Sleaford Mods
Eton Alive
ON PAPER, Sleaford Mods should be laughed out of the record company meeting rather than staring down the barrel of yet more commercial success.
Their verbal delivery would not be out of place at a Nottinghamshire school talent show for the dads. The accompaniment – similar to the 'demo mode' setting on a Fisher Price keyboard, teamed with a kazoo and tinny electronic bleeps – could be dismissed as similarly amateurish.
But on Eton Alive, the genre-dodging duo's latest record, the sound tessellates with lyrics about kebabs, dog muck, sportswear brands, and, erm, circumcisions, to form an intoxicating cocktail of tales from Britain in 2019.
"Take me away from it," lead singer Jason Williamson growls with increasing intensity on Top It Up, a refrain which underlines the themes throughout the album.
The Sleafords' sound is not for everyone – as sonic forebear Kid Carpet's disappearance into relative obscurity testifies – but it has never been more relevant.
9/10
Ryan Hooper
Lily & Madeleine
Canterbury Girls
CANTERBURY Girls is named after Canterbury Park in their hometown of Indianapolis but the album from sisters Lily and Madeleine Jurkiewicz has charms befitting the beloved English cathedral town.
Their fourth record is an indie/folk/pop trip through songs exploring what it means to be a woman in the 21st century. It's full of relatable lyrics, like "I don't need this to feel, like I've become something real, your beautiful eyes and your blank stare, I can't make myself care" in opener Self Care, very much entrenched in the self-care movement for millennials.
This isn't the lightest, fluffiest album in terms of subject matter, but it's as easy-listening as could be thanks to genuinely beautiful production from Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk, who also produced Kacey Musgraves' Grammy–winning LP Golden Hour.
The record almost flows as one long track, the sisters' voices harmonising without fault over catchy, unchallenging tunes. Some songs are lullaby-like, such as Circles, to-ing and fro-ing with a familiar sound, their sing-song vocals twinkling over the excellent instrumentation.
Pachinko Song is one of the peppier efforts, punctuated with the odd lyrical F-bomb, shocking you out of a comfortable stupor. Other highlights are the poignant Bruises and album closer Go, a melodic masterpiece.
8/10
Lucy Mapstone
Peter Bjorn and John
EPBJ (ep)
THE Swedish trio, best known for their whistle-tinged hit Young Folks, are back with a mini collection of three songs that were recorded during the same sessions as their most recent album Darker Days.
A brief but satisfying foray through the indie pop rockers' softer, more introspective side, the EP kicks off with the gentle, soothing Bones. Darker Days then makes the listener sit up straight with its moreish thudding beat before their distinguishable harmony of voices and quirky instrumentation comes in. The EP's final track Saying Goodbye is a meandering ballad with deeper tones.
As with many EPs, this effort leaves you begging for more. Just another seven or eight tracks would do it, thanks.
8/10
Lucy Mapstone
Emilie Kahn
Outro
THE coming-of-age album. It's a trope often explored but not often got right. Hormonal traumas? Devastating heartbreak? It's fertile territory for solid songwriting. Montreal harpist and singer Emilie Kahn just about steps up to the challenge on her sophomore album Outro.
It's a work that tackles the neurosis of entering the adult world, executed with a deft feel for when to step back and let the songs do the talking. Three years since the release of her debut album 10,000 as Emilie & Ogden (Ogden reportedly being her harp), Khan is a different songwriter and her music a different beast: electronic stabs of swung melody and rhythm now punctuate, as on Will You?, with Kahn straying into the fertile territory inhabited by the likes of Billie Eilish.
When her voice soars, it hints at the raw power of Lorde; when she whispers it sounds more unique. We hear Kahn emerging from the rough seas of her teenage years. Each heartbreak is magnified into something ineffable and ghastly, and each moment of adolescent confusion transformed into some earth-rending quake.
Outro is an album that charts the horror and hope of that voyage.
8/10
Alex Green
