New albums we listened to this week
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Fun Home, These New Puritans, Katy B and Kid Cudi.
Fun Home | B+
Composer Jeanine Tesori follows up her celebrated musical Caroline, or Change with the sensitive Fun Home (PS Classics), adapted from Alison Bechdel’s graphic-novel memoir about coming out in college, just before her closeted father took his life. Librettist Lisa Kron supplies sharp lyrics to the actresses portraying Alison as a child, 19-year-old and adult, and Broadway vets Michael Cerveris and Judy Kuhn are superb as the tortured dad and mom.
—Andrew Milner
These New Puritans | A
Save the occasional volley of intricate drumming, Field of Reeds (Infectious/PIAS) bears zero resemblance to These New Puritans’ jittery 2008 debut. The frenetic guitars are eclipsed by contrapuntal piano and topiary thickets of horn and woodwind, and Jack Barnett’s Mark E. Smith bark has been modulated into a wistful Robert Wyatt warble. The result is wholly breathtaking: an enigmatic, moodily majestic suite, painstakingly sculpted, yet gloriously inviting, impressionistic and immersive.
—K. Ross Hoffman
Katy B | A-
If Katy B’s early triumphs helped set the stage for mushrooming U.K. dance acts like Disclosure and Rudimental, sophomore album Little Red (Rinse/Columbia) is the flame-haired siren’s leapfrogging bid for an even bolder pop crossover. There’s nothing little about it though: not the production, which courts Adele-caliber power-ballad pyrotechnics; and certainly not Katy’s singing, which is in full-throated soul-diva mode throughout.
—K. Ross Hoffman
Kid Cudi | B+
Like Beyoncé, Bowie and My Bloody Valentine (all of whom released albums last year with little-to-no warning), hip-hop oddity Kid Cudi just surprise-dropped his newest full-length. Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon (Wicked Awesome) is radically different from even his most aggressively avant-garde moments, toying with instrumental-only atmospheres: glacial electronics, Satie-esque still lifes. As a rapper, Kid utilizes an oratory style more actor-ish than tuneful with lyrics that sound cut-up and random. There are a few conventional pieces but even they sound gloriously “off.”
—A.D. Amorosi
