Album Review Wrap-up: Featuring Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Kendra Morris, King Krule, & John Frusciante

1. Arctic Monkeys - AM

It has been a long time since Arctic Monkeys set the world on fire with their coy, impish debut album. Since then they have set about the important tasks of growing older, more serious, and hanging out with Queens of the Stone Age. If albums like AM are the result of these changes in focus and attitude then they are definitely for the best. In the course of just under a decade they have progressed from being the soundtrack to a thousand sweaty teenage parties to the frosty walk home afterward. Opener 'Do I Wanna Know?' swings and stomps with impossible quantities of swagger. You can practically hear the spurs jangling as boots are stamped against the ground in time with the lumbering beat. This is light years away from 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor' and other such claptrap. Arctic Monkeys have the nocturnal mood pegged – some of these tracks feels like they should be wrapped in a blanket and accompanied by a night light. Fortunately, regardless of the step-up in quality, these boys remain quintessentially British. The high-camp of 'One For The Road' touches nicely upon the oft-ignored classic rock tendencies from their fabled homeland: touches of David Bowie, Queen, Thin Lizzy are all present and accounted for. AM is a solid rock and roll album from a band who move in leaps and bounds and have the potential for an infinitely bright future. They are all set, poised, and ready to take the music world by storm once more.

Rating: B+

Recommended tracks: Do I Wanna Know?, One For The Road

2. Franz Ferdinand - Right Thoughts Right Words Right Action

Album number four appears to be quite a tricky proposition. Most bands tend to follow a clear trajectory over their initial trio of records: the ground-breaking debut, the lukewarm follow-up, and the game-changing number three. But what happens at four? That is exactly the question that Glasgow's Franz Ferdinand are attempting to answer on their new album Right Thoughts Right Words Right Action. This album is heavily front-weighted with three tremendously catchy, single-worthy tracks. The wave of momentum created by 'Right Action', 'Evil Eye', and 'Love Illumination' is formidable and is bound to grab your attention. Unfortunately that is where things peter out. We are treated to half-bake yawners and limp 80s pastiches and the fun is sucked right out of the room. Things pick up again with some clever song ('The Universe Expanded' and 'Goodbye Lovers and Friends' come to mind) at the back end of the tracklist. Right Thoughts Right Words Right Action may not be the strongest entry in their discography but it is a fun wee jaunt while it lasts. This album is a valiant, if uneven, stab at maintaining relevance in an increasing fast-paced music world. Things get hyped up, churned out, and cast away at such a rate these days it is impressive that a song like 'Take Me Out' is remembered at all let alone as popular as it is nearly a decade down the line.

Rating: B+

Recommended tracks: Evil Eye, Love Illumination

3. Kendra Morris - Mockingbird 

Kendra Morris is a charming soul singer from New York City whose 2012 album Banshee earned her a great deal of critical and commercial success. Rather than tease us with customary silence she has released a collection of cover songs to whet our appetite called Mockingbird. She has set out to put her own spin on “the classics”; be they classic rock (Bowie, Reed), easy listening (Bacharach), or alternative radio mainstays (Radiohead, Soundgarden). Cover albums live and die on the strength of the artist's song selections and in that regard Mockingbird is mostly successful. You get the feeling that these are tracks that Morris has been singing for years. For every unremarkable number there are two or three outstanding ones. She is chiefly a soul singer but with producer/guitarist Jeremy Page (That Handsome Devil) she has allowed herself to stretch and blur the lines. When you hear the throwback funk of Rolling Stones 'Miss You' it is just as authentic as the gospelized gravitas of 'Shine on You Crazy Diamond'. The boldest reinvention of the set is Morris' treatment of Metallica's 'Ride the Lightning', showcasing her psychedelic balladeer persona and bringing focus to the oft-overlooked lyrics. Page's fellow Handsome Devil comrade Godforbid shows up to duet on The Proclaimers' '500 Miles' to startlingly powerful effect and the two singers revel in the quiet desperation of the song. If nothing else, Mockingbird is a wonderful showcase for Kendra Morris' own record collection – a glimpse into the art that inspires the artist.

Rating: A-

Recommended tracks: 500 Miles, Ride the Lightning, Shine on You Crazy Diamond

4. King Krule - 6 Feet Beneath the Moon

You may have heard of King Krule (that's Archy Marshall to his folks), his name has been lighting up the internet for the past couple of years. You may have heard him too. That distinction is important because the character he portrays hinges largely on his unhinged vocal stylings. 6 Feet Beneath the Moon is his ramshackle debut album and it is an eyebrow-raising affait. You will find so many ideas crammed into this record that it is hard to keep track of the sounds and influences; indie rock, hip hop, jazz, dub, folk, noise – the list goes on. Some of these tracks feel only partially formed, sketches not used to their full potential. Still, it is hard to criticize an album for being raw when that rawness is its most endearing quality. When you hit a taut groover in stride, where gypsy jazz might be re-imagined as a kissing cousin of drum and bass ('A Lizard State'). If you can overlook lines about fucking fat bitches you can find plenty to enjoy here. The jump from there to the chilled out tones of 'Will I Come' is jarring, but that seems to be the whole point. Just a few tracks earlier the clattering, dubbiness of 'Ceiling' floated aimlessly in the abyss. These ideas are piled haphazardly upon one another. No single one of them stands out among the others and it creates a swirling mass of the fractured concepts that work against all odds. The voice of King Krule is always center stage and it is the improbable combination of Tom Waits and Joe Strummer. One minute he is smash-mouthed and violent, the next slurring and charming. It is one hell of a performance to be sure. 6 Feet Beneath the Moon is the best album about the disaffected youth of Britain since Tricky's Maxinquaye, an album released when Marshall was scarcely one year old.

Rating: B-

Recommended tracks: A Lizard State, Border Line

5. John Frusciante - Outsides EP

On Outsides, guitarist / general nutter John Frusciante continues his journey through the self-inflicted madness of his post-RHCP career. It is a double edged sword. Firstly the freedom that he now enjoys allows him to mine into stranger sonic territory than ever before (see last year's puzzling PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone for a salient example of experimentation gone too far). The downside is that fewer people are likely to hear about it; doomed to inhabit the fringes of cult following status. This EP is essentially a series of three related but distinct compositions. The centerpiece is the ten-minute-plus 'Same' in which he embraces his inner Robert Fripp more than ever before. Unlike some of his earlier, 'Maggot Brain'-aping, tracks 'Same' is an upbeat journey that follows this demented muse to its ultimate conclusion. Traces of that bizarre previous album still linger in the electro-style production on the track but, sonic weirdness aside, the guitar is the focus of the piece. The other two pieces do not fare so well. 'Breathiac' writhes uncomfortably over the tortured beat. 'Shelf' is only a little better really – slightly more coherent and saved largely by the sparse vocals that creep in at the end. It is inescapable that without 'Same' Outsides would never have seen the light of day. With every release that passes, it seems less and less likely that John Frusciante will ever return to Earth. Will he come back to us or must we, the fans, be constantly chasing him down these rabbit holes?

Rating: C

Recommended track: Same