IRON & WINE – HEN’S TEETH

Well, Iron & Wine, the brainchild of Sam Beam, returns with his eleventh album, Hen’s Teeth (Sub Pop), and yeah, of course, Iron & Wine has done it again. Of course, he’s delivered consistent and concise song structures that run the gamut of folk, country, and pop, all intertwined together, sometimes even at the same time. There are no excuses, only strong & creative songs here. “In Your Ocean” captures heartfelt vocal deliveries and, dare I even say, is slightly reminiscent of something no one else would ever find it comparable to? I won’t say it, but 70s rock was filled with soulfulness, and that’s what Beam projects here in this instance. Hen’s Teeth is strong & sturdy, and sometimes peeks out with an unmatched beauty. It’s filled with an assortment of songs that can only be found in Iron & Wine as derivative unto itself.

GORILLAZ – THE MOUNTAIN

What is “schtick” and what is art? There is a difference, and that difference couldn’t be more disparate from one to the other. That was probably the assumption when Gorillaz first surfaced on our musical landscape: a virtual “band” of cartoon characters hitting the airwaves. But it was in fact Damon Albarn’s sidestepping project (his main being Blur of course) created with artist Jamie Hewlett. Something of this magnitude hadn’t been done before, and now, nine albums in with The Mountain, Gorillaz once again change our perception and perspective.

For the new album, it seems Albarn has gone way off the deep end, but the buoyancy allows the release to thrive, wading in the water with drinks in tow on floating devices. Gorillaz have already reached the pinnacle of the mountaintop, so what’s left? Well, build a base on that mountaintop and shoot for the moon! That’s exactly what happens here. This is over an hour of material, so you have to be prepared to strap yourself in. The underlying style of play here seems, for the most part, based in Hindustani classical music, as the opening title track seems to attest with its sitar and percussion blending together with soothing wind instrumentation as vocal harmonies abound. The track features older, unused Dennis Hopper voice recordings as well, and you get the sense Albarn knows what he’s doing, offering a bit of nostalgia with that. There are consistent players throughout the album, like sitarist Anoushka Shankar, Roots’ Black Thought, and Smiths/Electronic guitarist Johnny Marr, who assist in tying together songs on the album but there’s also a wide array of guest appearances. On the lovingly touched “The Moon Cave,” Gorillaz fill the void with the help of 81-year-old vocalist Asha Puthli, unused voice recordings of Bobby Womack, Jalen Nogonda, the aforementioned Black Thought, and more voice recordings of De La Soul’s Dave Jolicouer. The meshing of sounds & voices is a wondrous endeavor that sways with the winds blowing around it. What’s really interesting is “The Hardest Thing,” featuring frequent collaborator Nigerian Afrobeat artist Tony Allen, which is a soothing, yet haunting track that exquisitely challenges the senses, which soon moves on into “Orange County.” This is a different version of the same song, featuring Bizarrap, Kara Jackson, and Anoushka Shanker, adding much more bounce to it, virtually creating something similar but much more different.

It’s always great to see & hear Gorillaz moving outside of the box, rather than trapped within. “The Empty Dream Machine,” with Black Thought, Marr, and Shankar, is cloaked in darkness & melancholy as Shankar’s sitar drifts in and out when you least expect it, with Marr providing harmonies, and of course, Black Thought. Black Thought adds in his thoughtful lyricism, meshing with the lost storminess of the track itself. It’s “The Manifesto,” though, which features D-12’s Proof, with some previously recorded vocals, here utilized posthumously, and Argentine rapper Trueno, tying everything together. This is beautifully done. On “Delirium,” Albarn digs up vocals by The Fall’s Mark E. Smith to include over the Bossa nova-driven rhythm that morphs and plays with dynamics throughout. While Smith’s contribution might seem minimal, it’s still vivacious and punctuates throughout the song itself. Circling back a bit though, we do get a sense of Gorillaz’s electronic movements, and “The Plastic Guru” finds that route and rides it from beginning to end. Johnny Marr and Shankar appear, Shankar adding in more backing vocals, it seems, than sitar, although its presence is felt towards the end of the song. Her nimble fingers here, no, I’ve never heard solos played this way; quickly and sharp.

Sitting here with The Mountain for some time and thinking, it shouldn’t be possible, but it is; the ease with which an artist creates an album of this magnitude shouldn’t happen, but it did. Albarn is much more than a creative artist; he’s a force of nature.