London post-punk "revival" (so quoted because they sound and feel more like an original 80s UK post-punk group than the 2000s revivalist groups in the vein of Franz Ferdinand and the like) Savages have returned with a new album, Adore Life. The album follows on the heels of their very successful debut album, 2013's Silence Yourself.
Savages have released their second album, Adore Life
Silence Yourself carried a very traditional post-punk sound and aesthetic, drawing heavy influence from groups like Siouxsie and the Banshees and Joy Division. While a strong album, it was a bit light in the experimental nature that surrounded the original 80s post-punk genre. Adore Life brings that experimental nature to the forefront, resulting in a dynamic album that effortlessly navigates faster, traditional post-punk tunes through slower, ballad-like numbers, all without losing the listener or leading to the often ill-fated "never-ending-album-will-someone-please-turn-it-off" syndrome that over-experimentation can cause.
Adore Life opens with "The Answer," a distortion-laden song revolving around love and adoration. The song presents a larger focus with a driving bass line supplied by Ayse Hassan and a guitar solo from Gemma Thompson. The frantic guitar throughout the song strongly parallels singer Jehnny Beth's vocals with lines like "I'll go insane / Please stand up / What is the point?" which detail some of the struggle in determining how someone feels about you.
"Evil" starts off with an interplay between Hassan and Thompson that sounds vaguely similar to Killing Joke's "New Cold War" from Pylon (2015), though minus the heavy distortion industrial-leaning sound. Fay Milton on drums rounds out this number, providing a solid background with minor layers of detail that enriches the song further.
What makes Savages, in my opinion, more like the original post-punk bands and less like the modern "revival" post-punk bands is how many of the songs are highly bass-driven. "Evil" is just one example with "Sad Person" being another. Bands like Bauhaus and Joy Division are largely loved on a music level due to this somewhat unique quality, where the bass and drums provide much of the meat and drive of a song with guitar adding little flourishes here and there.
The album's title track opts for a slower, more reflective tone, led largely by Hassan on bass. Beth's lyrics center around a question of humanity and whether the idea of adoring/valuing life is unique to people and contemplates on past actions and whether it was best to do those, even if they led to negative endings, resolving that even if you have regrets, you lived life, you adore life because you continue on.
Adore Life continues in much the same manner as the early songs, offering driving music matched to Beth's Siouxsie Sioux-esque vocals. Songs like "When In Love" and "Surrender" deserve additional praise, the first for one of Thompson's opportunities to shine on guitar, and the latter for a very synth-layered bass backing from Hassan that nods back to 80s new wave meets darkwave sentiments.
Savages are set to tour this spring in support of the new album, reaching Dallas on April 11, playing at Trees. With two strong albums under their belt, and perhaps the only band to play an amazing show at 8am on a Tuesday morning, this is not a show to miss. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased here.
As 2015 comes to its close and we look ahead to 2016, it's time to do the cliched task of recollecting the albums released in 2015 that we enjoyed. These are not presented in any particular order, but these were some of my favorites. What were some of your favorite albums!?
Duran Duran - Paper Gods
Duran Duran - Paper Gods album cover
Duran Duran returned this year with Paper Gods, an album that proves they still have "it." The album is a rich combination of what Duran Duran was most known for in the new wave/new romantic period of the 80s mixed with a refreshing flourish of pop bravado common to today. Like many 80s bands, Duran Duran still falls victim to the trend of trying to rediscover themselves, failing on the first couple attempts, but then reclaiming that flame with the newest album. For Duran Duran, Paper Gods is the reclaiming album they and fans alike have been looking for. We'll have to see what comes next for the group, but hopefully this is just the beginning of a strong upward trend.
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss album cover
We reviewed Chelsea Wolfe's newest album a while back and it has only continued to grow on our ears. Easily her heaviest album yet, Abyss is a concept album of sorts that revolves around the phenomenon of sleep paralysis. Dark, brooding, moody music set to guiding vocals characterizes much of the album. Not only is it the heaviest album by Wolfe to date, but it may well be the most solid. Given how great this album is and previous effort Pain is Beauty, the only place for Wolfe to go is up, regardless of whether the music continues to get heavier or is reigned back. Added bonus - the live show is really strong and Wolfe is such a delightful performer. You're missing out if you've yet to see her on the live stage.
She Past Away - Narin Yalnizlik
She Past Away - Narin Yalnizlik album cover
She Past Away returns with their second album, Narin Yalnizlik. The Turkish darkwave group (yes, Turkish, and darkwave, and lyrics in Turkish!) makes a strong showing on this album, experimenting more with sounds and textures than they did on their debut album. While on the whole I prefer the debut album, this one is not an album to snub your nose at. She Past Away keeps a firm hold on their 80s darkwave roots (similar in ways to Xymox/Clan Of Xymox), meshing broken Turkish lyrics to a lush musical backdrop. The group finally reaches the US for a couple quick stops in California early 2016, but this is hopefully just the beginning of the group's foray into the US.
Killing Joke - Pylon
Killing Joke - Pylon album cover
Another album reviewed earlier this year here, Killing Joke returned full force with Pylon. Easily their strongest album in years, Pylon meshes the post punk aesthetic Killing Joke helped pioneer in the late 70s/early 80s with heavy distortion and an industrial feel characteristic of the group's more recent efforts. Almost their highest charting album ever, Pylon may well be the best album of 2015, for me at least. The group tours the US in 2016, hitting Texas towards the end of January.
Peter Murphy - Remixes From Lion
Peter Murphy - Remixes From Lion album cover
It wouldn't be a year it I couldn't write something about Peter Murphy, now would it? The Godfather of Goth (I can see his eye twitching at me saying this, but I didn't pick the title!) released a follow-up album of unused material from the Lion sessions. Most of the remixes offer an interesting reinterpretation of tracks from the main album. Better yet, the album includes the previously vinyl-only track "Gabriel" in all its multi-layered glory and a very solid series of newly released "The Sound of Water" and the Youth remix of "Loctaine," the one remix I think I may actually like more than the original (though the original take of "Loctaine" is also very strong and a favorite of mine). 2015 was a strong year for Murphy, even if quiet, in a sense. In addition to the Remixes album, two live albums were also released (the full audio from the Mr. Moonlight Tour as one and finally an official recording of the House of Blues show from April 2000 via Cleopatra). However, Murphy only played a handful of dates in June in California. By all accounts, 2016 may be a very loud year for Murphy, starting with a major role in the upcoming psychological thriller BlackGloveKiller.
It has been some time since I last did an album review that wasn't Bauhaus or Peter Murphy (which is rather an exercise in futility as you all know I will give highly favorable reviews to all those bodies of work because...well...they are my favorites). So, today I shall review Fad Gadget's "final" album, 1984's Gag.
The album cover for Gag
Fad Gadget was the stage name Frank Tovey adopted for a time. Tovey tried to learn various musical instruments as he grew up, but never had enough coordination (or perhaps patience) to stick with any and drifted away from music while he went through school. After school, Tovey got into experimenting with sounds eventually buying a synthesizer. He recorded his first demo and sent it to Daniel Miller (AKA The Normal, who had himself just released his first, and only, set of singles "Warm Leatherette" with "T. V. O. D.").
Afterwards, Tovey signed to Mute records where he worked closely with Miller to produce his first album, Fireside Favourites. Not being familiar with how recording an album went, many of the more technical aspects were left to Miller, but the music was all Tovey's work and ideas. He felt strongly about leading the direction of the album and felt similarly when it came to performing the songs live.
With each new album, the music gained in complexity of sounds as Tovey learned more about recording albums. This eventually led to the production of Gag, often seen as a major turning point in Tovey's career. Gag marked the first time other musicians helped record parts of songs. Gag also marked the final album that Tovey recorded under his stage name of Fad Gadget. All his future endeavors saw him using his real name.
Frank Tovey
In general, Fad Gadget's music has bleak, dark humorous lyrics that center around themes of sexuality, violence, capitalism, etc. The music is heavily driven by synthesizers and his singing tone is typically droning (in a sense) and expressionless. This isn't to say his vocals are boring. They merely add to the subject matter that he chooses to write lyrics around.
As Tovey's career wore on, he became increasingly known for his bizarre stage antics (thins like jumping into the audience and covering himself with tar and feathers as depicted in the music video for "Collapsing New People"). He also staunchly disliked industrialization (and perhaps the music genre of industrial) and changed his style to feature more acoustic sets. However, by 1993, Tovey had essentially removed himself from the music industry.
2001 saw the brief resurrection of Tovey, using the name Fad Gadget once more, to support Depeche Mode on a tour and begin writing new music. Sadly, this new album Tovey was working on was never finished as he passed away from a heart attack in 2002 at the age of 45 (he had had heart problems since he was a child).
Gag was considered a bit of an experimental album as opposed to a commercial album. It opens with "Ideal World" which is a dismal outlook at a perfect world that exists only in your mind or dreams where there is "no stress, no death/when you fall you wake/and feel no pain." The content and style of this song falls in line with other songs Tovey produced previously. I find it fairly catchy and is one of my favorites from the album.
The second track, "Collapsing New People," was actually the first song I heard from Fad Gadget. It is one of the first collaborations Tovey did, working with Einsturzende Neubauten (a band whose name translates into "collapsing new buildings"). This number is also catchy and features fairly dark lyrics ("Stay awake all night/but never see the stars/and sleep all day/on a chain-link bed of nails"). I don't really know what the lyrics are communicating, but I greatly enjoy the song, for what that may be worth.
The third track, "Sleep," is a very odd number. It opens with a piano and sounds that represent a baby babbling. I've always found this song to be particularly creepy ("sleep, baby sleep/daddy's gone out to earn your keep/sleep, baby sleep/momma's sad, hear her weep"). However, the song seems to have a positive note despite all the darkness. Lyrically, it's as if the father telling this story hopes for his baby to live a better life than he did and be a better person while he toils to help make a brighter future for the child.
The fourth track, "Stand Up," takes on a very different feel compared to the other songs. The music is more upbeat and lyrically tries to make the point that you should fight for your dreams and not let others step all over you. A bit out of place compared to other Fad Gadget songs, but possibly a personal message in which Tovey is trying to say he's going to make music in his way and won't pander to a label or particular people. It's a neat reprieve from the darkness several of the songs on this album contain.
Skipping to track seven, "The Ring," I love the music on this one. It's sort of a dark cabaret dealing with the subject of marriage and what happens when you are young and really full of lust instead of true love, leading to pain and shattered dreams. Rarely do you get a taste of the darker side of marriage, so this one is a bit special in that regard. I much enjoy it.
On the whole, Gag certainly shows a more experimental side of Fad Gadget. It's a neat album, but in being largely experimental, you often find yourself getting one song that's dark followed by another that is upbeat, and back and forth. It isn't the most uniform and flowing album. Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, as Bauhaus's The Sky's Gone Out is similar in the lack of flow department. However, I feel that album pulled that aspect off a bit better than Gag does. Still, I find this a fairly solid album and worth a listen. Frank Tovey, you are missed.
