April

Melvins – Thunderball (Ipepac)

Released under the name ‘Melvins 1983’, the band’s 28th studio album sees the return of founding members Buzz Osborne (vocals, guitar) and Mike Dillard (drums) collaborating on five tracks, alongside Atlanta electronic musicians Bristolian Ni Maîtres and Void Manes.

The release opens with the chocking guitar riffs of dark sludge metal track, ‘King of Rome’; a titanic, bellowing song that lives up to its name. The fire cools off for an electronic, cosmic white noise interval, ‘Vomit of Clarity’; an unusual slant on the noise rock band written by Ni Maîtres and Manes. The electronic distortion continues into the next track, ‘Short Hair with a Wig’, which alternates between stripped down, swaying drumming and vocals filled in with drilling electronic noise, and intervals of bending guitar chorals, the electronics blossoming into the open at the end.

The album reaches its peak with ‘Victory of the Pyramids’ which consists of what seems like severals songs on one track, beginning with racing guitar riffs and switching to a fast meted out grunge chant, then Osborne’s spidery guitar and a slow, chugging piece that ends in an electronic fizz. Final track ‘Venus Blood’ sees a steady drip and a winding guitar solo. Short and unsweet.

‘Thunderball’ is out now on vinyl, CD and digitally.

Gary Numan – Berserker (BMG)

The reissue of Numan’s first album release on his Numa label showcases his full artistic freedom for the first time in his solo career; its electro-funk dance tracks such as ‘Beserker’, ‘This is New Love’ and ‘The Secret’ now come with added length and remastering that breathes new life into the original 1984 album. The extended reworking sees ‘Beserker’ get a longer mid-section and ‘This is New Love’ has an enhanced synth sequence and a cool saxophone solo to end the song, with ‘The Secret’ also benefitting from an extended intro.

There are more extended tracks in the way of ‘Cold Warning Dance’, which has a new violin section, and ‘The Hunter’ with an extra synth part and further electronic effects. All in all, the album is brought up to date; rather than presenting a simple reissue, Numan is constantly reinventing his music and updating it for the current time. However, the haunting magic of ‘A Child with The Ghost’, which he wrote in tribute to his Tubeway Army co-founder Paul Gardiner, who died of a drug overdose, is understandably untouched.

The rest of the release includes ‘The White Noise’ album which was recorded live in 1984 at the penultimate show of Numan’s Berserker tour and originally released in 1985. The inclusion of it on this studio release rounds off the full experience of these songs and the commemoration of a new phase in Numan’s career as one of the most innovative artists on the scene.

‘Berserker’ is out now on double gatefold vinyl, CD and digitally.

Billy Idol – Dream Into It (Dark Horse Records)

The solo artist releases his first studio album in more than a decade. Opening on ‘Dream into It’, a chimerical song that looks back on Idol’s pop career against the reality of consequences, even after his records are still turning, it contains some nice chiming guitar and twinkling keyboards. The single ’77’ featuring Avril Lavigne is more peculiar: a pop-punk track where Idol’s own voice is overshadowed, it also has outdated lyrical references to the King’s road and Teddy Boys from his punk youth, which bears no relation to today other than a short lyrical mid-section, although the song is punchy including in a literal sense.

The singer’s other personas develop more artistically through the tracklist, such as with the post-punk guitar tones of country track ‘John Wayne’ (featuring Alison Mosshart), which sees a more sophisticated tone to Idol’s voice come through, this time conquering Mosshart’s vocals, albeit slightly dated and also with reference to a not-so-PC figure. Joan Jett dominates ‘Wildside’, a song which echos her own work, so it seems bizarre that Idol would put this on the album other than for using her as an association. Creating a production with such strong female vocalists gives the impression of a collaboration rather than solo album.

However, this being said, the album then shows a glimpse of Idol’s potential as a solo artist away from his puerile punk persona past with ‘I’m Your Hero’; an acoustic track that befits his gravely voice amongst trickles of guitar and flamenco – an outstanding song that for some reason lies towards the end of the record. The album finishes on single ‘Still Dancing’, with a near-miss guitar riff that sounds like PiL’s ‘Albatross’; unfortunately it brings back the old man vibes of being an ancient and irrelevant punk rocker. The album has great song arrangement and memorability, but is too grounded in history without any meaning for today’s world, perhaps showing the insecurity of an artist that is unable to break away from his own past.

‘Dream Into It’ is out now on coloured vinyl, CD and digitally.