Summer is heating up in Indie Basement-land and this week has another great crop of new releases: Viagra Boys‘ best album yet, Australian sax-and-drums duo Party Dozen, Pavement guitarist Spiral Stairs, former Klaxons‘ frontman James Righton and UK indie rockers Mush.

Over in Notable Releases, Andrew listens to Katy J Pearson, Laura Veirs and more. In other Basement-related news:Alvvays announced their first album in five years, Moonlandingz’s Adrian Flanagan announced his solo debut as Acid Klaus, Soulwax remixed Wet Leg, and Blur drummer Dave Rowntree released his debut solo single.

The Indie Basement corner of the BrooklynVegan shop is well stocked with hand-picked vinyl, books and merch, including new albums by Kevin Morby, Belle & Sebastian, Porridge Radio, Spiritualized, Wet Leg, Dry Cleaning, Yard Act, Mercury Rev, Aldous Harding, and King Hannah, not to mention classics from Pylon, Sparks, Spoon, Stereolab, Broadcast, LIlys, The Cribs, Goldfrapp, Oasis, Echo & The Bunnymen, Slowdive, Roxy Music, The Libertines, and more.

Head below for this week’s reviews.

ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Viagra Boys – Cave World (YEAR 001)
Swedish debauch-o-punks embrace synthesizers and clean themselves up just a bit for their best album yet. Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson is on a track, too.

Cave World presents a decidedly different Viagra Boys than we’ve heard before. Where their first two albums presented the band as hedonistic, debaucherous punks — which by all accounts they were — this is a more nuanced iteration of the band, still raggedly singing about fuck-ups, freaks, conspiracy theorists, sociopath children and other deviants, but musically this is a much more interesting record. Synthesizers, drum machines and sleek studio gear fight for space among the guitars, tattoos and inebriants.

Part of this may be because they made this album twice, or at least once and a half. The band once again worked with producer Pelle Gunnerfeldt (The Hives, The Knife) and DJ Haydn on this one, and they had much of the album done before the pandemic, but reworked it after the tumultuous summer of 2020. “We let it marinate for a while and then re-recorded absolutely everything,” frontman Sebastian Murphy says. Everything sounds a little more deliberate and with this added finesse — which may not be the right word for anything involving Viagra Boys. There are more carefully crafted songs and bigger hooks, but they retained their distinctive grit. Their fingernails are still filth, but sport a fresh manicure. It’s a winning combination.

Cave World‘s hit rate is very high: “Ain’t No Thief” hammers out a manic disco beat and relentless, dirty synth bassline that propels them into a lurid, technopunk futureworld; “Baby Criminal” is a disturbing portrait of a kid who microwaves batteries for fun set against wailing sax and relentless high-hat percussion; “Troglodyte” veers into the Devo territory Viagra Boys’ live shows have long had; and “Punk Rock Loser” struts along with Murphy tossing off lines like “I warned you baby, that ain’t juice in my cup / It’s promethazine and a little 7UP.”

There’s also the paranoid and very electronic “Creepy Crawlers,” and the scatterbrained synthpop of “The Cognitive Trade-Off Hypothesis” and “ADD.” Cave World also features “Big Boy,” a techno-blues collaboration with Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson that feels as inevitable as it does perfect. When Williamson shows up, asking “And all the people in the club go, Don’t you want it?,” the track has transformed into a shuffling, baggy anthem. It’s fantastic.

As much as I’ve liked Viagra Boys’ other two albums, if you’d told me four years ago that the band who made the silly but fun “Sports” would make an album as front-to-back good as this I might not believe you. These Boys clean up well — while still leaving a mess.

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Party Dozen – The Real Work (Temporary Residence LTD)
Australian sax-and-drums duo rip it up with a little help from Nick Cave on their hard-hitting, enjoyable fourth album

Australian duo Party Dozen make a lot of noise for just being sax (Kirsty Tickle) and drums (Jonathan Boulet). A lot of varied noise, too. Yes there is the kind of in-your-face skronk you’d expect from a post-punk group like this, but on their fourth album, The Real Work, there are atmospheric tracks, diversions into sultry noir territory, heavy jams that approach doom metal, druggy garage rock, John Zorn Naked City jazz-punk, and motorik dance groovers. It’s all of a piece, of course; Party Dozen stay within their solar system, but they’re exploring all the planets. You might not even notice that these songs are almost entirely instrumental, with Tickle only occasionally shouting through her horn. The one song that does have regularly mic’d vocals, “Macca the Mutt,” features the signature howl of fellow Aussie Nick Cave who takes things into Birthday Party territory. For a band known for their incendiary live shows, The Real Work is a nuanced record that works great in the comfort of your living room but also has you wanting them to tour ASAP. It should also be said The Real Work is not just sax and drums — Boulet triggers lots of samples with his kit which beefs things up considerably. Here, Party Dozen sound like the work of, if not 12, at least six energized musicians.

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Spiral Stairs – Medley Attack!!! (Amazing Grease)
Pavement cofounder Scott Kannberg leaves the ’90s mostly behind on his warm, inviting sixth solo album

Pavement guitarist Scott Kannberg’s 2019 Spiral Stairs album, We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized, was almost his last. “I did my last shows in London in 2019, and I had this great show and kinda thought to myself, ‘I don’t really want to play again after this. “This is great, this is a good way to end’.” But then a burst of creativity hit and he had another album’s worth of songs ready to go, perhaps his solo swan song, but the universe kept throwing up roadblocks. He moved back from the Yucatan to California to make it, only to get hit with the pandemic, and then once he did start recording, longtime bassist and friend Matt Harris (also of Oranger) died. The world is now trying to get back to normal and so is Kanneberg, releasing his sixth solo album as the pandemic is still with us and Pavement have finally started their reunion tour.

Medley Attack!!! is a reference to Talking Heads — it was one of the considered titles for Remain in Light — and you can hear a little of their influence on this album, especially on “Baron Please –> Medley Attack!!! [blitzkrieg]” which owes more than a little to “Crosseyed and Painless” in its funky danceability. Like on We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized, Scott has left Pavement in the ’90s, going instead for a more singer-songrwriter rock album, full of horns, barstool poetry and big choruses. (He still loves the Bunnymen, Roxy and The Fall, though, which shines through occasionally.)  It’s the sound of music made by friends who enjoy playing with each other — even if it’s across the country on Zoom — and the album features Kelley Stoltz, No Age’s Randy Randall, the late Matt Harris and Oranger drummer Jim Lindsay. These are warm songs with Kanneberg examining the circuitous path his life has taken in the last 30 years. To make another Talking Heads reference, the album coulda been called “Where? How Did I Get Here?” but Kanneberg realizes that, despite all the terrible hurdles, life can still be beautiful.

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Mush – Down Tools (Memphis Industries)
Third album from Leeds indie rockers mellows out, just a little, in all the right ways

If you were wishing the Spiral Stairs album was more Pavement-y, might I direct your attention to the third album from Leeds group Mush. There’s more than a little ’90s slacker rock charm to Down Tools in Dan Hyndman’s guitars and their easygoing melodies. Not sloppy, just loose, in a pleasing way, with the pandemic / Brexit / apocalyptic fears of 2021’s Lines Redacted having dissipated into a more relaxed, manageable sense of unease. There are moments of chugging pop bliss (“Dense Traffic,” “Group of Death”) and noisy wig-outs / mathy noodling (“Get on Yer Soapbox,” the title track) and points in between ( “Karoshi Karaoke” and “Northern Safari”). Dan Hyndman’s vocal style has mellowed, too, and gotten less adenoidal, making for a less nervy listen. He can sing!

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James Righton – Jim, I’m Still Here (DEEWEE)
Former Klaxons frontman juggles domesticity and pop dreams with the help of Soulwax and ABBA’s Benny Anderson

Every album released since 2021 gets called a pandemic record. It’s hard not to listen to things through any other lens, and songs that were maybe written or even recorded before March 2020 take on new meaning. Then there are albums like former Klaxons’ frontman James Righton‘s new album that is almost entirely about life during lockdown. Song titles include “Livestream Superstar,” “Pause” (as in “Press ‘Pause’ on my life”) and “Empty Rooms.” Stuck at home, like most of us, he would retreat to his basement studio after putting his kids to bed. There he created songs based around a dual life: “Jim would be the deluded rockstar, living out his fantasies from the confines of his garage. James was Dad.” (Mind you still a relatively cool dad: he’s married to Keira Knightley.) Another one-man-band, Prince, was a big influence here, as was Bowie’s Berlin trilogy. (Like Bowie’s Low, [and Ty Segall’s last album] much of the instrumentation on this album has been put through the fetishized vintage Eventide harmonizers.) Tales of chores and performing to fans via Instagram Live are told via lush, slippery synth-funk. Soulwax, who run the label James is on, mixed the album and give it lots of headroom, while ABBA’s Benny Anderson* shows up to play synths on airy ballad “Empty Rooms.” It’s a far cry from the dayglo sci-fi fantasies of The Klaxons, but domesticity suits him, and Jim, I’m Still Here will sound good in your basement too.

* If you’re wondering how Righton scored a member of ABBA for his album, he is the musical director for London’s ABBA Voyage concert experience, having been tasked with putting together the live band that plays nightly with the virtual ABBA-tars of Agnetha, Björn, Benny, and Anni-Frid. That band includes Little Boots, btw. Crazy, right?

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Beyond “Blue Monday”: New Order’s Best Deep Cuts

“Dreams Never End” (1981)

New Order were still underneath the shadow of Joy Division in 1981, a hard shackle to shake. Unsure how to progress after the death of Ian Curtis, both guitarist Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook sing lead on New Order's debut album, Movement, and both sound like they're trying to mimic him. "Dreams Never End," which features Hook on vocals, is musically bright and sunny, with Hook, Sumner and Gilbert's instruments swirling around Stephen Morris' insistent, danceable beat. The Cure would crib liberally from this for their 1986 single "Inbetween Days."

“Procession” (1981)

Following their debut single, "Ceremony" (which had been played live with Joy Division), their next release was "Procession" which felt like a natural progression from Joy Division's Closer, with glacial synths washing over a frantic rhythm section and Bernard Sumner's brittle guitars. Recorded and released before Movement, "Procession" nonetheless feels past it, with Bernard Sumner coming into his own as lead vocalist. While a single, "Procession" didn't make it on to the main tracklist for 1987's Substance, but was instead relegated to the bonus disc of the CD. But it's a pivotal song in their evolution.

“Turn the Heater On” (1982 John Peel Session)

Keith Hudson's "Turn the Heater On" was Ian Curtis' favorite reggae song, says Peter Hook in his Substance memoir, saying it was where Bernard Sumner "got the got the idea for using the melodica," an instrument which would turn up in New Order songs like "Your Silent Face" and "Love Vigilantes." Barney's only playing guitar at the end, after he's stopped singing," adds Hook, only kinda joking that "That became the whole template for the band."

“The Village” (1983)

Power, Corruption & Lies is a perfect record, and none of the songs were released as singles -- "Blue Monday" was tacked onto the U.S. CD release -- so every song could theoretically fit on this list. There are moments of sadness and desolation, but there are also songs of unabashed joy. In much the same spirit as "Age of Consent," "The Village" bounces along like the first day of spring with Sumner singing "Our love is like the flowers / The rain, the sea and the hours." The mid-section instrumental -- with guitars, synthesizers and drum machines joining forces -- remains one of New Order's most magical moments.

"The synths are incredible from 1:45 so in your face but not overpowering ... then they disappear - my whole taste in music seemed to change because of this song" - The Charlatan's Tim Burgess on "The Village"

“Leave Me Alone” (1983)

Many of New Order's most genius moments come from the interplay between Peter Hook's bass -- which is almost always played high up on the neck to where some mistake it for guitar -- and Bernard Sumner's guitar. Is there a more perfect example than on Power Corruption & Lies' closing track? The bass hook opens the song, but it's when the chiming guitar lead enters that "Leave Me Alone" truly blooms. (Gillian Gilbert adds further, crucial, counterpoint guitar lines.) A grey-hued portrait of loneliness ("On a thousand islands in the sea / I see a thousand people just like me"), it's one of New Order's crowning achievements, fading out with two more minutes of gorgeous instrumental melancholia.

“Thieves Like Us” (1984)

This is the big concession to the "no singles" rule on this list. While "Thieves Like Us" went to #18 in the UK in 1984, it does not have the stature of "Bizarre Love Triangle," "Temptation," "Blue Monday," "Sub-Culture," "True Faith" or even LP tracks like "Age of Consent" or "Love Vigilantes." But it is one of New Order's best, most deeply emotive songs -- it's Peter Hook's favorite (you can see his full Top 10 below) -- that needs all six minutes and 36 seconds to work its magic. Bernard Sumner's vocals doesn't even come in till two-and-a-half minutes into the song, long after we've been seduced by the song's NYC hip-hop inspired rhythm section and majestic washes of synths. While the song works well as an instrumental -- it plays over the "making the dress" montage in Pretty in Pink -- Sumner gives a great delivery with a whole lot of "Loves," in his signature, fragile style.

PETER HOOK: THE TEN BEST NEW ORDER SONGS from his memoir "Substance: Inside New Order" 1. "Thieves Like Us"
2. "Leave Me Alone"
3. "Homage" (unreleased)
4. "Too Late" (John Peel session)
5. "Someone Like You"
6. "Ruined in a Day" (K-KLass Remix)
7. "Every Little Counts"
8. "Age of Consent"
9. "Temptation"
10. "Eligia"

“Lonesome Tonight” (1984)

"Lonesome Tonight" is, according to Peter Hook, New Order's ode to Elvis Presley. Bernard Sumner was apparently obsessed with a version of "Lonesome Tonight" (where The King can't stop laughing) and suggested to the rest of New Order they try jamming it on stage one night. That bit of C-F chord improvisation became this song, which Hook calls "a glorious tune even though it's nothing like Elvis', given away in true fashion as a b-side." (It's the flip to "Thieves Like Us.") New Order rarely needed more than two chords to create something amazing (see all of Power, Corruption and Lies), and when the synthesizers crest halfway through, it evokes Joy Division's "Atmosphere." If you're wondering, that is Peter Hook clearing his sinuses at the four-minute mark. "When Barney heard me hocking up phlegm into a handkerchief he suggested we put it on at the end because the contrast between something so beautiful and something so awful might be interesting. He was absolutely right."

“Murder” (1984)

New Order have always had a way with instrumentals and this one's a real tour-de-force, a pounding goth nightmare powered by Stephen Morris' propulsive drumming, a sinister bass line from Hook and Sumner's three-note, cyclical guitar hook. The song also makes great, creepy use of movie samples of Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Malcolm McDowell in infamous big-budget softcore film Caligula. "Murder," which has been covered by The Charlatans and K-X-P, was originally only released as a single in Belgium, but later appeared on the second disc of the Substance two-CD set.

“Elegia” (full version) (1985)

An ode to Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western scores, specifically the pocket watch scene from A Few Dollars More, "Elegia" opens side two of 1985's highly underrated Low-Life. While the five-minute instrumental is carefully paced, exploding into full Sergio Leone glory in the last minute, the original 17-minute version is even better. "Dylan Jones - then editor at id magazine --asked us if we’d like to do some music for a short 15-20 min art film," Stephen Morris says. "We went into a studio in Wembley and did a marathon all night session. The film never happened, but we liked 'Elegia' so much it got edited down to fit on the LP." As Morris says, "Hooky's bass melodies on 'Elegia' are majestic."

"Elegia" is one of three New Order tracks to appear in Pretty in Pink ("Thieves Like Us" and "Shellshock," which appears on the soundtrack album, are the others), and you may have also heard it in Stranger Things, and the trailer for video game "Metal Gear Solid 5: Phantom Pain."

“Sooner Than You Think” (1985)

Like Power, Corruption and Lies, Low-Life is a near-perfect album and picking from the many great songs is difficult. Following "Blue Monday" and "Thieves Like Us," New Order really came into their own as far as blending rock and club music. While the albums that follow would more often than not have songs that were either "rock" or "synth," Low-Life let things intermingle in wonderful and surprising ways. After a building, minute-long intro that is mostly guitar, bass and drums, "Sooner Than You Think" shifts gears and lets the keyboards take over. "A very unusual tune, showing exactly why I used to love New Order," says Peter Hook in his memoir. "We were so versatile." As the lyrics describe, the song was actually written after "a party in [New Order's] hotel" in Zurich in 1984. "I think some members of the Furious Five were there, no Grandmaster Flash," recalls Stephen Morris. "There was a very loud blaster in a very small room - other hotel guests were not amused - complaints were made, maybe I dreamt the Furious Five bit? But not the Swiss police though."

“Face Up” (1985)

This one should've been a single. "When we first wrote Face up in early 1984 we thought it was the best thing ever," says Stephen Morris. "Face Up" is another New Order song where two disparate parts have been grafted together, with an an atmospheric intro ("inspired by Caligula" says Hook) that then drastically shifts gears into music that all but demands you bounce up and down. Sonically, "Face Up" is pure ebullience, the kind few besides New Order can do with guitars, but the lyrics -- "Oh how I cannot bear the thought of you" -- are a decided kiss-off from a spurned lover. "I couldn’t understand why some people didn’t get Face Up’s euphoria, but maybe you had to be playing the drums to fully get that," adds Morris.

“Way of Life” (1986)

As the '80s progressed, New Order became more and more known as a synthpop band, but they remained a clever, inventive rock band on album tracks, as is evidenced by the entire first side of 1986's Brotherhood. "Way of Life" closes out Side A, beginning with another gloomy fake-out intro before blossoming into a wonderful pop song with a chorus so infectious it seems impossible they would bury it this deep into the album. Hook says "We were trying to emulate 'Age of Consent' so I just played the riff backwards, and voilà."

“Every Little Counts” (1986)

New Order were guilty a few times over the years of what Peter Hook calls "five o'clock in the morning lyrics." Sometimes that meant something special, like "you caught me at a bad time, so why don't you piss off" (Power, Corruption & Lies' "Your Silent Face") and sometimes it gives you the opening lines to Brotherhood's closing track. "Every second counts when I am with you / I think you are a pig, you should be in a zoo," which Bernard Sumner cannot get through without laughing. (He also didn't feel a need to do another take.) And yet, "Every Second Counts" is still pure gold, making great use of orchestral samples, harmony and Sumner's winning "do de do de dooh" chorus. "Every Little Counts" is also a perfect album-closer, with a massive, woozy swell from their Emulator sampling keyboard -- "with Barney holding all the keys down at once, using both arms" -- and then a great final joke that definitely freaked out some vinyl listeners at the time.

“1963” (1987)

Like "The Perfect Kiss," this b-side to 1987 single "True Faith" is a story-song about a doomed relationship -- and perhaps firearms -- set to ultra-catchy crystalline synthpop. There's a case to be made that it's better than the A-side (which was one of New Order's biggest hits and their first entry into the Billboard Top 40). For people like Peter Hook who wished more of Peter Hook's distinctive bass stylings made it into the the final product (it doesn't show up till right before the slow fade out), Arthur Baker's sublime remix adds in more string instruments -- bass and guitar -- throughout.

“Vanishing Point” (1989)

Both Stephen Morris and Peter Hook's favorite song on 1989's Technique, "Vanishing Point" is one of New Order's finest electronic dance songs (and it really should've been a single instead of either "Fine Time" or "Run"). Like "Thieves Like Us," this one is in no hurry to get to vocals, with the 90 second lead-in playing like an overture, leading us through the major melodic points; when Sumner does begin with "Grow up children don't you suffer / at the hands of one another" it's a cinematic experience. "Vanishing Point" has the best chorus on the album and the best breakdown and "drop" (before they called them that), that was clearly influenced by the two months spent in Ibiza making the album (and spending a lot of time at the club).

“Dream Attack” (1989)

individual lanes, but the album closes with the glorious "Dream Attack" that brings the whole record together, mixing ragged guitar solos, windswept acoustic guitars, sampled orchestra hits, sequencers and live drums -- plus another great chorus -- all together as only New Order can do. Bernard Sumner apparently had The Eagles' "Hotel California" in mind with the song's two-minute jam outro which, in their hands, works. Gillian Gilbert, who played those wonderful acoustic guitars, says, "To me, Dream Attack' sums up the whole album. It’s bright breezy and uplifting...a good song to walk off into the sunset to."

“Special” (1993)

New Order were not especially getting along in the early-'90s, but got back together to make a new album, as they were low on funds after their label Factory Records (which went belly-up the year prior) and their troubled Manchester club, The Hacienda, depleted their bank accounts. Republic was, by all accounts, not the most pleasant recording experience with Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook butting heads constantly. There's not much of Hook's signature bass on the album, but there is some unfortunate rapping by Sumner. Republic does contain "Regret," one of their best-ever singles (a Top 40 hit in the US), and some of the old magic can also be found tucked away near the end of Side 2 with the sultry, moody "Special," which is driven by Hook's bass and another great chorus. Lyrically the song is perhaps referencing the demise of Factory Records or the group itself: "It was always special, like water down the drain." New Order went on an eight-year hiatus not long after its release.