Highlights: A Broken Memory, Bodies At Bay, Exit Plan, Let Loose
The Dogs, Absisto
9/10
If this is not your
first time on this site, it probably means that my opinion speaks to you. In
which case getting/buying/illegally downloading Neuroplasticity is what you should do straight away. Drop whatever
inept indie bullshit you are listening to at the moment, and follow the link
you see above.
This is sensational.
“A Broken Memory” is sensational. Gutsy, charismatic, soulful music with
rasping horn giving it a sizeable John Coltrane-esque edge.
Al Spx is a talented
Canadian lady whose first album, I
Predict A Graceful Expulsion (chilling acoustic songs that were both
powerful and disarmingly simple), was one of my favourite albums of 2012. Neuroplasticity is a much more complex
affair. It’s not even about the songwriting (which is uniformly brilliant) or
the vocal performances (which are compelling and self-assured), it’s about the
arrangements that are now a lot more varied and complete. Inventive, too. Note
how masterfully she changes the rhythm in songs like “Bodies At Bay” and “Exit
Plan”. Note the dreamy keyboards in “Let Loose The Dogs” or the funky guitar
riff in “Living Signs”. Or the soulful madness of “Absisto”. Or the slow and
funereal and wonderfully unsettling closing ballad “A Season Of Doubt” which
marries wailing sax/horn with elegant piano to moving effect. And that’s me not
saying how good the actual tunes are.
10 songs in 35
minutes. Can you think of a length more perfect?.. She is good and she knows
it. Neuroplasticity is one of the
easiest nines I can think of.
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