Jenny Lewis is sharp but tender on ‘Joy’All,’ plus a new Pride anthem from Big Freedia
Thanks for reading the Toronto Star’s Weekend Music Digest, a roundup of new music, concert listings and more.
This week: new music from Jenny Lewis, Big Freedia, Romy feat. Fred Again.., Blonde Redhead and Blake Mills.
Click here to listen along to the Spotify playlist.
Album of the Week
Jenny Lewis: “Joy’All”
On her fifth solo, singer-songwriter (and former frontwoman for the indie rock outfit Rilo Kiley) Jenny Lewis comes off as that one super cool aunt, or maybe older cousin — the one who always finds adventure or attracts drama, and whose existence refutes the supposed dullness of middle age. “My 40s are kicking my ass / And handing them to me in a margarita glass / I was infatuated with an older man / and then I dated a psychopath,” she sings with blasé charm on “Puppy and a Truck,” a hilarious anthem for the rootless and independent.
Recorded at the historic RCA Studio A in Nashville, “Joy’All” is a joyous alt-country romp from a veteran artist whose songwriting feels as sharp as ever. “I’m just trying to get laid,” Lewis admits over shuffling percussion and glimmering slide guitar on “Psychos,” the album’s infectious opening track. On the twangy “Apples and Oranges” she describes her new lover to an ex with brutal candour: “He’s hot and he’s cool / He’s nothing like you.” Meanwhile, the crunchy “Love Feel” pays tribute to the simple pleasures of a good party, complete with “ice cold Modelo,” “PCP and mary jane.”
But hidden beneath the tough exterior, there’s tenderness, too. On the R&B-inflected title track, she references an incident that “almost destroyed” her as a teenager. “I’m not a toy, ya’ll / I got heart,” the former child actor sings, her voice containing the slightest hint of sadness.
“The common theme as a human being is just: sh — gets real,” Lewis told the Guardian. “There’s a lot of suffering, of varying degrees, and how are you going to weather it?”
Star Tracks: More of the best new (and newish) music
Big Freedia: “Bigfoot”
Following last summer’s blockbuster single “Break My Soul,” Beyoncé became the unofficial spokesperson for “the Great Resignation,” a pandemic-era movement that supposedly empowered disgruntled workers to quit their jobs. But the song’s driving force was actually the New Orleans bounce icon Big Freedia, whose 2014 song “Explode” was sampled liberally, and whose rousing directives provided the dance-pop anthem with its slogan: “Release ya anger / Release ya mind / Release ya job / release the time!”
Twelve months later, we’re blessed with a brand-new heater from Big Freedia, who goes absolutely bananas on their new single “Bigfoot.” “Muthaf — ng Sasquatch stompin’ through your city / Comin’ for the big bags nothin’ itty bitty” she proclaims with booming authority over ground-shaking brass and clacking snares. Arriving just in time for Pride, “Bigfoot” is a a potent return from the 45-year-old, whose first album in nine years, “Central City,” arrives later this month.
Romy: “Loveher”
There’s a endearing sense of purity that underlies “Loveher,” the first solo single from Romy, who is best known as the guitarist and co-vocalist of the influential indie rock trio The xx. Featuring production from in-demand English artist Fred Again, whose iridescent piano chords and driving house beat recall the dance-pop melodrama of Robyn, the track builds from timid communion — “Hold my hand under the table / It’s not that I’m not proud in the company of strangers / It’s just some things are for us” — into a soaring affirmation: “Love her, I love her, I love her, I love her,” she sings in a gentle falsetto in the song’s outro. The song has been described as a “proud and positive queer love story,” but the emotions it contains are clearly universal.
Blonde Redhead: “Snowman”
I’ve always been a little creeped out by Blonde Redhead, the New York-based experimental rock band comprised of vocalist and guitarist Kazu Makino, who grew up in Japan, and multi-instrumentalists Amedeo and Simone Pace, Italian twin brothers who grew up in Montreal. As a teenager, I illegally downloaded the band’s 2004 record “Misery Is a Butterfly” and felt very unsettled by Makino’s eerie vocal melodies and the band’s haunted house vibes — vibes that made Radiohead sound sunny in comparison.
On the band’s new single, “Snowman,” the trio wastes no time settling back into a groove that is as unsettling as it is hypnotic. Inspired by “the attitude and breeziness of Brazilian experimental music,” the track builds around tensely strummed guitar chords and slow-burning percussion, setting the table for Amadeo’s longing falsetto: “So like no man that you are,” he sings. “It can be a blessing or a curse to be invisible and undetectable,” the band explains. “It’s something we all feel and desire at times.”
“Sit Down For Dinner,” Blonde Redhead’s first album in nine years, arrives in September.
Blake Mills: “Skeleton Is Walking”
You’ve gotta have real gall — and serious chops — to record a four-minute guitar solo in the year of our lord 2023. But songwriter and guitarist Blake Mills pulls it off with apparent ease on “Skeleton Is Walking,” a new single from his upcoming album “Jelly Road,” which he wrote and recorded with the mysterious jazz musician Chris Weisman.
The track starts off simply enough — a bright progression of nylon string guitar chords form the foundation of a blissful groove that strolls forward at leisurely pace. But the fireworks start just after the 2:20 mark, as Mills assumes the role of prog-rock guitar god, laying down a fuzzed-out and highly expressive solo on a fretless sustainer baritone guitar. It’s an exquisite and rare display of musicianship, and proof that the guitar solo is not dead yet.
More new releases
- Janelle Monáe’s highly-anticipated “The Age of Pleasure” is out now, and features Amaarae, Grace Jones, Doechii, CKay, Sister Nancy and more.
- Speaking of Amaarae, the Ghanian-American R&B/Afro-fusion singer has released her sophomore album “Fountain Baby.”
- French avant-pop singer Christine and the Queens shared his fourth studio album, “Paranoïa, Angels, True Love,” on Friday.
- Canadian house producer and DJ Jayda G has released “Guy,” a conceptual interspersed with archival recordings of her late father, the eponymous William Richard Guy.
- English inde rock/jazz fusion weirdo King Krule is back with a new album, titled “Space Heavy.”
- English post-punk outfit Squid is also back with a new project, titled “O Monolith.”
Miscellanea from around the music world
- The Polaris Music Prize — awarded annually to best Canadian album — will reveal its 2023 long list of 40 albums on Tuesday at 6 p.m. Follow @PolarisPrize on Twitter for all the updates.
- I’m late to it, but highly recommend the recent story on the enduring mystery of Meg White. In “Searching for Meg White,” Melissa Giannini, a music writer who interviewed White way back in 2001, describes how she’s spent more than two decades trying to reconnect with the elusive drummer.
- Ben Blackwell, who is a co-founder and co-owner of Third Man Records, consoles me with the fact that he also tried and failed to get Meg to do an interview a couple of years ago timed to the 20th anniversary of the band’s debut album. “On the one hand, the journalism dropout in me feels that. I’m like, ‘Yeah, she needs to talk,’” Blackwell says. “But on the other hand, God, it’s so much f — ing cooler that she doesn’t. It’s not like she’s living on a tropical island and no one sees or talks to her or anything like that. But her current operational way forward — this media blackout — is f — ing badass, and it’s rock ’n’ roll.”
- Young people are buying less booze at shows than they used to:
Newly announced concerts
- Prog-metal titans Tool are touring North America this fall, and will conclude with two shows at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Nov. 20 and Nov. 21. Tickets on sale here.
- Queens of the Stone Age will swing by the Budweiser Stage with support from Phantogram and The Armed on Aug 4. Tickets on sale here.
- Folk/punk band Violent Femmes added another leg to their 40th anniversary tour, and it includes a stop at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Oct. 11. Tickets on sale here.
Toronto Concert Calendar: A selection of upcoming shows across the city
All Week
Monday, June 12
The Zambian singer and rapper will be joined by Brampton hip hop prodigy Haviah Mighty for a Monday night show in downtown Toronto.
Tuesday, June 13
The Detroit post-punk outfit released their sixth album, “Formal Growth In The Desert” last week.
Wednesday, June 14
The legendary English alternative rock group will play a highly-anticipated show at the Bud Stage on Wednesday. Buckle up — Robert Smith and co. have been playing a set with close to 30 songs that spans almost three hours on their current world tour.
If you can’t get tickets to The Cure, I suggest you make your way to the Phoenix for a solid indie rock double bill.
Thursday, June 15
The Canadian indie pop duo will be joined by Toronto electropop artist Dragonette.
It’s 90s night at Bud Stage! The R&B girl group will be joined by Shaggy, En Vogue and Sean Kingston.
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