Currents [VINYL]

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Now, the not-so-good news. As this album was recorded digital, there are some audio flaws exposed in the medium. Disc one has a few nasty moments, notably noise distortion to the top end on side one, giving it a rather “harsher” sound. It’s cut quieter to allow a little more dynamic range, but this is minimal and not revealing. And make no mistake, Parker is writing pop songs here, and doing them justice. During the lead-up to Lonerism, he claimed he wrote an entire album of songs for Kylie Minogue and had to stress he wasn't joking. Perhaps appearing on one of 2015's biggest pop records inspired him. Either way, the external or internal pressure to keep his pop impulses at bay are gone.

While Parker will never not sound like John Lennon, this time, he imagines a fascinating alternate history where the most famous Beatle forsakes marriage and the avant-garde for "Soul Train" and Studio 54. On Innerspeaker, Parker's melodies were effectively smudged with reverb and layering—once drawn with charcoal, now they're etched with exacto knives. As a result, the singles on Currents could be covered by anyone, and Parker has advanced to the point where he can write and sing an immaculate choral melody on "'Cause I'm a Man" and have it sound like a soul standard. Disc two, on the other hand, is nearly fault-free...at least as much as the vinyl will allow. What I mean by that is the music plays cleanly without surface noise, but again, that “harsh” sound from the snare and swirly synthesizers make it a little hard to listen to. Side three is the best-sounding to my ears, with side four coming in second place. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge.