Janelle Monáe: Impressive head protection, but not good enough to protect her from a torpedo fired from a Holter-made submarine
The week in ADM
Michael Palmer reflects on the week's action in the ADM chart
Julia Holter just will not quit! Like Al Pacino at the end of Scarface, or Stone Cold Steve Austin at Wrestlemania 13, she's going to hold on to her top spot until she drops. And, like those two, it's becoming rather endearing.
While changes at the top are fun and exciting, Holter's stubbornness and refusal to give up is getting the fans on her side. Can she hold on, against the odds, until her six weeks are up? Can she last, un-toppled, until her time on this Chart must come to an end, like all albums before her, and all future albums to come?
Former Chart Topper Janelle Monáe barged in at the beginning of the week and gave Holter a real scare: 10s from The Evening Standard and Daily Telegraph, 9s (or over) from The 405, Sputnik, Paste, The Line Of Best Fit, Pop Matters along with more 8s than you can count. But, like a torpedo fired from a Holter-made submarine, SMASH - a 4 from State. "From start to finish, The Electric Lady feels like a missed opportunity." Out of nowhere! That takes her average to an 8.1, a point behind Julia Holter and into third in our chart.
The second highest new album comes from Elvis Costello and The Roots, not quite troubling the battle at the top. A 10 from Daily Telegraph balanced by a 6 from Uncut works out as a 7.7 average. Drowned in Sound call it "The combination of one of England's great lyricists and production from arguably America's most forward-thinking band." Uncut seem unhappy that it's "constantly recycling words and musical motifs from his back catalogue." If he recycles his lines from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me he gets a 10 from us.
There were plenty goings on down at the foul-smelling end of our chart too, with three new albums on our dreaded page 4. Firstly, Foxygen guitarist Jonathan Rado releases a solo album to a 5.9, despite Paste awarding an 8.9. They call it "the perfect Indian-summer morning garage sale soundtrack album", which means it's brilliant to listen to if you want to spend your Sunday buying a VHS copy of ET before realising that you don't have a VHS player anymore and even though you've already spent almost a pound on the tape it's definitely not worth going back and buying the guy's VHS player because you could probably just stream it online somewhere anyway.
Below Rado, we have MGMT. NME, Uncut and musicOMH seem pleased with the Brooklyn duo's third album, but Clash call it "amateurish psych-rock, constantly veering from wan and pallid to a heavy, soupy mess". It nets them an average of 5.6, but now they know that "wan" means colourless or weak, apparently. Every cloud and all that.
And down at the very bottom, at depths so deep you'll need an oxygen tank and a scuba license lie Pixies. They released a four-track EP this week, their first new music since 2004, and its rating puts them bottom of the Current Chart, page 127 of the All-Time Chart, and the same score as will.i.am. Once more: Pixies have the same rating as will.i.am. The Line Of Best Fit are the most optimistic, saying "three out of the four songs are at least enjoyable, one of them an absolute blinder", but Pitchfork call it "a minor tragedy that it was released". They also awarded their worst star-rating of ADM's existence, giving it only 1.0.
Elsewhere: Some highly rated new albums with Summer Camp, Lanterns on the Lake, Manic Street Preachers, Willis Earl Beal, Joanna Gruesome, Delorean and Body/Head all scoring more than 7 this week, and the new album from Elton John also gets a 6.7
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Fresh stuff
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"A blast of fresh medicine that makes the world seem a better place" - The Arts Desk's take on the 4th LP from the collective that includes Damon Albarn and Gruff Rhys. NME say it's their "best work to date"
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"A celebration of the trio's vision and collective experience" - The Line Of Best Fit's take on the 3rd LP from the post-punk trio. The Skinny say they "expand their sound with strings, brass and synths on their third album"
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The Soft CavalryThe Soft Cavalry
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Northern Transmission say the 9th LP from the arage rock duo Dan Auerback and Patrick Carney is a "rejuvenating return to form" Loud And Quiet reckon "there's few new ideas, but plenty of fresh energy"
BedouineBird Songs of a Killjoy
The Arts Desk say there's "a low-key nomadic quality" to the 2nd LP from Los Angeles-based folk singer-songwriter Azniv Korkejian. Record Collector say "Bedouine has found herself a winning formula"
Bill CallahanShepherd in a Sheepskin Vest
"A long, sun-warmed double album that is a highlight of his career" - Pitchfork's take on the 6th LP from the Maryland-born singer-songwriter while Q say "the cumulative emotional impact is profound"