PICK OF THE WEEK
Swim Deep
Grand Affection (Chess Club/RCA)
Former indie weaklings Swim Deep have recently taken a quantum leap forward into a world of giddy pop escapism. Grand Affection is thrusting yet dreamy, bringing to mind MGMT’s first album and the kitchen-sink psychedelia of great lost 90s band World Of Twist. It’ll annoy the pop purists because it’s not remotely sassy and still a bit blokey in a “soft lads on pills” kind of way, and it’ll annoy the rockists because it doesn’t reference any “proper” music touchstones and isn’t about anything. But don’t let it annoy you: Grand Affection is designed to be a gloriously fleeting pleasure, a helium balloon in a child’s wavering grasp.
2 Chainz
Watch Out (TRU)
“America’s Most Ludicrous Rapper” is a hotly-contested title but 37-year-old Segway-riding amateur chef Tauheed Epps AKA 2 Chainz AKA Tity Boi is still just about shading it. Watch Out is compelling thanks to its casual juxtaposition of the bombastic and the vulnerable: whomping trap beats are embellished with tinkly child’s piano, while amid 2 Chainz’s usual litany of outrageous boasts he reveals a moment of existential crisis in which he “used to talk to the stove”. And it’s when the stove starts talking back that you really have to worry.
The Prodigy
Get Your Fight On (Take Me To The Hospital/Cooking Vinyl)
The Prodigy’s inchoate rave rage has often proved to be galvanising… but not here. Get Your Fight On? With whom? Can’t I just read my book? But on and on they pummel and pound, like an insatiable moron in a minor street brawl who can’t resist headbutting the police van, even after he’s been given every chance to disperse. If the Prodigy weren’t angry they’d probably cease to exist, but their bile reserves must be running dangerously low.
Kelly Lee Owens
Uncertain (KLO)
Admittedly, the world needs more earnest, wispy electronica like a picnic needs wasps. But this is a cut above. Kelly Lee Owens has previously sung with electro warlock Daniel Avery and played bass for twee janglers the History Of Apple Pie, bringing both of those experiences to bear on the magical Uncertain, which sounds a lot like early Björk, back when people still thought Reykjavík was the capital of Narnia.
Tiggs Da Author
Georgia (Sony)
Novelist, George The Poet, Tiggs Da Author… it’s all getting a bit Writing Circle around here, although to be fair Tiggs could pen an interesting autobiography: Tanzania-born but London-raised, he was a footballer and a jazz bandleader before settling on his current dapper crooner guise. But little of that intriguing backstory shines through in Georgia, lightweight retro pop-soul in the John Newman/Aloe Blacc vein. Meanwhile, look out for the debuts later this year of Shankz The Essayist and Sam Da Freelance Music Reviewer.
