New album reviews: Golden Features, Mamma Mia and more

GOLDEN FEATURES

SECT (Warner)

3.5 stars

Golden Features is a shadowy character. He’s followed in the robot dancing footsteps of Daft Punk and other masked artists such as SBTRKT, Deadmau5 and The Knife by covering up his visage.

Similar to those artists mentioned, the Aussie dance producer (real name: Tom Stell) slips between genres/emotions while keeping a poker face. He mostly knows when to hold ‘em.

Stell showed he was a big boy ready to stand on his own two feet when he put out the XXIV EP in 2015.

On SECT, he’s resisted the pull of chart-friendly trap beats and vile EDM drops (no offence Mashd N Kutcher but Frank Walker is the best thing about your live show).

Stell goes into full Gesaffelstein-picking-a-fight-with-Kavinsky mode from opening gambit Always. This is the heaving, heavy, slow disco house designed to singe eyebrows as foreheads melt under the sheer jolting power of seeing this live with lasers and smoke-machine accoutrements. Cast your earbuds aside, you’ll need some proper headphones when in transit with SECT.

Medicate is another dose (sorry) of heavy business, tiptoeing in on a placid high hat. The vocals come as Julian Hamilton-lite and don’t exactly shatter new ground for the genre. Lucky the drop is as forceful and impressive as Germaine Greer circa 1970.

Falling Out’s blue-eyed soul fits into the Ed Banger mould, while again not pushing things that far forward. Renewal is weirder and far superior.

Woodcut feat. Nicole Millar is a sweeping, jacking cut that manages to work as a breakbeat and house track. Millar sounds serene — she’s back, high-five.

This is meatier stuff than Alison Wonderland’s well-meaning forays — Golden Features has a better bass face./MIKEY CAHILL

THE INTERNET

Hive Mind (Sony)

4 stars

Fronted by Syd, a queer icon, and Steve Lacy, The Internet are transgressive torchbearers of neo-soul — emerging from Odd Future’s camp. They’ve been remarkably prolific. This fourth album is all slinky jazz, funk, quiet storm, hip-hop and electro-soul — again marked by gentle experimentalism (Come Over has Woodstocky rock guitar). The opener Come Together is a groovy message of communal empowerment, yet the boogie Mood and synthy Next Time/Humble Pie are lushly romantic. Music for chillin’./ CYCLONE

CATHERINE McGRATH

Talk of This Town (Warner)

3 stars

There is a Taylor Swift-shaped hole in country music right now. Who knew it’d be filled by a 21-year-old girl from Northern Ireland? At 12, McGrath discovered country music through Swift’s Love Story, and her debut album indeed sounds like pre 1989 Swift. The Edges is Red-era Swift, Wild is a Swift-ian love lyric set at a Coldplay concert, Lost In the Middle pulls such a Swifty it’s almost a single white female situation. McGrath even works with Liz Rose, who co-wrote Tay’s You Belong to Me, on Cinderella./ CAMERON

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (Universal)

3 stars

Here we go again: more Hollywood karaoke.

ABBA’s Benny Andersson produced this as he was secretly making two new ABBA songs.

Imagine hearing Agnetha and Anni-Frid back together at the same time as you’re enduring actor Hugh Skinner making Waterloo meet its own Waterloo. It’s an ABBAration.

See also whoever is wailing in some unidentifiable accent (somewhere between witch and mad scientist) during When I Kissed the Teacher. Shh.

There’s still the landmine of Pierce Brosnan’s atrocious vocals, which are at least used sparingly — he almost takes down Knowing Me, Knowing You while, mercifully, Dancing Queen is sung communally.

There’s dramatic, theatrical takes on underrated ABBA ballads I Wonder, Andante Andante, I’ve Been Waiting For You, My Love, My Life — the latter always sounded like it was waiting for a musical, finally it’s in one, sung by Meryl Streep.

Streep also emotes on reborn masterpiece The Day Before You Came, with original 1982 TV reference updated from Dallas to House of Cards. One of Us becomes a duet between Amanda Seyfield and Dominic Cooper, Arrival’s Why Did it Have to Be Me? is now a three-way full of heavy sax and Voulez Vous’ Kisses of Fire is a Greek disco banger here.

But this second soundtrack is all about Cher, or lack of Cher.

She sings merely the start of Super Trouper; a song about being on stage, so this is her life. Cher’s Fernando features Andy Garcia (who plays, yep, Fernando in the film) singing with her — unnecessarily, to be honest. She’s Cher.

Another great thing to come from this soundtrack: Cher is doing her own album of ABBA songs, instead of just getting one and a bit here. Now we just need that Cheryl (Cher and Meryl) duet on an ABBA song …/ CAMERON ADAMS

THE BABE RAINBOW

Double Rainbow (Flightless Records)

3.5 stars

With Tame Impala on hiatus we turn to a trio of Byron Bay broccoli farmers (no really) and turn off our minds, relax and float down stream. The Babe Rainbow ply roomy, folkie grooves made for swaying with an Aperol Spritz and a person you met IRL. Supermoon is an ode to the glowing orb, Gladly is a funk jam that gives nods to Boz Scaggs and John Lennon. Cool Cat Vibe could easily soundtrack the credits to an Almost Famous sequel. It’s just a real nice trip, maan./ MIKEY CAHILL

POWER

Turned On (Cool Death Records)

4 stars

Second albums are meant to be more difficult than this. Power do it easy by playing hard. This is the sound of a poison-tipped arrow flying through all the fuss over the ubiquitous Drake playlisting. It reminds us rock’n’roll will save our soul by kicking your a---. Power are the punk-rock boogie chain gang who want to throw you over their shoulder and drag you on a pub crawl where they take over every venue’s jukebox. Lickspittler is a raucous, feedback pumper, Road Dog is an AC/DC-like song about touring. /MIKEY CAHILL