New releases: Frank Ocean, Niki and the Dove, The Gaslight Anthem
LATEST RELEASES: Frank Ocean's debut album, featuring guest appearances from Andrew 3000 and Pharrell, is interesting, soulful urban groove.
LATEST RELEASES: Frank Ocean's debut album, featuring guest appearances from Andrew 3000 and Pharrell, is interesting, soulful urban groove.
-- FRANK OCEAN
CHANNEL ORANGE (UNIVERSAL)
- Four stars
THE times are changing? Frank Ocean promoted his first official solo album by an online revelation he was in love with a man. It's a bold statement in Ocean's homophobic genre of urban/soul - and this wonderful album is equally and refreshingly unconcerned with the hang-ups of the modern world.
Clearly obsessed by imaginative album artists such as Stevie Wonder, Prince and Andre 3000 (who tellingly guests on the intoxicating Pink Matter), Ocean creates his own mix of future soul. Check out his deal-sealing voice as it cracks on the incredible unrequited love tale Bad Religion: "It's a bad religion being in love with someone who can never love you".
Sounds like: the kind of album you thought they didn't make any more.
In a word: honest
Cameron Adams
-- DIRTY PROJECTORS
SWING LO MAGELLAN (DOMINO)
- Four stars
IF you're not living on the edge you're taking up too much room. Dirty Projectors love dangling their toes right out over the cliff face and pulling each other back just before the songs fall over in a Looney Tunes-like plummet. The sixth album by the Brooklyn curios contains plenty of looney-but-never-puny tunes, flexing their experimental muscles on Maybe That Was It, Offspring Are Blank and Just From Chevron.
Think loose handclaps, phlegmy-vocals, merry-go-round choruses that swing low, sweet chariot and endless joie de vivre. The towering, cowering Gun With No Trigger captures Edwyn Collins in a Jim Jarmusch film.
Sounds like: Rickety rock'n'roll
In a word: tipsy
Mikey Cahill
-- THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM
HANDWRITTEN (UNIVERSAL)
- Four stars
FOR the past four years New Jersey's The Gaslight Anthem have been on the cusp of greatness with their authentic brand of rock'n'roll. Here they nail it. Written with big crowds in mind, it has classic familiarity with instantly memorable anthemic choruses like the fiery first single 45. The acoustic National Anthem references The Boss and demonstrates that even without the rock, they roll on with sublime results.
Sounds like: blast from the past.
In a word: Boss-y
Sam Kelton
-- NIKI AND THE DOVE
INSTINCT (UNIVERSAL)
- Three and a half stars
SCANDINAVIAN newcomers Malin Dahlstrom and Gustaf Karlof take a bit of Bat For Lashes' fantasy-pop, a bit of Florence's neo-pagan indie, and add a sprinkling of epic '80s Californian synth-rock. They're calling it "fairytale pop". Tomorrow and The Gentle Roar (the scene-stealer here) are supernatural power-pop songs with big beats and bigger choruses.
Sounds like: cutting-edge Swedish pop
In a word: grand
Cyclone Wehner