New albums by Craig David, Tune-Yards, Fall Out Boy reviewed

Does the new Craig David album contain the worst lyric of 2018 so far? Plus new albums by Fall Out Boy, Tune-Yards, Nightmares on Wax and more reviewed

READY for some new music for 2018? Here’s a batch of the reviews from freshly-released albums.

CRAIG DAVID
THE TIME IS NOW (Sony)

3 stars

UK singer/songwriter and now one-man DJ/soundmachine Craig David hit No. 1 in the UK album chart two years ago with Following My Intuition — his first chart topper since Born to Do It in 2000.

This seventh album continues his smart plan to update his classic sound with modern influences and new and diverse collaborators.

Magic would easily fit in his live show along What’s Your Flava, but also sounds like everything else on the radio now. It’s a neat trick.

At first listen Brand New sounds like David throwing a Latin freestyle over the top of Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You, like how he covers hits in his live show. But both songs were co-written by Steve Mac, who’s given David a shameless Sheeran homage.

And Going On completelyhijacks that trademark Drake vocal style. Luckily it’s also a classy piece of garage-tinged house made with his longtime mate Fraser T Smith, now a man in demand after co-writing Adele’s Set Fire to the Rain.

Chase and Status fire up a 90s-style, Black Box-y club banger with Focus and also turn bonus track Reload into a 2018 version of Re-Rewind.

There’s also an array of guests — UK band Bastille on the minimal I Know You,
US rapper GoldLink on retro party jam Live in the Moment while grime MC AJ Tracey delivers on Somebody Like Me.

But the Jonas Blue produced single Heartline which tries a little too hard to be a hit.

And there’s an early contender for worst lyric of 2018 withFor The Gram. As well
as lyrics like “baby you don’t need no filter” and “I speak in emoji, wink wink smiley” and references to sliding into DMs and double tapping the chorus runs “We do it for the Insta, we do it for the ‘Gram, when she done taking pictures, don’t forget to hashtag.” Blocked./ CAMERON ADAMS

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKE ... Drake, Kano

Has Craig David dropped the worst lyrics of 2018 so far? Pic: Sony

TUNE-YARDS
I CAN FEEL YOU CREEPING INTO MY PRIVATE LIFE

(4AD/REMOTE CONTROL)

4 stars

US singer Merrill Garbus can’t sit still. On her fourth album she engages with the Zeitgeist more fiercely than ever, singing “I use my white woman’s voice to tell stories of travels with African men” in Colonizer. And she makes her voice robotic and playful to offset the muddy, shark-filled lyrical waters she is wading into. Garbus never goes in over her head, her intentions are pure as she cooks up a gumbo: Graceland funk (ABC 123), swerving soul-claps (Heart Attack), ‘80s 808 beats (Look At Your Hands). / MIKEY CAHILL

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKE ... Bjork, TV On The Radio

Fall Out Boy's album Mania. Pic: Universal

The new Tune-Yards album. Pic: 4AD

FALL OUT BOY

M.A. N. I. A (Universal)

3 stars

THE warning signs came when Fall Out Boy pulled this, their seventh album last year to reboot it, claiming it had been rushed.

The fact the first three singles had tanked may have forced their hand.

Now it arrives, strategically in the slowest month for releases and sales, and it’s an odd beast.

First single Young and Menace demonstrated the US band wanted to do something different — which was apparently to merge Diplo and Marilyn Manson. It soared to No. 97 in Australia.

The follow-up, Champion, started the influx of co-writers used here, but even Sia couldn’t help this become a hit. Even by channelling Imagine Dragons.

Hold Me Tight or Don’t (which also missed most charts) saw them flirt with reggae with a producer who works with Beyonce and Naughty Boy.

The album is similarly hit and miss. Church (as in ‘If you were church I’d get on my knees’) aims for epic and makes it — booming beats and rock gospel touches (complete with chimes and choirs). Heaven’s Gate showcases the vocal prowess of Patrick Stump as it starts all Unchained Melody before a huge modern-rock -radio-ready chorus kicks in.

The Last of the Real Ones is more driving rock where the gothic EDM thing works OK: Depeche Mode gone nu-metal.

But then Sunshine Riptide is another clumsy attempt at reggae rock that honks, while Bishop’s Knife Trick sounds both big and empty -see also Stay Frosty Royal Milk Tea.

And the most interesting thing about Wilson (Expensive Mistake) and its attempt at making an emo rock version of MIA’s Paper Planes is the lyric “I’ll stop wearing black when they make a darker colour.” And it’s the new single. CA

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKE ... Marilyn Manson, Panic at the Disco

NIGHTMARES ON WAX

SHAPE THE FUTURE

(WARP/INERTIA)

3.5 stars

British DJ/producer Nightmares On Wax (George Evelyn) was one of the fabled Warp Records’ earliest signings. His 1999 album Carboot Soul is a classic. This return doesn’t so much as offer innovation as quality — even if it’s presented loosely. The beatmaker drops abstractly jazzy grooves, low-slung hip-hop and dub-reggae (Gotta Smile is guitar-stabbed tribal house). Though Evelyn digs his mystical spoken word vibes (Kuauhtli Vasquez on the string-laden Back To Nature), there are notable guest vocalists — Kiwi Jordan Rakei elevating the funky Typical. The biggest jam? The hip-hop soul Citizen Kane — with Kanye West rapper pal Allan Kingdom on an alternative version. / CYCLONE WEHNER

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKE ... Thievery Corporation, A Tribe Called Quest, DJ Shadow

Fall Out Boy try new direction on their latest album. Pic: Universal

TINY LITTLE HOUSES

IDIOT PROVERBS
(IVY LEAGUE)

3 stars

“I don’t wanna be a fake, I just wanna catch a break, don’t wanna sell out but I sure would like a piece of that cake,” sings smart cookie Caleb Karvountzis. His pleading vocals over crunchy noise-folk offers an Oz Smashing Pumpkins band for millenials and there’s refried grunge rock to chew on for the rest of us. “Don’t vote for politicians, it only encourages them,” he sneers brightly on Entitled Generation. The band sound engaged, ready to cross over to US college radio./MC

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKE ... Cold War Kids, Pixies

TONIGHT ALIVE
UNDERWORLD
(UNFD)

3 stars

SYDNEY rockers Tonight Alive’s constant comparisons to Paramore may be lazy (both have a female singer) but they both push beyond a love of classic power-punk with big choruses. U2-gone-emo is a constant guitar reference here (Disappear, Last Light). And the duet with Slipknot’s Corey Taylor on My Underworld is Evanescene meets an 80s rock power ballad. Jenna McDougall showcases her tender side on 90s throwback ballad For You and the piano led Looking For Heaven. CA

TRY THIS IF YOU LIKE ... Paramore, Yellowcard

Underworld’s Tonight Alive. Pic: UNFD

Tiny Little Houses’ Idiot Proverbs. Pic: Ivy League