Alternative Album Chart: the best new indie and alternative albums this week
People have been eagerly anticipating the fourth Michael Kiwanuka album for five years. A lot has happened since he released the globally celebrated masterpiece Kiwanuka in November 2019, and the world is clearly a much different place now. Society is more divided than ever, and we are reminded of the very real threat of nuclear and environmental annihilation daily. Just as things started to turn bleak this week, the North Londoner returned. It’s quashed the existential depression a fair bit.
These five long years have been worth the wait. Small Changes, the latest instalment in Kiwanuka’s small but profound oeuvre, marks a solid next step. With the world taking a much darker turn recently, the record has arrived at the right time, with his rendition of ‘British Cosmic Music’ utterly astounding, all-encompassing, and providing the right amount of escapism to take us from this place to somewhere altogether more utopian.
It represents songwriting at its finest, with exceptional pacing, production and Kiwanuka pushing his craft forward while not losing sight of what makes his art so unique and effective. Perfect for solitary reflection or stoned summer walks in a field, the sort of impact it has is seldom seen in contemporary music.
It must be a week for singular artists, as another highlight comes from none other than Josh Tillman, better known as Father John Misty. His sixth album as the extravagant character, Mahashmashana, sees him return to the dreamland that made him, following 2022’s more sincere Chloë and the Next 20th Century, and construct a record that sounds like George Harrison was strung out in Vegas.
Elsewhere, no discussion of musical excellence would be complete without the discussion of jazz collective Sonic Interventions’ debut, Do You Remember?, a refreshing slice of modern jazz comprised of members from across the world, with a significant narrative concerning the horrors of colonialism. It will make you re-think jazz.
Find this week’s Alternative Album Chart below.
The best new indie and alternative albums this week:
Small Changes – Michael Kiwanuka – [4.5]
While former Byrd Gene Clark might have brought Gram Parsons’ idea of ‘Cosmic American Music’ to life on his masterpiece No Other, blending country, R&B, rock and gospel into an innovative and profoundly heady mix, Michael Kiwanuka has certainly cemented his British counterpart to the genre with his fourth album, Small Changes.
Although following up 2019’s world-renowned Kiwanuka would have been the undoing for other artists, particularly after moving out of your native city and having kids, but not the North London legend. Enlisting co-producers Brian ‘Danger Mouse’ Burton and Sault’s Inflo, Kiwanuka has followed up his chef-d’oeuvre with another masterpiece, which rises into the air and replenishes your being like the aroma of a freshly boiled pot of coffee on a Sunday morning.
Blending his diverse influences into a mediative, dream-like palette that’s perfectly produced, with the warmth and natural emotion of his voice supported by the natural hue of analogue recording and deference to the greats of yesteryear; it’s the kind of body of work wherein you find your mind wandering and a serious sense of personal equilibrium restored. It provides escapism of the highest order and is the sonic rendering of the floating parade that inspired the song of the same name.
Mahashmashana – Father John Misty – [4.5]
No one makes music like Father John Misty does. Since his breakout in 2012 with Fear Fun, his style has been endlessly referenced, with countless attempts to replicate it. But on his sixth album, Mahashmashana, he makes it clear that his vision is his own and his inspiration comes from nowhere but himself, the voice inside his head and the way it reads the world around him.
On each album, Father John Misty has peered out at the world from behind his pen. Sometimes, all he could focus on was the one lover in front of him or his anxiety regarding the industry he existed in. He’s always written about that, sometimes through the eyes of his moniker character and sometimes allowing Josh Tillman to peek through. But on his last album, Chloe and the Next 20th Century, he went all out. As the collapse of society, as we know it, seemed to get on top of him, he retreated further into this charismatic character than ever. Tillman was locked away as he called in a whole orchestra and seemed to go into hiding in a grand ballroom. He was content to neurotically avoid the end of days by dancing around in a suit until the apocalypse arrived.
But Mahashmashana sees him reemerging, gathering up all the pieces of himself and using them all to attempt to untangle the complex mess we have left. With the enduring lyrical wit of his early albums, the outgoing instrumentals of his latest efforts, and the razor-sharp social commentary he harnessed best on Pure Comedy, this new release sees every bit of him working as one for a release that’s expansive, epic, cinematic, silly in some places but still somehow refined.
With all his various evolutions in conversation, the Father John Misty we meet on Mahashmashana, especially on the album’s titular track, feels like a kind of spiritual era George Harrison if he was washed out in Vegas. He’s as if a countercultural hero was stuck doing a big band show in an opera house, refusing to compromise on his edginess but still surrendering to the lure to do something flashy. For those who love him, that will all read as the simple fact – this is Father John Misty at his finest.
Do You Remember? – Sonic Interventions – [4]
Today, we live in a largely post-colonial world, yet the looming shadow of imperialist terror has never really dissipated. Countries all around the world still suffer from the devastating impact of colonial rule, even if those rulers have washed their hands of it all. In Africa, music has always been used as a form of social commentary and protest, and the colonial period across the continent saw countless defiant artists challenge their rulers through song and dance. That legacy of defiance is carried on in the modern age by artists like jazz collective Sonic Interventions.
Hailing from Berlin, Sonic Interventions boasts an impossibly diverse line-up of musicians from all over the world, including Ghana, South Africa, Algeria, Colombia, Cuba, Australia, and various other faraway corners of the globe. Their debut album, Do You Remember? does an excellent job of capturing that diversity. Across the tracklisting, you can hear the influences of Latin jazz, Afrobeat, R&B, and funk, with a particular emphasis on African music scenes and traditions. Truly, you would be hard-pushed to find another album that is adept at showcasing as many different styles in such a short space of time.
Impressively, Sonic Interventions manages to imbue the record with a strong sense of narrative and flow. The broad range of influences drawn upon within the music does not feel messy or contrived at any point, with the collective expertly flowing from one sound to another in the tradition of spiritual jazz. What’s more, that narrative is inherently political, touching upon topics of war, imperialism, and colonialism through its music and performance.
Daryl Johns – Daryl Johns – [3.5]
Some artists are naturally able to paint a picture with their music, but New Jersey jazz-fusion bassist Daryl Johns instead chooses to play us a grainy Betamax tape of his visions. Everything on his eponymous debut album feels nostalgic for a time that the 29-year-old wasn’t alive to witness, evoking false memories of cultural phenomena from before his birth.
Johns has made an album to be played while sipping on an extra large milkshake at the local diner, to be listened to at your step aerobics class, and to be used in the title sequence to a public access broadcast. These are all things he has done with intention, but just how has he managed to conjure such a strong 1980s-aligned image having never witnessed the decade himself, and why do I, someone of the same age and different nationality, have such a vivid impression of the world he is creating?
His association with various other artists from the modern era that also deal in retro revival is almost certainly something that has rubbed off on him to an extent. As the former touring bassist with New York power pop brothers The Lemon Twigs, a collaborator of Drugdealer, and releasing the album via the record label of slacker goofball Mac DeMarco, Johns is in esteemed company when it comes to surrounding himself with people who fetishise the past in their music.
It’s a fascinating listen for the most part, but its refusal to try anything new save for being technically adventurous at times is where the album falls flat, and its incessant desire to hammer home the nostalgia can get irritating, no matter how many hooks there are trying to hold it in place.
Nobody Loves You More – Kim Deal – [3]
Decades into her career, Kim Deal is set to deliver her solo debut with Nobody Loves You More. Of course, it’s less of a debut and more of a reintroduction. It’s a record that feels like an encounter with an old friend who has swapped their leather jackets for denim, whose eyes and handshake seem to have softened a little over the years, but whose smile has never changed.
Some songs sound like odes to old pop, pairing gentle declarations of love with swelling strings. Others return to the harsher sounds of her roots, to grainy guitars and expletives. But they’re all pulled together by Deal’s voice. Not just her literal voice but the authenticity she affords each track, the way she allows her own experiences and interests to spill into them at will, roping in a slew of trusted collaborators to help her do so.
It’s certainly a softer offering than most of her previous work, but it makes sense that her sound has mellowed and matured since the alt-rock explosion of the 1990s. Listening to Nobody Loves You More feels like extending your run-in with Deal to a coffee shop catch-up, allowing her to talk you through the years in each song and leaving you with a better understanding of her artistry than ever before.
