Popular Music - March 2015

Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
Kate Bush - The Dreaming
Missy Higgins - The Sound of White
Radiohead - Amnesiac
Sting - Mercury Falling
Washington - There There
Rachael Yamagata - Chesapeake

Chesapeake is Rachael Yamagata sounding relatively bright and happy.

Apparently, this is something she has semi-apologised for, promising fans that her next album will go back to being dark and miserable. First of all I worry about any fans that complained about her music not sounding tortured enough, but hey, she wouldn't be the first artist to get that reaction. But she really shouldn't have apologised in any shape or form.

It's not actually that happy anyway. The lyrics still have plenty of angst in them, with failed or flawed relationships making regular appearances. The main difference is that the music has a bit of energy and bounce to it.

It also, as a consequence, has variety. Yamagata's previous album Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart has some fine music, but it is also seriously flawed due to the lack of variation. As much as anything this is due to her failure to wrestle Elephants into a single album, as she instead delivered 2 discs with contrasting musical styles. But the longer, ballad-laden disc needed an injection of energy from its companion.

And so Chesapeake is actually a vast improvement as a listening experience. I can't by any means say I've come to grips with the album yet, as I only had a relatively brief period of listening to it in March before having to lay it aside, but all the early impressions were favourable. As an overall album, it might well be Yamagata's best yet.