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Arts
Opening with the seductive single Do I Wanna Know?, which is arguably one of the best things the Arctic Monkeys have ever released, the album is an irresistible return from the band, one that gets better with every listen. “Are there some aces up your sleeve?” Turner asks, almost knowingly, over the addictive hook of the opener. There are songs like Fireside, where a captivating beat takes the spotlight and though Turner’s accent and modulation is still utterly to die for, Arctic Monkeys’ focus is towards a balanced approach. Mad Sounds echoes Lou Reed and Van Morrison in their gentler moments while the melancholy ballad No. 1 Party Anthem finds Turner in full John Lennon mode, perhaps inspired by the Monkeys’ 2012 Olympics cover of Come Together. I Want It All is another hard-driving song with the thundering bass of Nick O'Malley while guitarist Jamie Cook accompanies Turner with an almost Boston-sounding guitar lead that takes over the song without quite drowning out the vocals. Turner, however, dominates the mix, playing with a softer timbre on ballads like R U Mine, while delivering lines in his trademark rapid-fire style. Fittingly, the album closes with I Wanna Be Yours, a typically majestic ballad that lifts lyrics from a John Cooper Clarke poem of the same name, with Turner previously citing the poet as a major influence. The
perfect storyteller
Today's torchbearer to the classic R&B and Soul
Big, bold and invigorating Though the trio first arrived in 2008, it was in 2011 that the London-based Factory Floor, comprising Dom Butler, Gabe Gurnsey, and lead Nik Void, finally began to make waves with their muscular modular workouts. With its self-titled debut album, the group’s attention to meticulously sculpted drum tracks and deep, fully realised songs has resulted in something very interesting. They have established a signature sound and it remains fully intact, from How You Say, which has the euphoric peaks to qualify as an anthem, to Fall Back, a quivering piece of acid-electro complemented by Nik Void’s robotic contribution. Although conceived as an album, Factory Floor comes across as a collection of seven long-form club cuts, separated by three brief ambient interludes. The trio wear their influences clearly on their sleeve. Listen to the drum sounds on certain tracks, which have more than a little of a Joy Division or New Order tint to them, especially on the electronic blasts of How You Say. Previous single Two Different Ways still sounds amazing two years on, circling around your senses and bombarding you with effects, instruments and pleasing loudness. Elsewhere, Work Out could hardly be described as harmonious but the unpredictable stacking of several rhythmic layers on top of each other is the main reason why the band is such a terrific live act today.
Lorde (top) and Drake
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ON
AM, their fifth album in a little over seven years, the Arctic Monkeys show no sign of losing their edge. 
Texan Bill Callahan’s been making brilliant albums for more than 20 years. With his latest and fifth, under his own name, Dream River, he shows no signs of running out of those creative juices anytime soon. While concise, the album is another admirable addition to his journey, and the album art, with its yard sale painting of a mountain landscape and the Louis L’Amour font, sits almost too perfectly alongside the thick brushstrokes of each song. Dream River is a sparse but warm album, featuring a minimal amount of instrumentation and overdubs. Opener The Sing finds Callahan in a hotel bar where, he notes, “Strangers unknowingly keep me company.” Javelin Unlanding stands out with its 1970s-style flute and organ, while Summer Painter wins your attention with its tremulous silences slipping over delicate percussion and emotionally charged lyrics: “Some people say wrongly that I wash things away / Guess I got my rainy day.”
It’s been three years since Janelle Monáe burst onto the music scene, jewelled with a debut album that remains one of the most accomplished artistic statements from a newcomer this decade. The Electric Lady immediately sounds more familiar than its predecessor, demonstrating a shift towards more mainstream sounds, from the 1970s and 1980s, to those of the current day. The outstanding soulful ballad Can’t Live Without Your Love enchants with its tenderness, while Dorothy Dandridge Eyes performed with the gifted jazz musician Esperanza Spalding is an agile bossa nova tune that only enhances the record’s endless eclecticism. There are tracks dedicated to Dorothy, the first African-American actress to be nominated for an Oscar, Sally Ride the first American woman to travel to space and most intriguingly nods to Stevie Wonder and Jimi Hendrix. There’s plenty of arresting, dynamic, and memorable fare here, the graceful Givin’ ’Em What They Love and the refined title track in particular but the second half is where Monáe really shows off the depth and breadth of her musical influences. Many of her lyrics here reflect her desire to break away, to “find a way to freak out”, as she puts it on Dance Apocalyptic, which is the closest the album comes to an immediate calling card like Tightrope. This time Monáe is surrounded by guests, who are on board with a common mission, including Erykah Badu, bassist Esperanza Spalding, Miguel and Prince. The album effectively represents the multiple personalities and ideas that comprise the entertaining artist we’ve come to know as Janelle Monáe.
Top 10 Singles
