![]() ![]() Self-released 파란노을 (Parannoul): To See the Next Part of the Dream Reports of the death of rock have been greatly exaggerated: Afrique Victime is a uniquely vibrant and kinetic recording, one that proves that the future of rock music exists far beyond what any genre or geographic borders can define. Its title track is a pure thrill, detonating as Moctar’s cohort locks into a churning groove from his sung invocation and only growing wilder from there. The band charges through energetic and lightly psychedelic numbers (“Chismiten,” “Ya Habibti”), and find more knots to untangle in their quieter asides (“Asdikte Akal,” “Tala Tannam”). His solos rip like lightning bolts across a storm of melody and rhythm, with Mikey Coltun’s bass roiling in ecstatic complement. On Afrique Victime, his first release for Matador, Moctar chases lively arrangements even further while excoriating the traumatic legacy of brutal French colonialism in Africa. Since then, he’s continued to find electrified approaches to the vernacular music of his Tuareg background with uninhibited guitar. Mdou Moctar first riveted listeners as a wedding performer in his home country of Niger his live recordings circulated over shared SIM cards. It is a beautiful, adventurous album from a band who is letting their music fall into disorder and who, in doing so, have never sounded more in control. But with producer BJ Burton, Sparhawk and Parker interrupt and distort themselves, filtering their stark, psalm-like compositions through the kind of processing that makes a guitar solo squeal into feedback, or the sound from your speakers clip into static. In fact, most of the songs tease that kind of delivery: Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker’s voices arrive in unison like folk singers, stripped of effects and clear in the mix, every word audible and sung in simple, hummable melodies. It is easy to imagine any of these 10 warped, noisy pieces of music in stripped-down arrangements. Nearly 30 years into their career, Low have moved beyond simply writing great songs: They are now focused on the way those songs travel from the speakers to our ears: a strange, circuitous journey that makes HEY WHAT feel like genuinely new territory. Within Shaw is a voice of a generation distilling how it feels to be alive right now: “Do everything and feel nothing.” –Simon Reynolds It’s no coincidence that the most exciting rock record in years is about the inability to feel excitement. There’s a personal dimension to the inner emptiness (a sapping break-up), but because New Long Leg’s release coincided with the depressive pall that swept over the world thanks to lockdown, Shaw’s interiority synced up perfectly with exterior conditions. ![]() The lyrics infest your brain with quotables that reverberate for days, but more than the words it’s Shaw’s intonation that’s so funny and so heartbreaking: the grudging cadences, the way she can inject an unreadable alloy of earnestness and irony into an inanity like “I can rebuild.” The self-portrait painted here is of a burned-out shell drifting numbly through a life that senselessly accumulates irritations, humiliations, discomforts, chores, and interpersonal skirmishes, offset by the tiny comforts of Twix bars and artisanal treats. This album is not the type to be nominated for a Grammy, but it really ought to get Emmys for writing and acting. These people nailed it on Day One.One way to hear New Long Leg is as a cringe-tinged dramedy-like Fleabag or Girls-with Florence Shaw as the performer who knows exactly how to deliver her own script. You’d be surprised: The road to unimpeachable greatness is often paved with forgotten false starts. And please don’t us until you make sure your favorite band’s classic first album is actually, in fact, their first album. EPs and mixtapes were not considered, and we skipped solo debuts by artists who were already in well-known bands, which is why you won’t see John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Paul Simon, or The Chronic. With that in mind, albums got knocked down a few slots if the artist went on to far greater achievements conversely, we gave a little extra recognition to debuts that were so great you almost can’t fault the artist for not making anything as good for the rest of their career. What makes a killer debut album? First off, a sense of a band or artist arriving fully formed, ready to upend the game right at that very second. Here are the 100 greatest out-of-the-box LP statements ever. 2022 is the anniversary of some truly historic debuts - including classics by Pavement, Mary J Blige, Roxy Music, and the Clipse. ![]()
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