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AUDIO Zara Hedderman Joe Joyce Andrew Lambert Sop
hia McDonald Danny Wilson IDLES Crawler [Partisan] Courtney Barnett Things Take Time, Take Time [Milk! Records] There can be something special slotted between the building beats of an 808. IDLES have melded electronic techniques into their harsh rock before and the flourishes of synths and filtered guitars don’t appear as often as expected on Crawler. Instead, they deliver an interesting yet unceremonious LP. Being repeatedly asked “are you ready for the storm?” a question that grows heavier with each droning beat, does imply that something of epic proportion will follow an intimidating opener like MTT 420 RR. The album presses forward with a primal energy as lead vocalist Joe Talbot is unrestrainedly expressive. Aggressive The Wheel is pure fodder for the likes of post punk babies like Fontaines D.C. and The New Sensation has flashes of ingenuity with the inclusion of hard-hitting, high-pitched guitars that add an extra dimension. Tumbling through waves of zealous rock, the gems found on Crawler are the more controlled tracks. The Beachland Ballroom is deeply emotional and feels like a creative leap for the band. Like a meeting of genre minds, Progress calls back to the record’s opener and carefully combines electronic with rock. Crawler asks you to hold onto your hat as you become engrossed into the pulsating world of IDLES but, unfortunately, there isn’t much newness to sink your teeth into. SMcD Like This? Try These... Dogrel - Fontaines D.C. Nothing Great About Britain - Slow Thai What Went Down - Foals Courtney Barnett’s third album certainly lives up to the title despite clocking in at just a shade over the half-hour mark. Things Take Time, Take Time has its share of decently catchy garage rock moments but, on the whole, makes for another low energy collection of slacker ballads that finds the Aussie still struggling to recapture the wicked charm and badass attitude of 2015’s uproarious Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. AL Beach House Once Twice Melody (Chapter 1) [Sup Pop] Beach House prepare to drop another dream pop carnival upon us with the phased rollout of their double album Once Twice Melody, as the first of four monthly ‘chapters’ drops to reliably enchanting effect. It’s a strange release process that Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally have landed upon, but if the entirety of Once Twice Melody can live up to the psychedelic bliss of Chapter 1 then we can expect another magical work from the consistently spectacular duo. AL Michael Hurley The Time of the Foxgloves [No Quarter] Orlando Weeks Hop Up [PIAS Recordings] Visionary absurdist troubadour, Michael Hurley doesn’t appear to be slowing down one jot as he approaches his 8th decade on earth and 6th plying his intoxicating, inviting, immutable interpretation of folk standards both genuine and wouldbe. His first release for No Quarter, Foxgloves shouldn’t be misconstrued as a late career grasp for a relevance. In fact, Hurley has maybe never sounded so contented puttering along in his own lane. A rustic, unhurried, collection more than worthy of a place in the great man’s already crowded pantheon. DW Potentially still best known as the frontman of midnoughties NME-core tentpoles, The Maccabees, Orlando Weeks’ sophomore effort finds the once bandleader admirably striving to cultivate a career that outlives American Apparel’s Dublin branch. Curiously for a figure so mired by an association with the recent past, Weeks has elected to wade into the similarly dated tones of the Chillwave boom. Hop Up is not without its pleasures, very satisfyingly aping Arthur Russell and, occasionally, even calling to mind the minimalism of his downtown contemporaries, but it suffers with a certain glossy anonymity. DW CLICK IT OUT… 54 We know it and so should you food, fashion, photography, film, books, magazines, music, design, drink and a curated section of events for you to consider