David Bowie
The Next Day
The always innovative David Bowie, who most fans thought had permanently retired from the business, shocked the world when in January, on his 66th birthday, he announced he’d completed a brand new studio album. As a teaser, he premiered the plaintive single “Where Are We Now?” on the same day, and the first full-length of fresh Bowie material since 2003’s Reality arrived in March. The Next Day (Columbia Records) proved well worth the wait, a spectacular batch of new compositions that finds Bowie in fine form; his vocals are strong and expressive, and his lyrics are as elusive and cryptic as ever. The album opens with the title track and gets things off to a rousing start. Blistering guitars match Bowie’s forceful snarls and that’s just the beginning. The album continues its ascent, not only ranking as a sterling comeback but as one of Bowie’s strongest efforts of the last few decades. Short, streamlined songs benefit from the spectacular playing that longtime Bowie band members provide. Add in the wizard production of longtime collaborator Tony Visconti and The Next Day shapes up to be a memorable Bowie release, not to mention a welcome comeback. (Critic’s rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars) —Gabe Echazabal
The National
Trouble Will Find Me
Twelve years into their recording career, The National has found their wheelhouse. Early efforts from the Cincinnati-bred, Brooklyn-based quintet hinted at an unhinged side to the typically staid band. Their latest full-length Trouble Will Find Me (4AD) offers no such suggestion of danger, instead falling into place as the latest amid a string of three-piece-suit-wearing wine-drunk indie rock records that began with 2008’s Boxer. “This Is the Last Time” elucidates the mild distinction between Trouble Will Find Me and immediate predecessor, 2010’s High Violet, allowing syrupy string arrangements and a typically serpentine song structure to prop up a less than memorable Berninger lyric. Trouble Will Find Me largely finds The National in a more meandering songwriting mode than their handful of albums that sound similar, but even a less focused effort from this band manages to be a quality one, mopping the floor with the scores of other similarly-minded records that are out right now. (Critic’s rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars) —Colin Joyce
Read on for reviews of new releases by Vampire Weekend and Chance The Rapper …
Chance The Rapper
Acid Rap
Chancelor Bennett likes LSD. The 20-year-old Chicagoan who records as Chance The Rapper has made that clear in his tweets, in his verses, and, most evidently, in the title of his latest mixtape. Despite Acid Rap’s obvious fixation on psychedelia, the record is decidedly more narcoleptic than narcotic. Even as Chance weaves lines about keeping tabs on his exes and putting tabs on his tongue, the impression that he makes is closer to the emotional and sensory overload associated with the drug than its bleary, paisley visual cues. On “Cocoa Butter Kisses,” Chance funnels a flood of memories in a wispy way only the touch of mind-altering substances could bring about, and as the record stutters to a close, the image Chance is trying to project is clear. He’s Chancelor Bennett and he likes acid, but he’s a mystic, not a hedonist. (Critic’s rating: 4 out of 5 Stars) —CJ
Vampire Weekend
Modern Vampires of the City
Critic’s rating: 4 stars out of 5
Don’t think just because Vampire Weekend’s latest album is called Modern Vampires of the City (XL) that their brand of neo-colonialist art-pop has taken a turn entirely toward the morose. Frontman Ezra Koenig’s concerns may be newly self-reflective, but not at the expense of the bouncy indie pop they’ve built an empire producing. “Ya Hey” and “Diane Young” carry the torch for the caffeine-addled exercises of records past, but Modern Vampires’ success is by way of the continued addition of mid-tempo balladry in songs like “Obvious Bicycle” and “Hannah Hunt.” Hyper-specific lyrical references and too-precious instrumental choices serve as callbacks to the all too familiar criticisms leveled at past Vampire Weekend efforts, but Modern Vampires largely steers clear of such potholes, offering instead a collection of buoyant indie rock that could as easily soundtrack Saturday morning’s mimosas as it could Friday night’s existential crises. (Critic’s rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars) —CJ
This article appears in May 23-29, 2013.