REESE LANSANGAN, Time Well Spent
Indie folkie is a tag that has stuck with Reese Lansangan ever since her big break-out in the local indie music scene. There’s a particular audience to her kind of indie individuality who may not be thrilled, however, with the new direction Reese has taken with her latest recording.
Her new album titled “Time Well Spent” sees Reese unlocking a “changing me” which, at the very start, she can’t put a name to. Succeeding tracks like the gorgeously executed “Orbiting” and the equally exquisite “Slow Mornings” pin it down to the personal insecurities about starting and sustaining a relationship.
Further along the album, the singer-songwriter brings up new lyrical perspectives to the usual thematic arc of falling in love. It’s a way of transcending the apparent sameness of Reese’s heart concerns threaded sweetly by her velvety vocals. That said, the hour spent with the album breezes by in contented bliss.
ANA ROXANNE, Because of a Flower
Ambient musician Ana Roxanne grew up in a vibrant Filipino community in California. Her second album for experimental label Kranky interlaces her Catholic upbringing, her love for choral music and her jazz training. Then there’s her coming out as an intersex person.
The title “Because of A Flower” gives the initial impression of a love ballad collection and by the second track “A Study in Vastness,” the album unveils its overarching agenda -– a convergence of classical, jazz, new age and post-punk principally shoegaze. Then there’s an abundance of massed choral voices that sends most tracks on a celestial spiral.
A quirky bass run pops up every now and then, a heavy beat stalks the organ-fueled “Camille and watery sloshes foreground “Venus,” Ana Roxanne intelligently mixes the subtlety of human voices with the boldness of electronics in a brilliant new release.
H.E.R., Back of My Mind
Aka Gabriela Sarmiento Wilson, rising R n B sensation H.E,R, was born in California to a Filipna mother and an African American father. This year, she bagged the Grammy Award for Song of the Year with “I Can’t Breathe” and Academy Award for Best Original Song.
H.E.R. further underscored her emerging superstar status with the release of her solo debut titled “Back of My Mind.” On the whole, her new album updates the musicality of Alicia Keys by way of Ne-Yo, trafficking in poignancy over love, life, conflict and destiny.
Opener “We Made It’ hits the right spots in a kind of downtempo urban contemporary. The following titular track ups the heat a notch though it appears to draw inspiration from the first track. The third cut also feels a slighter version of the previous ones, and on down the line making the 21-track “Back of My Mind” a case of diminishing returns. A major pruning would have showcased an eclectic talent.
LIZ PHAIR, Soberish
The first surprise here is that Liz Phair is still making music and the second surprise comes from the fact that the ‘90s alt-rock icon now laces her lyrical swagger in polished pop-rock.
Take “Bad Kitty” off her new album, for instance. Over a simple acoustic treatment, Liz sings, “My pussy is a big dumb cat / It lies around lazy and fat / But when it gets a taste for a man / It goes out hunting for him anyway it can.” She reprises pairing sharp lines with catchy melodies in “Hey Lou,” a tribute to Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, and in “Spanish Doors,” where the flood of memories is buoyed by sharp hooks. You could say Liz Phair still packs great guns in her cougar phase.
WOLF ALICE, Blue Weekend
On their third and finest album by far, the 2017 Mercury prize winning foursome named Wolf Alice clinches the promise of their awesome debut. They did it not by sticking to a tried-and-trued formula but by willfully showing off their strengths in various genres.
“Lipstick On the Glass” is a pumped-up prog-rock ballad. “Long Way from Home” suggests trippy dream pop while “Play The Greatest Hits” should get you slam dancing by your lonesome. Abba meeting The Beach Boys is writ large all over “Safe From Heartbreak.”
Don’t take my colorful blah for it. Listen to “Blue Weekend” and treat yourself to a super Sunday.
GARBAGE, No Gods, No Masters
Garbage fronted by wily tart-tongued Shirley Manson finds rejuvenation in today’s pandemic-infected world. On their first album in a decade, the band revives industrial rock in all its permutations to spew lyrical fire on humanity’s foremost issues such as gender inequality, corporate rapacity, mass exploitation and false gods.
Standout tracks include the robo-funk agitation of “The Men Who Ruled The World,” the early Cure-quoting Goth punk of “Wolves,” the “Milk”-milking slow burn of “Waiting for God” and the bass-driven industrial disco of “Godhead.” It’s easy to say Garbage is regurgitating music from their youth to open old wounds. Let’s rather say they’re revisiting the past to allow us to reimagine a bolder future for the music and a better fate for humankind.