Album review overview: Hilary Duff, James Brandon Lewis and more
Dozens of new albums arrive at Maxazine’s editorial staff every week. There are way too many to listen to them all, let alone review them. It ensures that too many albums are left behind. And that’s a shame. That is why today we post an overview of albums that arrive at the editors in short reviews.
Dorea – O Que Mais Você Quer Saber De Mim
What else do you want to know about me? That is the question the Brazilian singer-songwriter Dorea asks on his second studio album. He could hardly have chosen a better title. His deepest emotions form the very vulnerable themes he explores across the eleven tracks. For many listeners, the questions, doubts and intimacy will remain hidden in Brazilian Portuguese, yet the music still speaks volumes, although this intimacy, delivered with whispering vocals, can also feel suffocating. Still, it is worth continuing to listen: with “O Que Mais Você Quer Saber De Mim”, Dorea delivers a varied album, from restrained folk to influences from rock and blues, in which his voice and guitar always remain central. That (perhaps too) fragile voice and refined guitar playing hold up within subtle arrangements with percussion and brass. It is music that needs no embellishment; it would only detract from its authenticity. You hear the deeper layers and fragile nuances, also in the more up-tempo pieces such as “Maria Milhões” and “Essa Pressa”, but certainly in the sparse “Sem Ancorar” and “Meu Lugar”. The latter also features a technically very demanding vocal line in which Dorea enters into a kind of duet with a saxophone. In such a piece, you hear that the Brazilian is an outstanding composer. A fine record for languid summer evenings. They will undoubtedly return. (Jeroen Mulder) (7/10) (AJABU!)
The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis – Deface the Currency
After 150 concerts in a single year, The Messthetics and saxophonist James Brandon Lewis return with “Deface the Currency”, their second collaboration on the legendary Impulse! Records. The group, formed by the rhythm section of post-hardcore pioneers Fugazi, bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty, supplemented by guitarist Anthony Pirog, now sounds like a well-oiled machine that gleefully smashes genres to pieces. The title track opens with Pirog’s cutting guitar and Lewis’s skronking sax in a heated duel; “Gestations” lays a bebop melody over a tight funk groove, and the waltz-like “Universal Security” joyfully derails into cosmic chaos. “Serpent Tongue (Slight Return)” closes the album with the reminder that punk is just as present here as jazz. With only seven songs and 36 minutes, “Deface the Currency” is concise yet explosive, an album that maintains the balance between composition and improvisation with great class. (Elodie Renard) (8/10) (Impulse!)
Megan Moroney – Cloud 9
On her third studio album, “Cloud 9”, released via Columbia Records, Megan Moroney shows she has fully found her place in country music. She previously broke through with “Tennessee Orange” and “Am I Okay?”; now she sounds more confident than ever. The title track opens with a gentle mid-tempo glow, while “Change of Heart” bursts with pop-punk energy. “Bells & Whistles” featuring Kacey Musgraves, is a subtle knife: empathetic and cutting at the same time. Ed Sheeran appears on the rootsy, heart-wrenching “I Only Miss You”. “Liars & Tigers & Bears” reflects on the impossible expectations placed upon women in the music industry, and the closing track “Waiting on the Rain” ends with a cinematic string arrangement and backing vocals by Jamey Johnson. The songwriting is sometimes less specific than on earlier work, but the emotional accuracy and broad accessibility of “Cloud 9” make it her most complete record so far. (William Brown) (8/10) (Columbia)
Vinyl Floor – Balancing Act
“Balancing Act” is the sixth album by this Danish pop/rock band. The album is released on their own label, Karmanian Records. Vinyl Floor consists of brothers Daniel and Thomas Charlie Pedersen. On “Balancing Act”, they are assisted by various guest musicians, including Swedish multi-instrumentalist Bebe Risenfors, known from Tom Waits, Danish violinist Christiaan Ellegaard and American guitarist Daniel Hecht. The accompanying press information states that Vinyl Floor plays melodic rock with progressive and symphonic elements. I do not entirely agree. The only progressive or symphonic aspect of Vinyl Floor’s music is the use of instruments not often heard in the pop/rock genre. Do not expect complex time signatures or long, elaborate compositions. “Balancing Act” is an enjoyable pop/rock album that will appeal to fans of the B-52’s, Weezer, Radiohead and even admirers of singer-songwriters such as Simon and Garfunkel. (Ad Keepers) (7/10) (Karmanian Records)
Hilary Duff – luck… or something
After more than ten years of silence, American artist Hilary Duff returns with her sixth studio album “luck… or something”, released via Atlantic Records and co-produced by her husband Matthew Koma. The album contains eleven songs and marks a notable shift from the glossy electropop of “Breathe In. Breathe Out.” towards a more honest, singer-songwriter-tinged pop sound. The lead single, “Mature,” cuts with self-irony through the pattern of older men describing young women as mature for their age, while “Roommates” depicts the creeping boredom within a marriage through vivid lyrics. “We Don’t Talk” processes the painful estrangement from her sister Haylie in an emotional yet never theatrical song, and “Growing Up” uses a Blink-182 sample to mirror the millennial generation. The closing track “Adult Size Medium” rounds off the album introspectively. Duff sounds confident and vulnerable at the same time, although not every song is equally strong and at times the album lacks the spark that made her earliest work so memorable. (William Brown) (6/10) (Atlantic Records)
