Weekly Music Roundup: The The, Andra Day, and Danielia Cotton

This week, a long awaited record by the band The The; Andra Day’s take on a gospel hymn; Bruce Springsteen aids an ailing colleague; plus Ellen Reid, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Laurie Anderson, and Danielia Cotton. 

The The Prepare First Studio Record In A Quarter Century

British singer/songwriter Matt Johnson formed The The in 1979, and in the 1980s he had a string of hits in the UK, one of which, “Uncertain Smile,” got some radio play here in the States as well. Now, he and a version of the band (Johnson was always the only steady member) are about to release Ensoulment, their first new studio album in almost 25 years. The new single is called “Some Days I Drink My Coffee By The Grave Of William Blake.” Anyone familiar only with the synth-heavy sound of his earlier hits will be surprised at the slow, bluesy tread and mostly acoustic instrumentation of this quietly scathing take on recent British history. (Johnson turns “England’s green and pleasant land,” from William Blake’s Jerusalem, into “this greedy, unpleasant land.”) Some of the song’s chord progressions remind me of “The House Of The Rising Son,” but the nostalgia for a London that is now gone, and the repeated line that “perfidious Albion must fall,” reflect Johnson’s affinity for the poet William Blake, and specifically Blake’s mistrust of both government and organized religions.  

Andra Day Stars and Sings In New Film The Deliverance

Singer Andra Day had a triple platinum hit back in 2016 with “Rise Up,” a stirring mix of gospel, soul, and blues. But she’s also become known as an actress, winning a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in the Lee Daniels movie The United States vs. Billie Holiday. (She also won a Grammy for the soundtrack.) Now she stars in Daniels’ new film The Deliverance, a tale of a single mother beset by demons, both metaphorical and literal. It’s not a role that lends itself to song, but the film opens and closes with her rendition of the gospel hymn “I Know Who Holds Tomorrow,” with minimal but lyrical piano accompaniment – all the better to enjoy Day’s powerful voice, a voice with just a hint of that Billie Holiday-style roughness in the track’s softer moments.  

Bruce Springsteen Covers Jesse Malin

Singer and guitarist Jesse Malin has been a fixture on the New York music scene for decades. He’s one of those people you might describe as a “musician’s musician,” which usually means a songwriter who’s better known among other songwriters than the wider public. In Malin’s case, his songwriter friends include famous figures like Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams, and Bruce Springsteen. All of them are contributing songs to a  benefit album called Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin, due on September 20. Malin suffered a rare spinal stroke last year that left him unable to move his body from the waist down, and the album features more than two dozen of Malin’s songs done by his musical friends. This single, “She Don’t Love Me Now,” is The Boss’s contribution; it has a vintage soul sound provided by Malin’s own band and a nifty sax solo from Jake Clemons, nephew of Springsteen’s longtime bandmate Clarence. The song is a good introduction to Malin’s music – lines like “dressed up like each other’s dreams” show his poetic side while the plaintive chorus has that Everyman quality that makes his songs so accessible.  

Laurie Anderson Retells The Story of Amelia Earhart’s Final Flight

Today Laurie Anderson released her album Amelia, a half-hour work of storytelling, sound design, music and song. The story of Amelia Earhart’s pioneering and ultimately tragic last flight has inspired rock songs, orchestral pieces, a photography project, even an episode of the animated TV series Bob’s Burgers. But this project blurs the line between historical accuracy and artistic license, as Anderson used the copious documentation of Earhart’s final flight (much of it written by the publicity-savvy pilot herself) as source material for her own thoughtful retelling of the tale. Amelia employs a full spectrum of vocal styles, from speech to actual singing, which takes place in key points along the timeline and which is done mostly by the inimitable Anohni. One of those songs is “The Wrong Way,” which features Anohni’s rich vocals in counterpoint to Anderson’s own narration of all the things going wrong for Earhart at a crucial time in her flight. It’s barely over a minute long, but is part of a rich sonic tapestry that is very much its own journey. 

A First Look At The New LP By Godspeed You! Black Emperor

The Montreal-based post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor (GY!BE for short) has spent the better part of 30 years confounding expectations: with their almost symphonic instrumental suites that go from the ambient to the assaultive, they neither look nor sound like a conventional rock band. Their new single, “Grey Rubble – Green Shoots,” is the closing track from their forthcoming record, called NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD. The title, if that’s the right word, is a reference to the war in Gaza, and to the band’s longtime anarchic and anti-war leanings. This track follows the format of its two-part title: it begins with one of the band’s trademark crescendos, the music reaching for dramatic heights that seem to pull equally from orchestral music and black metal, before finally subsiding into a lovely, if melancholy, guitar-led lullaby.  

America’s Parks Inspire Composer Ellen Reid – Again

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid has created a series of Soundwalks, where she produces music specifically for public parks (including NY’s own Central Park) that plays as you move through the various parts of the place in question. Now, she’s released a stay-at-home version of some of that music.  It’s called Big Majestic and she refers to its blend of electronics and acoustic sounds as “ambient maximalism.” Drawing on a stellar cast of collaborators, Reid weaves together elements of ambient music, minimalism, chamber music, and post-rock soundscapes into an album that creates its own space. A highlight is “Primrose Hill,” which features Shabaka Hutchings, the former leader of the essential London quartet Sons Of Kemet who has lately been pursuing ambient, world-music-inflected music for traditional wood flutes; but here, he returns to the instrument that he made his reputation with – the tenor sax. 

Danielia Cotton Pays Tribute To Black Artists In Country Music

Singer Danielia Cotton is known for writing songs that draw on vintage soul and rock. But her new EP goes in another direction: it’s called Charley’s Pride: A Tribute to Black Country Music, and it consists of four covers of songs by Charley Pride as well as this one original track. “Bring Out The Country (in Me)” has a blues-rock vibe and Cotton’s vocals adopt a country twang, but the lyrics are about the universal impact of music, whatever its genre. “When something goes wrong, I write a song,” she sings, “and the world feels all right.”