In No Particular Order: 4 Must-Hear Albums About Recovery & Discovery (6/12/20)
Here we are once again.
It’s Friday, and I have four stellar albums that should be on your radar. You’ll thank me later.
This week, I’ll explore the pain-stricken mind of UK multi-instrumentalist Jack Garratt, the pain-stricken hand of alt-rock songwriter Mondo Cozmo, the world travelling house producer Clap! Clap!, and up and coming teenage songwriter Sammy Brue.
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Jack Garratt – Love, Death & Dancing
8/10
Indie alternative singer-songwriter
After his impressive 2016 debut Phase, UK multi-instrumentalist Jack Garratt stepped back from music for three years. It was an unexpected move considering his Brits Choice Award win and his growing acclamation in his home country. But this bright beginning turned into a brutal self-reflection that left Garratt hating his music and dealing with crippling anxiety and self-doubt. His mind had turned against him and during a trip to the NYC with his fiancée at Christmas, something hit him:
“Somehow, in the middle of all this joy…all these things I’d wanted to do, with the woman I love, this overwhelming thought came into my head. It was the first time I’d ever truly contemplated suicide. I was so taken with this moment, within the joy that I was feeling; that still, despite that, this arrow was able to find a way through it all and hit me, directly, square between the eyes. I just broke down. No love for myself existed in that moment. It was just all self-loathing.”
But as is the case with many artists, this sparked something within Jack: Love, Death, & Dancing, a no-holds barred collection of painful honesty and breathtaking catharsis that acts both as a musical journal and a proclamation of self-acceptance.
He begins to open up about his anxiety and the looming pressure of success on the bitter-sweet banger “Better”: “Oh, if I can take something / To make me feel better than I’m feeling now / Then everything else will work itself out / Everything else will work itself out / Oh, if I can swallow something / Then people might like me better when I choke it down / And everything else will work itself out”. This self-destructive chorus is soundtracked by one of the biggest hooks on the album, dancing away the insecurities before moving into the solemn “Doctor Please”. It comes across as a denser James Blake song, swapping layered electronic textures for Garratt’s stunning tenor singing about his mental health: “What if I’m not worthy enough to love you back? / But you say it’s fine not to be okay”.
This freehearted lyricism is what separates Garratt from his past and showcases his willingness to put everything into his music. “Why is not enough to be fine?” he asks on lead single “Time”, a question that reflects both his mental health and need for his career to constantly improve as his looping production crescendos into an explosive dance number.
Most of the album touches on his mental health struggles over the past few years, but he has moments about heartbreak on “Mend A Heart”, facing temptation on “Mara”, and even racial injustice on “Only the Bravest”, but they fall short compared the rest of the track list. His strongest performances are when he is most vulnerable and profound, such as the aforementioned hits, along with the self-doubting “Circles” or the mask of confidence of “Get In My Way”.
While Garratt’s ability to be so candid in his writing takes centerstage on the release, it cannot be forgotten that his multi-instrumentalist and production talents shine especially bright on Love, Death & Dancing. On his debut, Garratt found himself using the hair-raising builds and crashes of house beats and the gamut of shockwave bass lines and high-octave synthesizers and guitars to create euphoric musicality.
But Love, Death & Dancing seems to have replaced the need for showmanship and artful deception with intent and musical synergy. Emotion and power are created from his explicit openness that accentuates the vividness of his music in a whirlwind of emotion and dopamine-releasing production. He is even able to create a similar sensation doing the complete opposite: quietly crooning from an aged upright on “She Will Lay My Body On The Stone”.
Love, Death & Dancing will make you want to dance, breath deeply, and cry. Sometimes all at once.
You can hear “Better” and more of my favourite new releases on my Starting Line-Up Spotify playlist.
Mondo Cozmo – New Medicine
7/10
Alternative rock/Singer-songwriter
After the success of his 2017 album Plastic Soul, Josh Ostrander hit the road for a solid year, making the most of tour with countless interviews, performances, and whatever media spots he could get his hands on. Suddenly, he was met with exhaustion as he reached his end and had break down that involved him breaking his hand through a glass door. Four hours of surgery, a cast, and eventually numbness in his hand followed the bloody fallout.
But what sounds like a disaster turned into a therapeutic reconstruction of Ostrander’s sound and himself. While taking antibiotics during his recovery, he felt as if the medicine was helping him write the songs that seemed to be flowing out, hence the title New Medicine. Regardless of if it was the meds or not, the new album has a vim and vigour that feels and sounds unstoppable.
His twangy alternative rock sound found a new soul on New Medicine, incorporating heavier riffs and infusing more electronic into his rock energy. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club guitarist Peter Hayes and drummer Leah Shapiro contributed their talents to the record, with “Black Cadillac”, “Come On” and “Mercy” having a familiar BRMC energy of country backroads as the guitars blast through the dust.
“Upside Down”, one of the album’s lead singles is where Ostrander truly shines. It’s a cynical party anthem, embracing the chaos in the world with a colourful chorus and funk-infused rock spirit as he sings “Everything is upside down”.
Ostrander repents his mistakes on the apologetic ballad “It Fills The Room”, illustrating his frustration with himself as one of the album’s few slow-burners alongside “Cigarettes (Age of Innocence)” which brings the album to a resounding close.
New Medicine has Ostrander picking himself up and wiping off the blood, shaping his sound to match his new found soul. It’s energy is almost inescapable (aside from a few album fillers), but the songs that hit certainly shatter the glass.
Notable tracks: “Black Cadillac” // “Upside Down” // “Mercy”
Sammy Brue – Crash Test Kid
7/10
Alternative rock/Singer-songwriter
Releasing your sophomore studio album at 18 is frustratingly impressive. Not because he can’t even order a beer to celebrate, but because he’s well beyond his years and has things, for the most part, figured out. Ogden, Utah native Sammy Brue knew what he wanted to do with his life before his 16th birthday, dropped out of school (he was still homeschooled), and devoted his life to music.
On Crash Test Kid, the wisdom and confidence that usually hits in your mid-to-late 20’s is blared out of the speakers by a teenager. “Die Before You Live”, “Teenage Mayhem”, and “Crash Test Kid” are just the tip of the iceberg of Brue’s matured songwriting, making the coming-of-age years feel more like a mid-life crisis. Inspiration from James Bay, Jake Bugg, and even hints of Nirvana come through on the album, modernizing his childhood influences of Bob Dylan and Justin Townes Earl. Album closer “Paint It Blue” has him at his most sincere and fully-formed, incorporating southern twang into a song about heartbreak.
Of course, not everything is a hit: “Fishfoot” and “Skatepark Doomsday Blues” have a youthful energy to them (naturally), showing his age and drooping the sincerity of the album, and “Pendulum Thieves” is a sappy song that slips into the track list almost unnoticed. But fortunately for Brue, he has given himself one hell of a head start.
Notable tracks: “Gravity” // “Teenage Mayhem” // “Paint It Blue”
Clap! Clap! – Liquid Portraits
7.5/10
Electronic/Experimental House
While visual artists use lines and shapes to create art, Italian producer Cristian Crisci, better known as Clap! Clap!, uses sound. Oh his newly released third album Liquid Portraits, Crisci melts together analog field recordings and digital soundscapes to form a variety of songs that are inspired by his travels and relationships. The result is a swirling paint stroke of international musical influences: Japanese Koto music on the trap style “Hokkaido’s Farewell Portrait”, Arabic frame drum on heavy bass track “Southern Dub”, Asian-Reggaeton dance grooves on the vibrant “Mandragora”, and African drums on the eccentric “Blue Flower”. The blurred melding of international borders gives Liquid Portraits an intoxicating unpredictability and unique experimental spirit.
While the origin and inspiration for each track varies heavily, the club and house production never lets go. The four-to-the-floor beats keep the listener grounded for the majority of the record, capturing the nomadic youthfulness of underground clubs and expansiveness of the world.
Notable tracks: “Liquid Mantra” // “Mandragora” // “Moving On”
