Dig These Discs :: Ella Henderson, Mark Ronson, Dylan Gardner, The Decemberists, Sleater Kinney

What a great way to start the New Year! Seminal lady rockers Sleater-Kinney, featuring Carrie Brownstein of "Portlandia" fame, drops their first new album since 2006. Folksy indie rockers The Decemberists take a minute from busking around Williamsburg to drop their seventh studio album. DJ and producer Mark Ronson gets his chance to be in the spotlight with a solid album. And newcomers Dylan Gardner and Ella Henderson drop their debut albums -- his honed in his home studio, and hers in front of the audience of a reality singing show. Dig These Discs digs the old stuff, but doesn't ignore the newbies, either.

"No Cities to Love" (Sleater-Kinney)

When seminal riot girl rockers Sleater-Kinney first went on hiatus in 2006, it wasn't because of any animosity or explosive infighting; band member Carrie Brownstein said they'd release new music when they "felt like there was more of a story to tell... with each other." In the meantime, Brownstein went on to form Wild Flag and star in "Portlandia." Singer/guitarist Corin Tucker started her own band and dropped two albums, and drummer Janet Weiss just kept on drumming. But now, everything old is new again, as the ladies of Sleater-Kinney have reunited to bring us their eighth studio album, "No Cities To Love." And what a story it is. It's a mesh between hard rock and pop-punk, and it's a lot more than just some gimmicky reunion album. It really rocks. They start out with "Price Tag," a growling, powerful track with Tucker singing, "We never really checked, we never checked the price tag/when the cost comes in, it's gonna be high." They bare their teeth in "Fangless," singing of beasts and saviors. "We win, we lose, only together do we break the rules," they sing in "Surface Envy." They chant in unison in "There Are No Cities to Love," singing, "it's not the cities, it's the weather we love" in this wry look at walking off the edge of one's life, with Brownstein singing, "I've grown afraid of everything I love." They unleash the beast in "A New Wave" going crazy with hot guitar licks, singing, "it's not a new wave, it's just you and me." The organ buzzes through the sinewy "No Anthems" and the girls keen and wail in "Bury Our Friends," singing, "we're wild and weary but we won't give in." They tease as they move up and down the scales in "Gimme Love" and channel heavy metal hair bands in "Hey Darling." They close with "Fade," another relentless rocker. Can any other band leave you exhausted and wrung out after just listening to their album? No. It's been way too long since the ladies have turned it out so hard. And it's about time they did.
(Sub Pop)

"What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World" (The Decemberists)

The Decemberists release their seventh studio album this month, another extensive lineup of indie folk rock. And if you love lots of acoustic guitar and people singing in a twangy, country-ish (but not country!) way and occasionally exclaiming "Hey!", then this is the band for you. Their last album was a live recording, and just listening to this album, you can see how The Decemberists' music fits perfectly into that mold. They often make concerts more exciting by adding whimsical reenactments of historical sea battles or other events of regional interest. Guitarist Colin Meloy even earned his street cred by busking songs from the album on a Williamsburg street corner in October. They like to use their wide range of accordion, Hammond and Wurlitzer organs and upright bass to tell stories. And this album is no different. The tongue in cheek "The Singer Addresses His Audience" begins, "we know we belong to ya, we know you build your life around us." They realize that you got your hair cut like the drummer in the video, and they apologize that their song was used for Axe Shampoo, mocking us earnestly. Drums and an upswing sound give life to "Cavalry Captain," and "Philomena" has a simple '50s vibe that belies its naughty message. They're "not so starry-eyed anymore" in "Make You Better," and sing of bucolic days in "The Lake." The guitars are more sinister in "Till the Water Is All Long Gone," as Meloy sings of coming down from the mountain and straying from the fountain. They get upbeat again in "The Wrong Year," and add the deep twang in "Carolina Low." That segues into the comically gruesome "Better Not Wake Up the Baby." "Easy Come, Easy Go" has the timbre of a song by The Doors, and "Mistral" rolls slow and easy, with a tale of sadness underlying and a ragtime guitar break. The track "12/17/12" refers to President Obama's national address in reaction to the school shootings in Newtown. A line toward the end of the song gave the album its title. They end with "A Beginning Song." The Decemberists will follow an extensive tour of the UK with a jaunt across the pond starting in late March, moving from Portland, Oregon to Chicago, Pittsburg, Buffalo, Boston, New York and Philly before heading through the South to Nashville.
(Capitol Records)

"Uptown Special" (Mark Ronson)

Producer Mark Ronson is finally ready to drop the album he's been working on since 2013, and the anticipation is killing us. The album is produced by Jeff Bashker, who worked with everyone from Beyonce to Ed Sheeran to Kanye West. The album kicks off with an electronica intro, "Uptown's First Finale," peppered with soulful saxophone. This brass takes on more sass in tracks like "I Can't Lose," which benefits from the addition of a female vocalist. "Summer Breaking" slides into an early '80s radio vibe, with the funk of a Steely Dan track. This moves decidedly into Funkadelic territory with the best track on the album (for my money), "Feel Right," with the lyrics, "feel right in this motherfu**, feel good in this motherfu**, my whole hood in this mother, and we gonna run this mother for ya..." He performed this song, along with his new single, "Uptown Funk" with Bruno Mars on vocal on a November 2014 episode of "Saturday Night Live." The song, which Ronson agonized over to the point of vomiting and fainting, ended up being a huge hit in Britain, breaking a record for being streamed the most times in one week: 2.3 million times. It's a clear homage to R&B legends like James Brown, with the promise that "Uptown funk gonna give it to ya, Saturday night we're in the spot/ Don't believe me? Just watch!" He's too hot, he brags; call the fireman! Some of this funk falls flat, like in "Daffodils." And the unsettling story that unfolds in "Crack In the Pearl" relays an incident in a back room of a Las Vegas casino, under a portrait of Doris Day. It sounds like a terrible coke binge gone awry. At least in "In Case of Fire," that "third michelada" and "second Adderall" line adds to the sense of urgency of someone getting the hell out of Dodge, a la Steely Dan's "Kid Charlemagne." Ronson reportedly wrote the song with the help of author Michael Chabon. The story in "Leaving Los Feliz" finds him trying to enter a party with a hipster doorman, and "Heavy and Rolling" is funky, but not too memorable. The album finishes up with "Crack In the Pearl pt. II," which has a cool lo-fi break. Ronson has always had a lot of tricks up his sleeve that he's used to make other artists sound amazing. Looks like he saved a few for himself.
(Columbia)

"Adventures in Real Time" (Dylan Gardner)

From the garage jam bands of Pasadena rises teen sensation Dylan Gardner, a new breed of artist who has used the Internet to become proficient at multi-instrumentalism, Pro Tools, and home producing. He recently told reporters that he had written 100 songs for his first album, starting way back in 2010. With the help of his manager Geoffrey Weiss, he whittled them down to the best dozen, found on his debut album. His first single, "Let's Get Started," is a classic rock tune influenced by Gardner's love of The Beatles, singing, "I'll be John and Yoko, we'll sit back and watch our love grow." This same plucky keyboard/drum sound flows into his next track, "Heroes Tonight," a bouncy song about being "king of the world." Sprightly ukulele spices up "I'm Nothing Without You," a song about loyalty and love. He adds electric guitar in "Too Afraid to Love You," and keyboards pep up "I Think I'm Falling for Something." "I am the looks I am the brains, I am the actor I am the master of my own demise," he sings in "The Actor," a slow, sober ballad, which is welcome after the deluge of poppy, sunshiny songs. He meets a middle ground in "Sing For The Stars," and "Feeling of Love." A classic, rolling guitar puts "With A Kiss" on solid ground, and he finishes up strong with "Invincible," with lyrics, "I try to be much more than I was meant to be." Gardner said that he's already working on not his second, but his third album, saying that he's constantly an album and a half ahead of what's out. For now, it's up to the fans to see what comes next.
(Warner Bros. Records)

"Chapter One" (Ella Henderson)

UK breakout Ella Henderson drops her debut album, "Chapter One," building on the success she found as a contestant on the "X Factor UK" in 2012. Her first single "Ghost," which she wrote alongside One Republic's Ryan Tedder, is the first track of the album. It became the fastest selling debut for a UK artist this year, going platinum in the UK and Australia. Critics describe the work of this 18-year-old singer as "honest, assured, vocally astonishing and unmistakably special." She got help from Babyface, Al Shux and Salaam Remi. "Writing this album I had to make sure I allowed myself the time to find my own sound and direction," said Henderson. "My writing's very personal, like an open diary, so it had to be real and honest." Her raspy soprano voice is showcased on cuts like "Empire," when she sings, "we find strength in each others' arms, we built this love and we made it ours." She goes up and down the scales in "Glow" and works the piano in the ballad "Yours." She takes on an egotistical fella in "Mirror Man," and the melodious harp belies the difficult lover she sings about in "Hard Work." In "Pieces," she laments a relationship that is falling apart, singing, "the pieces are my heart." In "The First Time," she's battling against his new girl, who looks suspiciously like her, even wears the same kind of clothes and perfume. Henderson sings, "You can try to upgrade me, you can dream like that/ but you might as well face it, you had it right the first time." Her song "All Again" has the pacing of a Broadway tune, and "Give Your Heart Away" puts a lot of instrumental energy behind the basic message: it's too late to fix the mess you made. She does better with the soulful "Rockets." Henderson follows with the slow, sad "Lay Down" and ends the album with another soulful ballad, "Missed." Can't wait to see what Chapter 2 brings.
(SYCO Entertainment/Columbia Records)