Spotify Gaylist: Love Wins

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Fred Phelps

Torres- Sprinter

Torres' self-titled debut, released at the start of 2013, announced Mackenzie Scott as one of the breakout songwriters of the decade. The stock phrase is "confessional singer-songwriter", but the then 22 year-old's songs were sophisticated and three dimensional enough that she'd already outgrown that term.

Scott's improved songcraft and her experiences since Torres give Sprinter a character the first album didn't really hint at, and couldn't have, as it is the product of two years' worth of emotional upheaval that included personal betrayals and a redefinition of her religious faith. It starts at its most intense with "Strange Hellos", which recalls Nirvana, and I mean that reverently, not reductively; here, Scott channels Cobain better than anyone else I've ever heard as she excoriates a former friend. The song casts a shadow long enough to obscure the rest of the album, at least at first. Other highlights "Ferris Wheel" and "The Exchange" burn more slowly, but no less brightly than "Waterfall" from the first album. Sprinter doesn't hide its influences (90s rock in particular), yet defies easy categorisation throughout and presents multiple doors for Mackenzie Scott to kick down in the future.

Related:

https://sexwarrobots.blogspot.com/2013/04/torres-torres.html

RIP B.B. King

RIP B.B. King
September 16 1925 - May 14 2015]

Blue Ribbon Glee Club - Damaged Goods (Gang of Four cover)

I might have watched a Gang of Four theme night on Glee.

Spotify Playlist: The Numbers Are In

Lady Lamb - After

After is Lady Lamb (formerly Lady Lamb the Beekeeper)'s second studio album, following 2013's Ripely Pine and a string of lo-fi self-released recordings dating back to 2007. Ripely Pine, along with Torres' self-titled debut and Danish punks Iceage's second album You're Nothing, was an album by a promising young artist in my end of year list that was littered with the likes of Polvo, My Bloody Valentine and Richard Thompson. Iceage released a superb third album last year, Torres' second album is due in May, and here, of course, is After.

After very quickly answers the question of whether or not Aly Spaltro was willing to ride the crest of a wave and write twelve more songs in the particularly manic folk-rock style of Ripely Pine. This is one case in which I would have been fine with that, but to her credit, she's pushing herself in different directions already. It's not as if After is a radical reinvention - the tricks and tropes of Ripely Pine are all over it, in fact - but Spaltro's approach is more measured and her lyrics are broader in scope while still loaded with personal frames of reference. She's also more confident than before, which is really fucking saying something. She got a lot of mileage out of quiet-loud dynamics on Ripely Pine, building tension with the former and providing release with the latter. This carries over to After, but flourishes such as the way the opener "Vena Cava" stretches her voice and the stuttering rhythm of the penultimate "Batter" show she knows how to tread the line between exploiting an approach works and simply repeating herself. Elsewhere, songs such as "Ten" disperse her energy more evenly, and the contrast informs much of After's character. It keeps the listener on their toes, and in that sense, it's a microcosm for the career of an artist for whom complacency is not an option.

Related:

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper - Ripely Pine

Happy Birthday to the Following Albums (2)

Happy 5th birthday, Owen Pallett's Heartland

Happy 10th birthday, Smog's A River Ain't Too Much to Love

Happy 20th birthday, Helium's The Dirt of Luck

Happy 30th birthday, Tom Waits' Rain Dogs

Happy 40th birthday, Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti

Happy 50th birthday, Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited