BeatRoute Magazine AB Edition - November 2019

SUDAN ARCHIVES
Athena
Stones Throw Records
THE DREADNOUGHTS
Into the North
Stomp Records
LITTLE SCREAM
Speed Queen
Dine Alone
CURSIVE
Get Fixed
15 Passenger
LEIF VOLLEBEKK
New Ways
Secret City Records
On her debut full-length, themes of
duality break open Brittney Parks’
(AKA Sudan Archives) lyrical prowess.
The unearthly Athena embodies
everything the rising violinist/
songwriter stands for: understated
feminism, electric sexuality, and rebellious
vulnerability are delivered
by her sultry voice.
Parks harnesses her full power
as an artist with skill and spontaneity,
dancing from acoustic soul to
sensual R&B to experimental hiphop,
all wrapped generously in her
hypnotizing violin loops and West
African-inspired rhythms.
Unfolding like a cinematic score,
Athena is celestial yet relatable,
hitting universal notes on the
complexities and dichotomies of
being human. Lo-fi acoustics and
smooth vocals tempt on “Did You
Know?” “Confessions” swoops in
with ecstatic Sudanese-centric
fiddle beats and robust lyrics about
the compromises of following
a dream. The album swells with
orchestral-like elements and slips
into glitchy electronic riffs as Parks’
voice takes on a spooky tone, like
in “Green Eyes.”
The dramatic Athena rounds off
in moody jazz ensconced with a
voice of liquid gold dripping onto
sun-baked earth.
Parks pulls us from one side of
the coin to the other, both soothing
and energizing us all the while.
Best Track: Confessions
Dayna Mahannah
Gather round the table and hold
yer frothy drink up high, the Dreadnoughts
are back with their most
vigorous, heartfelt album yet. The
15-song collection of modernized
sea-shanties speaks to a different
time, where it’s often forgotten that
something as simple as a strong
accordion-backed harmony can fill
a room to the brim.
Based out of Vancouver’s Downtown
Eastside, the six-piece ragtag
crew of folk-punkers continue to
carry the torch for a genre that celebrates
the misfit. After dedicating
their previous album to World War I,
Into the North feels less focused in
one direction and more tapped into
what the band does best: gathering
folks together to drink, dance, and
be merry at all costs. More often
than not, the songs start stripped,
leading with singer, Nicholas
Smith’s deep, echoing vocals, leaving
the flute, accordion, and violin
no choice but to follow suit.
The album varies throughout,
ranging from cheerful to somber
and all notes in between, yet
boasts a substantial weight at its
center. With Into the North, the
Dreadnoughts continue sailing, no
matter the height of the waves, all
the while singing their jaunty song.
Best Track: Northwest Passage
Brendan Lee
Montreal-based singer, songwriter
and multi-instrumentalist Laurel
Sprengelmey returns with her
third studio album, Speed Queen,
picking up where she left off with
Cult Following and The Golden
Album to propel her dancy rock into
new thematic realms of justice and
geopolitics.
The album’s name refers
to a washing machine, which
Sprengelmey describes as the
ultimate token of the american
dream — “you know you’ve made
it if you’ve got your own washing
machine,” she says.
On hyper-political opener “Dear
Leader” she addresses climate
change, the migrant crisis and the
prison industrial complex, flitting
from subject to subject like a social
media newsfeed. Sprengelmey
matches the scope of content
covered with an impressive range
of instruments, from horns, to violin,
to synth, accordion, xylophone and
even a gong.
Little Scream tackles complex
compositions with confidence
amidst masterfully crafted orchestration.
The crisp percussion and lush
instrumentation redeem the record,
building rhythms with the same
heart-racing excitement as Arcade
Fire at their most anthemic while
Sprengelmey’s electric guitar hits
with ferocity.
Little Scream’s optimistic rockpop
ultimately sparkles like an 80s
prom night, nostalgic and wistful
and Pepto-Bismol pink.
Best Track: One Lost Time
Maggie McPhee
Cursive have always stood tall
among their emo rock peers since
emerging from the depths of Omaha,
NB in the early 2000s.
Following the critically acclaimed,
The Ugly Organ (2003),
vocalist Tim Kasher and a rotating
cast of comrades were keeping a
notably low profile until their 2018
comeback offering, Vitriola, which
showed the band reinvigorated and
ready to fight. That momentum continues
on Get Fixed, an album as
sharp and cutting as the scissors
dawning the album art.
As on Vitriola, Kasher continues
full force with his blunt views on
society, clearly frustrated with the
state of his America today.
Songs like “Marigold” and title
track “Get fixed” sound like a haunting
orchestra musical, while “Horror
is a Human being” and “Content
Conman” bring back their post
hardcore roots with its distortion
and tantrum filled drumming.
Cursive have a way of presenting
both ugly and beautiful at the same
time, while offering plenty of food
for thought. Even if you don’t fully
vibe with its dark subject matters,
Get Fixed retains a unique charm
in Kasher’s jaded vocal delivery on
top of playful and inventive musical
arrangements.
Best Track: What’s Gotten into You?
Lamar Ramos
If Leif Vollebekk’s record Twin
Solitudes in 2017 was a personal,
self-reflective journey tinged with
heartbreak and an existential
yearning for meaning, New Ways is
distinctively more tender, still personal—
but now for someone else.
The Montreal songwriter creates
scenes, poetic memories, and
whispered conversations that
depict moments and stories that
we are not a part of but listening to
as they unfold.
Vollebekk’s reverent attention to
the small details has always been
the softly shining star of his work,
and here they not only bring his
lyrics to technicolour vibrancy, they
also equally share the stage with
the figures of his songs.
“Lightning evening in the holy
highlands/Down in the hall up
against the wall/I know you’re
struggling what to call it/Why you
gotta call it anything at all?” he observes
during a quiet conversation
in “Hot Tears,” making the setting
just as significant as the dialogue.
As he sings about past experiences
with longing and affection,
pain and joy, his words are warm.
There are no traces of bitterness
in his soulful voice. In “Never Be
Back,” he is no jilted lover, only
wistfully honest: “She’s my woman
and she loved me so fine/She’ll
never be back.”
Much like the record’s namesake,
Vollebekk remembers these
moments and sees them differently,
“looking at the sun through my
eyelids.” He’s sees them in new
ways.
Best Track: Never Be Back
Albert Hoang
NOVEMBER 2019 BEATROUTE 27