A to Z
JASON ALDEAN
9 BROKEN BOW
4/10
Nashville megastar persists with profitable formula
Jason Aldean is not the first to have named his ninth album “9”: Public Image Ltd did it back in 1989. There, however, similarities between Aldean and PiL end. 9 evinces little inclination to dispense with the template that has borne Aldean to umpty-platinum status. As ever, there’s a vexing sense that beneath the big-hatted bluster, there’s a fine old-school country record struggling for breath. Opening track “Tattoos & Tequila” is emblematic – a neatly wry lyrical conceit (“Tattoos to remember/ Tequilas to forget”) deluged by the high-octane hokum of mainstream country radio production. Not for the last time on 9, what could have been a decent George Jones-ish ballad is reduced to a series of cues for stagefront pyrotechnics.
ANDREW MUELLER
ERIN ANNE
Tough Love CARPARK RECORDS
7/10
Fine debut from LA songwriter
There’s nothing winsome or restrained about this debut offering from LA-based singer-songwriter Erin Anne, whose fondness for grungy guitar sees her sharing headspace with the likes of Ty Segall, Waxahatchee and Tanya Donelly while also drawing on riot grrl’s studies of gender and politics. She makes that debt clear on “Bedroom Track (Carrie)”, which takes lines from Carrie Brownstein’s 2015 memoir and furnishes them with thundering bursts of synth and electric guitar. She can do quiet and contemplative, but anthems like “Tough Love”, “Bitter Winter” and “Gaslighter” are the highlights, as Erin Anne embraces lyrical and emotional complexity without relinquishing a love of sharp riffs.
PETER WATTS
SASHA BELL
Love Is Alright BOTH SIDES NOW
5/10
Solo debut from the Ladybug Transistor vocalist
Sasha Bell has been making music on and off for more than 20 years, harmonising curiously with the Elephant 6-adjacent bands Ladybug Transistor and the Essex Green. Love Is Alright, her first solo album, took nearly six years and at least one false start to make. The heraldic “Candy Mountain” and psychedelic closer “The Library” draw from the familiar ’60s pop of her day-job bands, with Bell introducing a sharp edge to her voice – like Cilla Black with a dark secret. On the whole, the album sounds overwhelmed with ideas that distract from rather than focus her lyrics about lost friends, familial rifts and old books.
STEPHEN DEUSNER
THE BITTER SPRINGS
The Odd Shower TINY GLOBAL
8/10
Middlesex pistols: west London wonders break cover
Forever on the outskirts, Vic Godard cohorts The Bitter Springs have been making powerful, affecting records from the hinterlands of west London for over three decades, Simon Rivers’ position as one of Britain’s most acute lyricists still largely unacknowledged. A Flanagan and Allen take on punk, their first LP in four years does the funny/ sad thing with merciless efficiency, the late-night brawlers on “Girls In FITS” and concerned parents of the title track accorded just the right doses of compassion and derision. There’s time for them to be a word-of-mouth sensation yet: pass it on. JIM WIRTH
BOREAL MASSIF
We All Have An Impact PESSIMIST PRODUCTIONS
8/10
Drifting, downtempo collaboration – an unexpected sideways swerve
On We All Have An Impact, techno producer Pessimist collaborates with Loop Faction on a loosely structured conceptual set about planetary ecocide. This is not really Trip Hop 2.0, despite what some observers might say; if anything, We All Have An Impact’s snippets of lush, blurry texturology recall a golden age of electronica, where acts like B12 and The Black Dog were squaring off Detroit techno and early, tentative explorations of IDM, before that genre became a tired footnote. Weird
