Weekly Music Roundup: The Heavy, Joy Oladokun, and Lisel

Week of Feb. 20: This week, troubled times bring out the best in The Heavy and Joy Oladokun; technology brings out the many sides of Lisel; and Natalie Merchant returns. Plus, new music from Dry Cleaning.

The Heavy Want To Take You To Church

The sounds of the Black church of the American South have always been a part of The Heavy’s music – despite the quartet’s birthplace in Bath, England. They hit these shores with a wallop back in 2009 with the sweaty funk-rock of “How You Like Me Now,” a song which was used in TV ads, sports broadcasts and the like. Now the band returns with a single rooted in Gospel and R&B called “I Feel The Love.” It’s from the band’s next album, tellingly called Amen, which comes out in April. This track is an urgent, ecstatic response to today’s troubles – when times are tough, lead singer Kelvin Swaby preaches, that’s when we need to believe in the power of love. And to make sure you feel the love, the band sweeps away all before it with fevered handclaps, call-and-response vocals, and rollicking horns.  

Joy Oladokun’s New Single Is Also A Wise Response To A World On Fire

Singer/songwriter Joy Oladokun will release her new album, Proof Of Life, in late April, but she’s put out a single called “Changes” which shows the directness and depth of her songwriting. An acoustic song that acknowledges troubled times, it reminds us that “life’s always been a little dangerous.” Oladokun’s intimate, slightly weathered vocals pick up support along the way from pedal steel, a restrained wordless choir, and sax, and by the end, she has essentially created her own, contemporary American version of Britain’s old “Keep Calm and Carry On” message. A lovely, understated video ends with Oladokun facing a globe on fire – and using it to light up.  

Dry Cleaning Are Nostalgic For Playstation 5.  Maybe. 

The droll UK post-punks Dry Cleaning have announced that they’ll release an EP called Swampy on March 31, a sort of sonic addendum to their sophomore LP Stumpwork. The title track is out now, and features vocalist Florence Shaw’s deadpan spoken word delivery – stream of consciousness musings about Playstation 5s and rotting fruit – over stinging guitar and the sort of rhythm section work that occasionally recalls Talking Heads or it offshoot, the Tom Tom Club. (“Leafy,” from the band’s first album, had a similar vibe.) Shaw has occasionally dipped into actual singing, briefly, and on the “5” of “Playstation 5” she threatens to go there again, but in the end, the clearest way to get her lyrics across is to speak them. Favorite line from “Swampy”: “The premise is we're stuck down a mine and now you choose who you want to save.” (It’s not the premise.) 

A First Look At Natalie Merchant’s New Album

It’s been almost nine years since Natalie Merchant released her last solo album, but on April 14 the former 10,000 Maniacs lead singer will release Keep Your Courage, a collection of mostly original songs – although as a fan of the Irish drone-folk band Lankum, I have to say I’m looking forward to Merchant’s version of their “Hunting The Wren.” For the moment, Merchant has released “Come On, Aphrodite,” which addresses the ancient Greek goddess of love; “For the Greeks, when the spirit of love descended,” Merchant writes, “it was seen as a kind of assault; you would become powerless against an all-consuming, sweet madness. Amazingly, humans still crave it, in spite of the perils.” The song starts patiently, but accrues a spirited horn arrangement and guest vocals by Abena Koomson-Davis of the Resistance Revival Chorus. Other guests on what promises to be an eclectic album include the Celtic band Lunasa and the Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh.  

Lisel Releases Patterns For Auto-tuned Voices and Delay

The album title seems to say it all: the singer/composer Eliza Bagg, who records experimental art-pop as Lisel when she’s not singing contemporary classical music under her own name, has released Patterns for Auto-tuned Voices and Delay, in which she combines Medieval and Renaissance-inspired vocals with electronics and the sorts of processing effects we now associate with hyperpop or glitch electronica. But the title doesn’t prepare you for the sheer range of sounds that Lisel presents. Bagg, whom we first met as the lead singer of the indie-pop band Pavo Pavo, has a voice that can shape itself to fit almost any style, and in this album she gives that instrument free rein: on “Immature” her voice splits into the short rhythmically interlocking patterns known as hockets, before building to a big electronic sound. “Wingspan” actually uses the voice in its traditional role of carrier of the text, which means she has to be careful with the processing so the words can be heard. And this track, “At The Fair,” sounds like a wayward Renaissance motet until some gamelan-style electronics punctuate the looping, cycling vocals. The whole album is a stunning example of the possibilities available to someone with a remarkable instrument and the willingness to see where she can take it.

Hear Lisel perform live in our studio on Thursday night’s New Sounds, at 11pm.  

beabadoobee Shows That Paul McCartney Isn’t The Only One Writing Silly Love Songs

Last Tuesday was Valentine’s Day, so beabadoobee (the UK-based Filipina singer and guitarist Beatrice Laus) took the opportunity to release a simple, charming love song of the type that made her reputation online before she began releasing albums. “Glue Song” is largely acoustic, and picks up a lovely string arrangement as it goes along. And the video, shot with family in the Philippines, amplifies the warm glow of this no-frills, heartfelt track.