STACK NZ Mar #60

MUSIC

REVIEWS

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Laura Marling Short Movie

Modest Mouse Strangers to Ourselves Those kooky cross-genre cats are back! It’s been nigh on eight years, but it feels like only yesterday, particularly after a mere ten seconds listening to the soothing menace of their opening title track. Pistol dances between Ween and Nine Inch Nails with an infectious groove and dirty lyrics (a highlight), while The Ground Walks … falls squarely into dance party slick, with a tinge of Talking Heads. Any way you cut it, the 14 tracks offered here are well worth the wait; cool kids and groovy elders, your new favourite album of 2015 is ready and willing. Chris Murray

An itinerant wanderer since her teens, Marling chose Los Angeles as her home base for a while and her fifth album takes its inspiration from the sprawling, celebrity-obsessed city. A deeply personal song-cycle born of self-reflection, Short Movie is an apt title and not just because of the spectre of Tinsel Town. It’s cinematic: forget whispers and delicate guitar; with her touring band in tow, Marling has blown her sound wide open, her voice enriched, her phrasing bold. But embedded in the rich imagery and atmospheric splendour is a beating heart overwrought by joy and pain. A richly rewarding album. Jonathan Alley

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds Chasing Yesterday He’s damn near caught it a few times, it’s true; but you couldn’t call Chasing Yesterday the most backward-looking album of Noel Gallagher’s career. Self-produced for the first time, it’s steeped in the distinctive mega-layered cadences and explosive

chorus tricks that made Oasis some kind of monument to two-fisted classic rock. But there’re fewer of the tiresome Beatlisms that make his brother Liam’s band, Beady Eye, ring so hollow. There’s a progressive ‘70s vibe to the beefy disco beats of In the Heat of the Moment and Ballad of the Mighty I (check out Johnny Marr’s expertly understated guitar work), and even a spot of jazz fusion horn tomfoolery in the climactic gasps of The Right Stuff . Lyrically, Gallagher is in no hurry to rhyme above his station when a couplet like “She shot me to the sun / Like a bullet from a gun” fits just fine, but as a writer, singer and now producer, he’s a man in undeniable command of his own epic soundtrack. Michael Dwyer

Shakey Graves And the War Came

Mark Knopfler Tracker

British India Nothing Touches Me

Jose Gonzalez Vestiges and Claws

Alejandro Rose-Garcia is an actor and singer-songwriter from Austin, Texas, who performs as Shakey Graves. Music has become his main focus; usually performing as a one-man band playing guitar and stomping on a suitcase kick drum, he has a sound all his own, influenced by Springsteen, Waits and Van Zandt. Described as ‘lo-fi Americana’ and ‘hobo folk’, this is a melting pot of alternative country with folksy, bluesy, rockin’ soul. On this, his second album, he’s joined on vocals by Esme Patterson on a few tracks. From the subtle to the outright loud, this is a beautifully haunting and inspiringly uplifting release. Denise Hylands

Knopfler's eighth solo album is up there with his best work; this is superb musicianship from the master guitarist and his versatile band (bass, drums, keys, fiddle, flute with occasional sax and accordion) and a dazzling collection of new songs. Favouring subtle arrangements that give his musicians plenty of space, Knopfler draws on personal experiences: playing in small pubs in London with his old band Dire Straits, the inspiration of poet Basil Bunting and writer Beryl Bainbridge, and touring with Bob Dylan. On another song he shares vocals with Australian Ruth Moody, who fronts Canadian band The Wailin' Jennys. Billy Pinnell

In 2015, making a compelling noise with voice and guitar is a challenge, given the method’s now over-used history. But Sweden’s Jose Gonzalez continues to pull it off, and Vestiges and Claws is a case in point; his voice remains its plaintive, distinctive self and his guitar is used to paint singular and hypnotic melodies, not just chop out chords. A detached meditation the state of humanity and the planet Earth, this album was recorded in his home studio – birds can be heard cheeping outside windows, and doors slam in the background – and the sparse instrumentation (voice, guitar, some wind) suits the songs perfectly. Jonathan Alley

British India are Australian rock’s quiet achievers. Their fifth album starts on a reflective note, with singer Declan Melia offering an act of contrition: “I’m sorry I arrived late again.” It could be the story of the band’s career, as they appeared at the end of the 'new rock' scene. But who cares? British India have survived. And few bands possess such an assured grasp of rock dynamics, able to switch effortlessly from sensitivity to glorious chaos. “The years are stacking up now,” Melia acknowledges in Angela . Call them veterans, but British India remain vital. Jeff Jenkins

MARCH 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.co.nz

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