Baxter Dury
Allbarone
After eight albums, Baxter Dury has definitely carved out his own distinct musical path, but he does share some commonalities with his famous father, the late Ian Dury - in particular, a talent for writing drily humorous and highly detailed songs with a sociological slant, which focus on ordinary people living unremarkable lives. That, however, is where the musical comparison ends.
Though Dury’s observational pop has never played it straight – he’s flirted with psychedelia, Blur-ish indie pop and downbeat disco – his latest project sees him make a bold turn with the help of producer and songwriter Paul Epworth.
Epworth, who has worked with artists from Adele to Usher, Coldplay, and Florence + The Machine, approached Dury after seeing him perform at Glastonbury last year. Together they embarked on the adventure that is Allbarone (it rhymes with ‘macaroni’). It features nine attitudinal and thoroughly modern tunes that embrace electro-punk, rave, nu-disco, EBM, techno and filtered house to super-groovy effect. Echoes of Justice, Sister Sledge, Sleaford Mods and Tame Impala appear briefly, but Dury’s deadpan tales – occasional poignancy and some salty language included – provide enthralling new context.
Label: Heavenly
Lady Wray
Cover Girl
Nicole Wray’s fourth studio album arrives 24 years after her first (1998’s Make it Hot, produced by Missy Elliott and Timbaland). Cover Girl showcases her rich, powerful voice, delivering songs in a classic late 60s to early 70s soul style, and reaffirms her talent. Its songs are cast in a vintage soul-funk mould, with 90s R&B-pop, hip hop and gospel adding topspin.
Produced by Grammy-winner Leon Michels, of soul fusionists El Michels Affair, it sees Wray reflect on decades of growth since signing her first record deal aged 16, and celebrating her hard-won agency. There are echoes of Diana Ross on opener ‘My Best Step’, shades of Mary J Blige (‘Where Could I Be’) and of Aretha Franklin in gospel closing track ‘Calm’, which speaks
Wray’s upbringing in the Pentecostal Baptist church. This is no throwback LP, however: Michels’ production remains thoroughly modern throughout, nowhere more so than on ‘Be A Witness’, which combines drum machines, soaring vocals and bass from funk and soul guitarist Nick Movshon.
Label: Big Crown
Black Lips
Season Of The Peach
A quarter-century after they formed, Atlanta’s Black Lips have yet to apply the brakes on their exuberant garage punk, or slicken its characteristically raw and grubby sound. By their own admission, their debut album was the work of a band that didn’t really know what it was doing in the studio, and opted for simply trying to replicate their rowdy live shows. They’ve clearly learned a lot since, shifting their DIY stance enough to hire A-list producer Mark Ronson to impart lo-fi fuzziness of a superior quality on their 2011 release Arabian Mountain.
Season Of The Peach sees the Lips no less settled – some might say entrenched – in their muzzy aesthetic, but seriously intent on stretching the parameters of 60s and early 70s garage rock. Over 14 songs recorded to analogue tape, they embrace the foundational pop of The Ronettes and The Shangri-Las, yee-haw country, hymns, Zappa’s weird-beard excursions and groovy sounds from the ‘paisley underground’. Cohesion, such as it is, comes in parts one and two of ‘The Illusion’, a summation of what it means to be alive in the 21st century.
Label: Fire Records
Junior Brother
The End
Ronan Kealy’s third album has an ominous title, but it’s not all bleak. “Though it may reflect the doom of a world gone mad, it also represents the end of darkness,” he recently explained. The modern folk artist from County Kerry, Ireland strikes a compelling balance between unsettlement and reassurance, shadow and light, harshness and delicate beauty across its 11 tracks.
This is roots music repurposed for the 21st century, with an expressive style and distinctively keening voice (similar to that of Richard Dawson). Kealy, however, turns more often to the past for inspiration and has closer sonic ties to his source. Folklore looms large: he dived into the archives of University College Dublin for information on the mysterious ‘fairy forts’ ruins of the Irish countryside, and his songs feature Uilleann pipes, tin whistle and accordion alongside the standard guitars/bass/drums mix. There’s a terrific spread of tones and tempos across this strange, and strangely touching, set – from the freewheeling ‘A Lot Of Love’, which calls to mind a tipsy Can, to ‘The Kerry Polka’, whose off-beat accents make it play like a math-rock workout with pipes.
Label: Strap Originals
