Album Reviews: Franz Ferdinand, Ethel Cain, Father John Misty

Franz Ferdinand – The Human Fear
Glasgow, Scotland

Never ones to slow down their approach, Franz Ferdinand seems as charged as ever with their new bandmates on The Human Fear. Balancing their iconic sound with some new ideas and a powerful vitality in their sound, this is more of the band you love, only losing their bite in places. The album opens with a classic sound for the band on “Audacious,” letting their weird brand of angular swing shift tempo for a more brash, theatrical ballad that only they could pull off. While there’s still a lot of swagger on “Everydaydreamer,” there’s just an edge lacking to the song’s overall drive that leaves it as more of a pleasing tonal trip than a step forward for the band. Digging into more primal riffs, “Hooked” is part of their grimier and more lo-fi brand, tapping into a shadowy dancefloor vibe and upping the cheeky antics. The piano and overall jumpy rhythms of “Night or Day” plays off as a classic Franz Ferdinand track, playing in their operatic approach, mixing in a half-dozen melodies but never retreading where they’ve been before.

Movieland – Then & Now
Vancouver

Mixing pop and more explorative shoegaze, Movieland run the gamut of writing that most shoegaze bands simply avoid. With the bass shaking the earth on “Rant,” the guitar explodes out with a fiery glow, as the band sets up a slowly mounting charge of roaring and crying guitars to tantalize your ears. The shifting grooves of “San Francisco” has a more classic pop style that harkens back to 90s rock pop, and gives a little Pixies in its bones while giving a vicious guitar shuffle that digs into your bones. The band plays to the sounds of Lush and other greats on “I Relate,” as they really take a dive into the reverb ether, and send your mind on a sonic journey. Burying their vocals behind the massive wall of the guitars and bass, “She’s a Mountain” immediately hits you with its wave of noise, and leaves you lost in the wake.

Ethel Cain – Perverts
Tallahassee, FL

Blurring the lines between ambient experimental work and mellow indie music, Ethel Cain drops an album dripping in shadowy energy. Sad, longing and at times warm, this album may work best to play unfocused, and let the songs wash over you over time. After feeling like you’re catching the dying breaths of a radio transmission, “Perverts” sends you hurtling through the dark into a space-like void, with a sense of dooming constantly looming only inches away. Cain takes the melody back to the forefront on “Punish,” as you follow Cain into a disintegrating melancholy, that starts to burn in graphic flames as the song hits its second half. After its loose jazz builds up, “Vacillator” becomes a quiet and moody ode to sensual love, letting its slow-moving crawl add to that feeling of intimacy. Lettings its harmonies build in the ether, “Amber Waves” closes the album on a pensive and very patient cry to the beyond, accepting the bad with the good, whatever it may be.

Spun Out – Dream Noise
Chicago, IL

Playing to a more mixed selection of inspirations, Spun Out brings their own spin on shoegaze style, with a lot more pop under the hood. “Paranoia” mixes a lot of the sounds of classic 80s bands, while bringing a spunky, ecstatic roaring vocal approach that lets their song burn a hole in your mind and stay there. After a loose instrumental intro, “Fishing” brings a spacey punch, with touches of Tame Impala throwback rock, and an airy wash of strings and synths. The more distant focus of “Lilacs” brings a morose sensibility to it, while leaving themselves room to inject a little hope into the track. Not ones to land in a too predictable space, “Pale Green Sky” sees the band mixing an ocean-like soundscape with a dazzling synth and drum run that send you into a mental haze.

Father John Misty – Mahashmashana
Rockville, MD

Sharing release dates with Kendrick Lamar did him no favours, but Josh Tillman (aka Father John Misty) should take it in stride that his record can easily go toe-to-toe GNX. Mixing his usual broad arrangements with a more off-kilter, 70s Paul McCartney range of song choices, Tillman isn’t cutting new ground so much as fleshing out the worlds his records have brought to us already. “Mahashmashana” opens the album with a slow, shimmering, symphonic cry, baked in a sunny, 70s set of timbres, though one that opens the album with a more finale-esque kind of energy. Tillman swaps to grime on “She Cleans Up,” where he takes a McCartney Ram-style rollick through crunchy tones, and crafts a swinging jam that is infectiously fun and grinds in all the most body-moving ways. As he goes into his more pensive poetry on “Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose,” there are wondrous hits of orchestral chaos, underscoring virtually every line to add a secondary slap to every detail of his story, and creating an elevated sense of magic in the track. “I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All” rounds things out on a funky note, letting the saxophones come in, and knocking out a dance-ready ode to the brutality that the passage of time can deliver us in the process.