Track Reviews // Kirin J. Callinan - It Takes a Muscle to Fall in Love


Second single from ‘Journey to Center’ (Terrible Records, June 21st 2019)

With disarmingly melodramatic vocals and life-affirming pop, Australian Kirin J. Callinan mastered the delicate art of bad taste on 2017’s Bravado, easily one of the year’s best records. Little wonder then that Callinan’s latest singles are building to a covers album of all things. The accusations of indulgence and bone idleness that righteously plagued The Spaghetti Incident, the recent Teal Album and Urban Renewal – The Songs of Phil Collins are there for all to see. But this is Kirin J. Callinan; an apex musical predator.

After ripping Youtube a new art hole with his stunning video and performance for The Whole of the Moon, this second single is like a long, hot shower for Spectral Display's 80s-soaked minimalist krautrock opera (releasing new material in 2019 after 36 years out, kids).

With production from François Tétaz - whose treatment of acoustic instrumentation with Gotye flipped the world over for a minute – Kirin J. Callinan’s voice is treacle thick like Gene Pitney but with the flamboyant fragility of psych-pop contemporaries Connan Mockasin and Ariel Pink. The character and gravity of his delivery harmonises the gritty familiarity of the guitars and the ghostly synths into a fist of pure emotion.

As nice as it is to hear your artist’s favourite artists, especially when fleshed out so caringly by a talent like Callinan, it will be a shame to have to do without his unique turn of phrase - “serious in Syria, believe in us Bolivia we’re Ghana be big enough”. Still, the big man shows on this track that he’s got a symphonic pop arsenal and his dedication to reproducing these crystal synth power ballads is a sincere labour of love. I’m looking forward to it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Track Reviews // Black Midi - Talking Heads

Double a-side single w/ ‘Crow’s Perch’ (Rough Trade Records, May 17th 2019) Black Midi are a frenetic, enigmatic four-piece from South London whose path to the top of the scene (recently signed for Rough Trade after a trans-Atlantic bidding war and months of speculating) has blossomed in the dark of the venues they’ve blessed and shunned the glare of online over-exposure. Stirring up more pre-debut buzz than contemporaries like Shame , Temples and HMLTD , their relative absence from the saturated hype machines and social spheres has only made those lucky enough to be obliterated by their live shows hearts’ grow fonder and hungrier. Scattered interviews, glimmering live performances (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMn1UuEIVvA ) and mind-bending demos ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8fBopo31vQ&t=772s ) are being gleefully deciphered and expanded into album rumours and lyrical concepts by the malnourished but growing fanbase as I write. Their second major single fi...
Read more

Track Reviews // Skepta - Ignorance is Bliss

First single from Ignorance is Bliss (Boy Better Know, 31 st May 2019) First of two singles dropped prior to the release of Ignorance is Bliss at the end of the month, Bullet From a Gun sees Skepta at his contemplative best. The beat (co-produced with Ragz Originale ) swoops and snaps like a melancholy trap house laptop start-up and the flow is somewhere between Method Man and Mobb Deep - bouncing effortlessly around syllables and then hammering each rhyme with battle rap clarity. It’s an older and wiser Adenuga brother on display here – on album’s like Black Listed the in the feelings cuts felt like gaps in the track list, the playful simplicity out of whack with the heavy emotional material revealing the rappers age at the time. Between now and then the development is something to behold, he’s still bigging up his family, his ends and himself but Skepta’s flirtation with American hip hop and R&B has eased any awkwardness into a more pre-possessing confidence. ...
Read more

Track Reviews // 0171 - SMTHN RL

15 th April 2019 2 nd single (Independent) 0171 are a duo from Hackney who recently snuck up on streamers with a gorgeous, metronomic debut single that seemed to pull from a significantly more varied range of influences than the ubiquitous electronic R&B/soul acts of today. At once theatrical and digital, hesitant and intimate, the track garnered a murmur of recognition across the net and the pair’s development in new track “SMTHN RL” will only amplify that. These are hypnagogic bedroom grooves augmented by a soulful grip on melody and an undeniably post-millennium veneration of sound that can be heard still from Ariana Grande to Rina Sawayama ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKLxvdFtlZE ). The distinct production of each ticking and swooning element creates a swirling cavern for Joe Bedel-Brill and Georgie Hoare to whisper like Justin or wail like Britney, both work. These mingled, organic vocal performances weren’t so evident on debut ‘1000 Words’ ( https:/...
Read more