It’s one thing to craft a great song, but its another skill to create a cohesive album that takes a listener on a journey.
Here’s four recently released albums that we’ve been playing at OUTinPerth HQ, new records from Cavetown, Xiu Xiu, Drama and Pet Shop Boys.
Cavetown
Running with Scissors
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
On his sixth album Robyn Skinner combines the bedroom pop sound he’s known for with the glitchy sound of hyper-pop. The album opens up with Skip, which starts as a mellow love ballad, before slowly adding layer upon layer of sound. Crytid is reminiscent of early Beck with a mix of rap lyrics, rock riffs and heavy beats, and by the time the single Rainbow Gal comes around we’re immersed in Cavetown’s sonic environment.
Rock vocals meld with the sounds of 8-bit video game soundtracks and manically paced drums. Sweet vocals and romantic lyrics and teamed up with an everchanging tapestry of morphing beats and sounds. Baby Spoon, Tarmac, NPC and Sailboat will be familiar to fans, alongside Rainbow Gal. The album has already spawned five singles, but the additional eight album tracks are equally as interesting.
Reaper opens up with magical electronic chimes before a stream of consciousness vocal arrives, and soon we’ve dived into a squelchy world of beats and squeaky voices, and its catchy as hell. No Bark No Bite is a mellower number, and the mood continues with the dreamy Micah, but the energy lifts with First Time, and the album comes to a close with the title track. This is an album that you’ll be singing along with after a few listens, and Skinner has a lovely turn of phrase with personal and observant lyrics.
Xiu Xiu
Xiu Mutha F****n’ Xiu: Vol 1
★ ★ ★ ★
Xiu Xiu have never shied away from a cover, putting their own stamp on well-known hits and obscure songs. Here they combine a series of tunes that they’ve been putting out through their subscription service over the last few years.
Since they formed in 2002 front man Jamie Stewart has been the only constant member. He’s currently joined by multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Janet Seo, whose been on the Xiu Xiu train since 2009, and percussionist David Kendrick who jumped onboard in 2022.
Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer is presented with a thumping beat, taking the distinctive vocals out of the foreground. Warm Leatherette sounds like a video game battle, the song was originally by UK outfit The Normal, but the most famous version is by Grace Jones.
Blues classic I Put a Spell On You is presented as a throbbing rock jazz hybrid, it’s tense and chaotic, and loses much of the beauty of the song that’s been sung by everyone from Annie Lennox to Bryan Ferry and Nina Simone. At least they didn’t do a carbon copy cover. Throbbing Gristle’s Hamburger Lady is a nice inclusion of the work of the late Genesis P’Orridge.
Shimmering guitars and moody and echoing vocals create a mesmerizing and dark version of Roy Orbison’s In Dreams, perfect for the soundtrack to a noir film. As the album continues Sex Dwarf by Soft Cell is tackled, songs by experimental British outfits Coil and This Heat, plus a newer work originally by US rapper GloRilla.
A highlight is their take on Robyn’s Dancing on My Own. Brooding, throbbing and dark. It recreates the sing-a-long hit as expression of angst and pain. While there’s also a beautiful rendition of Daniel Johnston’s Some Things Last a Long Time. The album signs off with a rough version of The Runaways Cherry Bomb. You’ll probably not like every tune on this compilation, but there’s some intriguing moments.
Drama
Platonic Romance
★ ★ ★
This is the third album from duo Drama that comprises vocalist Via Rosa and producer Na’el Shehade, and it dives straight into catchy disco grooves.
The album opens up with the instantly gratifying Make It Look Easy. The disco vibes continue with Oblivion, and then trips over into a deep house sound for Miss My Chance.
Rosa’s crisp vocals and matched with a perfect electronic palate of mellow dance grooves. Single Savanah which we highlighted in the Fresh Tracks column last year is a slice of summery pop perfection, while Texas City is a song lost somewhere between genres. The disco vibes return with Long Night. Here With Me and Day By Day are pleasant, while Young 4Ever is an uplifting ode to change and transformation.
On the Way is backed by a manic drum and bass beat that evokes memories of the early 2000s, but Yalla Habibi is far more interesting with symphonic electronic Arabic sounds and hypnotic vocals. After the title track, the album closes with jazz piano ballad No Pressure. It’s a pleasant album with some real highlights.
Disco 5
Pet Shop Boys
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Throughout their career Pet Shop Boys have punctuated their releases of original material with compilations of remixes, rare tunes, and occasionally new work, on their ‘Disco’ series.
The first Disco album came out in 1986, 40 years ago. Follow ups arrived in 1994, 2003 and 2007 and now after a long break – a fifth release in the series. The format changed with Disco 4 which saw the band included remixes they’d completed for other artists alongside reworkings of their own tunes. Songs from The Killers, Yoko Ono, David Bowie, Madonna and others made up the majority of the compilation.
That pattern continues on Disco 5 with remixes Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have completed for Tina Turner, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Claptone, The Hidden Cameras, Primal Scream, Paul Weller, and Wolfgang Tillman’s in the the mix.
There’s also Pet Shop Boys collaboration with Soft Cell from a few years back, their tune with Olly Alexander, and older collaborations with Sam Taylor-Johnson and Carroll Thompson. Long before she was a successful feature film director Taylor-Johnson teamed up with the duo to cover The Passions’ song I’m in Love With a German Film Star and the collaboration with Thompson first appeared on the soundtrack for the 90s film The Crying Game.
The selection has a consistent feel as Pet Shop Boys remixes tend to make artists sound like the Pet Shop Boys, its a big stamp of style. The minimalist remix of Tina Turner’s long lost track Hot For You Baby is one of the duos most impressive offerings. The album signs off with Sleaford Mods doing a cover of Pet Shop Boy’s breakout hit West End Girls – remixed by the duo – bringing things full circle.
This is a great compilation, but with the band still putting out amazingly good tunes on their most recent albums, it bereft of their own music. Hopefully Disco 6 might come soon and give us a mix of great tunes from the six albums the duo has put out since they last took us to the ‘Disco’ world.
