Weekly Music Roundup: Janelle Monae, Artemis, and Doves

Week of Sep. 14: This week, The Boss (the one and only Bruce Springsteen) is back; so is Janelle Monae; plus an indie-rock/Memphis soul collaboration.

Bruce Is Off Broadway And Back On E Street

Bruce Springsteen has dropped the first single from his next album, the title track from Letter To You. It’s got the classic Springsteen sound because it reconvenes the E Street Band, who all trooped into the Boss’s home studio and made the whole album in five days. Blending honestly emotional lyrics with heartland rock guitars and organ, the song “Letter To You” sounds like it could have been written at almost any point in Springsteen’s career; and in fact the new album will include recordings of three older songs that haven’t been previously released. But this one is new; it was recorded without overdubs, so you can expect it to sound like this when the band eventually starts touring again. Whether Springsteen will go up and get those high notes that he hits once or twice in this song… well, we’ll just have to wait to find out.

Letter To You comes out on October 23.

Janelle Monae’s New Song Has A Message For Those Who Got Us Into This Mess

Janelle Monae has taken a break from her burgeoning acting career (catch her in the new horror film Antebellum later this month) to put out a new song, her first since 2018. Called “Turntables,” it is not about record players but about turning the tables on racism and inequality. She wrote it for the new documentary All In: The Fight For Democracy, which is specifically about voter suppression, but her verses touch on a wide range of issues, basically offering variations on the theme of “you’re gonna reap just what you sow.” The verses are rapped, over a rubbery walking bass; but the chorus incorporates backing singers, horns, and organs for a sense of soulful uplift. 

Jazz Supergroup Artemis Releases Debut Album

Artemis is a six-piece ensemble that expands to seven when vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant joins in. Pianist Renee Rosnes, clarinetist Anat Cohen, sax player Melissa Aldana, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, bassist Noriko Ueda, and drummer Allison Miller are all well-established soloists, composers, bandleaders, and in describing the band, their label, the venerable Blue Note Records, touts “its multi-generational and globe-spanning line-up with members hailing from the US, Canada, France, Chile, Israel, and Japan.” What’s missing is any reference to the fact that they’re all women. And that seems to be the point: this is not a gimmick, but a genuine confluence of talents who reflect the (slowly) changing face of jazz. The album includes a bunch of original tunes, as well as shapeshifting covers of the Beatles’ “The Fool On The Hill” and trumpeter Lee Morgan’s greatest hit “The Sidewinder”; but two of the standout tracks are the ones with vocals – a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “If It’s Magic,” and a fairly faithful rendition of “Cry Buttercup Cry.” This latter song was recorded in 1948 by Maxine Sullivan and her band, and again, without making a big deal of it, the women of Artemis here pay tribute to a woman (and a woman of color) who made her own way in the world of jazz/popular music and thus proved to be a trailblazer for many who came later. 

UK Trio Doves Release First New Album In Eleven Years

The Manchester band Doves finally released their new album on Friday; it’s called The Universal Want, and it was both a long-awaited return and a poorly-kept secret. The band got back together in 2018 to do festivals and the like, and began releasing singles earlier this year, so when they finally “revealed” that they did in fact have a new record coming, it was welcome news but not a major surprise. The surprise might be that after so long between drinks of water, the band sounds energized and in form. The songs have hooks; the arrangements seem to draw on a variety of rock movements – psychedelia, trip-hop, and of course Britpop. The album’s lead track, “Carousels,” has lyrics full of longing and nostalgia; the song features crisp drumming, a falling-then-rising guitar figure that drives the chorus, and a recurring keyboard that sounds almost like a steel drum. 

Watch Sampa The Great Perform Live – In Zambia

The singer, rapper, and songwriter known as Sampa The Great was born in Zambia, raised in Botswana, and now lives in Australia. Her debut album last year was an Afrocentric mix of hip hop, soul, R&B and pop, and now her global profile is about to go up. The BET Network has announced that Sampa The Great will be their first “global” artist (in other words, not American or European) in the BET Amplified campaign, where each month the network promotes an emerging artist on its channels around the world. Sampa has just released a well-produced video performance she did at the Black August Hip Hop Festival, in Livingstone, Zambia; and her set begins with a winning version of her song “Mwana.” It’s very different from the swirl of electronics and percussion samples that color the original, but she and her band offer a gently funky version that fits with the beautiful African sunset going on behind her. 

Brooklyn Drum Collective Releases Live Record And Celebrates Community

This stabby-shouty-growly, joyous, and angular post-punk song by Brooklyn band Catty captures the essence of a local rock show and makes me long for the shared experience of live music- aggressive and loud enough to need earplugs. Catty's “Tell Me” comes from a live album recorded at Brooklyn club Our Wicked Lady – which also features Bizarre Sharks, Powersnap, and True Dreams, presented by and celebrating Brooklyn Drum Collective’s two year anniversary.

Indulge me as I gush - the Brooklyn Drum Collective is a network of musicians who share knowledge, skills, and experience, and in the process, have been building a welcoming and inclusive community within local music circles - rock/punk/garage/funk/metal/other. BDC has partnered with venues and backlining companies to fix up the backline gear at said venues where they present shows and hold educational clinics. [Full disclosure, I have learned much at their drum clinics like the one our NYPR Engineer -and drummer - Jason Isaac, gave on New Orleans drumming back in February 2020, just before things all shut down.] BDC has lately been answering the call for social and racial justice, with many masked and socially-distant musicians leading drum lines (and other music-making) at some of the recent rallies and marches in the wake of George Floyd’s killing.

The Brooklyn Drum Collective live record comes out on October 16.  -Caryn Havlik

Matt Berninger Of The National Releases New Solo Track With Booker T Jones

Matt Berninger is the lead singer of The National, the Grammy-winning indie rock stalwarts, but he has done other projects along the way. His current one is a solo record called Serpentine Prison which is coming out on October 16 (a new, later release date than previously announced). The album was made by the famous Memphis organist and composer Booker T. Jones (of Booker T & the MGs), and the combination of lovelorn, intimate singing and rootsy soul/rock backing band works really well.“One More Second”is the latest single to be released from the album, and it is a fairly typical Berninger tale of a love affair that appears to be on its last legs. The lyric video is simple enough – a drawing of Berninger sitting in a chair, legs crossed, one foot slowly moving a bit.  But watch the shadow that foot casts on the floor. A similar surprise comes in the song’s instrumental break, when a “wrong note” piano solo suggests the fracturing of the relationship in a way that even Berninger’s lyrics can’t.