New music

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This article was published 27/08/2015 (4012 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

POP/ROCK

Carly Rae Jepsen

E*MO*TION (604)

CARLY Rae Jepsen’s third full-length arrives on waves of hype, her collaborations with indie heroes like Dev Hynes and Haim producer Ariel Rechtshaid helping to paint a narrative of the corporate one-hit-wonder girl making it on her own, while causing rock critics to trip over themselves coming up with ways to praise what is being called “the pop album of the year.”

There’s just one tiny problem with all of this adulation: it’s completely unfounded.

Even with an indie-pop brain trust trying to arrange every note for maximum pleasure-centre overload, Jepsen has overlooked the one element that made Kiss such a ringing success: her voice. Her squeaky pipes have an honesty to them that engages the listener in a surprisingly personal way, but here she treats her own vocals, and sometimes even her own lyrics, as an afterthought, making the melody the centerpiece and the content a mere add-on, an effect that dazzles the ears, but ultimately leaves the listener feeling emotionally vacant.

Tracks such as the effervescent Let’s Get Lost and the downright shmaltzy All That are pleasurable enough, but lack the staying power that made Kiss such an unexpected thrill. By leaning as hard as she does on the same ’80s synth-pop tropes, a few too many songs share the same sonic elements, making an album that’s painted in such highlighter-bright pastels sound like it’s lapping itself from time to time. ***

DOWNLOAD: Run Away With Me

— Evan Sawdey, PopMatters.com

 

The Strypes

Little Victories (Universal)

On their debut, 2012’s whip-cracking Snapshot, Irish quartet the Strypes proved they had absorbed the requisite number of musical influences to kick out the jams with the best.

While their youthful attitude remains in plentiful supply on their sophomore tilt, the boys have obviously seen the world and want to tell us about it. Little Victories trades on the Strypes’ ability to move their music forward without losing sight of the fact that what sold them to the masses to begin with shouldn’t totally be wiped away. Guitars still figure most prominently. The psychedelic, wailing blues solo in Queen of the Half Crown is gobsmackingly out there, yet not miles from what Snapshot promised if you really listened. The mod-rocking Best Man and the boiling Now She’s Gone are marvellous short, sharp shocks that should be played loud under all circumstances. If you have heard first single Scumbag City Blues and haven’t pogoed while singing the chorus, it’s time to surrender your music-fan membership card.

Cries of commercialism be damned. We are already looking forward to album No. 3. ****

 

DOWNLOAD: Queen of the Half Crown, Status Update

— Jeff Monk

 

COUNTRY

Kip Moore

Wild Ones (MCA Nashville)

KIP Moore’s Up All Night was the bestselling debut by a male country artist in 2012 and spawned the bro-country anthem Somethin’ Bout a Truck.

His sophomore release, Wild Ones, kicks off with the title track, a party anthem that finds the Tifton, Ga., singer in an infectious groove… and a lyrical wasteland. On That Was Us, there is a lot of reminiscing about getting stoned, fighting, bonfires and backseat lovin’ against a somewhat atmospheric musical backdrop. On current single I’m To Blame, he poses as a badass (“Where there’s blue lights, just read me my rights”). Comeback Kid, with Moore’s pleasant vocal rasp, delivers one of the album’s cooler moments with the lyrics: “Someday I’m gonna get you that white picket fence and that little pink house like Mellencamp said.”

Moore’s lyrics may be simple (he is listed as a co-writer on every track), but musically he effectively steers clear of all the poppy elements in today’s country, opting for an edgier, raw guitar-heavy sound that I can’t help but applaud. ***1/2

DOWNLOAD: Comeback Kid, That Was Us, Complicated

— Bruce Leperre

 

CLASSICAL

Ysaøe Sonatas for Solo Violin

Alina Ibragimova (Hyperion)

IT’S still relatively rare to hear the complete set of Eugene Ysaøe’s sonatas for solo violin recorded on a single disc. Russian-born violinist Alina Ibragimova, 29, now adds her name to the growing list of artists daring to tackle these works, originally inspired by J.S. Bach, that pay homage to six famous fiddle players.

The U.K.-based musician brings a sense of purposeful intent to each of the six works, including Sonata No. 5 in G major’s wistful ‘L’Aurore’ movement, followed by its strongly rhythmical ‘Danse rustique.’

She also infuses Sonata No. 2 in A minor with light playfulness, while Sonata No. 3 in D minor titled ‘Ballade’ displays her formidable technique during its blistering finale — as does the Sonata No. 4 in A minor and the wild ride of Sonata No. 6 in E major, a nod to Spain’s Manuel Quiroga.

But all roads lead to — or begin with — Sonata No. 1 in G minor, a tribute to Joseph Szigeti, whose performance of Bach’s like-keyed Sonata No. 1 in G minor first compelled Ysaøe to compose his own set. Ibragimova easily navigates the tightly woven counterpoint throughout its four movements, with the mysterious tremolo sul ponticello effects that conclude its opening ‘Grave: Lento assai’ particularly evoking ghostly overtones of the baroque master himself. ****

— Holly Harris

 

R&B

The Weeknd

Beauty Behind the Madness (Republic)

THE long-anticipated Beauty Behind the Madness finds dark R&B act the Weeknd (a.k.a. Scarborough, Ont.’s Abel Tesfaye) moving away from making club music for the Instagram generation to instead making straight-up club music.

Chart-topper and instant pop classic Can’t Feel My Face struts like the Michael Jackson comeback song we never got, while the chorus to opener Real Life copies so liberally from the Phil Collins songbook that one may actually mistake it for a Phil Collins cover (no, really).

“Last year I did all the politickin’,” he declares on the Kanye West-produced lounger Tell Your Friends. “This year imma focus on the vision.” ***1/2

— Evan Sawdey