Happy Friday and hope your week has not been too taxing (sorry). This week I review a lot of records I really, really like including: the long-awaited Nine Inch Noize collab and the latest collection of sophisticated disco from Jesse Ware, plus TOMORA (The Chemical Brothers’ Tom Rowland & Norwegian pop star AURORA), Penny Arcade (Veronica Falls/Ultimate Painting’s James Haore), and Tanya Donelly & Chris Brokaw’s unexpected EP of midieval folk.

Over in Notable Releases there are more reviews, including Prince Daddy & The Hyena, Yaya Bey, This is Lorelei and more.

This week also saw the release of Massive Attack & Tom Waits’ new single, marking both their first new music in ages, and the first new music from Boards of Canada in 13 years.

Head below for this week’s reviews…

ALBUM OF THE WEEK #1: Nine Inch Nails – Nine Inch Noize (Interscope)
Nine Inch Nails rewire their own catalog with the help from Boys Noize. It’s more than just a remix album

Anyone who went to see Nine Inch Nails’ Peel It Back tour has wanted studio versions of their collaborations with opening act Boys Noize. Performed from the “B-stage,” those purely electronic reworks of Nine Inch Nails songs were highlights of what was already an awesome show. They did too, it turns out. “Careful what you wish for,” joked Trent Reznor about their full-length collaboration, dubbed Nine Inch Noize, at Coachella.

There is now a Nine Inch Noize album as well, which features the exact same songs, in the exact same order, as their Coachella set. But this is not a live album. Not exactly, anyway. “We recorded this album all over the place,” says Trent. “Some of it’s live, some in studios, hotels, planes, etc. We had a lot of fun revisiting these songs and hope you enjoy.”

If you watched the Nine Inch Noize set at Coachella, you mostly know what to expect. It begins with crowd noise that may have come from the Sahara tent, but here it’s used almost like another instrument, rising and fading and sometimes cutting out abruptly. These 11 tracks weave into one another seamlessly, and it sounds great — all the more impressive when you consider they probably didn’t finish mastering it until very recently.

The best moments on Nine Inch Noize — that’s the title, though it’s credited to Nine Inch Nails — are the ones that push furthest from the original recordings. “She’s Gone Away” gets a significant overhaul, shifting from brooding haze to a pulsing slow jam. How to Destroy Angels’ “Parasite” goes through an even more extreme makeover, turning the sinister white-noise original into a throbbing techno banger. “As Alive As You Need Me To Be,” from the TRON: Ares soundtrack, gets a dub treatment, and the killer rework of “Closer” pulls a somewhat buried hook to the forefront, effectively making one of NIN’s most-played songs feel brand new. Much like the album as a whole, which is no mere remix record and stands as a worthy new addition to the Nine Inch Nails catalog.

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ALBUM OF THE WEEK #2: Jessie Ware – Superbloom (Interscope)
Another flawless run in Ware’s still-going imperial disco era

Jessie Ware is the reigning queen of lush, sophisticated, and unapologetically horny disco, but after two albums of tasteful hedonism, she dials things back slightly on Superbloom. “Since What’s Your Pleasure? I’ve been trying out this fantasy world and escapism,” Ware says. “I’m not the most by-the-book ‘pop star’, but I do like to play with dress-up, glamour, and fun. While I love dance music, I wanted to dig deeper with this record; to connect with real relationships and appreciate the love I have, and the fears I have of losing it.”

Superbloom expands on the sound and themes of What’s Your Pleasure? and That! Feels Good!, keeping things lively, fun, and firmly on the dancefloor while moving past crushes and the blush of attraction toward something more meaningful. The sound deepens, too. Floral imagery abounds on “I Could Get Used to This,” as Ware settles into the comfort of a fulfilling relationship. The flutes and strings recall Minnie Riperton, even as the track is a full-on banger.

Leading with a four-on-the-floor 134 BPM beat, “Mr Valentine” could initially be mistaken for a DFA single from 2003, but then it blooms into a ’70s disco wonderland, with Jessie belting, “Show me the magic, dozen red roses surround me.” It’s the most immediate song on Superbloom, but really it’s just a matter of degrees: there’s not a bum track here, from the The Good, The Bad & The Ugly-interpolating “Ride” to the glammy electro charms of “Don’t You Know Who I Am?” and the gospel-inflected “No Consequences.”

Jessie worked with half a dozen or more producers and collaborators here, including James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Pulp), Stuart Price (Confessions on a Dance Floor), and Jack Peñate, but you’d never know it: Superbloom is seamless, another rock-solid endorphin rush of a disco record.

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Penny Arcade – Double Exposure (Tapete)
Second Penny Arcade album from former Veronica Falls and Ultimate Painting singer-guitarist makes for great Sunday Morning music

James Hoare, formerly of Veronica Falls and Ultimate Painting, is back with his second album as Penny Arcade. It’s titled Double Exposure and is out April 17 via Tapete. This is his most chill record to date, with most songs powered by a vintage Elka Drummer One drum machine, over which he layers a familiar, satisfying guitar chug, the occasional keyboard, and his whispered vocals.

If you miss Ultimate Painting like I do, Double Exposure will scratch that itch, with songs that take cues from the Velvet Underground, The Byrds, The Grateful Dead, and The Go-Betweens. Like his first Penny Arcade album, Double Exposure is a perfect Sunday morning record — warm but chill, and a perfect soundtrack to going nowhere.

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Tanya Donelly & Chris Brokaw – The Undone Is Done Again (Fire Records)
These two Boston indie rock vets get Medieval on your stereo

Tanya Donelly (Belly, The Breeders, Throwing Muses) and Chris Brokaw (Come, Codeine), both influential veterans of the Boston indie rock scene, have teamed up for an unusual project: interpretations of traditional medieval folk music, sung in Latin and Middle English, arranged for voice and electric guitar.

“Having always been a big fan of all of Chris Brokaw’s music, bands, and projects, I asked him if we might team up to play a song or two for our mutual friend Hilken Mancini’s annual holiday event last year,” Tanya says. “He had the unusual and very cool idea to perform a medieval carol, in Latin, something far outside of anything I’d done before.”

Chris adds, “I’d been listening to the Norwegian vocal group Medieval Trio and, kind of on a lark, suggested that we perform a medieval Christmas piece. I felt like we immediately came upon a new language, sound, dialect. It sounded more like Bedouin music to me than anything particularly ‘Christian,’ or much like anything we were ostensibly drawing from. I’ve always loved Tanya’s music, but her voice here is, I think, on an entirely new level.”

The Undone is Done Again is not Ren Faire music, though. “Medieval purists be forewarned, we go where we want,” Tanya and Chris note, and these four songs are haunting, closer to something like Dead Can Dance or Cocteau Twins than anything that would’ve existed in the 6th century. Donelly has always had an eerie, at times sinister, quality to her voice, and she makes great use of that here as Brokaw spins delicate guitar lines into rich tapestries. This EP transports you to another time — just one that never quite existed.

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TOMORA – Come Closer (Universal)
Two distinct worlds collide — and click — on the collab debut from a Chemical Brother and a Norwegian pop star

TOMORA, the collaboration between The Chemical Brothers’ Tom Rowlands and Norwegian pop star AURORA, both sounds like what you’d expect and nothing like what you’d expect. “It is everything we dreamt of,” they say. “We made it without obligation or expectation, just a joy in creation. It’s the sound where we meet, the landing zone of our musical escape pods.”

Come Closer, their debut album, is electronic but favors towering mood pieces (“Come Closer,” “Wavelengths”) as much as bangers (“Ring the Alarm,” “I Drink the Light”), allowing both artists to stretch their creative wings. TOMORA are at their best when landing somewhere between those poles, like on the weird and wonderful “Have You Seen Me Dance Alone?” and the euphoric “In a Minute.” Then again, the giddy “Somewhere Else,” with its earworm vocal hook and Rowlands’ big beat backing that edges into The Knife territory, is pure dancefloor pleasure.

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INDIE BASEMENT CLASSIC: Cinerama – Disco Volante(Scopitones, 2000)
The Wedding Present’s David Gedge puts strings on his his patented guitar roar for the second best album of his career

David Gedge put his cultishly loved indie band The Wedding Present on hold in the late ’90s and started Cinerama with his then girlfriend, Sally Murrell. Their first album sounded like TWP gone acoustic with synths, but Gedge figured out Cinerama’s raison d’être on 2000’s Disco Volante: fierce indie rock by way of swinging ’60s spy movies, complete with strings, flutes and marimba. Keeping his lyrical M.O. — love, lust, jealousy and heartbreak — Gedge reinvented his style, and made trad indie guitars kinda sexy; Disco Volante ties with The Wedding Present’s Seamonsters (both were made with Steve Albini) for best record of his career.

Looking for more? Browse the Indie Basement archives.

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THE MOON & THE MELODIES: 12 SONGS FEATURING ELIZABETH FRASER

This Mortal Coil – “A Song to the Siren”

Most people want Elizabeth Fraser for her voice's more angelic qualities, but she's got quite the range, and her lower register can be just as transportive, as this spine-tingling cover of Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren" proves. This Mortal Coil was the recording project of 4AD Records founder Ivo Watts-Russell and producer John Fryer, and "Song to the Siren" -- Ivo's favorite song of all time -- was TMC's debut single in 1983. With guitar from Robin Guthrie, it remains one of the most unforgettable showcases for Fraser's emotive pipes. This Mortal Coil's version has touched a lot of people over the years, perhaps none more so than filmmaker David Lynch, who has called it his favorite piece of music ever. He was obsessed with "Song to the Siren" during the making of Blue Velvet, and wanted Fraser and Guthrie to perform it in the film, but usage rights were out of the film's budget. Lynch eventually got to use it 10 years later in Lost Highway. "That song does something to me, for sure," Lynch told The Guardian.

Jeff Buckley & Elizabeth Fraser – “All Flowers in Time (Bend Toward the Sun)” (demo)

Jeff Buckley loved This Mortal Coil's cover of his father's "Song to the Siren," and the musical admiration was mutual, as Fraser was enamored with Jeff Buckley's album Grace. Their mutual admiration grew into a short but passionate love affair somewhere around 1994, which was not long after her relationship with Robin Guthrie ended. (Cocteau Twins continued till 1997.) "I just couldn't help falling in love with him," she said in BBC documentary Jeff Buckley - Everybody Here Wants You. "I read his diaries, he read mine. We'd just swap...I've never done that with anybody else." While it didn't last, at least one song was written during their relationship. "All the Flowers in Time (Bend Toward the Sun)" is a gorgeous duet between Buckley and Fraser, with Jeff singing the chorus of "Oh, all flowers in time bend towards the sun / I know you say that there's no-one for you / But here is one." It's a rough demo that has never been commercially released, but you don't really need much more than their voices to have you wondering what could have been.

Elizabeth Fraser w/ Massive Attack at Radio City Music Hall, 2019 (photo by P Squared)

Massive Attack – “Teardrop”

Elizabeth Fraser's most popular song, Cocteau Twins or otherwise, is probably "Teardrop," one of three songs she sings on Massive Attack's 1998 album Mezzanine. It is the trip hop group's biggest UK hit, reaching #10, and it went to #1 in Iceland, and in the '00s became known as the theme song to TV show House. Liz says she learned of Jeff Buckley's death while recording it which influenced her lyrics. "I'd got letters out and I was thinking about him," Fraser told The Guardian. "That song's kind of about him – that's how it feels to me anyway." Interestingly, the track was almost given to Madonna. Massive Attack's Mushroom sent Madonna the instrumental and she really wanted to make it a single of her own. No disrespect to Madge but we're glad 3D and Daddy G won out. She can still belt it out, too.

Felt – “Primitive Painters”

One of the great UK indie singles -- and duets -- of the mid-'80s came about through happenstance. Felt, the cult band led by the iconoclastic Lawrence, hired Robin Guthrie to produce their 1985 album Ignite the Seven Cannons, the centerpiece of which was "Primitive Painters," with its hypnotic, cyclical riff. (You're right, it does sound a little like Guns N' Roses' "Paradise City.") Liz Fraser came to visit Guthrie in the studio while Felt were working on the song, and he had the idea to have her sing on it. Lawrence told Uncut: "He just played her the end section. I wrote the lyrics out for her on a piece of paper, she went in, listened to it once on headphones, and then just improvised around it. It was as real as that. It was a remarkable moment. When you listen back to something like that, we knew we’d got it." A classic was born.

photo by Barnaby Roper

Jónsi – “Cannibal”

One wonders if The Cocteau Twins didn't inspire all of what we think of as "Icelandic music" -- the kind that sounds like glaciers and waterfalls -- even if just through osmosis. Sigur Ros certainly got compared to the Cocteaus a lot when they first started, though the band always claimed they'd never listened to them. (Never?) "I really didn’t like that," says Sigur Ros' Jónsi of the comparisons. "I hated being compared to anybody. Then I got really into Cocteau Twins like two or three years ago. They’re so good. I understood the comparison then." Thankfully he came around as it's given us "Cannibal" from Jónsi's new solo album. It's the sound of two one-of-a-kind, unearthly voices meeting in the heavens.

Dif Juz – “Love Insane”

Dif Juz were one of 4AD's early signings, an instrumental post-punk group whose sound fell somewhere between Cocteau Twins' ethereal wash and Dead Can Dance's baroque orchestrations. (The mix proved influential on the '90s post-rock scene.) Their 1985 album Extractions features this beautiful collaboration with Fraser that pairs her voice with delicate piano and saxophone. The group's Richard Thomas would return the favor by playing saxophone on Cocteau Twins' 1986 album Victorialand.

Ian McCulloch – “Candleland”

Here's another case of two iconic '80s voices coming together to make magic. Echo & the Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch brought in Fraser to sing on the title track of his 1989 solo debut. "Candleland" has a bit of a Cocteau Twins sound to it, with a gentle melody and treated, arpeggiated guitars, and would probably be considered a pleasant but less impressive song without her. What really makes "Candleland" soar is the alchemy of McCulloch's smoky croon and Fraser, who is at her most angelic here. The call-and-response at the end of the song could go on twice as long -- three times -- and would not get old. McCulloch & Fraser worked similar magic on "Heaven's Gate" from his second solo album, Mysterio.

Medicine – “Time Baby 3”

Los Angeles shoegaze band Medicine were kind of America's My Bloody Valentine, not afraid to mix harsh noise, ethereal beauty and electronica in new and cool ways. The band appeared in the 1993 film The Crow, performing a rocking version of Time Baby II" in a club scene. The Crow soundtrack, however, featured a dreamy remix of the song by Robin Guthrie, dubbed "Time Baby III." Guthrie added some of his signature guitar stylings and brought in Liz Fraser for backing vocals. Most of what Fraser does is subtle, but then she unleashes her full power on some "no no nos," sending things into the stratosphere.

Elizabeth Fraser – “Moses”

Fraser hasn't made much music under her own name since the Cocteau Twins disbanded. She released a limited edition single, "Underwater," in 2000 (only 200 pressed); contributed a cover of Chic's "At Last I Am Free" to Rough Trade's 25th anniversary cover comp Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before; and she put out this 2009 single which she released as a tribute to her friend and Echo & The Bunnymen collaborator Jake Drake-Brockman, who died that year. Made with her partner, drummer Damien Reese (Lupine Howl, Massive Attack, EATB), "Moses" rides a trip hop vibe by way of the French Riviera, but Fraser's voice is really the main instrument, with layer upon layer of gorgeous harmonies.

Howard Shore – “Lothlorien (feat. Gandalf’s Lament)” (from Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring)

When you're making movies out of some of the most beloved fantasy novels of all time -- say, The Lord of the Rings series -- it's good to have access to a "Voice of God" who is used to singing in invented languages. Director Peter Jackson and composer Howard Shore brought in Fraser for The Fellowship of the Ring scene where the Fellowship rests in Lothlórien, while the elves sing a lament for Gandalf. Needless to say, her Elvish is impeccable (skip to around 2:30 mark on the track to for Fraser's entrance). They brought Fraser back for The Two Towers'"Isengaard Uleashed" sequence. Speaking of heavenly voices: Fellowship of the Ring's soundtrack also featured Enya.

Yann Tiersen – “Kala”

Composer Yann Tiersen, who gained fame in 2001 for his Amelie score, released Les Retrouvailles in 2005 which found him collaborating with a number of great vocalists, including Jane Birkin, Tindersticks frontman Stuart Staples and Fraser, who contributed to two songs on the album. "I was a huge fan of [Cocteau Twins] and of her voice," Tiersen told The Beijinger. They wrote the fanciful, swooping and dramatic "Kala" together. "It’s like a very good moment in the studio we spent together...to see her working and see her ideas coming from nowhere. It was great."

The Wolfgang Press – “Respect”

Chances are you've never heard Liz Fraser like this before. Certainly not since, either. The Wolfgang Press were a dark and brooding band signed to 4AD, cut from the same cloth as The Birthday Party but with an interest in funk, dub and drum machines. Having become fast friends with Liz and Robin of the Cocteau Twins, TWP asked Liz to sing on their debut EP...for a cover of Aretha Franklin's "Respect." It's true. Liz provides the "Just a little bit!" backing vocals in the chorus. "Our version was too rigid," Wolfgang Press frontman Mark Allen said in 4AD chronicle Facing the Other Way. "It should have been thrashier, heavy, more tribal. It was almost comical by the end." It's probably the most comical song 4AD released in the '80s, and more of a curio than anything else, but it's nonetheless interesting to hear Fraser so outside her wheelhouse.