Album reviews: The Twilight Sad | Flea | Louise McCorkindale & Vitaliy Tkachuk

The Twilight Sad: It’s the Long Goodbye (Rock Action) ★★★

Flea: Honora (Nonesuch) ★★★★

Louise McCorkindale & Vitaliy Tkachuk: Songs From the Wild Sea’s Edge (Stereogram Recordings) ★★★★

The Foot & Leg Clinic: Sit Down For Rock and Roll (Bingo Records) ★★★★

As their name has always intimated, you don’t go to The Twilight Sad for sweetness, light and an unstintingly sunny outlook on life. Rather, the Kilsyth band are your companions through the darkness, providing catharsis on both an epic and intimate scale. It’s the Long Goodbye, their first album in seven years, is firmly in that tradition, its title referring to the dementia and death of frontman James Graham’s mother during the making of the album.

Graham is joined by his guitarist wingman Andy MacFarlane in the current slimmed-down line-up but they have mustered a rather tasty album guest on guitar and keyboards - none other than Cure frontman Robert Smith. Smith is a long-professed fan of the band, unsurprisingly so, given that encountering The Twilight Sad must be akin to catching a glimpse of his younger self in the mirror.

The Twilight Sad’s musical range is narrower then The Cure’s, particularly given the focus of this album. Graham unravels slowly to a soundtrack which encompasses accessible gothic rock, dark electro shudders and baroque industrial rock. The song titles tell the story - Dead Flowers, Inhospitable/Hospital, the grim admission of Waiting for the Phone Call - and the lyrics only double down on the agony: “Why you slowly leaving me”, “don’t take her away from me”, “why do I feel like this?”, “is it okay to feel this way?” It would take a concrete heart not to be moved by the harrowing simplicity of the sentiments.

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea releases his debut solo album at the age of 63. Is there a lot of bass? You betcha. But also trumpet, an instrument to which Flea has returned with a commitment to get his chops up before inviting a primo band of jazz players - guitarist Jeff Parker, bassist Anna Butterss, Mars Volta drummer Deantoni Parks and percussionist Mauro Refosco from David Byrne’s band - to join him in the creation of this luxurious indulgence.

A Plea’s prominent, fleet bassline is soon joined by noodly guitar and dramatic big band stabs of brass action, creating an Afrofunk base for Flea’s hep spoken word appeal to “build a bridge, shine a light”. Other originals include the choppy, irreverent Morning Sky and the dreamy instrumental Frailed, ten minutes of abstract ear candy with aqueous bass, a flute/trumpet duet and plangent cello.

Flea also covers Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain with keening soulful trumpet solo and swathes his version of Frank Ocean’s Thinkin Bout You in strings and synths. Thom Yorke guests on the groovy, fidgety Traffic Lights and Nick Cave presides over an unexpected change of tone on a languorous cover of Jimmy Webb’s Wichita Lineman.

READ MORE: Basement Jaxx, Glasgow review: 'a colourful clubbing cornucopia'

Songs From the Wild Sea’s Edge is a ravishing remote collaboration between Aberdeen-based vocalist Louise McCorkindale and Ukrainian guitarist and composer Vitaliy Tkachuk released by Edinburgh’s Stereogram Recordings. McCorkindale’s voice is a clear, soothing draft throughout this timeless folk pop suite, inflected with languid Latin vibes and the spirit of Leonard Cohen. Vivo Sohando is their tribute to the Bossa nova greats while the title track is a sumptuous noir folk ballad with McCorkindale’s wistful vocal accompanied by brooding cello.

Gleeful Glasgow indie punk outfit The Wife Guys of Reddit are reborn as The Foot & Leg Clinic with no diminution in personality, imagination and dynamism. Their debut album brims with short sharp dispatches, as the four-piece marshal the handbrake turns and melodic flow of Hot Air, the lo-fi electro-meets-ye-ye of Worms 2 and jump from minimalist math rock to classic new wave riffola to luscious psych garage reverie in a crisp 30 minutes.

CLASSICAL

Francisco Garro: From Fire & Earthquake (Delphian) ★★★★★

Historical context is key in appreciating the music of Francisco Garro (1556-1623). Active in a Portugal imbalanced by a regnal succession that created the Iberian Union with Spain, while maintaining sufficient independence to allow Lisbon to flourish as a thriving global trader, Garro’s music itself reflects a coexistence of circumspection, self-assurance and indigenous colour. Heartwarming sophistication characterises the Missa Saeculorum and Missa Maria Magdalena, serviced with neatly polished performances by Toby Ward’s Ensemble Pro Victoria, whose lithe vocal/instrumental mix offers up a clean but luxuriant palette. The music exhibits Garro’s supreme polyphonic mastery, also a simple glowing eloquence responsive to the texts. The accompanying motets - the fluid complexity of Asperges Me, the predominantly sublime Parce Mihi, Domine, the sprightly rejoicing of Vidi Aquam - are supreme examples. The inclusion of older contemporary Francisco Guerrero’s motet Maria Magdalene simply contextualises its relationship to Garro’s eponymous mass. Ken Walton

JAZZ

Brian Molley Quartet: Tùs/Origin (BGMM Records) ★★★★

The warm-toned creativity of Glasgow saxophonist Brian Molley has ranged fruitfully through straight-ahead, Latin-American and Indian excursions. Here, with pianist Tom Gibbs, double-bassist David Bowden and drummer Stephen Henderson, he explores the transatlantic migration of music from Scotland, while saluting pioneering abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who made extensive visits to Scotland. A plaintive, hymn-like piano and saxophone air is answered back by multi-tracked saxes in a striking call-and-response “Gaelic psalm” effect in the opening Ode to Fredrick Douglass, before the Ritornello Ceilidh ups tempo with a vengeance. The more leisurely Cianalas suggests voyaging, with creative excursions from Bowden and Gibbs, while Molley takes on swing before a return to the psalm responses. Elsewhere, crisp snare carries the solemn Trail of Tears while lyrical piano and shushing cymbals sound Frederick’s Lament before a bass solo accelerates into the exhilaratingly full-tilt workout of the closing Storm, Whirlwind and Earthquake. Jim Gilchrist

The Scotsman’s arts newsletter is now sent twice a week - subscribe today

Want the latest Scottish headlines sent directly to your phone? Sign up to our new WhatsApp channel here