Anna von Hausswolff: Dead Magic
It's rare that the album with the 16-minute track is more bright and pretty than the one without, that seems to run counter to the unspoken rules of record-making. But such is the case with Anna von Hausswolff's Dead Magic, the follow up to 2015's absolutely incredible The Miraculous. From the very first track, the sublime "The Truth, The Glow, The Fall", Dead Magic mostly avoids the suffocating terror of The Miraculous, in favor of more open, dreamy soundscapes, still led by von Hausswolff's stunning organ playing. It's not all shimmery beauty, of course; lead single "The Vanishing of Electra" is led by a huge, rhythmic organ line that recalls more of von Hausswolff's previous work, but the 16-minute centerpiece "Ugly and Vengeful" is anything but, as waves of astounding, almost religious beauty crash over the listener for its duration. If The Miraculous felt a bit like a compilation of Jarboe's best work with Swans, than Dead Magic is from an alternate universe where Jarboe fronted Angels of Light, too.
Jonny Shitbag & the Smokes: You Could Not Have Given the Slightest of Fucks
Let's face it: you already know, deep within your psyche, exactly what this record sounds like. The name Jonny Shitbag & The Smokes conjures very specific sonic beats in the human brain, and when you sit down to give You Could Not Have Given the Slightest of Fucks a spin, you'll discover that what you expected is perfectly borne out by Mr. Shitbag's performance. And it's glorious! Puerile, immature, sassy, and incredibly catchy, Jonny and his Smokes offer us an ultra-catchy, Swell Maps- or early Supergrass-style of bratty, slightly cracked pop. No song lasts longer than is totally necessary, the whole album goes by in a rush of pure attitude. But Jonny has such a way with popcraft; hidden under the grungy effluvia, every song is such a well-designed nugget of sound. And on the rare times the band slows down just a bit, such as on album highlight "Kevin", there's really a surprising beauty that was hidden under all that sneering posturing. Thank you Mr. Shitbag, and thank you Smokes, for this wonderful mess.
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