Dig These Discs :: Morrissey, Woman's Hour, Jenny Lewis, Tom Petty, Tove Lo

Moz makes with the sadness in "World Peace is None of Your Business," and Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers rock from start to finish with "Hypnotic Eye." Former child star Jenny Lewis wows with a cohesive third album, "Voyager." The four-piece London-based Woman's Hour releases their debut album, "Conversations," as does songwriter Tove Lo.

"World Peace is None of Your Business" (Morrissey)

"World Peace is None of Your Business" (Morrissey)
At 55 years old, Steven Morrissey is no longer the sad young punk he once was in his days with The Smiths. He's older now... All jokes aside, Morrissey's 10th solo album -- the first in five years -- finds him all grown up, with a mature voice and arrangements. In this album, he pounds on the drum before launching into his title song, an angry political tune that makes it clear that trying to work within the system is stupid, with lyrics like "pay your taxes, you poor little fool," and "each time you vote, you support the process." This album features a wide swath of musical styles; everything from Portuguese to lounge-music cool to rock grandiosity. And his trademark vibrato seems unscathed by his recent medical issues. Taking the trek with him is longtime guitarist Boz Boorer, Gustavo Manzur on keyboards and percussion, with producer Joe Chiccarelli bringing it all together. "Neil Cassady drops dead and Alan Ginsburg's tears wash his beard," scats Morrissey in his second track, a nonsense beatnik song about "babies full of rabies, rabies full of scabies."

At least he keeps that one short -- more than can be said for his eight-minute, holier-than-thou dirge "I'm Not a Man," delving into a matter of real downers, including prostate cancer, and the fact that he'd "never kill and eat an animal... and never destroy this planet that I'm on." He shows a father identifying the body of his son in the instrumentally excellent "Istanbul," and sings a real downer about the infamous Irish prison in "Mountjoy." "Staircase at the University" is a sad song about a student who commits suicide over a bad grade, with lyrics like, "she threw herself down, and her head split three ways." When rhymed with "three As," it's particularly grim. He comes up for air once in a while, with the romantic Latino track "Kiss Me a Lot," but the intensity is a little off-putting. His Spanish-music bent doesn't help loosen up the track, "Earth is the Loneliest Planet," with lyrics like, "You fail as a woman and you lose as a man." This Spanish sound permeates the track, "The Bullfighter Dies," which is a grand 'ole' -- for the bull, that is. He slows things down in "Smiler With Knife," rhyming it with "sick to death of life." Moz even delves into his scorn for marriage in "Kick the Bride Down the Aisle," singing, "look at that cow in the field, it knows more than your bride knows now." Kind of woman-hating, dude. He closes up with "Oboe Concerto," oddly represented by clarinet and sax, about exactly how little you know about world peace compared to him. Great album, Debbie Downer...
(Harvest Records)

"Hypnotic Eye" (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)

Tom Petty is as old as dirt, and just as reliable. His 13th studio album, "Hypnotic Eye" finds him up to his usual, excellent tricks. He describes the 11-track album as a "throwback" to his earliest records, and you can see some of the parallels. His "Forgotten Man" is reminiscent of "American Girl," and he gets real old-school with his opener, "American Dream Plan B," singing that "Mama's so sad, Daddy's just mad, cause I ain't gonna have the chance he had." The song is about as classic a rock song as you can get, with Petty singing about his woman as an electric guitar shreds in the background. Petty looks back at the mistakes in his past in "Fault Lines," but just keeps on jangling through, like the tinkling tambourine keeping time. "Red River" is a rock song that evokes some interesting religious imagery. The album rocks -- but it doesn't shred. The band get sultry and jazzy in "Full Grown Boy," moving "sure and easy, like a cat creeps through the cracks." They go for bluesy in "Power Drunk" and "Sins of My Youth" is a midtempo, sultry ballad. Petty's philosophy seems to come to life in "All You Can Carry," as he sings, "take what you can, all you can carry... and leave the past behind." He croons his way through "You Get Me High," with plenty of electric guitars shredding the breaks, and rips through "Burnt Out Town" with a badass attitude and squealing horns.

Now in his '60s, Petty may finally see his first number one album, as his album could sell upwards of 100,000 copies in its first week, and will likely debut on top of the Billboard 200. The band kicks off a two-month North American tour from August 3 to October 10; catch them when they're in a stadium near you, and remember why you used to love rock and roll.
(Reprise/Warner Bros. Records)

"The Voyager" (Jenny Lewis)

Singer/songwriter Jenny Lewis drops her third solo album, "Voyager," and critics are saying it's her best yet. Her voice is clear and her music reminiscent of classic rock tunes of yesterday. In "Head Underwater," she sings, "there's a little bit of magic, everybody has it." She grooves in "She's Not Me," singing wistfully of an ex whose new girl is having his baby, rubbing it in at the end that "she's not me; she's easy." The song has a real '90s vibe to it, with evocative electric guitars and a backstory about that time she cheated, and he punched a hole through the drywall. Lewis' music is easily accessible, and that's a big part of the charm. Her first single, "She's Just One of the Guys," with Beck is a slow, bass-heavy rocker that finds her locked in the bathroom, "the only sister to my own sorrow." Sadly, she sings about being "just another lady without a baby," and while it's heavy, it's not a downer. She sings sweetly, "I am so into you, dreams really do come true," in "Slippery Slopes," a song about negotiating fidelity in a fast-paced party lifestyle, with occasional slips only helping, "us to remember that we like each other the most."

She's 16 with a Chelsea girl haircut and a plane ticket to Paris in "Late Bloomer," a song about meeting a girl named Nancy from Boston, who shows her the ropes. "How could I resist her, I had longed for a big sister, and I wanted to kiss her, but I hadn't the nerve, she sings, painting the story of Nancy meeting a guy, and inviting her for a crazy three-way in the Seventh Arrondissement. She delves into black magic and witch doctors in the rockabilly tune, "You Can't Outrun Em," perhaps influenced by her work on the album with alt-country singer Ryan Adam.

She sings about the fall of the Twin Towers, without the patriotic overstirrings, in "The New You," and hits the sands with the vacation track, "Aloha & the Three Johns," about excesses of the famous, with funny lines like, "you better hide the weed because the maid is at the door/ and I can see a John getting a hand job on the balcony below." "Love U Forever" has great bass, and "The Voyager" opens with a classic string arrangement before moving into a slow acoustic vibe. This former child star of "Camp Beverly Hills" is bouncing back just fine after her band breakup with former child star Blake Sennett in Rilo Kiley. Lewis has also added new August dates to her tour, which began in Toronto and continues through the end of October. This coppertop is one to watch!
(Warner Bros. Records)

"Conversations" (Woman's Hour)

The four-piece, London-based Woman's Hour releases their debut album, "Conversations," and it's something to talk about. Fiona Burgess (vocals), William Burgess (guitar), Nicolas Graves (bass) and Josh Hunnisett (keyboards) form an indie guitar outfit that sings about love, backlit with vibes of dubstep, Afropop and emo. Critics have speculated that their lead single, "Jenni" is about Jenni Murray, presenter of Radio 4's Woman's Hour. The music is staccato guitar and experimental, with the pulsing instrumentals on "Unbroken" chugging along this mumblecore song about when to walk away and when to cast aside fools. The title track "Conversations" showcases Burgess' fine soprano voice. A muted electro sound gently propels the soporific, "To The End." "Wherever I look, you're always there," she sings in "Darkest Place," a song about a breakup. They get a lot funkier with "In Stillness We Remain," and blend surf and reggae sounds with a slow clap track in "Our Love Has No Rhythm." Faster clap tracks move along "Her Ghost," as she sings, "I've got nothing to say to her ghost, hoping she'll fade away... take your words and put them in my mouth, help them say the things I never could get out." They're at their emo best in "Two Sides of You," with Burgess singing, "and if I call you, I will call you by your name." The frustration mounts in "Devotion," and Burgess sings, "I know that I'm dreaming it goes nowhere," in "Reflections." They finish things up with "The Day That Needs Defending," a more poppy number with thrumming keyboards. If you love moody music that keeps you shoegazing, this new band is the one for you!
(Secretly Canadian)

"Truth Serum" (Tove Lo)

Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson, aka Tove Lo, is a Swedish pop singer/songwriter who has written hits for artists including Icona Pop and Girls Aloud. Now, she's struck out with her debut album, "Truth Serum," with some of the tracks previously released and hitting the Swedish Singles Chart. Among them is her single, "Stay High," which hit number two. But she's "Not On Drugs" in a pop stunner about just being in love, singing, "shiny, happy see my world in new colors." She curses out an ex for expecting her to forget him and bounce right back in "Out of Mind," and expands the theme of a lost love in the dubstep delight "Paradise" and the electropop "Over," with lyrics, "stay out 'til dawn, I can't go home again now, after tonight seems like I'm out of your life/ Apologize? No, it won't make it better." Heartbreak much? Lo says that the album was inspired by a very messy breakup (ya think?) saying, "it's hard for me to talk about it or sing about it without any filter." She first caught our attention with the song "Habits (Stay High)," which charts her substance use and hook-ups after a night at the sex club, with the lyrics, "I get home I got the munchies, binge on all my Twinkies, throw up in the tub, and I go to sleep." Sounds like love to me. Tove Lo snagged one of the opening slots on Katy Perry's Prismatic World Tour, so don't think she's going to remain a secret for too much longer!
(Island Records)