Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem
Some Bright Morning
(Signature Sounds)
Categorizing daisy mayhem’s music is a challenge. Arbo loves gospel with a secular tinge, which one hears to beautiful effect on “Crossing the Bar,” her scoring of the famed Tennyson poem. But how do we pigeonhole a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Reason to Believe” that’s what The Boss might have done if he was a little bit country? Or Anand Nayak’s not-quite-Chicago/not-quite-Delta electric blues on “Johnny Brown”? Or “Fall River,” which sounds more rural Tennessee than urban Massachusetts? And let’s give a nod to singer/songwriter folk traditions. Arbo’s “Bridges” muses on the parallel destruction done by Hurricane Irene and the dissolution of a friend’s marriage, and “Miami Moon” honors a departed neighbor who loved to dance. Try to get the chorus of the latter out of your head. Give up? Complete surrender is my prescription for everything on this fine album. —Rob Weir
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The Bats
Free All The Monsters
(Flying Nun)
It’s easy to take The Bats for granted. The New Zealand band found their sound early and never radically altered their trademark mix of chiming guitars, gently propulsive rhythms and sweetly ethereal melodies. Since 1987, they’ve produced a series of consistently engaging albums, but critics tend to treat only their early efforts as worth attention. However, Free All The Monsters, just released by the esteemed, reactivated Flying Nun, is a career highlight. The sound is pastoral but never complacent, full of strummed electric guitars and glowing harmonies spun into catchy songs that lodge themselves deeper with every listen. The group smartly varies the pace with uptempo tracks including the distorted rumble of “In the Subway” and headlong psychedelia of “Space Junk.” Occasionally, quieter tunes threaten to become overly sleepy, but more often this album casually approaches the sublime. —Jeff Jackson
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Ceremony
Zoo
(Matador)
With 12 tracks in almost 37 minutes, the newest disc by “hardcore’s equivalent of Hiroshima” is a mature affair, and one that is also unafraid of hooks. Additionally, as the group’s first release on indie label Matador, the record is a more refined distillation of the alienation anthems the band once turned out for the Malfunction and Bridge Nine labels. Album-opener and first single “Hysteria” begins with a drumstick count-in and a flurry of power chords before evolving into a shouted chorus of “hysteria, hysteria/ all we’ve ever known.” Though it’s not dissimilar to other hardcore fist-pumpers, the backing vocals—which consist of slowly chanted “whoas”—bring the tune a fun sing-along quality. However, the real winner may be the restrained show of force that is “Hotel.” Though its lyrics are more Bates Motel than Holiday Inn, listeners will still have a hard time staying away. —Michael Cimaomo
