Rolling Stone Australia — July 2017

July, 2017 RollingStoneAus.com | Rolling Stone | 83

APES
Stranger Than Strangers
MGM★★★★
Victorian indie whiz kids’
impressively imaginative debut

The(musical)genusofAPES
oughttobeeasytofigure,but
their debut evolves through
stages of super smart indie pop
to be marvellously hard to pin
down. There’s smoky, slinky,
dark indie-electro pop on “Fil-
ter”,aspirallingspacerockrush
on “Dimension” and wonky in-
die-funk on “If You Want It”.
Temper Trap have spent the
past five years trying to write
“Fourth Point”, and the scuzzy
newwaveof“TiredFace”is
harder to shake than herpes.
TheLPalmostlosesmomen-
tum,butisaplayful,engaging
record that’ll have you guessing
and impressed at almost every
turn. Without thrown turds or
anything. J.C.

Justin Townes Earle

Kids In the Street

New West/Warner★★★★

Suave alt-country doyen shines

on seventh long-player

While confessional has al-

ways been JTE’s most compel-

ling mode, theSingle Mothers

andAbsent FathersLPs foun-

dered for want of emotional gut-

punches. Couched in the blues

(“If I Was the Devil”), trad-folk

(“Same Old Stagolee”) and the

Memphis soul that increasingly

dominates his output,Kidsis a

nostalgiapiece(thetitletrack),

intensified by an emotive sting

as Earle kicks against the pricks

of change. Opener “Champagne

Corolla” surpasses the humid,

soulful heights of 2010’s “Har-

lem River Blues”, there’s a coun-

try-weeper-by-proxy in “What’s

SheCryingFor”,andaGospel-

huedstrutin“15-25”.It’sEarle’s

best work in years.GARETH HIPWELL

Jeff Tweedy

To g e t h e r A t L a s t

dBpm Records/Epitaph★★½

Wilco leader takes a lo-fi

rummage around in the rearview

To g e t h e r A t L a s tis the fi rst of

three acoustic albums exhum-

ingtheJeffTweedy songbook.

Anyone familiar with the Wilco

band-leader could anticipate

it: heavy-lidded observation-

als sung in a stagger over a gen-

tly thumbed acoustic. Across 11

low-key tunes there are no rev-

elations here. That’s OK – Wil-

co’s existential anthem “Via Chi-

cago” is infallible; Loose Fur’s

“Laminated Cat” gorgeous; and

“Hummingbird” shows there’s

still power in Tweedy’s dog-

eared voice. But there are mo-

mentsofbackground snooze,

too; “Lost Love” sounds like the

once ornery songwriter kicking

into caretaker mode. Or maybe

just clearing his hard drive. M.T.

Bleachers

Gone Now Sony ★★★★

Jack Antonoff uses joyously

maximalist pop to deal with loss

Jack Antonoff is a maximal-

ist kind of guy, as both a mem-

ber of fun. and on his own as

Bleachers. He’s said Gone Now

is an album about loss and how

t o mo v e on. He mo v e s on b y g lo -

riously over-sharing and layer-

ing synth-pop on baroque pop

on Eighties rock and on and on.

He adopts Springsteen-esque

grandeur in “Dream Of Mick-

ey Mantle (Rolling Thunder)”,

Peter Gabriel’s big, tribal pop

in “Everybody Lost Somebody”

and Simple Minds’ shimmer

and shudder in “Don’t Take the

Money”, a co-write with Lorde.

And there are melodic and lyri-

cal motifs that he echoes across

various tracks, giving the whole

thing the feel of concept album

or pop opera. BARRY DIVOLA

InthewakeofhisMarchpass-

ing, Chuck Berry’s first studio

album in 38 years is obvious-

ly more than a face-value prop-

osition. The all-in guitar boogie

of the opening track, “Wonderful Woman”, is

both a broad embrace to all who cherish his

signature duck-walking style and a profound-

ly personal celebration as three generations of

the Berry family trade licks between lusty vers-

es about love gone by.

“Big Boys” mines the same timeless feel-

good rock & roll vein. It opens with yet an-

other variation on that trademark “Johnny

B”/“Beethoven” riff , then tumble-turns through

a tale of wide-eyed youth that manages to un-

cork the exuberance of the eternal teen like –

well, like Chuck Berry on a roll.

It’s hard to feel quite so involved in his slow-

stomping cover of Tinpan Alley standard “You

Go To My Head”, or in the sentimental croon

of his own “Darlin’”, but it’s harder still to be-

grudge a couple of last, slow-dancing duets

with his daughter, Ingrid.

A live Tony Joe White nugget and a fond

bookend to history in “Lady B. Goode” pad a

soft mid-section, amply redeemed in the last

two tracks. In the enigmatic spoken-word fable

“Dutchman” and the breezy closing wisdom of

“Eyes of Man”, the gracefully departing pioneer

displays an undimmed gift for the loaded con-

versational rhymes that founded the reference

library of rock & roll. MICHAEL DWYER

Beth Ditto
Fake Sugar
EMI★★★
Gossip singer impresses on her
debutsoloLP

“We could always play it safe/
But that’s no fun,” Beth Ditto
teases on “We Could Run”. As
Gossip’s enigmatic leader, Ditto
emboldened the group’s zigzag
evolution from garage-punk
to disco-pop, and that adven-
turous spirit remains intact on
Fake Sugar. A record about love
in all its gnarly forms, Ditto is
overcome with desire on retro
cut “Fire”; indulges obsession
on Eighties torch ballad “Oh
My God”; and questions her lov-
er’s gaze over the disco funk of
“Do You Want Me”. Fake Sugar
is Ditto in all her forms: some
perfect, some fl awed. But that
may just be the point. SARAH SMITH

Chuck Berry Chuck Decca ★★★½

Chuck Berry’s

Final Bow

The true king bids adieu with

eff ortless wit, riff s and wisdom