Capsule Reviews: Records Released on May 10, 2019
May 13, 2019 | by No Recess! Staff
Every Wednesday we're rounding up the NR! staff for a healthy handful of capsule record reviews released the previous Friday. Check out this installment with record releases from May 10, 2019.
A.A. Bondy Enderness
(Fat Possum)
Grade: B+
It’s been almost a decade since the Louisiana native’s last project Believers (2011), so you better believe he’s got something to say. Though Enderness introduces new toys to the Bondy experience — namely gooey, analog synths and simple drum machines — this still feels like folk music to me. Plainspoken, direct, and unflinching, Enderness tells rich, affecting stories that run the gamut from lighthearted looks at modern culture (“Diamond Skull”), addiction (“Fentanyl Freddy”), and loss, which is crushingly chronicled on “#Lost Hills,” a doleful reflection on the California wildfires that burned down his home last year. – Daniel Alvarez
Watch the video for "Images of Love" below and buy Enderness here
Charly Bliss
Young Enough
(Barsuk)
Grade: C+
Young Enough, the sophomore full-length from Brooklyn's Charly Bliss, finds singer Eva Hendricks and company (with the help of veteran producer Joe Chiccarelli) moving in a direction more akin to late-2000s Metric than 90s Breeders. Young Enough's best moments occur when the band is stepping on the accelerator, especially on tracks like "Under You" and "Hard to Believe.” Unfortunately, due mostly to the meandering "Fighting In the Dark," the blasé "Bleach," and the overly long and underwhelming title track, the album loses its peppy charm halfway in and never completely recovers. – Andy Mascola
Watch the video for "Capacity" below and buy Young Enough here
Clinic
Wheeltappers and Shunters
(Domino)
Grade: B
It’s been seven years, ladies and gentlemen, since their last LP but there’s been no apparent loss of momentum for Clinic. They’re still weird, catchy, hard to ignore, and still spend a lot of money on vintage gear. The vocal delivery is wonderfully subdued, and the music is understated, but things slag by the time “Be Yourself/Year of the Sadist” hits as they dip into dreamy textures and lazy beats… if only they’d cut loose every once in a while and start hitting harder. Oh well, as it stands, Wheeltappers and Shunters is another strong addition to their fascinating catalog. – Andrew K. Lau
Watch the video for "Laughing Cavalier" below and buy Wheeltappers and Shunters here
Craig Leon
Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 2: The Canon
(RVNG Intl)
Grade: A
Seven droning, primal, snake-charming, synth tracks by legendary composer/producer Craig Leon. The second volume of such musical outreach projects, this one has something to do with the Dogon tribe from Mali who worship alien creatures from the star Sirius B. Uh-huh, sounds very interesting, but that kind of intellectual heaviness is beyond me as I’m having enough trouble dealing the fact this guy has worked with Suicide and Pavarotti. AOIFM V2 is top-notch ambient jams from the mind of someone who knows what they’re doing. But don’t trust me, trust Craig Leon. – Andrew K. Lau
Watch the video for "Standing Crosswise in the Square" below and buy Vol. 2: The Canon here
Defeater
Defeater
(Epitaph)
Grade: B-
The fifth studio album from emotional hardcore mainstays Defeater doesn’t break from what these Bostonians have always done. However, a few records have passed that felt a little like phoning it in (Abandoned, Letters Home), though serious fans wouldn’t fault them for it. Defeater return with a self-titled concept album (a man finding his way home through wars) after a four-year break and came up with a furious, grief-filled album that harkens back to their old hardcore heart. – Jocelyn Hoppa
Watch the video for "The Worst of Fates" below and buy Defeater here
Dora Bleu
Fascism’s Intimacy
(Drawing Room)
Grade: C+
It might be difficult to know where a modern guitar and vocal composition record stands within one’s daily listening habits. Experimental, shadowy, sparse, atmospheric guitar workings (with the added love of Mark Ribot) are rattled with tense lyrics regarding “intimacy as the place where the capitalist war state replenishes itself.” This is heady, artful stuff, verging on melodic but there’s a lot of discord too. Save this one for when you’re performing witchcraft in an attempt to bind our corrupt government from doing harm. – Jocelyn Hoppa
Watch the video for "Calculations Unknown" below and buy Fascism's Intimacy here
