music zone
Saurabh & Gaurav

ALBUM of the month
Deerhunter - Monomania
(4AD)

Deerhunter has long secured their reputation as Indie rock’s permanent residents, skillfully blending post-punk, baroque pop and psychedelia with confidence and panache. For their sixth album Monomania, the band joins Nicholas Vernhes in Brooklyn, NY’s Rare Book Studio, and the result is their rawest recording since their debut. Neon Junkyard is a classic opening track, the kind that seems to immediately set the album’s tone with its choppy acoustic guitar riffs, swirling synth effects and driving drums. Following a few seconds of guitar interplay, frontman Bradford Cox howls a little before the track kicks into proper gear, then sings, "Finding the fluorescence in the junk/ By night illuminates the day." This is Deerhunter’s first release with their new bass player, Josh McKay, who filled in after the unexplained departure of Josh Fauver. The band’s distinction has forever been Cox’s deep, dark introspection as a lyricist, which takes the spotlight on the second half of the album, as he closes with lamenting Punk (La Vie Antérieure), yearning to "find some relief". Another highlight of the record is The Missing, an elegantly simple atmospheric pop number, and the only song on the album featuring lead vocals from Lockett Pundt. Nitebike is the polar opposite of the title track. Built on the fragile backbone of acoustic guitar and Cox’s saturated voice, the song brings things back down from the dizzying heights of Monomania.

Best track: Neon Junkyard
Worst track: Dream Captain

James Blake — Overgrown
(Polydor)

The London-based producer who first started making music as a dubstep artist opened himself up to a new audience with his self-titled LP in 2011, a melancholic, minimalist work that saw Blake feature his voice prominently for the first time. Like his debut, Overgrown finds Blake leading us through a dreamy, low-toned chasm, where slowed-down hip-hop beats loiter and his bright voice floats high. The eponymous title track and album opener is a slow burner, with soft vocals giving a sense of gentleness before the bass builds and fades. Guest producer Brian Eno lends his unique methods to a fitting collaboration in Digital Lion, a track that effectively combines both artists’ talents into a percussive combination of ambient pop and soul. On the album’s lead single, Retrograde, the interaction between his delicate, looping vocal melody and an aggressive synth whine elevates what would be a fairly forgettable ballad into a genuinely enjoyable pop track. Blake’s best moments on Overgrown occur when he finds that balance between the upbeat hip-hop rhythms and the down-tempo acoustics that so brilliantly enhance his voice. Shame features a change in tone with its bossa nova beat, and An Escape pops and explodes in all the right places. Admittedly, not every track can be as stirring as Retrograde but Overgrown is still a dynamic improvement upon James Blake.

Best track: Retrogate
Worst track: DLM
Rating ««

The Flaming Lips — The Terror
(Warner Bros)

The Terror, the band’s first studio album since 2009's heavy and chaotic Embryonic, is the next step in the natural evolution of the band’s sound. The album is one of their most challenging, yet unified records to date. The theme of lost love and abandonment runs through the record, which frontman Wayne Coyne perfectly vocalises in his fractured voice. From the opening track Look… The Sun Is Rising, the listener is thrust into despair and romantic depression. "Love is always something / something you should fear / when you really listen / fear is all you hear," Coyne sings. The immediately beautiful Try To Explain is the album’s first hint at the band’s pop leanings, with vocals soaring and ethereal over a wash of sweeping electronic strings. The band’s philosophical lyrics are all the more arresting in how these imply this feeling rather than just stating it, particularly on the most beautiful and chilling track here, Butterfly, How Long It Takes to Die. Be Free, A Way features a soaring vocal melody from Coyne but still manages to retain the static feeling found throughout the record. The thin hum of You Are Alone is inhabited by Coyne’s alarming falsetto seemingly searching for companionship but ultimately failing to connect while the nursery rhyme melody of Turning Violent takes a few simple lines and slowly builds these into something almost intimidating.

Best track: Try To Explain
Worst track: Always There, In Our Hearts
Rating ««

Savages — Silence Yourself
(Matador)

The four-woman English band has rekindled the post-punk of the late 1970s, with music that’s austere and overpowering. This is a sound honed from its makers’ explosive live performances, and retaining that energy on these tracks is a real coup for Savages. Jehnny Beth’s unnerving shrill is the commanding centerpiece of the album. There’s an almost Led Zeppelin bent to the dramatic guitar sweeps of Strife, while Waiting For A Sign offers a more thoughtful tone. On I Am Here, Milton’s precision brings the song into a hypnotic rhythm that she maintains for the duration of the album, and Hassan's bass is often the driving force of the album, particularly in City’s Full and Husbands. Savages really show promise and range on the mid-tempo tracks. The moody hymn Waiting for a Sign isn't the most immediate song on the record but over repeated listens, it blooms. The beat picks up with She Will and a stinging song about abuse, Hit Me, both of which resonate like Karen on Joy Division. The album proves that Savages are more than just talk. It’s one of rock’s most imposing and fiercely poised debuts in recent years, the work of a band whose outsized buoyancy and confidence doesn’t correlate with the short amount of time it’s been together. Marshall Dear closes the album with a rich sonic palette, while Beth’s smokey piano draws you in before the chorus bursts with an ominous shockwave howl, "silence yourself."

Best track: Husbands
Worst track: Dead Nature
Rating «««

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