New Music

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/09/2014 (4357 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams (Pax-Am/Blue Note)

FROM the shimmering first riff and whirling organ of catchy opener Gimme Something Good, there’s a confidence and swagger to Ryan Adams’s self-titled record that’s infectious. Mostly absent are twangier components that have permeated his (prolific) career as a singer-songwriter — in their place are plenty of mid-tempo, radio-friendly rockers.

Adams seems comfortable in this genre; with this record it’s as easy to imagine him touring with Tom Petty or Sheryl Crow as it is Wilco or the Gaslight Anthem.

Am I Safe? tips the hat to the jangly, chorus-driven guitar solos from Johnny Marr’s work with the Smiths, while I Just Might has an ominous, stripped-down Springsteen feel. The lyrics aren’t always profound — they’re moody, introspective, yet somehow vague — but the tunes are plenty catchy, with a gorgeous guitar sound throughout. HHHH

DOWNLOAD THIS: Gimme Something Good

— Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson

 

Billy the Kid

Horseshoes and Hand Grenades (Xtra Mile)

 

WHAT happens when you pair a feisty, gifted Vancouver singer-songwriter with legendary folk-punk troubadour Frank Turner? The answer is pure punk-pop pleasure (and apparently a little alliteration). Turner produced the project pretty much live off the floor and plays on it, along with creative drummer Nigel Powell of Turner’s backup band the Sleeping Souls. In fact, Turner duets with Billy Pettinger (a.k.a, Billy the Kid) on a beautiful life lesson called This Sure as Hell Ain’t My Life.

From kickass rockers Phone Bills and Lord Let Me to the countryish Virginia to gorgeous ballad The Quarry and the stark, stunning lament Chelsea Rose, Billy the Kid never falters and always comes across as unfeigned.

If you’ve been seeking out a cross between Kathleen Edwards and the Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon you need look no further. Oh, and don’t just take my word for it. Billy Bragg is taking the young B.C. lass on the road with him all this month on his North American tour. HHHH

DOWNLOAD THIS: Back to You, Chelsea Rose

— Bruce Leperre

 

Shovels & Rope

Swimmin’ Time (Dualtone)

ON their third album together, Charleston, S.C.- based husband-and-wife duo Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst seem to be obsessed with water and biblical themes.

The disc opens with The Devil Is Around, conveying a gospel feel with the vocal and organ. That same vibe is carried through on the Johnny Cash-influenced Evil, with its dark and somewhat threatening underlying fuzz tones and declarations of “I’m ashamed in the shadow of the steeple.”

Water is an even more common thread running through this release: there are stories of storms, floods, successful fishermen and unsuccessful submarine voyages (the epic true account of the crew of the U.S.S. Thresher in 1963). The darkness subsides long enough to share a quirky tale of love with Mary Ann and One Eyed Dan.

Trent and Hearst have sanded down some of the rougher edges heard on their incredible O’ Be Joyful album, yet they’ve done so without losing their minimalist junkyard-dog bite or the down-home campfire warmth of Cary Ann’s alluring vocal charms. HHHH

DOWNLOAD THIS: The Devil is Around, Stono River Blues

— Bruce Leperre

 

The New Pornographers

Brill Bruisers (Matador)

A NEW New Pornographers record usually dominates various listening devices for weeks and leaves me wistfully wishing the eight-piece supergroup wasn’t just a busman’s holiday for its members. Imagine this band working in the swinging ’60s, when groups regularly released an album a year, or more? Six records in nearly 15 years just doesn’t seem enough, especially with a group featuring four distinct voices in A.C. Newman, Neko Case, Dan Bejar and Kathryn Calder.

This album’s title harkens back to the halcyon days of New York City’s Brill Building song factory, yet the approach here isn’t at all retro. If anything, Brill Bruisers is a keening shot of adrenalin, as the band creates 13 pop masterpieces rooted in upbeat tempos and swirling keyboard melodies (complete with just-so synth accents) that perfectly augment the songs’ dense vocal parts and harmonies.

It’s tough to single out highlights, but the opening title cut sets the tone with its massive gang vocal and huge wall of sound. Case’s effervescent Champions of Red Wine is immediately catchy and, if she wants it to, Marching Orders could become her personal call to arms. Even mad genius Bejar’s trio of songs is suited to this environment, especially the edgy War on the East Coast. Calder’s brief Another Drug Deal of the Heart will leave listeners wanting more, while the pulsating Dancehall Domine could well be the band’s show-closer for years to come. HHHH

DOWNLOAD THESE: Dancehall Domine, Marching Orders, Brill Bruisers

— John Kendle

 

U2

Songs of Innocence (Interscope)

Everything about U2’s new album is unexpected. Like its very existence, for one, after the Irish rock band dropped it on iTunes users Sept. 9 in a surprise move.

Then there’s its intriguingly narrow and personal scope. And its playful musical adventurousness: the band — singer Bono, guitarist the Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. — smoothly shifts gears over variable terrain.

On anthemic opener The Miracle (of Joey Ramone) the band wraps punk-like power chords in its usual finery and transforms a monosyllabic garage rock “ohohohoh” chorus into an ethereal gospel-tinged hallelujah.

California (There is No End to Love) is a modern take on the Beach Boys with a hallucinatory opening in which the band chants “Barbara Barbara Barbara Santa Barbara” in the round before launching into one of those trademark power ballads that feels like a jet plane racing to the horizon.

Along the way, we visit with Bono’s late mother on the soaring Iris (Hold Me Close), experience terrifying violence in the streets of Dublin on the visceral Raised By Wolves, visit the old neighbourhood on the wonderfully bombastic Cedarwood Road, and recall the Clash on the funky, bright This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now.

The album was produced by Danger Mouse with assistance from others, including longtime U2 associate Flood. There’s baroque synthesizer throughout, jangling ghost guitars and a general retro feel to the rhythm section. But even with outside collaborators in the room, it remains a distinctly U2 record — soaring, upbeat and often transcendent.

While Songs of Innocence continues the group’s general musical trend of the last 15 years, there’s no question there’s more energy here, more inspiration and more to be excited about than anything since Beautiful Day. HHHH

–Chris Talbott, The Associated Press