggedness and undeniable melodic wit. Little here approaches the highs of Funeral Dress (their best album, still), but rocking songs like "Inhaler" and especially the opening "The Great Divide" are instant classics. I'm a little cooler on the slow-burning ballads, but Wussy's music always gets better with further listens.
Another good, worthy album that I won't be returning to any time soon is Michael Kiwanuka's Small Changes. Smooth, well-produced LP that is all spirituality and soulful vibes. I guess if you liked Michael's past work (I mostly know him through his 2019 breakthrough), you will probably find a lot to relate to here. Sadly, Small Changes feels to me like spirituality without catharsis... Or else a good album that never threatens to be great.
Finally, it was a sad day back in 2019 when I found out that The Flaming Stars (who on certain days I consider to be the best band in the world) were no more, and I was moved to write this piece. November saw the release of the first Flaming Stars-related album of original material since then. Max Décharné's Night Darkens The Streets LP. Kris Needs of Record Collector has called it the coolest album of 2024, and that's what it is. Literate, stylish, nocturnal music that goes from impossibly beautiful late-night balladry (the vibraphone-based "Doctor Caligari Will See You Now") to toe-tapping rockabilly boogie ("Last Diner On the Last Highway"). Played in its entirety by Max Décharné himself, this is all very much reminiscent of The Flaming Stars at their most vulnerable and stripped down. One of my personal album of the year, easily.
Songs of the Month:
"Those Places" - Max Décharné
"And Nothing Is Forever" - The Cure
"Kill A Franco Spy" - Peter Perrett
"ICU" - Du Blonde
"The Great Divide" - Wussy
"A Good Time Pushed" - Kim Deal
"Mahashmashana" - Father John Misty
