RECORD REVIEWS
Spoon
Album: “Hot Thoughts”
Grade: A
Spoon’s “Hot Thoughts” is raw, sinewy and often danceable, the band charging into its ninth album with a cruder and more experimental approach.
Instruments hardly sound the same from track to track but blend seamlessly, expanding into a wide space that rocks in a modern way while respecting valuable traditions — solid grooves and an economy of arrangements.
“Hot Thoughts” leans heavily on ’70s dance vibes and Alex Fischel’s wide array of keyboards. “Do I Have to Talk You Into It” features a dryly reverberating, John Bonham-like snare played by Jim Eno as the distortion on fellow founding member Britt Daniel’s voice underlines the exasperation of “feeling cut off from everyone.”
“I Ain’t the One” features a Prince drum sound and bursts of vocal harmonies that accentuate the loneliness of someone who may have been a contender but has little of anything left to draw from. Rob Pope’s bass propels “Shotgun,” which sounds like a harsher twin of Kiss’ “I Was Made for Loving You,” a bad-boy memoir with violence tempered by concerns over health insurance.
—Pablo Gorondi, Associated Press
Adult.
Album: “Detroit House Guests”
Grade: B
Adult. — the husband-and-wife team of Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller — have gained a level of reverence among the notoriously fickle fans within the broad spectrum of electronic music. Their bleak, spare style honed over two decades might be summed up by the titles of two previous releases: “Anxiety Always” and “Let’s Feel Bad Together.” It’s music to dance to while having a nervous breakdown.
After receiving a Knight Foundation grant in 2014, Adult. (yes the period belongs there) decided to get out of their comfort zone as a duo and invite some friends for an extended stay at their Michigan headquarters. The result is “Detroit House Guests,” a vigorously unsettling collaborative album that plays to their strengths while meeting new challenges presented by the varied guests — a who’s who of experimental artists.
On the hypnotic “We Are a Mirror,” Douglas McCarthy of British electro veterans Nitzer Ebb trades mantra-like verses with Kuperus as the song builds to a kaleidoscope of pulsating beats and effects. Even the calmer numbers, like “Breathe On” and “As You Dream” featuring Swans’ Michael Gira, are suffused with a volatility and uneasiness.
—Christopher Weber, Associated Press
Peter Mulvey
Album: “Are You Listening?”
Grade: B+
Peter Mulvey is fond of alternate guitar tunings, and alternate sequencing. On his 17th and latest album, “The Last Song” is the third of 13 songs. “Song After the Last Song” comes eight songs later, just before the last song. This singer-songwriter marches to his own drum, even when there isn’t one, and he has found a simpatico producer in Ani DiFranco, who helps “Are You Listening?” deliver plenty of clever twists.
Mulvey quotes Chekhov, and then recites his own poem. There are few instrumental breaks, even though he (Mulvey, not Chekhov) is a marvelous guitarist. But Todd Sickafoose does play a lovely bass solo.
The tunes tackle the topical, from bullying (“Just Before the War”) to Trayvon Martin (”Which One Were You?).
—Steven Wine, Associated Press