Robyn Hitchcock
THE MAN UPSTAIRS (YepRoc/Planet)
4 stars
Robyn Hitchcock is smarter than most of us, funnier and weirder, too, while his touchstones of Syd Barrett and the Beatles have given him the wherewithal to make pop music of all sorts. But what a different pleasure it is when he makes a foray into low-key, acoustic, quiet at the edges and tender at the heart songs like these. They aren't soft songs mind: time's passing, love feels so fragile, life isn't going to be cast aside lightly and just what does it mean to be a man anyway? And they aren't all his songs, either. The album begins with an elegant and elegiac reinterpretation of Psychedelic Fur's The Ghost In You and near the end there's a considered and affecting take on the Doors' The Crystal Ship, while in between there's a few more covers which also take the introspective route. But they don't top hold-your-breath moments such as his own neo-folk Trouble In Your Blood and the Nick Drake-like Comme Toujours. He's been spending a bit of time in Sydney lately, we should claim him. BERNARD ZUEL
Robyn Hitchcock's The Man Upstairs.Credit: bernardzuel@gmail.com
Casey Driessen
THE SINGULARITY (Red Shoe)
4 stars
Calling Casey Driessen a one-man band hopelessly undersells someone who's closer to a one-man orchestra, using his five-string fiddle and digital looping to build up songs in carefully-crafted layers. Occasionally topping off those layers is a voice that can even do justice to Tom Waits' stunning Murder In the Red Barn. A colleague of Bela Fleck, Driessen may be a bluegrass player at heart, but clearly music stretches beyond any artificial horizons and in all directions for him. So he can construct an improbable (and funky!) rendition of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, or shed all this technology that he uses with such sophistication and sing such a stark version of the traditional Working On a Building Site as would stop a country music festival dead in its tracks. This fascinating album was created live in Driessen's studio with no overdubs, and you can hear him do exactly that at Petersham Bowling Club on September 19. JOHN SHAND
Casey Driessen's The Singularity.Credit: bernardzuel@gmail.com
Weird Al Yankovic
MANDATORY FUN (Sony)
3.5 stars
A recent US No.1, Mandatory Fun is the end result of some shrewd campaigning on the part of everyone's favourite white and nerdy 54-year-old parodist. When his label refused to cough up the cash for the necessary videos — and what's a Weird Al parody without the clip? — the man with the poodle perm sourced some "partner sites" to foot the bill. Eight videos were shot; most have already gone viral, with views in the millions. Among these is a neat, neurotic twist on Lorde's Royals, involving aliens and top-level conspiracies (Foil), an almost too clever for its own good reworking of Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines (Word Crimes) and a day-glo spin on Pharrell's Happy (aka Tacky), featuring a booty-shaking Jack Black. All laugh-out-loud funny, but as with any new Weird Al product, the question remains: should I buy the CD or simply watch the videos? Oh go on, do both. JEFF APTER
The Bug
ANGELS AND DEVILS (Ninja Tune/Inertia)
3.5 stars
British producer Kevin Martin works under numerous monikers, yet it's as the Bug that he has probably become best known. Angels and Devils is the fourth Bug album, the first in six years, and marries Martin's electronica and dancehall with a wide range of vocalists. The title is an accurate indication of how the record unfolds. The first half is dominated by female singers of avant pop such as Grouper (Liz Harris) and Inga Copeland (formerly of Hype Williams), while the second half is for devils such as Death Grips and Flowdan. At the centre appears Gonjasufi, whose unhinged voice makes an inspired bridge between the two halves. Unfortunately, people such as Copeland and Gonjasufi have such distinct voices that they tend to colonise Martin's music. This is less apparent with the devils, as Martin's distorted dancehall is incredibly assured and distinct. The stark contrast does risk alienating listeners from fifty percent of the record, yet to choose just one side and not the other would be to miss the terrific sense of journey Martin delivers. SEAN RABIN
Weird Al Yankovic's Mandatory Fun.