Montaigne rising

Montaigne is a 23-year-old with the music knowledge and artistic confidence of someone twice her age

Montaigne, aka Jessica Cerro, has just released her second album, Complex. Picture: Ryan Osland

INDIE POP

Complex

Montaigne

Wonderlick/Sony

4 stars

Montaigne’s new album Complex

With a gift for creating operatic pop that doesn’t sacrifice smart lyrics and intriguing explorations for the sake of sales, Montaigne is a 23-year-old with the music knowledge and artistic confidence of someone twice her age. Her desire to steer her vehicle off into the wild is encouraged by collaborators like Dave Sitek (TV on the Radio), Mozella (Madonna, Miley Cyrus) and her regular production partner, Tony Buchen. The artist born Jessica Cerro has described this as an album that documents a dark period in her life, which fuelled a work that channels her insecurities, fears, stress and physical illness into the diamond that only immense pressure can forge. Like a diamond, too, the songs are prismatic: no track sounds like the last but, as a whole, it makes perfect sense. The easiest artist to equate her sound to is Bjork in her most experimental periods, formulating soundscapes where her voice is purely instrumental and almost animal-like in its raw, feral freedom. Cerro has crafted a highly listenable, pop-friendly second album, while beneath the clean production and beautifully synchronised percussion, vocals and a toybox of tinkling sounds is the suggestion of something unrefined and primal. Sitek’s skill for building to a crescendo of drama and darkness takes Stockholm Syndrome to a macabre peak, detailing a controlling and manipulative relationship that ultimately defeats everyone involved. It’s not clear who the partner is, or if this is about our ability to beat ourselves up mentally, but Cerro makes the chorus catchy enough to repeat in your head all day — for better or worse. If we weren’t certain of her being Australian, she’d easily find herself among the most impressive Nordic pop songstresses of recent times with their curious combination of soaring, bravura-meets-heartbreak vocals and transfixing synthesiser backdrops. Fans of Lykke Li and her mournful ballads, flirtations with both hip-hop and melodious dance will find much to like about Montaigne. Final song Ready is one of the most theatrical and beautiful compositions of vocals, piano and unobtrusive percussion heard on Complex.

Cat Woods

Lover by Taylor Swift

POP

Lover

Taylor Swift

Universal Music

2.5 stars

Everything you need to know about Taylor Swift’s seventh album is in the title. The 18-track release is a love letter to things the 29-year-old adores most: her boyfriend, her mum, New York, London and, of course, being in love. It opens with summer bop I Forgot That You Existed, which, irony of the title aside, packs a punch with staccato rhythms and snappy rhymes. The waltzing title track offers glimpses of a young Swift, all violins and breathy vocals, and the album’s first single, ME!, is a bright anthem of self-confidence. Glittering and upbeat London Boy is a stark contrast to the following tune, Soon You’ll Get Better, a touching ballad about Swift’s mother’s cancer battle that features background vocals from the Dixie Chicks. Produced mostly by Jack Antonoff (Lorde, Fun), Lover is a sequel to the synth-pop glimmer of 1989; it’s charming and catchy, but fails to leave a lasting impression.

Emily Ritchie

Rebujo by Dona Onete

WORLD

Rebujo

Dona Onete

Mais Um/Planet

4 stars

Among the most uplifting sights at this year’s WOMADelaide festival was an octogenarian songstress from Brazil holding court from an onstage armchair. Singing her sassy up-tempo songs backed by a kick-arse all-male band, Dona Onete — the spirited “Queen of Carimbo” — wasted no time bringing a seated Adelaide audience to its feet. A similarly infectious vibe inhabits only the second release since her debut album at 73. Ranging from low to high register, this vivacious veteran’s pipes prove remarkably robust and malleable for someone of her vintage — no doubt energised by the sizzling saxophone riffs and soaring flute fills, serpentine electric guitar lines, pulsating percussion and back-up vocals provided by her sidemen. The relentless carimbo rhythm is interrupted only by a mid-set duet and a closing ballad. After Rebujo, Dona Onete fully deserves diva status.

Tony Hillier

Spod’s Adult Fantasy

ELECTRONIC

Adult Fantasy

SPOD

Rice Is Nice

3.5 stars

On his fourth album as SPOD, Brent Griffin stares down the barrel of middle age without diluting his usual comic flourishes. A breakout cult hero of the early 2000s, Griffin reaps surprising variety from a limited toolkit of deadpan lyrics and sparse electronics. My Body Is Ready plays like the theme song of some existential 80s exercise video, while Tonight’s the Night flirts with AutoTuned R&B. Becomes a Wife is a romantic ballad that’s hammy yet heartfelt, complete with extended synth solo and wedding bells. Edging into proper comedy, the closing Golden Gaytime is a 45-minute roll call of guest cameos, including Henry Rollins and Ariel Pink. That ambitious gag might not hold up as well over repeat listens, but the other songs’ appeal goes beyond that of pure novelty. When everything clicks, as on the dry-ice swelter of Make Things Right, this is comfort food at its most self-aware.

Doug Wallen

The Hold Steady’s Thrashing Thru the Passion

INDIE ROCK

Thrashing Thru the Passion

The Hold Steady

Frenchkiss Records

3.5 stars

In the five years between albums, The Hold Steady has spent more time looking back than forward. After the return of founding keyboardist Franz Nicholay in 2016, the freshly expanded sextet went on to tour several full-album playthroughs across the US and UK. All the while, it has been breadcrumbing new material that leads to this album, its seventh. In many ways, Thrashing Thru the Passion can be considered a soft band reboot. While 2014’s Teeth Dreams attempted to push for more melodicism and an overall cleaner sound, here the band throws back to its Separation Sunday era. Craig Finn’s vocals are much more talkative, the guitars go that little bit harder and a horn section has even been injected for good measure. Whether it’s the boozy waltz of Blackout Sam or the rousing heartland minutiae of Denver Haircut, with this album, the group is back on the right track.

David James Young