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AUDIO Andrew Lambert Danny Wilson Phoebe Bridgers
Punisher Andrew Tuttle Alexandra [Dead Oceans] There’s no sign of a sophomore slump on Phoebe Bridgers second full length LP, Punisher, as the LA songwriter demonstrates a growing maturity and highly developed level of songwriting on one of the standout records of the summer. Since debuting in 2017 with Stranger in the Alps, Bridgers forged a wonderful partnership with Conor Oberst on one of 2019’s low key highlights, Better Oblivion Community Center. Perhaps the 25-yearold has taken some lessons from the Bright Eyes veteran as Punisher showcases a depth of storytelling and musicianship reminiscent of her mentor’s early works. The LP’s breathless 40 minutes kick off with a duo of outstanding singles in Garden Song and Kyoto, the former a gently finger-picked welcomer with ASMR-inspired vocal delivery before the latter’s classic indie rock jam opens up a freer, fun side to the record (with charming horn section to boot). Both tracks sound even better in the context of the record as a whole but don’t sleep on the deeper cuts – each is filled with a majestic quality as Bridgers executes some of the finest indie folk ballads you’ll hear in 2020, with Graceland Too the most stunning of the bunch. Intimate, warm, achingly confessional and wise beyond its years, Punisher is the sound of a distinct artistic evolution. AL Like This? Try These: Big Thief - UFOF Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning Soccer Mommy – Color Theory [Someone Good] Alexandra finds Australian multi-instrumentalist, Andrew Tuttle, luxuriating in his own curiously intoxicating, charmingly idiomatic folky milieu. Over the course of the record’s nine tracks, Tuttle’s effortlessly evocative banjo and guitar ditties loll and lope in conversation with an array of diverse and inviting ambient tones, seldom encountered in the work of contemporaneous fingerpickers more concerned with traditionalism than the cross pollination of ideas. The sounds of Brian Eno and Bluegrass have no business being such easy bedfellows. A welcome auditory salve for troubled minds. DW Jehnny Beth To Love is to Live [20L07] The debut LP from Jehnny Beth – Savages bandleader and general multi-hyphenate renaissance woman – is pleasingly confrontational in its approach. Especially considering the toothlessness of Savage’s last release, a record so awash in empty affirmations that it took on the shade of a Live Laugh Love poster with an anarchy symbol subbed in for the “a”. To Love is to Live’s commitment to its own left-turns keeps things interesting if nothing else and imbues the enterprise with a certain individuality in its vision which feels like justification enough. Such earnestness is rarely this appealing. DW Jockstrap Wicked City [Warp] GUM Out in the World [Spinning Top Records] Mileage may vary with the Warp debut from conservatory trained wunderkind duo, Jockstrap. Frankly, it depends on the premium the listener puts on unpredictability as a quality in their music. The degree of inspired irreverence on show here can only be achieved by someone intimately aware of exactly what they should be doing at any given time. This little twenty-minute oddity surprises, delights and delights in its own surprises. DW The latest from Tame Impala sideman, Jay Parker, astounds in its ability to aim for light and land on leaden. This dreary collection limps by, flitting between cloyingly transparent Fleetwood Mac mimicry and bargain basement Beck. At its possible nadir, Walking on Air feels like the listless spectre of Serge Gainsbourg in collaboration with Bruno Mars. This probably isn’t very helpful, but there is something uniquely irritating going on here that I can’t quite put my finger on. DW Now Open 29 South Anne St, Dublin 2 Tel. 01 531 4491 56