Rock

HiFi Sean and David McAlmont
Twilight
Plastique Recordings FAKE137CD; LP: FAKE137

In 2024 the duo released the upbeat, primary coloured Daylight, but its sister album Twilight is characterised by crepuscular moods. The title track features a panorama of Sean’s synths and percussion – and also has great depth – and McAlmont’s evocative falsetto soars above the rain and city lights described on ‘Uptown/Downtown’. On ‘Sorry I Made You Cry’ he is contrite, wondering, over thick synth chords, ‘Can we blame it on the moon eclipsing?’. There’s a seductive dream-like atmosphere throughout as hypnagogic visions are fashioned into cosmic soul tunes. These range in mood from the electronic ebb and flow of the single ‘Star’ to the buoyant grooves, wah-wah guitar and vocal chorales of ‘High With You’. MB

Sound Quality: 90%

Bartees Strange
Horror
4AD 4AD0746CD; LP: 4AD0746LP

Horror finds Strange coming to terms with all the weirdness that life has thrown at him and trying to achieve some kind of catharsis. To complement his lyrics, the English-born American guitarist and singer winds back and reviews all the music that has fed into his singular style. Strange has catholic tastes and constructs songs from elements of hip-hop, rock and funk and there’s an ’80s pop feel to the anthemic choruses of ‘Sober’. He introduces a hint of country via the dolorous steel guitars of ‘Baltimore’ and skittering electronic beats and spacey synthetics run through ‘Doomsday Buttercup’. It’s a multifaceted, inventive and compelling set. MB

Sound Quality: 80%

Edvard Graham Lewis
Alreet?
Upp UPP003CD; LP: UPP003

In his extra-curricular projects, Wire’s bass guitarist, lyricist and vocalist Graham Lewis has carried on that group’s love of reinvention and experimentation, from the electronic pop of his He Said alias to the avant-garde sound designs of Dome. Here he combines those styles to dazzling effect. On the love song ‘Switch’, he intones his capricious, cryptic lyrics in a rich baritone redolent of early Scott Walker, over guitars, electronic percussion and a soundscape teeming with detail. His vocals are multi-tracked on the twitchy, claustrophobic, ‘Key Weapon’ and the album concludes with ‘Who The Hell’, a widescreen ballad of bleak, windswept grandeur. MB

Sound Quality: 80%

The Delines
Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom
Decor DECOR70CD; LP: DECOR70LP

The Delines are guitarist, songwriter and novelist Willy Vlautin, formerly of country rockers Richmond Fontaine, and vocalist Amy Boone. Each song feels like a novella. Vlautin’s lyrics are in the style of Americana-noir, chronicling marginal characters and misfits, people ‘on a different frequency’. ‘JP & Me’ is a tale of a woman who disappears from a motel with her violent lover’s money, with a subtle band performance and glowing horn section – Boone imbues it with regret and melancholia rather than outlaw cliché. ‘Maureen’s Gone Missing’ is enlivened by Burt Bacharach-style brass and the hope that she might have escaped to a better place. MB

Sound Quality: 85%