Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 20 January 2023.
MC and producer Oddisee has released his latest full-length project To What End on his Outer Note Label. The 16-song project features Phonte, Freeway, Oliver St Louis, Bilal, Toine Jameson, Noochie, Haile Supreme, Saint Ezekiel, Kay Young and BeMyFiasco. The album follows the laid-back jazzy tone of three previously released singles “Ghetto To Meadow,” “Hard To Tell,” and “Try Again.” The album’s intro “The Start of Something” is a piano-only track for the first three minutes with Oddisee spitting his spoken word-like flow setting the album off perfectly. “Bartenders” featuring Toine Jameson is a bare bones track with an opening that pays homage to Common with the lines “Envisioning the hereafter listening to Van Hunt/on a pursuit for truth like its a manhunt.” “Work To Do” featuring Bilal is a stand-out track with offbeat and live instrumentation showcasing the versatility that is Oddisee.
On their second album, Leaving, Fran is at a crossroads of loss and possibility, borne from the grief of isolation and the existential drama of a warming planet. In spite of this grief, songwriter Maria Jacobson took the solitude of the past few years to commit to seeing reality clearly. Jacobson was inspired by Alan Watts’ Wisdom of Insecurity, which examines the difference between belief and faith: the former inviting constriction and holding on; the latter, presence and letting go. Jacobson sought to let go of the roles and ambitions that had previously defined her.
All-vocal Country entertainers Home Free have released their latest full-length record, So Long Dixie. This new project follows the acclaimed group’s Dive Bar Saints album, which arrived at #2 on the Billboard Country Album Sales chart. Home Free’s extensive catalogue spotlights six Top 10 albums, including Timeless, Full Of (Even More) Cheer, Full Of Cheer, Country Evolution, and their breakout debut Crazy Life (2014). The group will be returning to Australia in March to play CMC Rocks. Home Free have made their mark on the music scene, racking up nearly 600,000 album equivalents globally; embarking on major international tours; amassing 500+ million views and over 1.6 million Subscribers on YouTube; and being declared “Country music fans’ favorite a cappella group” (Taste of Country). The long-awaited return to life on the road after time away from live performing inspired band members Tim Foust and Austin Brown to write new music, and the group found the perfect opportunity to do something different while still holding true to their unique style.
Eva Louise Goodman’s Nighttime project locates itself on a musical tree planted on the British Isles, perched atop the branch of folk leaning into sixties rock. Her upstate New York environs don’t stray far from that image. With tempered percussion, floating mellotron, and singing that evokes Bleecker & MacDougal on a fervent Saturday afternoon, her new album Keeper Is The Heart reaches deep into the essence of musicians such as Vashti Bunyan, Sibylle Baier and Pentangle, breaking down the decades into a sound thoroughly and bizarrely modern. Through her years performing with Mutual Benefit, Goodman fell in love with life on the road and the collaborative energy of a band. In this third Nighttime album, she channels these experiences into her own music. The creative journey from writing to recording to mixing drove her deeper into a sense of self while expanding her sound. In the process, she put aside lo-fi origins and challenged herself to achieve the same intimacy with a bigger production.
Hot on the heels of 2021’s Huffy (which reached #1 on the UK indie chart), New York indie rock legends We Are Scientists return with their 8th studio album, Lobes. Largely written at the same time as Huffy and once again self-produced, Lobes stays glued to the indie dance floor but showcases a darker, more electronic pop sound than its rock indebted predecessor. Always present though are the catchy melodies and soaring choruses which have become the band’s calling card over their near 2-decade career.
Embrace Form is the latest album by Joan Torres’s All Is Fused; and it’s out now. Eliding genres and compositional modes, Embrace Form both acts as a statement of purpose and a tongue-in-cheek nod to the group’s ability to embrace traditional compositional form before veering into new vistas playing in head-turning experimental gambles. Form is both upheld and exploded in some very clever and thrilling ways.
The music by Dmitri Shostakovich has been both renounced and embraced. The receptive history of his music has been coloured by the fierce battle between supporters and opponents of his music to this day. On their new album REFLECTIONS, the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam presents a plea for ambiguity in music of the 20th century. The Dudoks themselves grew up within a musical climate which rendered contradictions absolute and left little room for polyphony. Modernism or conservatism, submission or resistance, craftsmanship or creativity: both with Shostakovich and Grażyna Bacewicz these oppositions manifest themselves as a key element of their compositional process.
Other reviews you might enjoy:
- Brilliant Failures (The Black Watch) – music review
- New music round-up (for w/e 8 July 2022)
- New music round-up (for w/e 25 November 2022)
David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television