Rolling Stone Australia — July 2017

July, 2017 RollingStoneAus.com | Rolling Stone | 87

Dua Lipa
Dua Lipa
Wa r ner★★★½
Newcomer pushes to the front of
thepackwithpunchypopdebut

She’sgothooksthatrankwith
LadyGaga’sbest,ahuskycroon
reminiscent of Amy Winehouse
and the sultry insouciance of
CharliXCX,andifherdebutal-
bum’sanythingtogoby,21-year-
old Dua Lipa might just be the
breakout star of 2017. A mix of
hip-hop, power ballads, tropi-
synths and traces of EDM, the
one constant throughout is Li-
pa’s smokey vocals – poured
over plinking synths and a pro-
pulsivebeatontheglorious“Be
theOne”,andsaucilyconvinc-
ing on “IDGAF” and the cock-
ney-chorused “Blow Your Mind
(Mwah)”. It’s not quite “dark
pop”, as Lipa calls it, but it’s real,
diverseandassured–araretri-
plethreatinpop. ANNABEL ROSS

AllWeAre

Sunny Hills

Domino★★★

English band raise their voice on

urgent second album

Perhaps responding to criticism

that their smooth 2015 self-ti-

tled debut was so light in plac-

es as to almost disappear in a

wisp of smoke, Liverpool three-

piece All We Are have turned the

volume and attitude up on sec-

ond albumSunny Hills. Open-

er “Burn it All Out” sets the tone

with vaguely danceable post-

punk that resurrects the spir-

it of early New Order and the

Cure; a template that is adhered

to throughout the LP with capa-

ble but rarely innovative results.

It’s only on epic closer “Punch” –

a song Florence Welch would kill

to have written – that All We Are

find their own voice, opening an

intriguing door to whatever may

follow next. JAMES JENNINGS

John Mayer

The Search for Everything

Columbia

★★★½

The soft-rock player tries out

vintage sounds and subtle moves

John Mayer’s seventh LP emu-

lates the casual grandiosity and

warmth of Seventies record-

making more than ever. The

palette is impressively broad –

from Some Girls-era Stones brio

(“Helpless”) to Hall and Oates

yacht soul (“Rosie”) to smil-

ing Laurel Canyon country folk

(“Roll It on Home”). He breaks

out some Claptonian fl ash on

“Changing”, which builds from

piano ballad to bright blues.

But it’s his unpushy smoothness

that defi nes the set, as on “Still

Feel Like Your Man”, where he

makes like Marvin Gaye and

sings about keeping his ex’s fa-

vourite shampoo around, even

if she’s not. JON DOLAN

Phoenix

Ti Amo Liberator ★★★

Ultra-bubbly love songs that

don’t linger long

From the stadium-sized sparkle

of opener “J-Boy”, it’s clear Phoe-

nix are playing it straighter than

on 2013’s subversive Bankrupt!.

In fact, the Parisian quartet cel-

ebrate much of the luxury they

skewered last time. They also

embrace gushing romance, with

frontman Thomas Mars pro-

fessing love in multiple languag-

es on the title track before cooing

“We’re meant to get it on” amid

“Fior Di Latte”. While still min-

gling swanky and sleazy impuls-

es, the band tap the high-gloss

euphoria of the Bee Gees and

ABBA with these synth-licked,

dance-slanted songs. But for all

its streamlined craftsmanship,

Ti Amo suff ers from a certain

weightlessness, trafficking in

pleasures most fl eeting. D.W.

Across three albums and near-

ly a decade of zippy, melanchol-

ic pop songs, US four-piece the

Drums have fi nally whittled to

one: founding songwriter and

frontman, Jonny Pierce. Not that you’d no-

tice. Long responsible for the majority of the

Drums’ recordings, Abysmal Thoughts is the

DIY manifesto Pierce fi nally gets to own.

It’s another reverb drenched collection of ad-

dictive guitar-synth pop, by an author now ex-

pert at couching his woes in gilded pop exteri-

ors. (And still with fair debt to the Smiths). But

there’s been trouble since third record, 2014’s

Encyclopedia. Pierce split with his husband,

as well as with co-founding bandmate Jacob

Graham. Abysmal Thoughts is a document of

the ensuing self-examination. “How do I say

goodbye to something I love so much/This boy

I cradled in my heart?” he pines in a typical-

ly wounded sigh on “If All We Share (Means

Nothing)”. But Pierce never mopes, instead

harnessing the drama of emotional turmoil to

energise his music.

Pierce’s production benefi ts from the same

focus. The dubby, synth sub-bass that bur-

bles under opening earworm “Mirror”; a pedal

steel-whine haunting “Under the Ice”; the

goopy analogue synth in “Your Tenderness”

• these parcels freshen the Drums’ already
  boundless pop smarts. Abysmal Thoughts
  might fi nd Pierce at the end of both his band
  and tether, but the result is a sweet unshack-
  ling. MARCUS TEAGUE

Benjamin Booker

Witness Remote Control ★★★½

Three-year wait over for second

album from New Orleans rocker

“It’s like everything I touch is

gold,” sings Booker on opener

“Right On You”, and you can for-

give the boy for such a line in the

wake of his superb self-titled

debut of 2014. On this follow-

up the 28-year-old has moved

away from robust garage-blues

towards a more refl ective, me-

lodic statement. With the ear-

worm “Truth Is Heavy”, the gos-

pel-infl ected title track and the

string-laden “Believe”, Booker

exhibits an expansive and sensi-

t i ve t a lent w it h a n a c ut e u nder -

standing, and a highly distinc-

tive interpretation, of the soul

tradition. While there is noth-

ing as electric as “Violent Shiv-

er” from his fi rst LP, he is ma-

turing beautifully. BARNABY SMITH

The Drums Abysmal Thoughts

Anti Records/Epitaph ★★★★

The Drums’

Beat Goes On

The Drums reduced to their

wonderful, winsome essence