New Order - Waiting For The Sirens' Call

New Order - Waiting For The Sirens' Call

By

Jesse E. Mullen 

New Order spent £700,000, three years, and used nine producers making Waiting For The Sirens' Call. I'd say it was time - and money - well spent. 

The finished product has a clean, crisp, and - surprisingly - unified sound, despite its scattershot origins. Released in the spring of 2005, listeners were treated to a refinement of the kind of indiepop New Order do best. 

Stylistically, the album alternates between the three-guitar attack of "Who's Joe," "Working Overtime," and "Morning Night And Day," while also returning to New Order's gothier roots ("Dracula's Castle," "Turn.")

Lead single "Krafty" splits the difference, owing a great debt to - and taking its name  from - their heroes Kraftwerk. The blippy synthesizers and robotic rhythms would make them proud. 

The title track is possibly an even more majestic anthem, with a bold, capital B-I-G chorus. Inspired by Bernard Sumner's love of sailing, the track also deals with romantic strife and infidelity. 

Peter Hook's 4 and 6-string bass playing shines as a melodic highlight, as does Sumner's jangly rhythm guitar playing.

Upon release, reviewers seemed to have expected more from the group. I'm not sure how the album could have been better. 

Maybe they wanted a leftfield turn the way that Technique adapted acid house beats, or the surprise element of New Order's energetic comeback album, 2001's Get Ready. 

But neither would have been appropriate for the group in 2005 - the Haçienda was closed, and New Order were a fully functional band again. The stakes had been raised unfairly. 

While there are other highs to New Order's discography, Waiting For The Sirens' Call shows refined maturity for these grisled veterans that only years of woodshedding can bring. We've still never seen anyone quite like them before - to quote an earlier hit - and we probably never will.

Warner Bros./2005

Super Furry Animals – Love Kraft

 

Super Furry Animals – Love Kraft

By

Jesse E. Mullen

 

 

You’ve bought a tank and outfitted it with a sound system that blasts techno music. You’ve sampled Steely Dan to obscene proportions. You often perform in costume and recorded a track which features Paul McCartney chewing vegetables on it. Where else to go from here?

So was the story of Super Furry Animals. Up until 2005, the Cardiff quintet was led by singer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist Gruff Rhys. But for Love Kraft, Rhys decided to give democracy a try. As a result, all members – except for bassist Guto Pryce – contribute lead vocals to at least one song.

For a band with a singular vision, this is a risky proposition. Because fans had grown accustomed to Rhys’ singing and writing style, anything of lesser quality would be rejected. But Super Furry Animals were all about taking risks. And as the listener comes to find out, the risk was all worth it. 

Huw Bunford’s “Back On A Roll” has a groove reminiscent of mid-70s R&B with funky electric piano on top. One surprising aspect of the “new” songwriters is how well their voices blend in with Rhys – you’d think it was him on lead vocals if not for the liner notes.

Keyboardist Cian Ciaran contributes a lush, strings-led ballad in “Walk You Home.” The wall-of-sound production is so accurate, that one could be fooled into thinking Phil Spector produced it. 

Most surprisingly, drummer Dafydd Ieuan contributes an absolutely gorgeous ballad in “Atomik Lust.” Ieuan did not have the songwriting experience of members such as Rhys or Ciaran, nor the arranging experience of Bunford. Yet he somehow turned out the highlight of the album.

“Atomik Lust” begins with backwards strings and acoustic guitars. It is atmospheric, spacey, and is perfectly complimented by Ieuan’s lyrics about a lunar eclipse. But as the song builds, it is clear that Ieuan is not just singing about the moon, but of love. Huw Bunford contributes a guitar solo to the bridge that sounds Paul McCartney circa 1970.

Which is not to say Gruff Rhys didn’t bring his A-Game. His song “Cloudberries” is a heartfelt ballad accompanied by Ciaran’s electric piano. Not to be outdone by Ieuan, he also uses the bridge to shake things up. But instead of a triumphant solo by Bunford, he ironically uses Ieuan’s drums to build the groove. 

Some bands were never meant to be a democracy. But Love Kraft shows that for Super Furry Animals, it was an interesting way forward. Though not a late career return to form – they never lost their form – it offers something better. A progressive shakeup to the balance of the band.

XL/2005

 

Kathleen Edwards – Back To Me

 

Kathleen Edwards – Back To Me

By

Jesse E. Mullen

 

Your mid-20s are a time of identity crisis. As Ethan Hawke says to Winona Ryder in the film Reality Bites, “the only thing you have to be by the age of 23 is yourself.” But what if you don’t know who that person is or what they should be? Few artists articulate this feeling better than Kathleen Edwards.

Born in Ottawa, Ontario but raised overseas – her father was a diplomat – she began recording in 1999 with an extremely limited EP entitled Building 55. Fast forward to 2005, and Edwards released her second full-length album Back To Me coming two years after her official debut Failer.

From the first notes, Back To Me is leaps and bounds ahead of her previous work, both in terms of maturity and execution. 

While Edwards is the main voice – and the primary author of the material here – her collaborator Colin Cripps is her secret weapon. Playing lead and/or slide guitar on every track – except the solo acoustic “Away” – as well as producing, they were a musical match in heaven. Cripps’ atmospheric, creative playing perfectly compliments Edwards’ honey and grit vocals.

In “Summerlong,” Edwards – and Cripps who co-wrote it – spin a tale comparing a temporary fling to a childhood game of hide-and-seek over chiming Rickenbacker guitars. Benmont Tench of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers even shows up on the track to add gorgeous piano touches.

And in “Copied Keys” Edwards has written possibly the saddest song about feeling alone with the one you love since “Unsatisfied” by The Replacements.

Over a crying slide guitar and violin, the narrator describes her life in the starkest terms possible – her friends, her streets, and her identity no longer belong to her.  She has been treated like a piece of furniture in her partner’s apartment. When the song reaches its climax towards the end, it is a total highlight of the album – and 2000s Americana in general.

But perhaps no song is greater than opener “In State.” Over a monster riff that will be stuck in your head for days, Edwards compares a cheating lover to an outlaw – and duly threatens to turn him into the authorities. It’s the kind of song on which entire musical careers are made.

In a just world “In State” would have been a major radio hit. In fact, if it was released in 2015 rather than 2005 it very well could’ve been.

Although she predated the alt-country renaissance by a few years, Kathleen Edwards achieved the pinnacle of the genre in Back To Me.

Zoe Records/2005

 

Mark Mulcahy – In Pursuit of Your Happiness

Mark Mulcahy – In Pursuit of Your Happiness

By

Jesse E. Mullen

My favorite of Mark's solo albums. (And second favorite of all his albums - to the Polaris album.) "Cookie Jar," and "I Have Patience" are the melodic indie Mulcahy is known for at its best. Closer "He Vanished" however, is a totally different animal altogether. A slow waltz with lyrics in tribute to a fallen friend delivered in a Lou Reed speak-sing, it is my favorite Mark Mulcahy song, and one of my favorite of the 2000s. If you only buy one album by Mark, let it be this one. But you'll want more than just this.

Mezzotint/2005