PICKING UP ROCKS

There is something special about “Cruise!” I can’t quite put my finger on. It’s like some weird combination of Toro Y Moi, a faceless old disco 12″ from 1979 you’d find in a random pile of records and a lost Brenda Fassie ( late legendary Diva) bootleg from the 80’s. It’s hazy and catchy and a little bit weird and sounds like nothing else I’ve heard today. Shormey exults us all to “Cruise!” in the quietest way possible and it’s damned near impossible not to be charmed.

The Clash were always expert at intertwining the sour with the sweet, telling stories, and conveying sights no matter how unpleasant or challenging they were, and making them “palatable” for the masses i.e. making them pop. “Time” by Hold sounds not unlike a classic Mick Jones led track off of 1980’s “Sandinista!”: cuttingly critical and observational, radiating frustration ( in this case after a conversation with an overt racist) but paradoxically served up in a melodic blanket. It’s completely infectious exasperation.

Sweetly dizzy and hallucinogenic, all about waiting for that thing to happen, “Someday…” is a living fever dream and it’s difficult to resist it’s lush and tuneful charm. Yeah, it’s kind of funny, as any song specifically referencing a jalapeño in it’s first verse generally would be, but it also sports the line “If the breeze is right dead leaves will come alive”, which is ridiculously poetic.

Understated, winding and turning, shimmering and pretty, “Tired” is basically a sigh in song form.  There’s a line within it that goes “Oh God, won’t you get off your phone and tell me how you feel. I’m tired”, which just about sums it all up. The guitar within somehow manages to both chime and sound utterly defeated and it all makes for something exceptionally fine.

“Lazy Love” is the long lost cousin, or modern day offspring (take your pick), of Nilsson’s “The Moonbeam Song” and Gilbert O’Sullivan’s legendary ” Alone Again (Naturally)”, the latter being one of the darkest # 1 songs ever, which is to say it sounds like it’s wistfully wandered into 2018 straight out of 1971. Plush and simple, awash in sorrowful sun going down strings, and starring both drums and guitars that literally cry, it’s taken from Johnny’s forthcoming ep, and is a fantastically sweet thing.

“Garden Roses” is echoey, mournful, and transportive, and Beckie Margaret’s crying, siren-esque vocal absolutely shines: when she hits the high notes, it calls to mind the  legendary Shara Nelson of Massive Attack “Blue Lines” LP fame. What a lovely thing, wish it were even longer.

By the mid-80’s, Prince was at the height of his creative powers. Utterly fearless and endlessly adventurous. One of his most surprising inventions at the time was the creation of a female alter-ego whom he christened Camille. Basically she was Prince with studio manipulated/pitched up vocals. Now the plan at the time was to release an album as Camille. It was recorded, mastered and allegedly printed but the plug was pulled at the last minute for reasons unknown. Fortunately a few of the songs earmarked for that project ended up on the “Sign ‘O” The Times”, most famously “If I Was Your Girlfriend”, and so we were at least blessed with a little something. Still, how brilliant and boundary pushing would it have been for such a gloriously androgynous pop creation, and work of art to have been properly unleashed. Lord.

Prince had Camille, and Emma Louise has Joseph. And it is Joseph who sings the lead on the epic, plush, Goldfrapp-ian “Mexico”. Story is that while recording her first album back in 2013, Emma heard her some of her backing vocals pitched down and was so taken with the effect that a new identity was born to embody this otherworldly voice, and that is Joseph. And the result is just beauteous: a galloping, widescreen anthem of the highest order. It also brought to mind the brilliant “My Father” as sung by Alison Limerick on the 2nd legendary This Mortal Coil LP from ’84 and you can’t get any better than that.