My Week In Music: 28-31 January

Brilliant new albums from FKA twigs and Mogwai join a pair of surprisingly good releases from Matt Berry and Central Cee

EUSEXUA (released 24/01/2025)
FKA twigs

FKA twigs has been on the verge of something like this for a few years now, a coming together of all her influences going back to LP1 in 2014, and the mixtape Caprisongs in 2022 - a genre chameleon who dabbles in numerous musical palettes who would eventually make it all click into place.

FKA doesn’t change her formula in any great way here, it just feels like its all working perfectly, exactly as she intended. The opening title track starts off with a chirping synth and a high register vocal evoking Portishead before moving into a club thump, then switching into “Girl Feels Good”, a Crystal Method inspired techno track straight from the turn of the century.

Elsewhere, “Drums Of Death” finds her experimenting with sound, while “Sticky” finds her redefining the pop ballad, in the best way.

This is a wildly experimental album - as you’d expect from FKA twigs - but it just works on every level for me. Even as it gets to its closing stanza, “24hr Dog” and “Wanderlust” and “Childlike Things”, it is still serving up bangers. I imagine we’ll be talking about this one at the end of the year.

HEARD NOISES (released: 24/01/2025)
Matt Berry

Yes, its that Matt Berry.

Toast Of London, ‘yes I can hear you Clem Fandago’ Matt Berry. The IT Crowd, ‘god damn these electric sex pants’ Matt Berry. What We Do In The Shadows, ‘you really are the most devious bastard in New Yahk Citay’ Matt Berry.

I found out this week that Matt Berry - yes, that Matt Berry - makes crazy acid jazz retro pop music on which he sings, plays guitar and drums and every other instrument, produces and mixes, and eventually releases it.

Heard Noises is his tenth album overall. As one reviewer explained, ‘the polymath's latest statement of intent into complex music yet simple to the ears’, which is a neat way to summarise it: the songs here, highlights like “Silver Rings” and “I Gotta Limit”, sound simple but are densely layered musical experiences - doubly impressive when you consider its all one guy.

One of my favourite surprises from doing this album-a-day project, and now I have ten albums of Matt Berry to go back and listen to.

MOONDANCE (released: 1970)
Van Morrison

Van The Man is a legend. Born in Belfast mere weeks after the conclusion of World War II, you could argue that he was the universe correcting for some of the devastation of the world wars. And he came out fully formed: his debut album Blowin Your Mind, released when he was just 21, contains “Brown Eyed Girl”, arguably his most famous and resonant track.

But he didn’t stop there, basking in pop glory. Morrison followed Blowin Your Mind by signing with Warner Bros Records and releasing Astral Weeks in 1968, a brilliant but divisive record that his label didn’t promote and critics didn’t embrace until much later.

In 1970, Morrison moved to New York and made Moondance, which combined his pop sensibility with his need to experiment with jazz composition. It was an immediate hit - and rightly so. Go back and listen to “And It Stoned Me” and “Moondance” and “Caravan” and “Into The Mystic”. I am certain you’ll agree.

THE HIGH ROAD (released: 24/01/2025)
Kane Brown

Tennessee born country-pop star Kane Brown has been floating around for a deceptively long time - in 2013, he was picked for The X Factor USA but left when he was included in a boy band. Brown signed with RCA Nashville in 2016 and released his debut album that year. We’ve only just heard of him here because country music is huge in the USA but not so popular in NZ.

The High Road is his fourth album overall and its … fine. Brown boasts a deceptively catchy country pop sound - guitars and dance beats clashing for dominance on each track. The problem is that, at least for me, it causes a weird uncanny valley effect where it doesn’t really sound like either.

The album clicks when the songs commit one way or the other: “Fiddle In The Band” is a more straight-forward country rock track that can’t help but get you tapping your toes, while “Backseat Driver” is the kind of emotive crossover ballad that Nashville country stars seem to excel at.

But then there is “Miles On It”, an awful pop track with Marshmello. And “Haunted”, a very mid collab with Jelly Roll. And “I Can Feel It”, a ‘hey laaaaadies’ pop song about picking up chicks, replete with a sample of Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight”, a song about a divorce. Mixed singles much?

Honestly, I think this album pops when it leans into the country rock sound that Brown is perfectly capable of doing well. But it switches from one sound to another in such a stark way that its ultimately a bit of a mess.

BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER (released: 1970)
Simon & Garfunkel

So, in 1968, Simon & Garfunkel released two of the biggest selling albums of the year: the soundtrack to The Graduate in January - featuring a version of one of their most famous songs in “Mrs Robinson” - and Bookends in April, featuring the full version of “Mrs Robinson” and “A Hazy Shade Of Winter”.

The duo were among the most famous and popular stars in America by that point. Art Garfunkel started acting in movies but never quite broke through; Paul Simon later said in his memoir that ‘if Artie had become a big movie star he would have left. Instead of just being the guy who sang Paul Simon songs, he could be Art Garfunkel, a big star all by himself … This made me think about how I could still be the guy who wrote songs and sing them. I didn’t need Artie.’

In January 1970, they released their fifth and final album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, a kind of disjointed work that was fraught with tension between the stars, who split shortly after its release, despite the presence on the album of hits like “Cecilia” and “The Boxer” and the title track and “Baby Driver”, which inspired Edgar Wrights film of the same name.

Happy 55th birthday to the end of Simon & Garfunkel, I guess.

THE BAD FIRE (released: 24/01/2025)
Mogwai

It’s been almost four years since Mogwai’s last album, As The Love Continues, landed to critical acclaim and awards recognition; at the time, I wrote ‘the ambient noise they create, aggressive at times, calming at others, makes for a fantastic soundtrack to your day’ which is true.

Named for a Scottish slang term for hell, The Bad Fire finds the band looking inward following that success - in the release’s accompanying presser, the group commented ‘We often hear from people that our music has helped them get through hard times in their lives and for once I think it applies to us as well’.

The album itself? Fucking beautiful.

Opener “God Gets You Back” builds on a looping synth and a sparse vocal, all layered with guitar and drums, leading into “Hi Chaos”, which starts out almost orthodox but gives way to a distorted, dirty chorus. Mogwai have perfected the crescendo, perfected twisting and exceeding expectations.

Then there is “Fanzine Made Of Flesh”, an almost normal rock song complete with a full vocal, even if it sits back in the mix. Or hilariously lengthily titled “If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some Of The Others”, another perfect instrumental. “18 Volcanoes” finds the group in full navel gaze mode, with another complete vocal performance. “Lion Rumpus” is unrelenting. Closer “Fact Boy” is gorgeous, dragging out its ending into a lengthy outro.

I loved this album. I can’t recommend it enough.

CAN’T RUSH GREATNESS (released: 24/01/2025)
Central Cee

Born in Ladbroke Grove, but raised in Shepherd’s Bush in London, Central Cee has actually been at it for a while now, having debuted on record back in 2015, and charting in the UK with a pair of mixtapes, Wild West in 2021 (#2) and 23 in 2022 (#1) before releasing this, his debut studio album.

Can’t Rush Greatness is a strong first hit out, combining Cee’s UK drill (distinct from US drill, I believe) bonafides with his multiracial upbringing in the form of reggaeton and funk influences from his father.

The album is remarkably cohesive, tracks flowing into and out of each other, connecting to form a whole piece of work. Spanish language comes to the form with a dancehall beat on “Gata”. 21 Savage makes a strong turn on “GBP”, the pair passing the ball around with ‘that's GBP / the price go up if it's USD’.

Over the past few years, I’ve found that British rap as a whole - and especially drill - is more interesting than American rap as a whole (excepting artists like Kendrick and Tyler), and Central Cee’s debut continues that trend. This isn’t a perfect rap album, but it’s a pretty great start.

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Thanks for reading this week - it’ll be another short one next week, just three days of listening (though with two albums a day) as I’m planning to take the Friday off and hang out with my kids.

Have a great weekend everyone.
Mā te wā, Chris