It’s another monster week of new releases, with 11 new records out today that are reviewed, including Pet Shop Boys, The Woodentops, Fat White Family, Corridor, The Zutons, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross‘ Challengers score, and more.
Over in Notable Releases, Andrew reviews another 10 including new ones from St. Vincent, Thom Yorke, Justice, and more. Too many records!
In other Basement-friendly news, Blur‘s great third album Parklife turned 30 (!) this week and I looked back.
Head below for all of this week’s reviews…
ALBUM OF THE WEEK: The Woodentops – Fruits of the Deep (Little People Big Music)
First album in 10 years from long-running and very underrated London band is another winner
South London band The Woodentops have been around since the mid-’80s, having set their sound — anthemic melodies, sunshine positivity, acoustic guitars, clattering percussion, manic tempos — on their debut single “Plenty” which was released 40 years ago. (They were Rough Trade labelmates and contemporaries with The Smiths and also unexpectedly a piece of the ecstasy-fueled Second Summer of Love rave scene.) The band made two albums — their near-perfect 1986 debut, Giant, and 1988’s Woodenfoot Cops on the Highway which suffered from Extreme ’80s Production — before calling it quits in the early-’90s. Frontman Rolo McGinty reformed The Woodentops in the mid-’00s with most of the original lineup joining him, and released new album Granular Tales in 2014 which found them picking right back where they left off. Ten years later, The Woodentops are back with their fourth album.
As someone who holds Giant in very high regard (one of my all-time favorite albums) I’m happy to report that Fruits of The Deep is pretty wonderful and has all the signature Woodentops elements intact and adds some new twists, too. McGinty’s voice sounds the same as it did in 1986, warm and inviting, and there’s just something magical that happens when it mixes with the acoustic guitars and driving rhythms. In addition to classic-sounding Woodentops songs like “Liquid Thinking,” “Dream On,” and “Saturday Soundcheck,” Fruits of the Deep incorporates some of the band’s more idiosyncratic interests from over the years, including ravey dance music (“Can’t Stand Still”), dub (“Don’t Stop”), eerie sound collages (“City Wakes”) and ambient atmosphere (the eight-minute closer, “Bathyscaphe”). Like the best Woodentops records, Fruits of the Deep welcomes you with open arms but isn’t afraid to get a little weird, and Rolo and the rest of the band seem to be doing this for themselves (the album is self-released), a motivating factor that often results in the best art. The only thing missing is Panni Bharta block-cut graphic design work, which was previously a big part of the Woodentops aesthetic. But the music still takes you there. Welcome back!
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ALBUM OF THE WEEK #2: Pet Shop Boys – Nonetheless (Parlophone)
The iconic duo’s 15th album is another elegant, danceable collection of witty synthpop, this time with strings
After 14 albums and nearly 40 years, we know what to expect from a Pet Shop Boys album: elegant synthpop with Neil Tennant’s thoughtful, well-read lyricism, a combination that drove some of the more unusual pop hits of the ’80s and ’90s. Add in the band’s impeccable style and you’ve got a formula designed to last.
That said, Nonetheless is a bit of a return-to-form for Tennant and Chris Lowe, which finds them back on Parlophone Records after a decade off and, working with producer James Ford (Arctic Monkeys / Depeche Mode), delivering one of their more lush-sounding records in recent years. That’s due in part to a string section that classes up nearly every song, from signature PSB bangers (“Why Am I Dancing,” “Loneliness,” “Dancing Star”) to poignant ballads (“A New Bohemia,” “Love is the Law”) and the loungey “The Secret to Happiness.” The album also feels like a return to a decidedly ’80s palette, including orchestra hit samples, synth horns, electro handclaps, and other drum machine sounds that recall early-’80s Arthur Baker productions. There’s also “New London Boy,” that flashes back to the Reagan/Thatcher era with a rappy style right out of “West in Girls.” As usual Tennant’s got a lot on his mind — Brexit, mortality, sexuality — but his lyrics rarely take the obvious path. Pet Shop Boys continue to give us what we want, as well as what we need.
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Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – Challengers (Orignal Score) (Milan Records)
Luca Guadagnino‘s new film Challengers, the most talked-about new film starring Zendaya not to feature giant sandworms, is out in theaters today. The steamy tennis drama — also starring Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor as the rest of the love triangle — gets additional heat from Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, whose techno-fueled score would go over well in clubs as well as the court. The Boys Noize continuous mix, released earlier this month, is great, but so is Reznor & Ross’ original, which seriously thumps and sparingly, cleverly works in some tennis sound effects for added pop. Game, set and match for this one.
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Fat White Family – Forgiveness is Yours (Domino)
The first Fat White Family album in four years takes their bottom-feeding debauchery wide screen
Fat White Family gained a notorious reputation out of the gate for music and live performances so seedy, you may have felt a need to shower after. The band sang about debauchery and bottoming out, and seemed to be practicing what they preached — not unlike Nick Cave who is clearly a big influence — as anyone who has ever seen them live can attest. Following 2020’s Serf’s Up, which featured some of their most friendly (sounding) music to date, FWF imploded, leaving frontman Lias Saoudi holding the reins. After a couple records with his techno-inspired Decius side project, he’s put together a new lineup of Fat White Family for a new record with a new sound. Forgiveness is Yours wraps its sleaze in widescreen production that incorporates everything from electronic music to full-blown orchestration that’s the album equivalent of driving a Rolls Royce off a cliff and into the abyss — and aims to pull organized religion, world leaders, the music industry, media, and multinational corporations down with them. Saoudi also seems to be having a go at the Yard Acts and other sprechgesang gang-members of the world on the intense “Today You Become a Man,” and on “John Lennon” recounts the story of meeting Yoko Ono while on ketamine. Forgiveness is Yours is disturbing at times, danceable at others, but never not compelling. In other words, it’s a Fat White Family album.
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Corridor – Mimi (Sub Pop)
Montreal psych band slow their frenetic pace and stretch out on their first album in four years
It’s been over four years since Corridor’s Junior, and Mimi album finds the Montreal band pushing beyond their signature, intricate sound they honed across their first three records. “The goal was to work differently, which is the goal we have every time we work on a new album—to build something in a new way,” the band’s Jonathan Robert says. “This time, we took our time.” Indeed. They slow down the pace just a little, allowing that web of guitar lines to cast a wider net, adding synthesizers and other atmospherics for a sound that at times, like on the spectral “Porte Ouverte,” is like pure sunshine.
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Greg Saunier – We Sang, Therefore We Were (Joyful Noise)
The Deerhoof drummer keeps it weird on his first-ever solo album
Greg Saunier is never lacking things going on in his life, whether it’s Deerhoof’s prolific output, producing and collaborating with other artists, or touring. But one thing he’s never done up till now is release a solo album. “When Satomi, Ed, John and I were chatting between shows in Austin in early December, they encouraged me to make a record on my own, as a way to cope with the restlessness I’ve been feeling,” says Greg. “It came together quick. Intrigued by the announcement that the new Rolling Stones record was going to sound ‘angry,’ I thought, ‘Good, I’m angry too.’ But when Hackney Diamonds turned out more like cotton candy than punk rock, I ironically went back to Nirvana: not just the clever melodies over massive distortion, but also that dark Cobain sarcasm which still resonates in this age of phony blue-check-washing of fascism.” He let all that anger and other pandemic feelings pour out on We Sang, Therefore We Were which, like a lot of Deerhoof records, wraps pop hooks in skronky leads and scuzzy production, with a few surprises along the way, like “Rip the Atmosphere from the Wind” which channel-flips from Brian Wilson to acid rippers, or when “Playing Tunes of Victory on the Instruments of Our Defeat” left turns from greasy funk into a full-blown symphonic composition worthy of Lincoln Center. There’s a little cotton candy here but it’s tempered with lots of punk rock gravel.
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Hess is More – CÆKE (Music for Dreams)
Mikkel Hess is back with more More after a lengthy absence
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Mikkel Hess and after a number of years spent collaborating with other musicians, working as a composer and dabbling in jazz, he’s back with his first proper Hess is More album in quite a while. He seems to be in a playful mood on CÆKE which opens with these lines: “I love my life / I fuck my wife / again and again.” The album is droll — and clearly just a little dirty — as he incorporates disco, krautrock and synthpop into the Hess is More brand of slinky pop. If this is your first Hess experience head directly to the clubby “You Don’t Dance” and work your way out from there.
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Museum of Love – “After Us” / “Look of Disgust” (DFA)
Back on DFA, Pat Mahoney and Dennis McNany offer up arty dancepunk on this new 7″
After an album on Skint Records, Brooklyn duo Museum of Love (LCD drummer Pat Mahoney and Dennis McNany [Jee Day]) are back on DFA. They’ve apparently got a new album in the can but this is a one-off single featuring two new songs in their arty, danceable style that were recorded to be stand-alones. Pat Mahoney is an expressive singer and lyricist in addition to being an amazing human drum machine, and these two tracks feel like they pull equal influence from The Associates and Arthur Russell as from The Fall or Gang of Four. “After Us” is the poppier of these two songs, but “Look of Disgust” is just waiting to be cranked in a club setting.
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The Zutons – The Big Decider (Deltasonic)
Mid-’00s indie hitmakers return with their first album in 16 years. Where’s an iPod ad when you need one?
With songs like “Pressure Point,” “You Will You Won’t” and “Valerie,” Liverpool band The Zutons feel frozen in mid-’00s amber. Just hearing their name makes me think of going to Lower East Side fixture Mercury Lounge to catch the first US show from the latest UK flavor-of-the-week. (On one very 2006 night, I saw The Zutons again at Mercury Lounge before dashing over to Bowery Ballroom to catch The Rakes.) The Big Decider is the band’s first album in 16 years and for it they worked with The Lightning Seeds’ Ian Broudie (who produced their 2004 Mercury Prize-nominated debut Who Killed The Zutons?) and Chic’s Nile Rodgers, and basically sound like the last 20 years never happened. The album has lots of sax-y, soulful Zutons-style earworms (“Creeping,” “The Big Decider”), while Rodgers’ touch is felt on the disco-fueled “Water,” and “Company” that drifts into “Careless Whispers” territory. Dave McCabe’s voice still sounds great and all this record needs is a silhouetted iPod commercial to launch one of these songs into orbit.
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Porij – Teething ([PIAS])
Luxuriate in sleek, gorgeous dance music on this Manchester band’s debut album
Manchester, UK band Porij have been honing their particular blend of poppy dance music since 2020 with a string of EPs and singles. Teething is their debut album and they made it with David Wrench who Indie Basement readers might know as one half of audiobooks but is also one of the most sought-after mixing engineers working today. His skills are put to good use here, making this a painless teething experience, coming off at times like Sade if produced by Goldie by way of the first Disclosure album. It’s a gorgeous sounding record that is worth luxuriating in and dancing to.
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Parsnip – Behold (Upset the Rhythm)
The very twee Melbourne band are back after five years with their sophomore album
If you told me Melbourne band Parsnip all lived together in a psychedelic treehouse, Bugaloos-style, I wouldn’t believe it. But would probably think “that sounds about right.” The quartet make very twee pop that lands in the middle of a venn diagram of ’60s pop (The Kinks), classic Flying Nun kiwi groups (The Clean in particular) and early-’70s Sesame Street. Parsnip is a perfect name for them. It might be too precious for some but Behold, the group’s second album and first in five years, is impressive in its world-building and attention to a very specific style. The songs are also ridiculously catchy but your tolerance for childlike whimsy will likely determine your appreciation.
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