Here’s four recently released albums that we’ve been playing at OUTinPerth HQ.
Tori Amos is battling demon lizards, Melanie C is ready to make us sweat, Kasey Musgraves has a huge slice of Americana, and Octo Octa has a retro dance album.
Tori Amos
In Times of Dragons
★ ★ ★ ★
Tori Amos is back with her new album, the eighteenth of her career, and its an epic 17 track opus. For this new album Amos envisaged a story about a woman escaping to the southern states of the USA to escape a billionaire lizard demon who is her husband, she’s described it as a story about democracy battling tyranny that echoes the times we live in.
Dark and moody, filled with the singers distinctive vocals, and lyrics about lizard demons and their sadistic companions, it begins sounding entirely like what you expect from a Tori Amos album. Then half way through the title track – the second cut on the album – it switches up to a buoyant and pop sounding chorus. Tori has some sonic surprises in store to keep us on our toes.
Track by track Tori encapsulates us into the world she’s created, each song giving a subtle change in sound. Provincetown is chamber pop, St Teresa is ethereal and bluesy, Gasoline Girls is filled with rollicking piano, while Ode to Minnesota is sprawling and eerie, then suddenly Fanny Faudrey arrives and it’s almost music hall sing-a-long.
Highlights on the album include Song of Sorrow , Flood – which sounds a little like Philip Glass – and the bold Angelshark. If you love Tori Amos, you’re going to be thrilled with the deep dive into her world.
Melanie C
Sweat
★ ★ ★
Melanie C has been releasing a steady stream of high‑quality dance tracks from her new album over the last six months. It opens with the title track, which heavily samples the Diana Ross tune Work That Body, and the dance party continues with the latest single Drum Machine before running into the excellent What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Til It Breaks is a more sedate turn, but we’re quickly back in upbeat pop territory with Pressure and Emotional Memory. Things get funkier with Attitude, and Good for Nothing keeps the energy high. Undefeated Champion is one of the album’s highlights, Free to Love is an anthem, and album closer Flick of the Wrist is delightfully camp.
Melanie C’s ninth album is a solid collection of tracks that work well together, and it shows she remains the strongest performer from the Spice Girls camp. With nine albums now under her belt, she’s well ahead of Emma Bunton’s four albums, Geri Halliwell’s three, Mel B’s two and Victoria Beckham’s single record. Sweat isn’t breaking new ground sonically, but it’s an enjoyable listen.
Kasey Musgraves
Middle of Nowhere
★ ★ ★ ★
After a sojourn into pop territory with her more recent records Kasey Musgraves returns to a definite country sound on her seventh record Middle of Nowhere.
This collection is filled with story telling, confessions and declarations, and an unmistakable country sound. The title track, which opens the record, drops us deep into the Americana sound of slide guitars and twangy vocals.
Lead single Dry Spell is a humorous tune filled with a declaration of frustration over a lack of a sex life, it’s instantly catchy and you’ll be singing along in no time to it’s many permutations of inuendo. Back On The Wagon is a classic country love song, while I Believe in Ghosts has a guitar line which will leave you constantly craving and wondering what it reminds you of, but it’s an engrossing tune none the less. Abilene is a great storytelling tune about leaving a small town.
“I’m getting better at being alone” Musgraves sings on Loneliest Girl, it’s not so much about heartbreak but about embracing independence in the wake of the death of a romance.
Everyone Wants to Be a Cowboy is the first of three collaborations the are clustered together in the middle of the album. For this track Musgraves teams up with singer Billy Strings. Miranda Lambert guests on Horses and Divorces, and country legend Willie Nelson appears for Uncertain, TX.
The country vibes are so strong on this record you’ll be wanting to get a horse of your own by the time you make it to the closing track. The album closer Hell On Me is a heartbreaking ode to moving on from a failed relationship.
Octo Octa
Sigils for Survival
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
This is the first album from Octo Octa in seven years and it’s a trip to a rave that draws on familiar sounds. If knights know each others houses by their banners, maybe you can recognise dance music by its samples.
“Right Here, Right Now” calls out a vocal on First Intention (Right Here, Right Now), and it’s impossible not to think of Fatboy Slim’s own call to come and party. Here it’s given an equally uplifting backdrop of breakbeats, scratches and gradually rising euphoric vibes.
Many of the tracks on this album clock in over five and half minutes, the longest is a full 10-minute journey, allowing to be swallowed up by the sounds of each song, like being lost on a dancefloor. Keep on Pressing On bubbles along with a chanting vocal, while Just Listen has a shuffling beat and the sound which makes you feel like someone just dropped Erasure’s entire back catalogue on you. Again a familiar vocal sample links us to dance hits of the past.
Hypnotic Cycle immediately lives up to its title, it’s mesmerising. Cut-up and echoing vocals are played over a repetitive beat, while a metallic reverb bounces in your ears. …To The Divinity of Gay Sex dabbles in ambient and new age sounds, it’s the album’s most mellow moment. Soon we’re back on the dance floor with Rituals to Exist and Connect it starts buoyant but a jungle beat gives intensity and a spooky vocal arrives deep into the composition. Survival Groove includes the Moby “Go” sample and calls to “Feel It” – this one wears its influences on it’s sleeve.
Octo Octa leaves us with a short tune, album closer Eighth Intention (Turn the Wheel) is a moment of comedown as we return to our regular programming, and a final poem noting “ten years of finally living life, a fight to conjure more.” It’s meaning is open to interpretation, but it’s a decade since Maya Bouldry-Morrison, the musician behind the moniker came out as being transgender. May we have much more of this retro uplifting dance goodness – and a world that embraces everyone.
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