A spring deluge
This week, there’s been a deluge of new music, which is good news if you need a distraction from “opening up” anxiety
It never rains, it pours … so the old saying goes.
This week, there’s been a deluge of new music, which is good news if you need a distraction from “opening up” anxiety. While some are dancing in the street, not all of us are rushing excitedly towards our new-found freedoms. Maybe, like me you are still peeking around the slightly open door, deciding when to make a run for it.
If so, there’s some great music to fill your ears while you decide when to jump, including from a few of my favourites. And ooh, it’s a richness of goodies.
First to appear was the latest album from Lana Del Rey. Blue Bannisters sounds a bit like I feel. Moody, introspective and not quite connected to the outside world. It’s rawer than Chemtrails Over the Country Club (released earlier this year), sparse and beautiful, smattered with tinkling piano, which soothes my soul. She’s still not happy, but somehow her tears make me feel better.
Next came My Morning Jacket’s new album, like having a psychedelic explosion in your ears. It’s six years since the last band record (the members have released about a zillion solo records or side projects in that time) and it sounds like getting back together in the studio was a joyous reunion.
It’s rock, it’s loud and layered, then soft and repetitive – “The Devil’s in the Details” stretches out over nine minutes – it feels like they’ve got their groove back. I’m going to head back to the start of century, dust off my copies of It Still Moves, Z and Evil Urges and just go full Morning Jacket.
If that, along with new singles from Band of Horses and a string of new singles from Courtney Barnett wasn’t enough, just around the corner, waiting to offer the musical equivalent of a warm hug, is Billy Bragg’s new album, The Million Things That Never Happen. In troubled times, words of wisdom from Billy Bragg is just what I need.
Last, not because he’s least, but because technically it’s not all new and mostly it’s not a release, is Jack White. There’s a new single “Taking me back” (the quaintly country version is just perfect), accompanied by a playlist called “The World of Jack White”, which covers everything. Solo records, The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather (a reminder of how fantastic "I Cut Like a Buffalo" really is). It’s all there waiting for you to paddle around in it. You want to hear Jack and Alicia Keys – you got it. A duet with Beyonce – no problem. My only complaint – no Jack and Loretta Lynn in “Portland,Oregon” crooning about jugs of sloe gin fizz.
