The Mountain Goats
Dark In Here
(Merge Records)
⭑⭑⭑

IT TURNS out that immediately after recording their superb 2020 album Getting Into Knives in Memphis, US indie outfit The Mountain Goats shifted to Muscle Shoals in Alabama to make the impressive Dark In Here.

This shouldn’t be surprising — the band is led by prolific singer-songwriter John Darnielle, who has nurtured a dedicated fan base by releasing literate and distinctive records since the early 1990s.

Bassist Peter Hughes describes the two albums as yin and yang, with Dark In Here more downbeat, quieter and intense. The Slow Parts On Death Metal Albums is an expansive autobiographical track about going to metal shows in the late 1980s, while Arguing With The Ghost Of Peter Laughner About His Coney Island Baby Review — Darnielle picks some brilliant and very long song titles — is a tribute to the late, great David Berman.

Eboni Band
Eboni Band
(We Are Busy Records)
⭑⭑⭑⭑

HAVING travelled to the Ivory Coast in 1981, legendary Motown producer Art Stewart created the Eboni Band, made up of Motown session players and local musicians, and recorded an extraordinary album of west African-influenced soul and funk.

Amazingly, the Detroit record label gave the recording a rain check, believing US audiences weren’t ready for this music from the African diaspora. But the record did get a limited distribution in the Ivory Coast and now, lucky us, gets a full re-release.

With its cacophony of voices and busy street energy, opener Sing A Happy Song has definite shades of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, though the jazz-fusion of Weather Report’s Black Market also comes to mind.

Elsewhere, there is some electrifying trumpet work from Fred Wesley (James Brown, Parliament) and the subdued Fasso (The Motherhood) brilliantly mixes kora and strings.

Stunning.

LUMP
Animal
(Chrysalis/Partisan Records)
⭑⭑⭑⭑

THOUGH I consider Laura Marling to be one of the most talented British singer-songwriters working today, I’ve always had a niggling feeling of being at one remove from her restrained artistic persona and songs.

Yet LUMP, her ongoing collaboration with Tunng’s Mike Lindsay, seems to reveal a looser, more relaxed side to her. On their second longplayer, Lindsay maps out shady electronica, with the guitarless Marling intoning her psychoanalysis-influenced lyrics over the top.

Dancey single Animal is perhaps the best example of this teamwork, though songs like the young love-struck We Cannot Resist and slow-burning Red Snakes show just how good the whole set is.

“There’s a little bit of a theme of hedonism on the album, of desires running wild,” comments Marling, who finalised the lyrics during recording.

An accessible collection, that’s worth spending some quality time with.