PICK OF THE WEEK
Slim Twig
Slippin’ Slidin’ (DFA)
The music scene in 2015 is a stitch-up, a bad joke, a parade of grinning nobodies in spotless leather jackets peddling fake empathy. Like Ariel Pink, Slim Twig is one of those rare truth-tellers, unafraid of courting ridicule in his valiant but ultimately doomed quest to reclaim rock’n’roll for the underdog. Slippin’ Slidin’ sounds ugly and wrong, like a low-bitrate file of a teenage doom metal band forced to play a Bee Gees song at gunpoint. It’s over inside three minutes but it’ll take weeks to get the stink off.
Janet Jackson
No Sleeep (Rhythm Nation/BMG)
She hasn’t done much for us lately but JJ’s first new track in six years is worth the wait. Key to its potency is the return of the Rhythm Nation’s founding fathers Jam & Lewis, who’ve fashioned a subtle, smouldering slow jam in which every tiny component is buffed to perfection. “Plush”, as Janet herself purrs at the outset. It’s basically the polar opposite of Slim Twig, but that’s okay; it’s all the grey mulch in between that’s the problem.
Once A Tree
Take Me (Foreseen Entertainment)
Despite a name that makes them sound like a pretentious gift shop selling overpriced Bolivian wood carvings, Once A Tree are actually quite cool. A moody-looking husband-and-wife duo from Toronto with a fashionable backstory about escaping from a millenarial religious sect, they make poised, gothic R&B, a bit like the Weeknd with added Tori Amos. This tune is finely crafted but far from essential. So a bit like the wood carvings after all.
Ill Blu ft James Morrison
Lonely People (Island)
Six years ago, Ill Blu were at the forefront of the short-lived but thrilling UK funky scene; now they’re just another duo making perfunctory sub-Disclosure pop-house. Six years ago, James Morrison was at the forefront of the stubbly singer-songwriter scene; now he’s been comprehensively out-stubbled by Paolo Nutini and Hozier. So as desperate hook-ups go, this is 3am kebab shop queue stuff, both parties waking up in the morning and going: “Who the hell are you? Shall we just forget this ever happened?” Which, given the utterly generic nature of Lonely People, shouldn’t be too difficult.
Avicii
Waiting For Love (PRMD/Universal)
Say what you like about Avicii – he’s ruined dance music, he’s ruined folk music, he’s ruined Volvos, he’s ruined bumfluff – but his music retains a nice sense of mischief. So, while Waiting For Love starts off as a standard Europop stomper, it’s ambushed half way through by a manic Stylophone polka, which then becomes the main song. It’ll make you smile, at least for two listens. Any more and you’ll probably be tempted to test the vaunted safety features of your new Swedish car by driving it into a ditch.
