An Acute Case: 1 March 2024
With sounds spanning twiddly, jerky, and gnarly, and words spanning rambling, suggestive, and cruelly twisted
African Acoustic
Definition of Africa encompassing East, West, and Central; definition of acoustic limited to slow and folky. * (“Talibé” “The Happy Song”)
Bombino: Sahel
A pleasingly full-bodied set from the desert blues’ leading practitioner. Not slick or polished, but warm, layered, resonant—qualities welcome in a style I sometimes find a little harsh, especially when it’s all guitar. While that never goes away here, it’s fitted to more conventional song shapes and supported by a rhythm section indie-pop producer David Wrench records with such depth that Omara Moctar’s primary instrument becomes part of the groove. His secondary instrument—a voice I’ll call creamy despite its natural Tuareg coarseness—is equally well supported, with choral parts that reinforce this is a band record even if there’s just one guy’s name on the cover. As that guy’s fled the region the record celebrates twice in his life, I’ll bet the sense of togetherness was his goal. A MINUS
Willi Carlisle: Critterland
With a curiosity shop of old-time instruments twiddling the melodies while Carlisle recites a songbook of religious provocations and shaggy dog hymnals in his mountains-wide baritone, this follow-up to the big tent variety of Peculiar, Missouri is a starker conception of folk. Written with as much heart as brains and performed in a rambling style that’ll have you believing “I’m always gonna sing before I know the words” even as you note how immaculately turned those words are, it weighs heavy but moves nimbly for all 40 of its sorrowful and grief-stricken minutes. Not to be missed is the finale—a seven-minute spoken(ish)-word capitalist tragedy about a boondocks hippy whose gift for marijuana cultivation lands him in league with a crooked sheriff who partners then double-crosses him. Before that, outsiders kinda get arrested, bad fathers are mourned, a friend’s body is lost because the cops didn’t understand the long words in his suicide note, and another friend drives 200 miles for six inches of Fentanyl-laced love. Yet for all that darkness, still primarily an entertainment. A MINUS
The Castellows: A Little Goes A Long Way
Three sisters more Targaryen than Chekhovian with harmonies to swoon for and arrangements pretty as you please. Think Pistol Annies without the gunpowder & lead, kerosene, or lemon drops—anything, really, to situate them in 2024. ** (“A Little Goes A Long Way” “Heartline Hill”)
Djeli Moussa Condé: Africa Mama
Tagged as a return to the griot tradition 60-year-old Conde carried with him from Guinea to France 30 years ago, his first album on the tasteful Accords Croisés label that convened 2022’s Sowal Diabi is a study in simplicity. Soft and flowing, gentle but not genteel, placid but not wishy washy, its main attraction is the kora playing that won him a UNESCO award. But though he’s supple with both riff and melody, like everything else here, his playing is so deferential you might not realise it’s what you’re supposed to be focussing on. Which should give you time to notice the microvariations supplied by his multi-instrumentalist labelmates, which are not just gorgeous but ensure these 11 praise-givings have the definition to stand as proudly apart as they do together. Among them, only “Patati Patata”, with its toe dipped in Congolese rumba, could count as novelty—though that hardly comes dressed as a sapeur with a 50-strong OK Jazz ensemble in tow. A MINUS
La Sécurité: Stay Safe!
I suspect the bits of modernity these Montreal scenesters find hard to navigate are more complex than they articulate in lyrics mostly limited to subject-action-outcome, even though charismatic lead singer Éliane Viens-Synnott manages to transform banalities like “somebody give the guy a pizza pie” into sly suggestions. They’re still a way off the directness of heroes Le Tigre, from whom they borrow a “Hot Topic” song title (while forgetting to yell the names of any female idols). Musically, however, they’ve got something cooking—a freakout and disco-heavy punk with too much wiggle-wag and fuzzy-wuzz to pigeon-hole as herky-jerk, though that’s unmistakably their starting point. More than a few times, you’ll wonder if they’re playing the same song. And every time their jumpy basslines, snappy drums, and mashed Devo keys will resolve into something fresh, cohesive, and full of life. Which probably says plenty about modernity. A MINUS
Nia Archives: Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against Tha Wall
There's every chance I love these beats—"Baianá" is incredible, and I'm not averse to the spider-shaking-maracas effect on the tracks that follow it. But not the mush-mouth vocal style Dehaney Nia Lishahn Hunt subscribes to, and which I thought British pop had moved on from. ** (“Baianá” “Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against Tha Wall”)
The Paranoid Style: The Interrogator
Another set from these disciples of the three-minute tune that hands you the coordinates to pop-rock Valhalla then abandons you in a thicket of cultural wisecracks, spiked advice, and ugly truth. When you finally emerge in the promised land—hideously disfigured and all the better for it—you’ll notice that unlike 2022’s groovier band-record For Executive Meeting, this is gnarlier, with the rhythm section navigating Clash and Jam references while power-pop grand poohbah Peter Holsapple augments Timothy Bracy’s articulate guitar with serious fry. If it’s a tougher sound, that’s because this is fighting talk. Frontwoman Elizabeth Nelson may be less direct about her subject-targets than on recent records (a shame only insofar as those records were more educational), but in a world where a shrewdly twisted Nick Lowe title can make you feel like a cruelly twisted Elvis one, her let-the-bombs-fall-where-they-may approach isn’t out of place. Time and again, boogie backs up brains and gives her the momentum she needs to take that world on her own terms. The message is clear—"every good work of conscience is a confidence scheme"—so don’t say she didn’t warn you. Now “let’s dance until something awful happens.” A
Some very, very good writing and thinking here!