José González – “Local Valley” (City Slang / Rough Trade)
So far, José González has released a solo album every six years for 18 years. Makes exactly three albums. So far. Thanks to them, however, he sold the London Royal Albert Hall. Accolade location. 4000 seats. Plus a few billion streams. So you don’t need a lot – just the right stuff. Enter “Local Valley”, the fourth album. Another one that is restrained, unobtrusive, softly and softly whispering “Hello, I’ll get back to you”. No epochal outbreaks, a more level-headed departure, pleasant fog. As if the singer remained in a half-sleep-like state between being melancholy and becoming inspirational, while elsewhere life is constantly marching on. Idyllic chirping of birds mixes with retro folk and subtle, whispering background chants. In addition, of course, very fine guitar overuse, as if all other instruments had already been out of stock. Big, quiet album. Sarah Zapf
Imagine Dragons – “Mercury – Act 1” (Universal)
Oh, it’s not easy as a singer in a successful band. “I don’t want this body / I don’t want this voice / I don’t want to be here / but I guess I have no choice”, sings Dan Reynolds on the new album of his band Imagine Dragons. Sniff. But at least, the song is called “It’s OK”, in the end he gets along quite well with his body, his voice and his 40 million albums sold. Incidentally, an altitude from which producer god-emperor-king Rick Rubin also raises an eyelid with interest. He produced album number five, “Mercury – Act 1” (Universal). The result is not that different than before: The band from Las Vegas continues to run their company like a number revue. Everything is covered in a safe manner, dry funk, scruffy ballads, cowboy boot rock, sometimes simple refrains, sometimes thought-heavy whispers (see above). Polemically, one could say: a song for every format radio. But the fact that they can actually supply different broadcasters with such customer-specific accuracy must be booked as a manual work. Max Fellmann
King Krule – “You Heat Me Up, You Cool Me Down” (XL Recordings)
“The organized coexistence of heartbeats that hammer out into the universe together, you couldn’t spend an hour and a half better.” King Krule is an eccentric, the punk lamentations of the young Brit always sound like painful loneliness, but he loves the human bath, the euphoria of the live concert. Shortly before the beginning of the Corona era, he was still on tour – a recording from this time is only now being released: “You Heat Me Up, You Cool Me Down” (XL recordings, available digitally, from December also on CD / vinyl). One would have thought that the soul-sore lamentations needed the lost stalactite cave of the studio recordings, the emptiness between the tones. But not true. They also work in front of a full house. And almost even more astonishing: the audience is not moved, but sings along with entire songs, word for word, even the most subtle passages. So frenetic, so breathless that with every beat it becomes clear again how much the man, born in 1994, screams from the hearts of many of his generation. Great. Max Fellmann
Alicia Walter – “I Am Alicia” (Sooper Records)
Does anyone still remember double or triple features in the cinema? It used to be a big deal. For example, three action films in a row. If you stumbled back into the street at two in the morning, everything was mixed up in your head, chases, fights, heroes, villains, upstairs, downstairs, a magical tangle of adrenaline and overwhelming. “I Am Alicia” (Sooper Records), the debut album by American singer Alicia Walter, has roughly the effect of three Broadway musicals at once. One moment there was big band swing with grandeur, the next synth pop with waves, suddenly unbelievable choir chants, polka rhythms, disco strings, then a heavy hook over to minimalist electro gadgets. A triple feature from Kate Bush to Kelis to Lily Allen and back again. Lovingly and quite breathtakingly down to the smallest details, but also a lot of wood. So it’s hardly surprising that Walter burned out shortly before the album was finished. It then took her a year to really get it done. To really grasp all the subtleties as a listener, you might need another one. Max Fellmann
Lil Nas X – Montero (Sony Music)
And thus the album of the week. And the motto for the weekend, recently spread on the social web by the queer country rapper Lil Nas X – one of the first real pop sensations in recent years since his hit “Old Town Road”. Many also see it as a provocation. You have to imagine them as very sad people. In any case: “i become 10% gayer every time i read a, we get it you’re gay ‘comment”. Basically: every time people roll their eyes at his allegedly intrusive homosexual demeanor, he becomes ten percent more gay. Now he has finally released his debut album, “Montero”. And what can you say: absolute sensation. Very thick rape, excellent flow, very confident power pose. But above all: very voracious, really vicious catchy tunes. Absolute pop glory. For example, you can hear “Industry Baby” for the former. And then, very, very urgently, “That’s What I Want”, the most beautiful, radiant, most danceable love longing song of the year. And then expect Drake to have to clear a few of his nine top ten positions in the charts next week. Jakob Biazza
Elvis Costello – “Spanish Model” (Universal)
Oh, sometimes there are just ideas that are so absurd that they seem completely conclusive again. Elvis Costello asked himself: What if I re-released my funny wave-pop album “This Year’s Model” from 1978? So the original recordings, but without my voice? But with a lot of singers from the Spanish-speaking world? What if they all write new texts for themselves? In Spanish? Which in turn I don’t understand because I can’t speak a word of Spanish? The answer to all of these questions is: Vamonos, vamonos! Yes, please do! “Spanish Model” (Universal) is great fun. Juanes (correct, the one with the monster hit “La Camisa Negra”) nölt in a beautiful Costello parody by “Pump It Up”, the Chilean singer Cami sings “This Year’s Girl” as “La Chica De Hoy”. So it goes 19 pieces long (and sometimes quite wrong). The toy organ, which may have been funny 40 years ago, is more annoying today. But it doesn’t matter. The concept has an incredible charm. Could that please Madness do in Italian or the Stranglers in Greek? (And now hear again: the fantastic “Rock El Casbah” by Rachid Taha!) Max Fellmann