MUSIC NEWS: 2011 Fall Music Preview, Grace Jones, Feist, Björk, M83, Solange Knowles, Jónsi, The Smiths, Ellie Goulding, Will Young

BY NORMAN BRANNON

Norman Brannon is a pop critic, musician, and author based in New York City. He presents a weekly music update here on Towleroad and writes regularly at Nervous Acid.  

Follow Norman on Twitter at @nervousacid.

THE 2011 FALL MUSIC PREVIEW:

Grace Jones — Hurricane (PIAS America)

WHO: A legendary pop music and style icon, if there were no Grace Jones, there would be no … well, almost everyone.

WHY: Hurricane has already seen its release overseas, hitting the Top 40 Albums Chart in ten different countries, but its official American release isn't due until next month. Collaborations with everyone from Wendy & Lisa to Tricky and Sly & Robbie guitarist Barry Reynolds flesh out the album, but make no mistake: This is a modern Grace Jones affair.

WHEN: September 6

The Rapture — In The Grace of Your Love (DFA)

WHO: New York City provocateurs who spearheaded this decade's indie-dance movement.

WHY: After a dalliance with the major label world and ongoing collaborations with traditional techno scene stars, Brooklyn's Rapture return to James Murphy's DFA label for their fourth full-length album. Lead single "How Deep Is Your Love?" inverts a piano-house hook into a nu-disco argument against modern quantized rhythms — loose and funky, like what you'd imagine ESG would sound like in 2011.

WHEN: September 6

Das Racist — Relax (Greedhead Music) 

WHO: Political satirists, authentic rappers, and neo-Dadaist muckrakers drop their official debut.

WHY: If you wanna get all academic about it, Das Racist are becoming increasingly effective cultural critics with an Absurdist slant. A quick definition of the movement — of "an avant-garde style in which structure, plot, and characterization are disregarded or garbled in order to stress the lack of logic in nature and man's isolation in a universe which has no meaning" — kind of underlines the fact, and on their debut actually-for-sale album, the crew seem at it again: Rest assured, "Rainbow in the Dark" has nothing to do with Ronnie James Dio.

WHEN: September 13

Ladytron — Gravity The Seducer (Nettwerk)

WHO: Longstanding electro-pop favorites from Liverpool, Ladytron anticipated the '80s revival before the '90s were over.

WHY: Having already released three songs from the album, there is a suggestion here that Ladytron are taking a more ethereal approach: "Ambulances" weaves in and out of consciousness not unlike Elizabeth Fraser's Cocteau Twins, while lead single "White Elephant" offers a synthesized take on a classic Motown rhythm. It's a whole lot of ageless beauty.

WHEN: September 13

Björk — Biophilia (One Little Indian/WEA)

WHO: A fearless sonic innovator, Björk's influence and dialogue with the entirety of the electronic music world is inestimable.

WHY: If "Crystalline" is any indication, Biophilia may very well hark back to Björk's more abstract techno output — the tension of its glitch giving way to a lawless breakbeat that, somehow, never loses the melody. The simultaneous control and lack of restraint is just masterful.

WHEN: September 27

Feist — Metals (Cherrytree/Interscope)

WHO: A Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter who is both a member of Broken Social Scene and a one-time collaborator with Elmo on Sesame Street.

WHY: The long-awaited follow-up to The Reminder, Feist's fourth proper solo album doesn't seem to be making any drastic left turns, as the singer calls on trusted producers Mocky and Chilly Gonzales to help oversee the project. The addition of Valgeir Sigurðsson to the fold, however, may suggest a more orchestrated approach: Sigurðsson's CV includes work with alt-classical composer Nico Muhly, avant-folk duo Coco Rosie, and fellow Icelander Björk.

WHEN: October 4

M83 — Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (Mute)

WHO: Your favorite French ambient-electro mainstay and nu-gaze architect gets ambitious.

WHY: If you haven't heard the lead single from this forthcoming double-album by M83, then hurry up. "Midnight City" is exactly what Anthony Gonzalez promised from this formidable work, describing it as "pop — and very epic." If he can maintain this kind of enterprising spirit over two discs, we may be talking about an instant classic here.

WHEN: October 18

Coming out today: Moonface — Organ Music, Not Vibraphone Like I'd Hoped (Jagjaguwar), Jim Ward — Quiet in the Valley, On The Shores The End Begins (Tembloroso), Steve Mason — Ghosts Outside (Domino), Arcade Fire — The Suburbs: Deluxe Edition + Scenes from the Suburbs (Merge), Archers of Loaf — Icky Mettle (Reissue) (Merge)

THE DISPATCH:

In one of the more remarkable moments to occur in the wake of Amy Winehouse's death, legendary singer Ronnie Spector released her as-yet-unheard, and utterly amazing rendition of "Back to Black." "I'm devastated," Spector said. "Every time I looked at her, it was like I was looking at myself. She had my beehive, my eyeliner, my attitude. She had such a great soul in her voice and her lyrics were so amazing that I couldn't help but sing one of her songs." Also worth noting: I composed an essay about the cultural and critical response to Winehouse's passing for MySpace Music. The takeaway? This isn't about us.

 Beyoncé's younger sister Solange has been making the indie rounds a lot lately — collaborating with members of Grizzly Bear and Of Montreal, among others. Now, she can add DFA recording artist to her budding résumé: Solange lent her vocals to the latest 12" single by Rewards, which you can stream in its entirety now.

 As long as we're talking DFA, it's worth mentioning that a pretty fantastic shot-for-shot Lego recreation of LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends" video also came out this week. It's kind of brilliant.

 Reissue, repackage, repackage — or so goes the famous song. When Morrissey isn't too busy offending our sensibilities for compassion, he's signing off on insanely embellished box sets like the one Rhino plans to release on October 3: The Smiths Complete: Deluxe Collectors Box Set features remastered versions of the band's entire album discography on both CD and vinyl, as well as 25 7-inch singles, posters, and freshly written liner notes.

 Out singer-songwriter and Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi has been tapped to compose the soundtrack for Cameron Crowe's latest film, We Bought A Zoo. The movie stars Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson, and it's technically the second time Crowe has turned to Jónsi for scoring: Vanilla Sky featured "Svefn-G-Englar" from Sigur Rós's second album, Ágaetis Byrjun.

 If the recent shoegaze revival hadn't already been confirmed, Death Cab For Cutie want to see that it is: The band stopped by the BBC Radio studios last week to perform a cover of the classic Ride song "Twisterella."

THE PLAYLIST:

This week's Rdio playlist was inspired by the New York heatwave — and more specifically, by my desire to sequester myself in front of an air conditioner and just chill out for a while.

"Chilled" is an anti-heatwave compilation featuring an emphasis on downtempo and acoustic tracks, which as I realized while I was putting this together, tends to seriously veer towards melancholy. But the sad song is a staple of almost every genre — even Shannon's "Let The Music Play" is downright depressing if you think about it — and, on some level, I've always gravitated towards raw nerves: The insanely desperate crescendo of Ida's "Little Things" still gets to me fifteen years later, the resignation of a Christian artist renouncing his Christianity — as on David Bazan's "Hard To Be" — doesn't get any more real, and Owen's "Bad News" is not the kind of song you'll put on to cheer your friend up. Still, there's consolation in the inconsolable: This is one for your more introspective moments or your next Sunday morning comedown.

SOUND & VISION:

Beni — "It's A Bubble" (feat. Sean Delear & Turbotito)

It's almost a bit too feigned to be real, but Sydney producer Beni genuinely wants to usher the underground ball scene into the mainstream with an album called House of Beni, Paris is Burning–derived songs like "O.P.U.L.E.N.C.E.," and the video for "It's A Bubble" — which takes place at a Parisian ball. If vintage bitch-tracks and runway shade turn you on, there's a lot to work with here.

Ellie Goulding — "Starry Eyed" (U.S. Version)

Much-loved London singer Ellie Goulding continues her campaign for American domination with a new video for "Starry Eyed," and maybe I don't know much about these things, but I prefer the playful naiveté of the original version — if only because this one seems to imply that we're more susceptible to videos that feel like outtakes from Twilight. Either way, the song is pretty much perfect.

Underworld — "Diamond Jigsaw"

The standout track from Barking, "Diamond Jigsaw" is a throbbing pop song at heart — its melodic sensibility no doubt improved upon by German trance producer Paul van Dyk, who co-wrote the song. The video is a classic outsider's tale, as told by some sort of denim monster in search of his denim-monster son. I think.

Will Young — "Jealousy"

Outside of the U.S., Will Young has already achieved multiplatinum success as an out gay man and a quasi-soul pop singer — becoming the most approximate successor we've got to, say, George Michael. But on his forthcoming sixth album Echoes, Young teams up electropop producer Richard X for a sound that's already feeling like a reinvention: Lead single "Jealousy" is as emotive and grief-stricken as you can get when you're going four to the floor. It's also total pop gold.

Morrissey Clarifies Remarks Comparing Norway Massacre to McDonalds and KFC

Morrissey clarified his recent remarks comparing the Norway massacre to the murder of animals for the fast food industry, in a statement to fan site True to You:

"The recent killings in Norway were horrific. As usual in such cases, the media give the killer exactly what he wants: worldwide fame. We aren't told the names of the people who were killed - almost as if they are not considered to be important enough, yet the media frenzy to turn the killer into a Jack The Ripper star is .... repulsive. He should be un-named, not photographed, and quietly led away. The comment I made onstage at Warsaw could be further explained this way: Millions of beings are routinely murdered every single day in order to fund profits for McDonalds and KFCruelty, but because these murders are protected by laws, we are asked to feel indifferent about the killings, and to not even dare question them. If you quite rightly feel horrified at the Norway killings, then it surely naturally follows that you feel horror at the murder of ANY innocent being. You cannot ignore animal suffering simply because animals 'are not us.'"

Morrissey: Fast Food Industry More Murderous Than Norway Terrorist

Morrissey and his mouth are causing controversy again. The UK Mirror reports that his remarks about the Norway massacre weren't received very well at a concert over the weekend:

The controversial singer, 52, made his remark while on stage at a gig in Warsaw on Sunday night. Before launching into his hit Meat is Murder, the outspoken vegetarian made reference to the horrific events last Friday.

Referring to the death toll as thought at the time he said: “We all live in a murderous world, as the events in Norway have shown, with 97 dead. Though that is nothing compared to what happens in McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried S*** every day.”

Said the singer's spokesman: “Morrissey has decided not to comment any further as he believes his statement speaks for itself.”

MUSIC NEWS: Washed Out, Ladytron, Xiu Xiu, Cut Copy, Das Racist, Hidden Cameras, Sufjan Stevens

BY NORMAN BRANNON

Norman Brannon is a pop critic, musician, and author based in New York City. He presents a weekly music update here on Towleroad and writes regularly at Nervous Acid.  

Follow Norman on Twitter at @nervousacid.

EXTENDED PLAY:

Washed Out Within and Without (Sub Pop)

As far as micro-genres go, "chillwave" is the most pedantic and unnecessary of the lot: Most often used to describe albums by artists like Toro Y Moi, Memory Tapes, or Washed Out, the term seems meant to replace what might have otherwise fallen under the '90s "shoegaze" umbrella. But if "chillwave" actually functions as a signifier for anything, it's not the sheer sonics of this new wave — whose ambient drones and reverb-drenched mixes didn't actually need an updated taxon — but the American-ness of its champions. The distinction is subtle: Washed Out's debut album, Within and Without, could never have been made if it weren't for seminal English albums like Souvlaki by Slowdive or Nowhere by Ride — and there's really no getting around that — but the decision to call in producer Ben Allen is a significant one in terms of differentiation. Allen's work with Animal Collective, Gnarls Barkley, and fellow Atlantans Deerhunter offers valuable insight into the psychedelic house effect of "Soft" or the vintage hip-hop breakbeat that propels "Before." Which is to say that whereas the British shoegaze sound was, by and large, an extension of the rock music tradition, Within and Without draws from contemporary urban American musical movements with a nuanced, yet playfully naïve touch. The combination is endearing, but more importantly, unique: Washed Out may have created the first American post-rave album to feature all of the ecstasy and none of the serotonin-depleted mope.

START WITH: "Soft" / "Eyes Be Closed" / "Echoes"

Also out today: Eleanor Friedberger — Last Summer (Merge), R.E.M. — Life's Rich Pageant: 25th Anniversary Edition (Capitol), Radical Dads — Mega Rama (Uninhabitable Mansions)

THE DISPATCH:

 Following their recent Best of 00-10 collection, Liverpool electropop outfit Ladytron have announced the new decade will begin with their fifth full-length album, Gravity The Seducer, as well a new single called "White Elephant." A three-song sampler for the album, including the single, is available for streaming now.

 Jamie Stewart's avant-garde tendencies have propelled a ten-year career for Xiu Xiu, so it's not altogether surprising that an upcoming single will see his antipop inclinations collide head-on with chart-pop sensibility: A cover of Rihanna's "Only Girl (In The World)" teases out a dark and unsettling side to the song that may have been buried under the bright filtered synths of the original.

Lots of new music to stream and download this week: Cut Copy posted a tight and techy remix of "Blink and You'll Miss a Revolution" by the aforementioned Toro Y Moi. Canadian fellows P.S. I Love You announced the release of Figure It Out, a collection of singles and EPs featuring a stellar collaboration with Diamond Rings called "Leftovers," now available for download. Also on the download tip comes a stripped-down house revision of Chromeo's "When The Night Falls" by Hercules & Love Affair. And finally, another never-before-heard track from the late, lamented Elliott Smith surfaced online for streaming this week: "The Real Estate" will appear on Live From Nowhere Near You — a three-disc charity compilation whose proceeds will benefit a homeless youth organization called Outside In.

 DJ Tiësto and The Alchemist are the first two names attaching themselves to writing and producing for a comeback album from Fab Morvan — better known as one-half of Milli Vanilli. This can't end well.

 The first official album by hip-hop wiseguys and critical theory provocateurs Das Racist was announced this week: The 14-song Relax will be released on September 13 through the band's own Greedhead Music and features collaborations with El-P, Diplo, Yeasayer's Anand Wilder, and Vampire Weekend's out producer and multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij.

 I've been a vegetarian for almost 24 years now, so hey, Morrissey! I feel you and your animal rights pain! But even I couldn't resist the chuckle from a headline like this: Morrissey Bitten By A Dog.

THE PLAYLIST:

During the slow summer weeks of the industry release schedule, we'll be picking up the slack with some Rdio playlists. Last week's "Best of 2011 (So Far)" mixtape fit the bill in a timely manner, but this week I went a bit more freewheeling: "The Endless Summer" is a collection of ten tracks that, in some way to me, speak to the season at hand. There was a hefty list to whittle down before I realized that I wanted to focus on some of the more emotive electronic music in my collection, and the end result got a windows-open test drive before I hit publish.

The tracks themselves are largely from the last few years, and once again, I tried to split the focus between lesser-known artists that may have gone under the radar the first time around — like the excellent People Press Play or the last underrated album from Styrofoam — as well as tracks from bigger artists that may have been swept under the rug. (See: Basement Jaxx and Underworld.) So give it a shot. With any luck, you may just find a new summer jam.

SOUND & VISION:

Hidden Cameras — "Do I Belong?"

After ten years together, there are few lesser-known gay artists than Joel Gibbs and Hidden Cameras, and the video for "Do I Belong?" — with its opening sequence of countless shirtless torsos of all shapes, sizes, and fur-quotients and latex-clad cameos — will do very little to further mainstream the band. Clearly, that's always been somewhat the point.

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart — "The Body"

Just in time for the heatwave, one of the more irrepressibly sunny tracks from the Pains' excellent Belong gets the beachy video it deserves. The moral of this story: Grown-ups have less fun.

Taking Back Sunday — "Faith (When I Let You Down)"

The notion of the parody video is a hit-or-miss affair, but the newest video from Taking Back Sunday — which cites Guns N Roses, Ellen Degeneres, Boogie Nights, and YouTube cat movies in a narrative arc worthy of an E! True Hollywood Story — gets the formula right: It's the makings of a LOLCAT tragedy.

Sufjan Stevens — "Get Real, Get Right"

In addition to his duties as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, indie polymath Sufjan Stevens tries on the Director and Animator roles for his latest video. "Get Real, Get Right" is the newest single from last year's The Age of Adz.

MUSIC NEWS: Junior Boys, Bob Mould, Patrick Wolf, Beyoncé, Active Child, Tom Stephan, Bright Light Bright Light, Nicola Roberts

NORMAN BRANNON

Norman Brannon is a pop critic, musician, and author based in New York City. He presents a weekly music update here on Towleroad and writes regularly at Nervous Acid.  

Follow Norman on Twitter at @nervousacid.

EXTENDED PLAY:

Junior Boys It's All True (Domino)

Junior Boys have always lived in the divide between soft, glitchy microhouse and dancefloor-friendly synthpop — a chasm which, on some level, didn't seem as wide on 2009's Begone Dull Care. But for It's All True, the Canadian duo reintroduce themselves with a newfound sense of integration and genre-f*cking bravery. Album opener "Itchy Fingers" sets the pace by drawing from 21st-century R&B, British mod guitar, and hi-speed arpeggiated disco before finally settling on a half-time pop hook that announces this album's arrival with intrepid idiosyncrasy, but the song turns out to be something of a red herring: Its pastiche feature goes unrepeated, and as a result, you get the idea that this album's first five minutes are more of a defamiliarization technique than a creative statement. Somehow, it still works. Yet while songs like the contemplative (and deceptively titled) "Playtime" are comfortably nestled between impeccable nu-disco detours ("You'll Improve Me") and other new wave innuendo ("A Truly Happy Ending"), the suggestion that Junior Boys may be preparing a proper techno album in the future persists until the very end. Indeed, by the time we get to the album's final triptych of songs — a collection that wouldn't seem out of place on a label like, say, Kompakt — Jeremy Greenspan's pensive tread is transformed; the lovable pessimist gives way to a Pollyanna.

Also out today: Madeleine Peyroux — Standing on the Rooftop (Decca), Joy Division & New Order — Total (Rhino/Warner Bros.), Marissa Nadler — Marissa Nadler (Box of Cedar), Florrie — The Experiments EP (iTunes), Owl City — All Things Bright and Beautiful (Universal Republic)

THE DISPATCH:

As a member of Hüsker Dü and Sugar, Bob Mould became a pioneer in the genres of punk and melodic indie rock; more recently, as one-half of the BLOWOFF DJ team with Rich Morel, he's left an indelible mark on gay male nightlife. This week, the songwriter and musician will issue his first book: See A Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody, an autobiography co-written with respected music writer Michael Azerrad, is out this Wednesday, to be followed by a book tour featuring readings and solo acoustic performances of songs from Mould's vast back catalog.

 Fluxblog's Matthew Perpetua does a track-by-track rundown of the recently leaked new Beyoncé album for Rolling Stone, and reveals that despite the out-the-gate aggression of its first single, 4 is "a more relaxed, personal set that emphasizes ballads over bangers." The album will be released on June 28.

 Patrick Wolf's long-awaited fifth studio album, Lupercalia, drops on June 20 — and it's available for streaming now! — but ahead of that he's released the first of five "video portraits" directed by the album's art director John Lindquist and accompanied by music from the record. Says Wolf, "Now with most people buying albums mainly online I didn't want a generation to lose the joy of experiencing artwork. So I wanted to make moving artwork … for the iPad and laptop generation."

 Only a week after the release of Depeche Mode's latest remix set — featuring a revision by former member Vince Clarke — it has been announced that the reunion is going deeper than that: Clarke, who is also renown for his work in Yazoo and Erasure, will be teaming up with Martin Gore for as an as-yet untitled side project that is being described as "a techno album." They've been at work on it for the past six months.

If you haven't heard Active Child yet, the Los Angeles–based artist is preparing to release his debut album this summer and "Playing House" is our first taste of its direction. Following an EP that somehow married classical harp with vintage new wave, it's definitely a new sound: If you've ever wondered what modern R&B might sound like under ice, this may be your answer.

 Morrissey still has pull: In exchange for performing at the Belgian Lokerse Festival, organizers have agreed to ban the sale and preparation of meat products from its catering and food stalls for a 24-hour period. They call it "a welcome catering challenge."

 Kid Creole & The Coconuts will be releasing their latest album, I Wake Up Screaming, this September, and the record will feature a collaboration with Hercules & Love Affair producer Andy Butler. Lead single "I Do Believe" is out in July, with remixes from Faze Action and Brennan Green, among others.

FREE DOWNLOADS:

MP3 | Beyoncé — "Run The World (Girls)" (Tom Stephan Remix)

London producer Tom Stephan is a New York expat, a Neil Tennant ex-boyfriend, and a house producer nonpareil as Superchumbo. Earlier this week, he uploaded his own take on the much-contested lead single from Beyoncé's latest album, and if the original song fell flat for you, this one might pick up the slack: It's big-room Sound Factory business with a nuanced groove — which is a democratic way of saying that the Switch version is a bit too lawless even for my tastes.

MP3 | James Yuill — "Crying For Hollywood" (Bright Light Bright Light's Red Carpet Mix)

James Yuill's Movement In A Storm was one of the best albums released all last year, and like many great records, it went criminally unrecognized. Here, his longtime friend — and retromodern songwriter of the moment — Bright Light Bright Light hands in a new version of "Crying For Hollywood" that gives it an epic shine and some '80s dancefloor movement. If Yuill's original was something of a Sunday morning lament, this excellent remix hangs on to a bout of Friday night fearlessness.

SOUND & VISION:

Nicola Roberts — "Beat Of My Drum"

As the third member of UK supergroup Girls Aloud to go solo, Nicola Roberts has a lot riding on this: One wrong move and it's the difference between the multiplatinum debut by Geri Halliwell and the 53,000-copy–selling debut by Scary Spice. The early critical response is heartening for Roberts, however, and "Beat Of My Drum" — produced by Diplo — has the kind of infectious, rhythmic celebration that summer anthems are made of.

Bright Eyes — "Jejune Stars"

After eight proper studio albums and a handful of compilations and live records, Bright Eyes have certainly deserved the right to blow things up. Somewhat predictably then, on the video for their latest single, "Jejune Stars," Conor Oberst takes a literary turn: Setting words to fireworks is, to some extent, what he's been doing for years.

Memory Tapes — "Yes I Know"

2009's Seek Magic put Memory Tapes mainman Dayve Hawk at the forefront of another one of those accidental musical movements — which worked out because, lucky for him, "chillwave" sounds a lot more substantive than "emo" or something. Much like Toro Y Moi — who also rode the chillwave — Hawk's second album Player Piano, due out next month, seems to be making a case for songcraft over reverbed electro-loops: "Yes I Know" bears a seductive, wistful vocal and an unmistakably old school gait; the most interesting thing Hawk seems to be saying here about future music is that some things don't need to be reinvented.

Broken Social Scene — "Sweetest Kill"

Toronto's musical collective Broken Social Scene have done their fair share of soundtracking messed-up movies; the songs they contributed to Half Nelson, for one, pretty much always make me think of smoking crack now. Great! So just think of how we'll listen to "Sweetest Kill" in the future, after watching this mini-movie about a young lady who kills and dismembers her ostensible love interest in all its graphic glory. So yeah: This clip is probably NSFW, unless you work for Rob Zombie.

The Queen is Gaddafi, Says Morrissey

Morrissey attacks Queen Elizabeth and the Monarchy as she makes an historic visit to Ireland:

The full meaning of the Monarchy is, like the Queen herself, a complete mystery to most people. It is protected from any investigations by ridiculous stories of trivia and wedding dresses and on-again-off-again soap-drama romances. The most revealing statement came from Commander Christine Jones of the Metropolitan Police last month, when she warned that any British people carrying anti-royal placards who are "seen in the vicinity of the royal wedding would be removed under the Public Order Act." This means that any political dissent in England is silenced in order to protect the royals, which in itself goes against every principle of democracy.

The very existence of the Queen and her now enormous family – all supported by the British taxpayer whether the British taxpayer likes it or not – is entirely against any notion of democracy, and is against freedom of speech. For a broad historical view of what the Queen is and how she "rules", examine Gaddafi or Mubarak, and see if you can spot any difference.

You won't be able to.

"The last British monarch to visit Ireland prior to the Queen's historic visit this week was George V exactly 100 years ago," according to the Telegraph.

Watch a clip of the Queen's first visit to Ireland, AFTER THE JUMP...