Weekly Music Roundup: Ezra Collective, Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science, and The Durutti Column
This week, the return of Afrobeat-jazz-funk band Ezra Collective and The Durutti Column; plus drummer Terri Lyne Carrington Trips the Night Fantastic with her band Social Science.
Paul McCartney Goes Back In Time On New LP
The Boys of Dungeon Lane is the 18th solo album by Paul McCartney, and it is an unapologetic trip through some of Paul’s – and by extension, the rest of The Beatles’ – formative memories of growing up in Liverpool (Dungeon Lane is a real street). But that doesn’t mean a lot of soft ballads - the stuff John Lennon caustically referred to as Paul’s “granny shit” - although certainly there are some gently emotional songs on the album. Instead, quite a number of the tracks are rockers, and the opener, “As You Lie There,” is a late-Beatles-type song full of unexpected and sudden twists; a spoken intro might be a dubious choice, but it leads into an energetic, even youthful sounding tune that only at the very end turns into something briefly and unabashedly nostalgic.
The Return Of The Durutti Column, Again
The Durutti Column, the singular band led by guitarist Vini Reilly, was the first group signed by Factory Records, the label that put Manchester’s punk and post-punk scene on the map. The band’s 1980 debut was called The Return Of The Durutti Column, and on it Reilly marked out his sonic territory: impressionist, fragile, almost defiantly soft-spoken (or sung, on the occasions when he sang). It was unlike anything else on the label, and between that and Reilly’s ongoing health problems, the band has remained a cult phenomenon, although some big-name fans have shouted them out recently, including Harry Styles. (When told this, Reilly apparently said he didn’t known who Styles was, “but I shall google him.”) Now, The Durutti Column has just announced a real return - its first new album in 16 years. It’ll be called Renascent, and the first single is called “Liars.” It’s a typically understated, almost haunted song, with Reilly’s unhurried guitar and barely-there vocals repeating “I am sorry, I love you.” The full album comes out on July 31.
Ezra Collective Keep Hope Alive
So Liverpool and Manchester saw notable new releases this week; meanwhile down in London, the Mercury Prize-winning Afrobeat-jazz-funk band Ezra Collective announced their newest LP, Here Because of Hope, and released their first single, “Only Love.” It’s a collaboration with the British-Gambian rapper Pa Salieu, and in addition to vocals, the band’s usual horn-forward dance grooves are enhanced by some electronic production which amplifies the song’s upbeat feeling. If Vini Reilly’s declaration of love in “Liars” was almost rueful in its delivery, here love is celebrated as a powerful and irresistible force.
Here Because Of Hope comes out on September 18.
Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science Issue A Queer Anthem Before Pride Month
A bit closer to home, Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science is a band that, like Ezra Collective, can lazily be lumped into the jazz category. Like Ezra Collective, the band is led by a drummer and successfully skirts questions about musical identity, by incorporating elements of pop, funk, hip hop and more. But bigger questions of identity apply as well: Carrington herself is a Grammy winner, but she is equally important as the founder and director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. And the band’s new single, “Identity Song,” is an anthem of queer and non-binary pride. It has a strong R&B flavor, with singing from Michael Mayo and rapping by Nappy Nina, and a flourish or two from harpist Brandee Younger.
Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science will release their next record, called Trip The Night Fantastic, on July 31.
Patrick Wolf’s “Harpsichord Banger”
And back we go to England, where Patrick Wolf has released a standalong single called “The Beast.” Last year Wolf made a return to music after a serious accident and addiction issues had kept him away for a decade, and apparently the pent up creativity didn’t stop with the album Crying The Neck. “The Beast” is a return to the gothic, baroque pop that made Wolf’s early recordings so memorable; on it Wolf plays harpsichord and a series of other keyboards, as well as a 5-string viola, percussion, and lots of electronics. Over all of it, Wolf’s dramatic vocals soar effortlessly. The song is big, it’s banging, it’s cinematic, and it’s a sign that Patrick Wolf is well and truly back.
