Album review: Tones and I’s strong debut Welcome to the Madhouse
It’s hard to think of a better soundtrack for those of us trying our best to navigate another strange, cursed year than the debut of pop singer-songwriter Tones and I.
Album reviews for week of July 24, 2021:
POP
Welcome To The Madhouse
Tones and I
Bad Batch Records/Sony
The debut from Australian pop singer-songwriter Tones and I might have come at the worst time in history to release a pop album, but it certainly sums up the overall vibe of this poisoned epoch. It’s filled with nervous energy tempered by exhaustion, frustration, and a desire to settle the sorts of scores that emerge when your life has gone Very Online. In other, more virus-free times when things like worldwide stadium tours were an option, the fact that this isn’t a massive pop album filled with dance floor bangers would seem an opportunity missed. However, given that it’s coming 18 months into a pandemic that’s destroyed our typical mechanisms for handling grief and anxiety – and has been especially brutal on those in the creative arts – throwing lines like “No one knew how low I was feeling” into an otherwise hands-in-the-air single like Fly Away, or crooning “Now you’re gone I’m in a panic” in Sad Songs seems about as 2021 as you can get.
There are moments when Tones, aka Toni Watson, seems the heir apparent to Lily Allen in her talent for taking a lilting melody and wrapping it around savagely personal f..k-you lyrics, as she veers between deep insecurity and braggadocio across 14 songs. There are defensive reflex-strikes against a backlash, most obviously the delicious Dance Monkey clapback dressed in space-age dance hall that is Westside Lobby: “My song went number one in over 30 f..king countries / And I’m sorry if that offends you, my dear.” Elsewhere, Won’t Sleep pairs a jubilant lyric about partying and sleeping around with a stumbling, almost cartoonish beat, and the ballad Fall Apart ends the album proper on a shuffling beat and piano before the hip-hop of Bars (RIP T) brings down the curtain with a reassuring “I’ve got a feeling I’ll be fine”. This isn’t the world-beating debut you might expect from her previous singles, which aren’t included here, and trimming filler like Child’s Play and Not Going Home may have made the songs around them land all the harder. But it’s hard to think of a better soundtrack for those of us also trying our best to navigate another strange, cursed year.
Andrew P. Street
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ROCK
Provlépseis
Tori Forsyth
Island
The second album by Queensland-based singer-songwriter Tori Forsyth reveals her affinity for 1990s-style alternative rock sound. In a major stylistic leap, her clear country music roots have been eclipsed by melodic, grungy guitar tones that producer Steve Albini defined through his work with the likes of The Breeders and Nirvana. Her confessional, throaty delivery stirs memories of Alanis Morissette. Acclaimed country musician, songwriter and producer, Shane Nicholson partnered with Forsyth for her debut, 2018’s Dawn of the Dark, and he wisely brings Forsyth’s rich, impassioned voice to the fore here, too. Pixies-style punk-pop guitar is speckled with shimmery reverb on the gorgeous Cosmetic Cuts, while the raw metallic strum of acoustic guitar creates a gothic lullaby on fifth track Courtney Love. It’s no coincidence that the album cover art resembles PJ Harvey’s 1993 Rid of Me album. Like Harvey and Love, Forsyth knows her way around a hooky chorus, and she’s defied genre to weave rock, punk and balladry into a bewitching brew.
Cat Woods
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JAZZ
Stravinsky
Sherlock Hanlon
Independent
It’s an interesting idea for two improvising musicians to take 20th century classical works, Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Petrushka, and present them as a duo. Does this work? Yes, it does, but my advice is to forget about Stravinsky. Two musicians cannot compete on equal terms with such symphonic works, so a different listening perspective is required. Concentrate on the considerable instrumental virtuosity of two brilliant musicians showcased here. James Sherlock, originally from Brisbane, now in Melbourne, has substantial awards and achievements over many years as a jazz guitarist, while double bassist Ben Hanlon is probably best-known as a member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Their prodigious talents are well on display here. Claude Debussy’s La Fille Aux Cheveux de Lin is treated likewise and, for good measure, Gershwin’s It Ain’t Necessarily So is added, underlining the project’s jazz sensibility. Considered judiciously on its merits this album, the duo’s second, is a major achievement.
Eric Myers
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ELECTRONIC
Shaping Visions
Miguel Migs
Soulfuric Deep
Long synonymous with the US West Coast’s brand of bumpy, soulful house music, Californian producer/DJ Miguel Migs has lost none of his lustre on the follow up to 2014’s Dim Division. Harking back to his early releases on classic San Francisco label Naked Music, Migs has fashioned an immersive and intimate collection; think lush vocals from a diverse guest vocalist roster, warm chords and soulful melodies packaged together in shimmering, layered production. Tempos vary throughout: mellow opener Midnight Memories sits near more dancefloor-aimed fare like Into The Red Sky featuring songbird Aya. Migs’s chemistry with long-time vocal collaborator Lisa Shaw is evergreen; the duo is in peak form on the moody Promises, while Running With You sees Shaw up the tempo for a late night body mover. Elsewhere, Martin Luther delivers standout vocal performances on the deep Restless Nights and chunky beats of Back Tonight, while To The Other Side demonstrates the strength of songwriting throughout. Fantastic stuff.
Tim McNamara
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DANCE/ELECTRONIC
Face of God
Holiday Sidewinder
Lab78
Holiday Sidewinder’s voice has the same girlish, smoky quality as Chrissie Amphlett’s. There’s nothing Divinyls about her sound, but divine? Perhaps. Her conceptual second album Face of God is cosmic disco-pop designed for dance floor transcendence. It’s a deeper evolution in sound following her synth-pop 2019 debut, Forever or Whatever. Wonderfully weird musician Nick Littlemore (Pnau, Empire of the Sun) co-wrote the album with Broadway musical composer Billy Jay Stein in a week. The falsetto vocals, saxophone and pulsating beat all channel a one-woman Bee Gees, but the lush synths and layered instrumentals are a new wave revival. Sydney-born Sidewinder is riding the wave of nostalgia for the post-punk 1970s and 80s, combining disco, reggae, funk and jazz. She’s collaborated with adventurous, glam-pop indie acts Kirin J. Callinan and Alex Cameron in the past, and there’s a shared wit, clever references to past musical masters and twisted take on spirituality among each of them. Her work here is exuberant and magical.
Cat Woods
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Album reviews for week of July 17, 2021:
POP/ELECTRONIC
Hotel Surrender
Chet Faker
BMG
Chet Faker – the alias of Melbourne musician Nick Murphy – sounds melancholic and yearning on the soulful, groovy Hotel Surrender. Combining vintage R&B percussion and harmonic vocals with found sounds – clapping hands, street buzz, snatches of conversation – every track feels revelatory. As dark as some of the events that fed into the lyrics and music here, including the death of Murphy’s father in 2020, there is a healing quality to its danceability and sumptuous melodies. A simple synth-drum beat builds gradually into a hypnotic layering of instrumentals and voice effects on the opening track Oh Me Oh My. Jaunty piano, swampy beats and the singer’s impressive falsetto render Get High a whole lot of fun, while the catchy syncopated drums on Whatever Tomorrow is both uplifting and longing at once. Murphy had ventured out under his own name on Run Fast Sleep Naked, released in 2019 after putting Chet Faker aside three years prior. In his New York studio, the music he was making felt like it epitomised his earlier persona.
And it does: despite being influenced by the choppy, lo-fi electronica and trip-hop of acts like Justice and Soulwax, this sounds like the bearded Aussie guy who made a big splash with his debut EP in 2012. That said, Soulwax has remixed Whatever Tomorrow, so his nostalgic take on electro-pop is attracting iconic Euro producers as fans. Murphy’s lack of cool is what infuses his earnest lyrics and vocals with a sense of vulnerability; in short, he’s relatable. The lack of frills means there’s a vaguely tinny sound to the compositions and the sampled audio snippets, sounding not unlike a more refined version of Apogee computer games of the 1980s. It’s likely that those over 25 will think of vintage video games, toy keyboards, and the ripple of cassette tape ribbons when a Walkman backfires while listening to this album. Get High features a recording of a food delivery driver getting frustrated that Murphy won’t collect his meal while he’s lost in creating music. Perhaps that’s the real appeal here: that Hotel Surrender is really an escape, and every moment feels like a damaged, dreamy human giving listeners permission to drop their everyday agendas for a while, too.
Cat Woods
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CLASSICAL
Handel: 6 Concerti Grossi
Van Diemen’s Band
BIS
Hallelujah! Any album release by Van Diemen’s Band is a cause for rejoicing, no more so than this splendid release of six concerti grossi by Handel, diverse pieces assembled from the 1720s. No prizes for guessing where this band is based; VDB is the 2016 brainchild of that irrepressibly imaginative violinist Julia Fredersdorff. Here she has assembled 16 Baroque specialists — familiar names from most Australian capitals — and has attracted the leading French keyboard player Martin Gester to direct the enterprise. Recorded in St Canice’s Church, Sandy Bay, in late 2019, the surround sound is simply stunning, drawing out the sparkling electricity of the playing. Sprightly, animated and ingratiating, these often dazzling performances can surely take pride of place alongside the best international Baroque recordings from recent decades.
Vincent Plush
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ROCK
The Dark
Stevie Jean
Settle Down Records / MGM
Darwin-born Stevie Jean was raised on Led Zeppelin before later discovering hip-hop, and this impressive debut showcases an amalgam of these bluesy, beat-driven influences. Send Me Home — which mourns her addictive tendencies towards coffee, sugar and cigarettes — is a soulful, rootsy groove. Her voice is an intoxicating, throaty creature that snakes in and around every song; it pairs the depth and dexterity of Erykah Badu with the melancholic quality of PJ Harvey. I Don’t Mind is a wink to the Black Keys with its driving, snarling guitar riffs, softened only by her harmonic choruses. Menace features fellow Darwin hip-hop purveyors Tasman Keith, Kapital J and producer Kuya James, while Nervous is a percussive ballad in which Jean sounds decades older than the teenager who wrote much of this album. Now in her 20s, here’s hoping for many more albums.
Cat Woods
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POP/DANCE
Makeover
kd lang
Nonesuch/Warner
It’s 13 years since her last studio album and Canadian vocalist extraordinaire kd lang seems in no hurry to record, much less write, another one. Meanwhile there’s this, a 14-track collection of dance remixes to mark LGBTQI Pride Month in June. Restricted to material from 1992-2000, arguably her most creatively fertile period, Makeover is just eight core tracks, six with alternative remixes, 14 in all. Those eight alone, with slick production tweaks by the likes of Junior Vasquez, Greg Penny and DJ Krush, are reason enough to revisit the best of lang’s ’90s catalogue: included are Lifted By Love, If I Were You, Sexuality and Miss Chatelaine, though Constant Craving is a notable omission. The second half of the album is clubland central — odd listening in the absence of chemical stimulation — but the sheer sonic quality of this set only enhances the strength of the material.
Phil Stafford
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ROCK
Eye to Eye
The Datsuns
Hellsquad/MGM
When the garage-rock boom of the early 2000s went garage-rock bust, The Datsuns were first on the chopping block. Once renowned for era-defining cuts Harmonic Generator and MF from Hell, this NZ band fell from festival main-stagers to “whatever-happened-to” lists. Eye to Eye is its return after seven years in absentia, and the urgent, organ-driven Brain to Brain is the band’s best single in some 15 years. The end result, however, is largely disappointing. The hard-rockers have inexplicably opted for mostly mid-tempo numbers. From the milquetoast ‘60s pop of White Noise Machine, or the light Thin Lizzy shuffle of Moongazer, it wears like an ill-fitting band shirt. Frontman Dolf De Borst, meanwhile, largely sounds checked-out when he should be blowing out speakers with his voice. Don’t call it a comeback: The Datsuns barely lifted a finger here.
David James Young