Album of the Week: Kelela Hallucinogen

For many years, albums were almost always 40 minutes long. This was the amount of time a vinyl album could hold, and unless an artist wanted to get really adventurous (and expensive) and go with a double LP, they had to pare down their songs to fit that time frame.

Think about that for a minute. That means most of the defining records from people like Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and countless others changed music forever in 40 minutes or less. That just boggles the mind.

New mediums allowed for more time, and thus more music, culminating in CDs, which provide 80 minutes for musicians to experiment with. Some artists use that time to the max (think Kendrick Lamar's brilliant but exhausting To Pimp A Butterfly), but even an average album still clocks in at around an hour.

I've always been a "leave them wanting more" guy, so while I appreciate the efforts many musicians put into making use of all the time they have, many of the albums that have hit me hardest in recent years go for brevity. Take Japandroid's Celebration Rock, easily the best rock album of the century, which clocks in at just 35 minutes.

We can now added Kelela's new EP, Hallucinogen, to the list of heavy hitters who can knock you out with just a few well timed hits. Hallucinogen is a mere six songs and clocks in at around 37 minutes. And yet, she doesn't waste a second or a sound in creating a gorgeous sonic landscape in which to get lost.

The theme of Hallucinogen is a kind of Memento'd relationship – first song "A Message" is the end of a relationship, and she works her way back to the start from there, ending with the gorgeous "The High."

Kelela really digs into those brutal thoughts that envelop you after losing someone:

I won't shed a tear

Cause waterworks are easy

Left some things behind

Don't need your help

And all I know is all I've got

Is it hard to face

All we lost?

She beautifully gives voice to all the self-doubt, bitterness and grief that the loss of a partner can create, and does so in a completely honest way.

"The High" is glitchy sex anthem, as ominous as it is intoxicating (check out lines like, "My lips are creeping up your neck/You shiver and try to pull back/And forth and back and forth with it") and indicative of a relationship that had a shelf-life built in. 

Her insightful songwriting throughout is augmented by breathy-vocal delivery that belies her range when she fully cuts loose. Her words come to you with a breathless muffle, like she's singing to you with her face in a pillow, and it carries with it an immediate intimacy. But you can also hear her sly smile, especially on standout track "Rewind."

The soundscape is all icy synths and 808s – the kind of stuff Drake lives in and Tink skates through – and Kelela is perfectly at home there. "A Message" has one of my favorite beats of the year, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear Drake hopping on a remix of it at some point. It's perfect headphone music, and Kelela subtly bends all the music to her will.

Kelela is just getting started (this is only her second release) and by taking a classic approach to constructing an album, she proves has greatness ahead. Give her your attention – you won't regret it.

Hallucinogen is out on Cherry Coffee/Warp.

Also recommended this week:

The Decembrists lovely EP, Florasongs.

The first part of Game's Documentary 2 release.

Album of the Week: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds Chasing Yesterday

Noel Gallagher is one grumpy sod.

He's a well-documented grumbler, taking shots at everyone from his brother Liam to artistsof all stripes, and at 47 he doesn't show any signs of stopping (check out this interview Rolling Stone if you doubt me).

That was fine, funny even, during Oasis' early run, when the band churned out three fantastic albums in a row, but as their quality steadily dipped – leading to their eventual dissolution in 2009 – his braggadocio started sounding much more like bitterness. Nostalgia has always been a key part of the sound he helped create with Oasis, and their influences run the classic rock gamut – The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, a little Kinks and some Stone Roses thrown in for good measure.

All of this makes Chasing Yesterday the perfect title for Gallagher's second solo effort as Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds – in a way, this is a pursuit he's always been on, whether he wanted to admit it or not. And while he isn't shy about flaunting his influences on the album, he's expanded his sound and stepped (for a time) away from the arena rock he has down pat.

Gallagher brings out the Beatles references early – the first lyrics on opener "Riverman" are "There's something in the way she moves me to distraction" – like he's trolling the listener and critics alike. If anyone is going to bring up the Beatles, he seems to be saying, he's going to do it first. It's a self-aware move that shows, to me anyway, a bit of Gallagher's sense of humor about how he's perceived. Or, it could be because he really loves "Something" – who doesn't, after all?

The best song here is the album's second track, "In the Heat of the Moment." The song channels everything Oasis did best – the catchy riff and the chorus that just about begs to be shouted out at the top of your lungs. It's classic in the best sense of the word, because he adds some flair that you'd never have heard on an Oasis track before – ringing bells and female backing vocals that add a bit of doo-wop to the vibe.

I've always been a sucker for Oasis' slow songs, and Gallagher delivers a lovely little ballad with "The Dying of the Light," a song that name-checks the famous Dylan Thomas poem over a tinkling piano line and acoustic guitars straight out of "Wonderwall."

Perhaps the most complete culmination of Gallagher's influences comes on "While the Song Remains the Same." The Zeppelin reference aside, it features some of John Paul Jones' ambient exploration as it unfolds, and more than a bit of Keith Richards' guitar shuffle.                    

Gallagher's tastes have certainly grown in the past few years, or else he's more confident in letting some of his alt-rock leanings show. "The Right Stuff" is cribbed from The Bends era Radiohead, with a little early Coldplay tossed in on the bass line. "Riverman" features a saxophone solo near the end that wouldn't feel out of place on a Pink Floyd album. And "You Know We Can't Go Back" features the same driving beat that helped to make LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends" the best song of the 21^st century. Even if Gallagher doesn't write lyrics with half the wit and heartbreak James Murphy does, it's still an immediately infectious song that gets into your head and just rattles around there.

Gallagher isn't exactly breaking the mold with Chasing Yesterday, but he's also not content to make the same sounding song over and over. There aren't many artists willing to explore new sources and sonics looking down the barrel of 50, and even if the results don't always soar, it is refreshing to hear Gallagher give it a go. He has yesterday firmly in hand – now he needs to go after tomorrow.

Chasing Yesterday is out on Sour Mash