Allie X: Girl with No Face
Ontario-born singer who in the mid-2010s seemed to have a stardom shot as a kind of Dark Carly. That moment’s passed, but with funding secured by renting BTS a song, she’s reinvented herself with 2020’s Cape God and even moreso this album as a genuine nichepop weirdo, making Gothic electro for critics and the art-damaged who want tunes to go with the eyeliner and dysmorphia. While her self-production upturns few novelties, her beats’ insistence evokes a New Order-like indomitability, as her Linndrums keep kicking through illness and figurative-I-think-thank-fjuck abuse and her naturopath getting amnesia. And whatever gloss is lost, it’s hard to imagine the darkest of Carlies singing something called “Off with Her Tits” and making it more mordant than “Detachable Penis”. (“Off with Her Tits”, “Galina”, “Black Eye”)
CMAT: Crazymad, for Me
I didn’t rush to judge this because If My Wife New took perseverance. Six months later, I’ve still yet to calibrate the extent to which she was joking about this being a concept album about building a time machine to extract her younger self from bad relationships. What it sounds like is an album about a breakup and maybe watching too much TV, spattered with plenty of self-flagellation. If she has verbal ironies here beyond the occasional decent joke, they’re too subtle for me, and her faux-glam musical ironies are dialed back (she claims Meat Loaf; I wish) until “Have Fun!” right at the end. Until then, there are songs, sung weirdly, clever, not unprecedented. Not for me, but no permanent damage done, and her latest song suggests some progress: it’s about being drunk and depressed in Paris! (“Have Fun!”, “Stay for Something”, “Where Are Your Kids Tonight?”)
Indigo de Souza: All of This Will End
Still not someone I relate to much: “You can be a dick to me/That’s what I’m used to.” The synths sweeten the taste of blood, however, and her straight-faced sincerity is easier to take now that she’s a little more analytical about it (the lyric I quoted isn’t exactly delivered with approval.) The catchiest track is “Smog”, where she claims “you can’t make this shit up” about dissociating while lawnmowing; the limits of her imagination notwithstanding, it proves the extent of her integrity that at no point did I think this was pure fiction. The track I relate to least is the one where she claims “I really love the water”; that one’s on me. (“Smog”, “The Water”, “Parking Lot”)
Kabza De Small & Mthunzi: Isimo
The best news for listeners who don’t listen to every multihour epic the King of Amapiano transmits is that this is a mere 68 minutes. The second-best news is that having singer-songwriter Mthunzi deliver most of the vocals means there’s songs and sonic unity, though note the hit single is “Imithandazo” ft. Young Stunna, DJ Maphorisa, Sizwe Alakine & Umthakathi Kush. Distant third is that Kabza is reasonably engaged, reserving some cool sounds for the back half (even if it’s just a few more microtweaks on the log drum donk.) Still, “Imithandazo” gives you 60% of the idea in six minutes (four for the video mix); manage your time as you see fit. (“Imithandazo”, “Bonga”, “Impumelelo”)
Low Cut Connie: Art Dealers
Still a great live act and a very good studio act. The sleaze is pro forma at this point, and Adam Weiner’s falsetto holds up for somewhat less than a full ballad. But he and longtime right-hand person Will Donnelly still piano/guitar-rock out like few others, and the backing vocals (by NYC duo Susu, among others) deepen the arrangements. And when he puts the right set of minor chords together, he evokes nocturnal America if not with the grandeur of Bruce then at least as vividly as Christopher Cross. When you get caught between the moon and the Jersey suburbs, why not roll around in the world’s largest glitter factory and see how you shine? (“Take Me to the Place”, “Call Out My Name”, “The Party’s Over”)
Sahra Halgan: Hiddo dhawr
Fourth album, after a debut that’s disappeared, 2015’s Faransiskiyo Somaliland which I loved, and a follow-up I missed. “Sharaf”, the opener on this one, rocks okay, with a catchy-annoying keyboard line. Much of the rest is competent-plus, at least to someone without translations handy, with Halgan bending notes agreeably and her band trying not to sound too Francophone, though there’s only so much said keyb player can do. The record’s strongest when it gets away from both Europe and mainline Afropop soup, as with the spare title track and the strangely boppy “Magool”. (“Magool”, “Hiddo dhawr”, “Sharaf”)
Slipmami: Malvatrem
Rio baile-trapper, technically fine, controversial naturalmente, not original but at least with a capability of expressing excitement from time to time that’s uncommon in her North American peers (not going to speculate on intercontinental differences in drug scenes that might be responsible for this.) Apart from the lascivious hit “Oompa Loompa”—warning to fellow red state public employees: do not use a work computer to Google “bucetão imenso”—the long middle stretch of the album is high-generic in a genre I have some time for when it’s not grotesque, and I’ll make the shaky assumption that it isn’t. The most interesting tracks, if not always the most convincing ones, are when producer Leo Justi goes semi-Skrillex on the opener and when he calls back to historic provocations like crunk and metal towards the end. (“Malvatrem”, “Acha Que a Vida é um Morango”, “8X5”)
Sona Jobarteh: Badinyaa Kumoo (2022)
One of the bigger Afroroots breakouts of recent years, I played this once when it came out and thought it was begging too hard for a Guardian profile (“She explains why she ripped up the rules – and is now remodelling African education”—well good for her, genuinely.) I had better luck retrying once the hype died down. First and foremost a kora player, she sings well enough, and I have no complaints about the fast ones other than that they’re outnumbered by the non-fast ones. Somehow Songlines, for their part, claims she isn’t fusion when the guest sax player is literally the guy on “I Will Always Love You”. Thankfully there’s more productive fusing with the likes of Uncle Youssou, with whom she has an mbalaxy good time. A real talent, and we’ll see if I want to skip half the tracks next time. (“Kambengwo”, “Gambia”, “Musolou”)
The Streets: The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light
Soundtrack to a movie written by, directed by, and starring Mike Skinner (playing “Mike”, a musician) that doesn’t have the five votes necessary for an IMDB rating. Can’t say I tried to follow the murder mystery, but if you’ve loved at least two Streets albums, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t like this. He still has clever-dumb rhymes about, what else, English masculinity (“social media”/“local dealer”), accompanied by the usual nearly catchy bleepery, plus an archaic cornet sample on the title track. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume he’s still a better musician than filmmaker. (“The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light”, “Kick the Can”, “Each Day Gives”)