New Release of the Week: Chilly Gonzales - Gonzo

After 12 years of instrumental albums (ranging from a pair of 'Solo Pianos', chamber music, collaborative albums with Boys Noize, Jarvis Cocker and Plastikman and even a best-selling Christmas record), Chilly Gonzales has a lot to get off his chest.

The notebooks that sat unfilled since 2011’s orchestral rap opus ‘The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales’ started to fill up again in early 2022 after ending a lengthy decade of psychoanalysis.

Coincidence? Hardly. The songs that made it onto the new album reveal an ongoing tension between persuasion and confession, delusion and self-awareness and finally, gratitude. The tension between creativity and commerce also continues to be a career-long exploration for Gonzo.

But is this truly a rap album? Instrumental pieces such as the Stravinsky-esque ‘Fidelio’ or the tearjerking ‘Eau de Cologne’ will remind listeners of Gonzo’s extravagant ‘musical genius’ persona, as the words and rhymes from previous verses settle into their ears.

Sound Pick: Lady Blackbird - Slang Spirituals

Collaborating once again with ‘Black Acid Soul’ producer Chris Seefried, the pair produce a second album that not only embodies the freewheeling, emotive Lady Blackbird sound, but that also taps into deeply vulnerable lyrics that recount the singer’s challenging ascent to musical stardom.

In taking charge of her own life and her own sound, Lady Blackbird walks a new path, taking ‘Slang Spirituals’ in a different direction.

Across 11 tracks, Lady Blackbird puts her sweeping, cinematic vocal power to use on everything from the soulful orchestral fanfares of ‘Let Not (Your Heart Be Troubled)’ to the finger-picking folk storytelling of ‘Man On A Boat’, euphoric gospel empowerment of ‘Like A Woman’ and the seven-minute psychedelic soul instrumental of ‘When The Game Is Played On You’.