Album reviews: Bring Me the Horizon, Elvis Costello and Eels

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Bring Me the Horizon – Post Human: Survival Horror

★★★★☆

Bring Me the Horizon's highest-charting record to date, 2019’s Grammy-nominated Amo, was also their most pop-friendly. The easiest next move for the Sheffield rock band would be to do exactly the same as before – bright synths, electronic influences and pop-rock melodies. Post Human: Survival Horror contains none of that.

Instead, things have turned considerably darker. On last year's “Heavy Metal”, Oli Sykes poked fun at fans who complained about their changing sound – now his tactic is to drown them out altogether. Opener “Dear Diary,” is a furious onslaught of hammering percussion and blistering guitar shreds – about as heavy as metal can get. If there’s another song that refers to God as a “s***head”, I don’t know it.

Into just nine songs, BMTH have distilled a breathtaking demonstration of their ambition, their technical skill, and their awareness of the social climate. “Please remain calm,” a cool, robotic voice intones on “Parasite Eve”. “The end has arrived.” Cue more thunderous drums and Sykes pushing his voice to its limits.

Single “Teardrops” is the catchiest of these tracks, but the band find plenty of time to show off their knack for a great hook elsewhere. “Obey”, featuring fellow Yorkshire lad Yungblud, rages against political oppression; “Kingslayer” employs thrash and screamo for a nightmare rave with Japanese metal band Babymetal. Things come to an abrupt halt with the obscenely titled closing track, a collaboration with Evanescence’s Amy Lee filled with spectral merry-go-rounds and Sykes’s malignant hisses. It’s a soundtrack fit for the end of the world. ROC

Elvis Costello – Hey Clockface

★★★★☆

“I don’t spend my time perfecting the past. I live for the future, because I know it won’t last.” So sings Elvis Costello on his new solo album, Hey Clockface. Yet it’s hard not to view the seasoned singer-songwriter’s latest release as an old curiosity shop, filled with quirky memorabilia and his typically eccentric cast of characters.

It opens on a strange note, with the spoken-word “Revolution #49”. While the instrumentation – Mickaël Gasche of jazz ensemble Le Quintette Saint Germain leading on a forlorn-sounding serpent – is nothing short of mesmeric, the Arabic influences jar with what follows. There are nods to Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli in the sauntering arrangement of “I Can’t Say Her Name”; the title track has a jangly blues swing redolent of Randy Newman’s bonhomie.

Costello’s tender side emerges on songs such as closer “Byline” and the world-weary “They’re Not Laughing at Me Now”, while defiant blasts of brass dominate “Newspaper Pane”. This music might be disjointed, but its theme of time and how we choose to use it makes for a powerful through-line. Costello has always been an exceptional storyteller, and this is one of his most evocative albums. ROC

Eels – Earth to Dora

★★★☆☆

The arrival of a new Eels album is generally met with a shrug these days. Mark Oliver Everett has been churning out the same inconsequential, loafing rock for years. The LA band’s last truly great record, Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, was released in 2005. There have been six more since then, none of them particularly memorable.

But we live in a different, scarier world now. So while nothing has really changed on Earth to Dora, the band’s 13th album, everything else certainly has. Eels’ dozy melodies and sweet, sun-baked lyrics sound reassuring, rather than bland. Exactly what we need. The album was recorded before the pandemic; ignorance, in this case, is utter bliss. Delightful opener “Anything for Boo” deserves to be played with the car windows wide open. “Are We Alright Again” is horribly twee (“Birds and bees jamming/ A theme for the neighbourhood”) with a nursery rhyme melody. Whatever – it feels great to imagine walking along the street, the sun beating down on your neck.

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Even when the album takes a melancholic turn and Everett broods on love lost, it still sounds gentle and nostalgic. Was a cheating girlfriend really what we used to worry about? Everett rasps irritably through “Dark and Dramatic” and “Are You F***ing Your Ex”, before breaking down messily on “I Got Hurt”, the standout track and an instant addition to any heartbreak compilation. Over simple snare drum and strings, Everett sings “Let the time pass away/ I need for it to pass/ If you need me… don’t ask”. By the time we get to the sultry piano of “Baby Let’s Make It Real”, however, Everett seems to have begrudgingly accepted that everything will probably get better again: “I gotta be careful/ Trying to hold onto the past.”

Under normal circumstances, another solipsistic Eels album celebrating the joy of simple pleasures and allowing for some gruff introspection would grate – and Earth to Dora really isn’t much better than the last six Eels records – but right now it feels pretty much perfect. Have a listen before the moment passes. RH