Album Reviews: The Strokes, Charli XCX, Alex Cameron

The Strokes – Reality Awaits
New York City 

With their pedigree, the Strokes could really be phoning things in at this point, and you might not even notice given how satisfying their sound has been. But luckily, that’s not the Strokes we’ve been gifted. Rather than resting on their laurels, the band takes their most iconic colours and blurs the hues, mixes in new techniques, and does a lot to stay fresh without completely abandoning their past. You can call it safe with a playful twist, but there’s so much fun and joy under the hood that it’s hard not to enjoy the ride. “Dine N’ Dash” is one of The Strokes’ most moody and atypical creations since Angles, avoiding overt pop and pushing for ambience within a charging rock core. The band is updating their classic tones and riffs on “Lonely in the Future,” throwing neon tinges and a colder, metallic finish on the sounds that made their first three records shine so brightly. “Going to Babble On” spins these ideas differently, however, exploring the range of their sounds through more unusual riffs and tonal twists and turns to make the catchy writing feel less predictable. That’s why it’s so fun to see them really shake things up way more on “Going Shopping,” ditching a lot of their conventions, and piling on a whole handful of iconic riff moments between that chorus and late bridge glowing bass and guitar combo, with Julian Casablancas humming in unison for even more lush highs.

Orville Peck – Too Little, Too Late (Single)
Johannesburg, South Africa/Toronto

Taking a country rock-pop angle that feels like one era of Kings of Leon melding with another of Nicole Atkins, Orville Peck is roaring for a stadium-ready banger. The track is sun-drenched and rollicking, with its drums bouncing all over the place in a joyful tumble. The infectious pop choices between the claps, fiery drum fills and honey-dripping-like guitar lines are all a powerful combination, making this one stick in the ear instantly. But despite a bit of melancholic energy hiding between the otherwise chipper rock energy, this feels like a Peck who’s deciding to shed a chunk of unique personality for tried-and-true staples, albeit with a lot of memorable power. Here’s hoping that Peck spins a lot of the pop from this into something more personal and defined on the rest of his new album, because it’s radio-ready, but really not particular to him.

Charli XCX – Music, Fashion, Film
Cambridge, England

Mixing all the experimentation of Pop 2 with the bedroom pop feelings of How I’m Feeling Now, this is the Charli that fans have been trying to tell people about beyond the hit singles and Brat Summer took her public persona for a ride. “SS26” follows the tone-setting “Rock Music,” and sees Charli making a kind of ugly, bite-sized pop ballad, aiming for pure emotion and remaining personal over everything else. There’s a fun blend of lo-fi fun and expansive glamour on “Camera” that creates a powerful dynamic range in the song, ready to pull you in and then explode in a kaleidoscopic rush at a moment’s notice. There’s a bit of Sucker-era writing mixed in with all her more demented tones on “Wink Wink” and “Persona” that feels like a romantic attempt to remember your past but also move forward into the new you through that lens. Through the charging tempo of “No One Lasts Forever,” Charli weaves a blissful yet sad song with a powerful meditation by none other than David Cronenberg, lamenting that art that lasts forever is meaningless to the creator if the artist only suffered in his life to have it made.

Rick Maltese – Just Like an Angel (Single)
Toronto

Sweeping in like any classic piano ballad, “Just Like an Angel” feels like you’ve known it forever while the lyrics take you somewhere all Rick Maltese’s own. The colourful piano rolls and flutes allow the song to paint with a fuller range of visuals, just as those chords start to expand and growl as the song goes on. Maltese’s vocals give a feeling of being worn in but wiser from the travel, bringing a sense of knowing exactly what they’re talking about and giving the song a kind of sage feeling. It’s easy to want even more of the flourishing instrumentation we get in spurts throughout this song, but at least the open playing of that grand finale gives the song a nice sense of growth that shows the warmth and progress that sharing light with others can bring back to your own life.

Alex Cameron – Late to Set
Sydney, Australia  

Between characters and riffing on genre, Alex Cameron has made a whole career of playing in other worlds. Though his latest record isn’t shifting things up too much, Cameron still manages to dazzle us with his uniquely detailed storytelling and crooner style. Cameron is at his usual weirdly specific lyrical peak on “Statue Down,” imagining a false hero type whose statue riles up an entire town into fits. “Stand-in Man” plays more to Cameron’s pastiche approach, through a bit of T. Rex and a lot of hilarious raving from a man who seems just as happy to be ready on the sidelines as he is to jump in on a week of hedonism when the duty calls him. While the swaying beats of “Ricochet” feel like a lounge singer’s approach to tones of Bob Dylan and Graceland-era Paul Simon, Alex Cameron merges it into his slinking, angular rhythms, and makes a triumphant downbeat anthem for the ages. The beats are borderline hilariously out of place on the massive, and exploding “Red Hook Rain,” which lets Cameron play the lizard man in the mist, trying to set a new tempo amidst all the chaos.

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