CD reviews: You're Dead! by Flying Lotus; Hozier by Hozier; Wonder Where We Land by SBTRKT
Every new musical form begins with a period of great fertility and innovation. Inevitably, it settles, petrifying into a distinctive but limited set of rules to be played with ad infinitum. Jazz is no exception, but perhaps more than other genres it has become the property and the playground of a small, interested elite, abdicating any claim it once had to the popular consciousness.
You’re Dead!
Warp
Every new musical form begins with a period of great fertility and innovation. Inevitably, it settles, petrifying into a distinctive but limited set of rules to be played with ad infinitum. Jazz is no exception, but perhaps more than other genres it has become the property and the playground of a small, interested elite, abdicating any claim it once had to the popular consciousness.
Flying Lotus, aka Steven Ellison, has nothing new to say about jazz per se, but he is bringing it back into the conversation. From its opening moments, his new album You’re Dead!, roots itself in the experimental jazz tradition in a way few recent albums have. The result feels needed and fresh, if not perfect.
There are other traditions here too – hip hop primarily, of the Andre 3000 variety, and the rough guitar riffs of prog rock. You’re Dead! is an American melting pot, cooked up on the fires of contemporary electronic music.
Like jazz, the album offers more of a mood than a distinctive series of songs. Ostensibly this is about death, but the overwhelming atmosphere is one of creation, change and, ultimately, rebirth.
Hozier
Columbia
I first heard Hozier via his 2013 single release, , which stunned me with its fantastic vocals and its deep soul. I don't just mean it is soul music, taking its cue from old African-American spirituals, but that it offered a perspective that felt near to grace.
Few popular songs, Christian rock aside, use religious imagery in a way that doesn't feel cheap. The song hit No2 in Ireland, Andrew Hozier-Byrne's home country.
Does this album measure up? Well, there's no song as strong as here. There are some similar songs ( ) and others of a less interesting ilk ( ) - folksy pop, a sure bet. However, even the most predictable numbers hold great charm and mass appeal, in the best sense of the phrase.
The son of a blues drummer, Hozier was raised listening to Blind Willie Johnson and Muddy Waters - accordingly, he sounds older than his 24 years. At its worst, the album sounds like the bastard child of The Black Keys and Mumford & Sons, but at its best, has a unique vision and assured beauty.
Wonder Where We Land
Young Turks
SBTRKT was quick to the draw on the now-ubiquitous blend of house and R&B. When he released his self-titled debut album in 2011, the sound was new and unusual. Now we hear nothing but. From Flying Lotus on one end of the spectrum to James Blake on the other, we're fed a steady diet of the stuff. That overpopulated landscape should force artists to innovate, but SBTRKT hasn't: his second album is more of the same.
He's trying to create a concept album, meaning a collection of songs that trades Conventions for Ideas. The result is manic and almost aggressively cerebral. Dissonance and atonality are meant to signal irreverence; interludes serve as showy punctuation. Maybe it's just a sophomore slump.
As always, Sampha's guest vocals are gorgeous and floaty. The guest stars steal the brightest moments: Raury on , Sampha on , and the great presence of A$AP Ferg on . SBTRKT is a virtuoso, no doubt. But it's not enough to save him from his worst instincts - overwrought in style, overburdened by ideas, and underdeveloped in emotion.
