2014 has produced some great pop albums so far, and here’s the cream of the crop
“Lighght” – Kishi Bashi
“Lighght” (pronounced “light”) opens with “Debut — Impromptu,” which goes from a series of energetic violin strums to an orchestral harmony and back in thirty seconds. The opener, despite being dense and beautiful, is almost casually thrown out — the album has beauty to spare.
Kishi Bashi is no stranger to elaborate avant-pop music, being a founding member of Jupiter One and violinist for of Montreal. With “Lighght,” his second solo album, he has combined his considerable technical musical skill with an experimental playfulness that’s irresistible.
The first full song “Philosophize In It! Chemicalize In It!” exemplifies this playfulness, featuring a bubblegum tune and soaring vocals from Bashi. It’s a busy song, with plinking violin and cello and energetic drums throughout, but thanks to Bashi’s keen eye for composition it never becomes muddled or anything less than infectiously catchy.
Which isn’t to say that the album lacks seriousness — it’s just baked into the dreamy wonder that permeates the album. “Bittersweet Genesis for Him AND Her” is an album highlight, a lyrical triumph that focuses on the mythic, destructive nature of love. It opens with loopy joyfulness — “In the beginning we were scrambled together / Mixed in a celestial bowl and hand fluffed with a feather” — and ends in melancholy dislocation — “We ignored the pleas of the forest and the seas / As we scorched the earth with our tears.”
The fancifully spiritual sweep of the album means that even at its lightest and poppiest, the album never feels disposable. It’s art-pop that anyone who loves the lighter side of music will enjoy.
“Nikki Nack” – Tune-yards
Tune-yards frontwoman Merrill Garbus is a woman of many voices. She can belt out a powerful rant, she can harmonize in soprano and she can make a series of whoops and calls, but what makes Garbus unique is that she does all of these at once on a single song.
This year’s new Tune-yards album “Nikki Nack” retains their signature layered sound, with Garbus’s nimble voice serving as just one of many instruments coming together in carefully arranged loops and bursts. The overall effect is busy, danceable and undeniably alive — most songs come to a powerful crescendo where the elaborate structure bends towards chaos, which is where Garbus is in her strident element.
“Nikki Nack” is as fiery and vital as the two previous, and doubles down on the artist’s recurring themes of the damage caused by our social systems.
That is to say, Garbus makes music with a message, but like good poetry, the message never overwhelms. On bona fide banger “Real Thing,” she bellows “I come from the land of slaves / Let’s go Redskins / Let’s go Braves,” drawing on accumulated American hypocrisy for energy. Her passion both drives the album and gives it thematic depth. As always, Garbus refuses to play the victim — the song “Stop That Man” is a paean to urban vigilantism, a cathartic burst of commanding protest.
Tune-yards have been accused of cultural appropriation due to their use of African rhythms and adoption of minority viewpoints, but that’s a reductive response to a promising songwriting style. Garbus is quite open about her transnational inspirations, and her influences lend the album a soulful, stick-to-your-ribs appeal.
“Nikki Nack” has more teeth than the typical pop album, but Garbus’s rhythmic arrangements are so skilled and deeply satisfying that it should go down easy.
“Sun Structures” – Temples
The ‘60s have inspired a wide array of modern music, but sometimes there comes a band that goes straight to the source. Temples is an English rock group that plays like an exceptionally polished echo of ‘60s garage and psych rock, and that’s not a bad thing.
The band’s debut album “Sun Structures” uses the trippy, grungy, experimental trappings of their inspirational decade for seasoning instead of as the main course, which makes for a more uniform sound at the cost of uniqueness. However, what Temples lack in uniqueness they make up for in catchiness and quality — “Sun Structures” is eminently listenable, with almost every song playing like a long-lost radio single.
Actual lead single “Shelter Song” is a particularly tasty serving of ‘60s stew. Lead singer James Edward Bagshaw’s sleepy, washed out crooning, the snare drums, and the cleanly simple guitar riffs all come together for a retro good time.
While Temples owes their musical tics to a vast host of ‘60s groups, an easy modern-day comparison point would be the Black Keys. Both bands have albums full of easy-listening rock, with simple and compelling tunes regardless of whether they’re being upbeat or downbeat. They’re not the most lyrically sophisticated bands in the room, but that’s not their selling point — they’re peddling catchy songs, and “Sun Structures” delivers on that in spades.