IDLES
Crawler (Partisan) AAAA
Idles are back with new album Crawler, only a year after 2020’s Ultra Mono. Its opening track, MTT 420 RR is an interesting opener that builds and builds... but doesn’t exactly go. Instead, it punches straight into The Wheel, a high energy, typically stompy Idles song which I’m sure will go down well when played live on their UK tour next year. Car Crash features heavy vocal styling and is noisy, violent, and very, very cool. The rest of Crawler follows suit, with the exception of subtle grower Beachland Ballroom – in which vocalist Joe Talbot actually croons, something I didn’t think was possible. An interlude precedes Progress, where again Idles try something new. Overall, I think longstanding fans will be satisfied and hopefully hungry for more: Crawler finds this Bristol band sticking to what they do best whilst still keeping things fresh and topical.
SARAH BOWDIDGE
JON HOPKINS
Music For Psychedelic Therapy (Domino) AAAAA
You may be able to tell from the title that we’re not in the verse-chorus three-minute pop world. Nor is Music For Psychedelic Therapy in the vein of the festival-ready techno bangers that first made Hopkins’ name – there’s nothing here to match the ever-brilliant Open Eye Signal from 2013’s Immunity for starters. Instead, we’re deep into ambient territory, without a kickdrum or beat of any kind to be found. Yet this feels like a natural progression for Hopkins, whose contemporary classical and drone influences were always there bubbling away on previous albums. Now they’ve floated fully to the surface, all sparkling sheen and pretty synths, glassy textures and lost snatches of voice. And while it’s easy to mock ambient – just see the ‘night manager’ of Ghostly International’s Twitter account – or dismiss it as spa music, it can’t diminish Music For Psychedelic Therapy from being a simply beautiful album.
SAM EASTERBROOK
MARISSA NADLER
The Path Of The Clouds (Bella Union/Sacred Bones) AAAAA
Boston-based Marissa Nadler’s ninth solo album is melodic and mystical. Her ethereal voice mesmerises the listener and makes lyrics about murder, suicide and prison breaks seem palatable. The subdued tone is set with Bessie Did You Make It – a song about a canoeing accident – and carries on through the 11 songs, but this album doesn’t need bells and whistles, and anything overly upbeat would spoil the mood. Nadler’s voice is her instrument while guitars strum in the background. These short ballads, the longest of which is just under five minutes, don’t give up all their secrets immediately and that’s what makes them interesting. This is an album that takes its time – one can pay attention to the words or simply listen to the sound and soak up the atmosphere. Despite its brutal subject matter, The Path Of The Clouds is a gentle and relaxing affair.
LYNDA NASH
MASTODON
Hushed And Grim (Reprise) AA
Often controversially, every new Mastodon release has seen the band shore off the more jagged aspects of the sound, toning down their technicality, brutality and conceptual eccentricity. Their eighth album Hushed And Grim amply continues this trend, and adds up to the most gentle and sentimental work of the progressive metal legends’ esteemed career. While tracks like The Crux and Pushing The Tides feature downtuned riffs and pummelling heaviness, the majority of the album focuses on developing a more delicate emotional language inspired by death, loss and the pandemic. This unfortunately results in an album that’s bloated (its 88-minute, 15-songruntime is in dire need of editing) and contains more than a few turgid ballads (The Beast, Dagger, Had It All). It’s not a disaster of an album, however it rarely plays to Mastodon’s strengths, and lacks the quirks or charm that made so much of their work canonical.
TOM MORGAN
SELF ESTEEM
Prioritise Pleasure (Fiction) AAAAA
Self Esteem’s long-awaited sophomore record follows an impressive string of singles, including ‘I Do This All The Time’ (a track that caught the attention of many after being performed on Later...with Jools Holland. As its title suggest, the record is a sign of soloist Rebecca Lucy Taylor’s testament to self-love and following of her own creative path. The potentials of Taylor’s voice soar throughout the album, be it the feminist battle cry of ‘How Can I Help You’, or validating ‘The 345’, named after the anxiety-alleviating breathing technique. ‘John Elton’ is a hidden gem as the album draws to its close, with the gloss of Taylor’s unique production sparkling dynamically throughout the record. Prioritise Pleasure} encapsulates Taylor’s knack to combine compelling lyrics with cinematic instrumentals.
CHLOË EDWARDS
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