If you need any convincing that women are having an impressive commercial impact on the music industry these days all you have to do is look at Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles chart for any given week. The pop chart is dominated by artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Dua Lipa, Doja Cat, and Megan Thee Stallion, with Adele still hanging in there. Country music is represented strongly on the same chart by Miranda Lambert, Elle King, Maren Morris, and Ashley McBryde, and a few others. As I wrote about recently, rock music is scarce to non-existent.
But lately I’m picturing a Venn diagram with two circles – a large one representing these chart-topping women and a much smaller one representing the rock music that’s still out there, slightly out of the reach of the commercial spotlight. The area where the two circles intersect is providing some of my favorite new music these days, with albums from Hurray for the Riff Raff, Jenny Hval, CMAT (Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson), and now April March getting a lot of playtime in my house. Their records aren’t afraid to be a little rockish and exploratory, but they all embrace enough pure pop sense and modern production to be memorably hooky and hold out the possibility that a song or two could come out of left field and actually make it onto that Billboard chart someday. It’s a pretty exciting sub-genre that I’m happy to continue exploring.
• April March, In Cinerama (3/18/22) – April March’s career has been, to put it mildly, all over the place since she first started following her creative muse. Before she dove into music full-time she worked as an animator for Pee Wee’s Playhouse and the immortal Ren & Stimpy cartoons, both pretty impressive items on a resumé. When Elinor Blake began her musical career as April March in earnest, her vision was international from day one. She’s made records of romantic French-pop, garage-y sounding punk with her band, the Makers, Latin American based indie rock with the Californian band Los Cincos, even some flirtations with disco and psychedelia. Given her eclectic background, In Cinerama somehow feels inevitable, a record that uses all of her genre experiments as creative tools to produce a catchy, breezy, but still adventurous, pop-rock record.
Ms. March relies on a particular retro-sounding version of female pop music on the record. Instead of the current commercial sound of electronic, hip-hop adjacent, auto-tuned productions, she reaches back to remind you of the kind of sunny 60s West Coast pop that used to dominate the radio back in the day. I definitely hear the sweeping lushness of classic 5th Dimension singles like “Up Up and Away” in spots, and it’s apparent everyone involved in the making of In Cinerama had a couple later Beach Boys records out. The album is an easy listen if you want to put on something friendly and, if you’re of a certain age, familiar-sounding, while you go about your business. But where it really shines is when you pay attention and dive deeper into what’s going on down below. What sounds light and breezy on the surface reveals some compelling details when you listen closely.
In Cinerama opens with the appropriately-titled “Lift Off.” An orchestral swirl leads into some bouncy, major-chord guitar riffing. April’s honey-toned singing voice comes in with an irresistible melody, soon to be joined by a joyous-sounding, massed chorus of voices to drive the hook home. “Rolla Rolla” follows, an easy rolling tune that she sings in French over a quick-stepping organ and some percolating percussion sounds. Some sha-la-la background vocals reinforce the retro sound of the album, while still sounding completely modern, a juxtaposition she pulls off perfectly over the whole record. The artiest the record gets, and the most direct link to the French chanteuse sound of her earliest records, is “Open Your Window Romeo,” lushly widescreen and cinematic. The least “pop” song on In Cinerama, but its swirling, complex orchestral and vocal arrangements are as absorbing as the more overtly earworm-y tracks. And that’s the way it goes through all of In Cinerama, an album that’s instantly likeable on first listen because of Ms. March’s exceptional skill at writing hooky pop music. But the more you live with it, the more you realize the arrangements, both musical and vocal, are remarkably creative and fresh and unlike the pop music you’re used to hearing these days. I can’t help but think as I listen to In Cinerama what a fantastic album Adele could make if she worked with musicians as creative and adventurous as the gang on this one.
EARWORM: “Lift Off” – The album opener sends you right back to the days when the pop charts always included a shot of warm California sun.
• Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Changeup (3/25/22) – I know Ms. Jett’s had some big hits in her career, she was a familiar face on MTV back in its heyday, “I Love Rock and Roll” is an deservedly enduring anthem of crunchy guitar riffs and snarling attitude, but I still think she’s underrated. Her economy of style, consistency in creating anthemic song hooks, instantly recognizable voice, and stellar pop-punk guitar riffs are as impressive as any rocker has been over the last few decades. She always kept a skilled eye on the charts, too; every single she released in the 1980s shot to the top, same with her albums, until her style of straight-up rock and roll didn’t make that journey anymore. The music scene changed, Joan didn’t. She released some damn fine albums in the 1990s and 2000s, some a little poppier, some a little edgier, that not many people bought or heard. She's kept her career going by continuing to be a seriously kick-ass live act, right up until today.
I’m not sure whether to find Changeup startling or expected. Joan and her long-time band revisit 25 songs from her entire catalog, including key cuts from her first significant band, The Runaways, with acoustic guitar based performances. It’s a loose sounding record, there’s a definite feeling that you’re mostly hearing first takes. Changeup never sounds labored over or careful, which adds to its power and intensity. If you expect Joan and the Blackhearts to sound “prettier” or “mellower” in an acoustic setting, you’d be wrong. Joan sticks to acoustic guitar on the entire record, but this is still a Blackhearts record, with all of the grit and attitude you’d expect if they were fully plugged in.
To my ears, the album sounds like discovering her all over again. I imagine myself sitting in a small club somewhere. A woman with a black shag punk hairstyle and acoustic guitar steps up to the mike and blows me, and the rest of the crowd, away with a set of undeniable, folky, poppy, rocky songs. Joan’s songs translate perfectly to this type of acoustic setting, giving up none of their drive and focus while revealing new musical and emotional textures. Changeup sounds to me like an important record in her long catalog of great music; a reminder, if you need one, of her impressive songwriting and performing talents. Joan and the Blackhearts apparently have no intention of growing old gracefully, and I’m totally fine with that. I’m also fine with going back to hear this one often.
EARWORM: “Bad Reputation” – Joan replaces the loud, crunchy electric riff we all know and love with some sharp acoustic guitar strumming and her chip-on-the-shoulder vocal. Like a number of tracks on the album, you get the feeling that this is the way she played the song to her band when she was first teaching it to them.
• Cowboy Junkies, Songs of the Recollection (3/25/22) – The Junkies are still with us, still working, still creating great records non-stop since they debuted their unique style of dreamy folk-rock back in 1986. Margo Timmons still sings in the dusky, alluring shadows of the music, her brother Michael is still one of the most underrated songwriters and electric guitarists I can call to mind. They still do pretty well selling out their live shows as long as they stick to smaller venues, but people stopped buying their records a long time ago.
Songs of the Recollection is an entire album of what I’ve always considered an especially strong part of their musical vision, covers of songs by other artists. The band’s sound is so fully realized that they’ve always been able to absorb other people’s tunes into their universe and have their version come out the other side as distinctly Cowboy Junkies songs. Whether the songs on their albums are originals or covers has never mattered, they all become part of a seamless whole. Their only minor hit single in the U.S. was a 1988 cover of Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane,” and even a song that iconic and that far removed from their vaguely Americana country-rock sound blended in with the rest of the Trinity Session album like it was born there. There are five new recordings on Songs, the rest of the tracks are gathered up from the Junkies’ contributions to various soundtrack and tribute albums over the years, and it’s great to finally have them all in one place. The new recordings, according to the band’s website, are favorite songs that made their way into their live performances over the years. They’re all fantastic choices and interpretations.
A killer version of David Bowie’s “Five Years” is the lead-off song, a gutsy move considering Bowie put it in the same album-opening spot on The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust. Margo captures the isolation and sadness of the original, the emotions fit her voice perfectly, but not Bowie’s sense of rising panic. This band has never done panic. Their rousing “Ooh Las Vegas” from an old Gram Parsons tribute album is next, proving that the Junkies can really rock out when necessary, although they still sound curiously laid-back doing it. The centerpiece of the album are their two new covers of songs from their fellow Canadian, Neil Young. “Don’t Let It Bring You Down” was made famous by Neil’s creaky but compelling solo version at the end of 4-Way Street’s acoustic half, while “Love in Mind” was a brief moment of tender beauty on the shambolic and brilliant Tonight’s the Night. On the former, the band creates a rolling thunder of ominous distorted electric guitar that fits the mood of Neil’s lyrics. On the latter, Margo’s gentle rendition lays bare the song’s exquisite melody. The other new songs on the album are a loping, bluesy version of the Stones’ classic “No Expectations” and a lilting country waltz take on Bob Dylan’s “I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You” from 2020’s Rough and Rowdy Ways.
Even though none of the tracks on Songs of the Recollection are originals, the band does what they always do so impressively and, in the end, the album simply sounds like another excellent Cowboy Junkies record. That’s reason enough to recommend it highly.
EARWORM: “No Expectations” – If the Junkies ever decided to make an entire album of Rolling Stones covers, I’d be first in line to listen.
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