It’s another diverse week of new releases. We have:
- the intense post-rock of Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
- the retro pop/rock of Long Island’s The Lemon Twigs
- the arthouse folk of Scotland/Denmark’s Clarissa Connelly.
Two of these records feature church bells, befitting for Christmastide. Read on for details.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead
2024, 7.5/10
Montreal’s instrumental post-rock collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s eighth album is inspired by the Gaza conflict.
“No Title= What gestures make sense while tiny bodies fall? What context? What broken melody? And then a tally and a date to mark a point on the line, the negative process, the growing pile”
Album announcement statement
It’s the same dense and intense sound, their cinematic instrumental tracks with layered guitars and the violin of Sophie Trudeau (not THAT Sophie Trudeau!).
“Let’s not have three-minute-long pop songs. Let’s just play long, extended, drone-y music.’ And we were probably definitely influenced by Sonic Youth a lot back then — or at least I was. And not that they [Sonic Youth] were playing 15-minute-long songs, but the idea of alternate tunings became very exciting to me.”
Mauro Pezzente, Exclaim!
The three epics that push over ten minutes carry much of the record’s weight. ‘Babys in a Thundercloud’ takes a while to gather momentum, but the thunderous payoff is worthwhile. ‘Raindrops Cast In Lead’ is built around a simple riff, while ‘Pale Spectator Takes Photographs’ is foreboding and intense.
There are GY!BE records I like more, but their heart’s in the right place here.
Lemon Twigs
A Dream Is All We Know
2024, 7.5/10
The Lemon Twigs are a duo where both members look and sound like Todd Rundgren. It makes sense that they look the same – Brian and Michael D’Addario are brothers from Long Island. Like Billy Joel they attended Hicksville High School.
The brothers were still teens when they released their debut record in 2016. They played ‘Couldn’t I Just Tell’ you with Rundgren at Coachella in 2017. They’ve gone through growing pains – their 2018 concept album was poorly received – but they’ve come through the other side.
A Dream Is All We Know is self-consciously retro – the band’s influences include Sagittarius, The Association, and Roy Wood’s Boulders. it’s strong enough to stand apart from its influences, although it’s better when it’s more relaxed.
Early tracks like ‘Church Bells’ feel too uptight. But it gets stronger on the mellow, more relaxed tunes. Ignore the American accents, and ‘How Can I Love Her More?’ could have come from The Zombies’ Odessey and Oracle. The tuneful, beautifully harmonised ‘If You And I Are Not Wise’ is another winner, while the detailed chorus harmonies on the title track are expertly crafted.
The Lemon Twigs feel too self-conscious sometimes, but it’s hard to resist their pretty harmonies and melodies.
Clarissa Connelly
World of Work
2024, 8.5/10
Clarissa Connelly was born in Fife, Scotland. She moved to Denmark as a child. World of Work is Connelly’s second album. It’s inspired by big ideas, which The Line of Best Fit summarised as “the push and pull between work and desire, faith and doubt, life and death.” It’s stripped back, often to piano and vocals, and unified by a church bells motif.
Kate Bush is an obvious comparison point with Connelly’s pristine vocals, wild imagination, and folk leanings. Connelly was raised Catholic, and although she’s not a believer, the record’s religious imagery is reminiscent of Judee Sill.
I remember coming to Denmark when I was about 8 years old, and I had Enya’s Paint the Sky with Stars, her greatest hits album. I was at this afterschool program that had a lock on the door. And I locked myself in this room many times—when I could get away with it! The teachers would come and say, “You can’t lock the door, Clarissa!”
But I locked the door, had the boombox with me and put on the Enya CD. In this big classroom I pushed all the tables and chairs aside. And then I just danced, for hours and hours, and I played the CD again, and again, and again. I’ve dreamt of that, since then—being in big rooms with amazing music and just dancing…
Clarissa Connelly, warp.net
‘Wee Rosebud’ is a bold choice for a first single, with its wild vocal swoops. ‘S.O.S. Song of the Sword’ ends in a rock climax so effective that you’ll wish she delved into fuller arrangements more often. There’s an echo of Joni Mitchell’s Hejira in the guitars and bass of ‘Life of the Forbidden’. ‘The Excess of Sorrow, Laughs’ is a strong microcosm of the record, showcasing Connelly’s exquisite balladry.
World of Work was released in April. Connelly’s since released the excellent single ‘Give It Back’, which takes her music in a more conventional pop/rock direction.
Connelly’s music is fascinating and beautiful.
Read More
3 Comments
Leave a Reply
Read about the discographies of musical acts from the 1960s to the present day. Browse this site's review archives or enjoy these random selections:
I add new blog posts to this website every week. Browse the archives or enjoy these random selections:
Subscribe
Subscribe to receive new posts from Aphoristic Album Reviews.
I’ve become a fan of the Lemon Twigs the more I listen. Someone reccomended them on a Big Star post and since then I’ve been listening.
Do you like the newer stuff better, or the older stuff. I’m always a bit wary of music that’s so self-consciously retro, but I guess a lot of modern indie draws from 1990s alt-rock.
It all depends if it comes organically. From what I’ve read of them…their parents listened to that kind of music and it stuck with them.
In the 80s I was writing music that sounded like the 60s because that is what I knew…but I know what you mean.
I’ve heard some what I would call…on purpose retro and they throw things in to make it sound old…that is fake to me. But the Lemon Twigs in paticular sound like it’s organic.
I know their later stuff more…