September

Suede – Antidepressants (BMG)

Following on from the release of last studio album ‘Autofiction’, Suede continue to captivate their fans with catchy, ethereal songs. Whilst it’s described by the band as the post-punk follow-up to their last punk album, it retains the hit of punk rock with chiming, jangly guitars recorded by founding members Brett Anderson (vocals) and Matt Osman (bass) along with long serving member Simon Gilbert (drums).

First track is also the first single, ‘Disintegrate’, which has an elasticity in smacking, hard hitting percussion diced up by the invite of the dancey choral melody and even some synth keyboards. It’s hotly pursued by the band’s third single ‘Dancing with the Europeans’, featuring summery guitars – the album’s ‘feel good’ outdoor dance anthem. Second single, ‘Antidepressants’ with its Banshees-like, creeping post-punk guitar is an about experiencing the delirium of medication highs. Further confused Banshees guitar features in following track ‘Sound and the Summer’; ‘Somewhere Between and Atom and a Star’ is am ambient rock hallucination: it drifts the listener away to the cosmic escapism tickled by psychedelic guitars.

Perhaps at the release’s heart is ‘Broken Music for Broken People’, conjuring the concept of the album, saving the world from what Anderson describes as “the tensions of modern life, the paranoia, the anxiety, the neurosis…in a disconnected world.” Osman brings post-punk funk into the mix with the reverberating ‘Criminal Ways’ and second single ‘Trance State’; the latter is perhaps the best track on the entire release; its stripped down bassline underpins the kaleidoscope of guitars and ending on jibing keys.

The album ends on the rocking slumber of bittersweet guitars in ‘Life is Endless, Life is a Moment’, a song about getting older but feeling youthful at the same time which goes to illustrate the point that, whilst Suede have a particular euphoric sound structure to their music, their diamond retention of upbeat punch and multi-faceted approach to songwriting makes this another great record against the pressures of the modern day on artists who have been spanning such a long duration in their career to stay this creative.

‘Antidepressants’ is available now on vinyl, CD and digitally.

Chameleons – Arctic Moon (Metropolis)

After a 24 year-long gap since their last studio album, ‘Why Call it Anything’, the band, headed by founding members Vox (vocals, bass) and Reg Smithies (guitar) along with Stephen Rice (guitar), Danny Ashberry (keyboards), and Todd Demma (drums), have finally put out their long awaited full studio release following their EP last year, ‘Where Are You?’. One of those tracks, the aforementioned title track of the EP, has been carried re-recorded onto the full album. In this opening song there is a retention of the distinct Chameleons feel, including cooler synth passages amongst the reeling guitar and pastel post-punk strokes at the end of the track.

Almost twinned with the above is the euphoric, jangly folk drive of ‘Lady Strange’; a summery love song with a dark hum at its close. The same folk swing – yet still so typically post-punk – is also a sound that continues in the next acoustic track, ‘Feels Like the End of the World’, featuring real strings fused with electric guitar that carves the song into an apocalyptic waltz, even with some Sparks falsetto influenced backing vocals and spoken word, before a cinematic finish to what is possibly an unnecessarily long track.

There’s a sad acoustic ballad of unrequited love in the Bowiesque ‘Free Me’, also lacking verses in its overlong duration. However, length works in the favour of the boozy glam guitar of the soulful ‘David Bowie Takes My Hand’, which is studded with strange synth keys and soaked in psychedelics, ending in more strings. The final track comprises the album single, ‘Saviours Are a Dangerous Thing’, which amongst calmly combing along their traditional sound, invites the political absurdity of today’s despots into the mix. This new album, perhaps short of songs that are also at times over duration, has at its core strength the branding of that unique and so influential Chameleons sound as well as strong but gentle melodies filled with the band’s distinct guitar sound and rhythms.

‘Arctic Moon’ is available now on vinyl, CD and digitally.

Immersion – WTF?? (Swim)

Back with another album that they’ve already been touring live, husband and wife duo Colin Newman (Wire) and Malka Spigel (Minimal Compact) have produced more electronic tracks for the apocalyptic state of the modern day, hence the title of the release.

First track ‘Defiance’ is a droney drum and bass dreamscape; ‘Use it Don’t Lose It’, one of the main tracks on the album, it struts with lyrical instruction advice. A similar spoken word track is ‘Timeline’, with a constant drum kick throughout and Newman’s philosophical musings, “What’s the point of art if you don’t actually say something” clashing with “Talking over music isn’t necessarily the best way to make a point”.

’How to Be’ sees moog organ combined with Malka’s softer vocals about staying constant in times of change, also alternating with boozy guitar. There’s more organ in the existential bop of single ‘Push the Rock’, which positively talks about using art to challenge negativity. Preachy punks who still want to do their bit to change the world.

‘WTF??’ is available now on vinyl, CD and digitally.