Page 130 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

vigour that puts the wannabes to shame. A collaboration with the producer and songwriter

Andrew Watt (Pearl Jam, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Elton John et al), Every Loser hares out of

the traps with the feral Frenzy and the pace barely slackens; only the elegiac Morning

Show and New Atlantis, an ambivalent love letter to Iggy’s adopted home city, Miami, take their
foot off the accelerator. He strikes a poignant note on the sardonic Comments, a song whose

textures and beat recall Bowie’s version of the co-written China Girl. For much of the album

you can almost see Iggy’s lips curling in contempt and disgust. The polemical All the Way

Down and the frenetic Neo Punk aim blistering broadsides at modern-day mores, venality and

vacuity. The album ends with the potty-mouthed The Regency, whose dreamy intro proves an
entirely inaccurate guide to what follows.

Gabrielle Aplin

Phosphorescent
★★★★☆

Never Fade

The more distance Aplin has put between herself and the music business, the richer her work has

become. Phosphorescent is a world away from John Lewis ads and the pinched politesse of her

major-label debut. Her soaring vocal on Skylight is the sound of an artist basking in creative
freedom.

Billy Nomates

Cacti
★★★★☆

Invada

Bristol-based Tor Maries’s second album confirms the promise of her self-titled 2020 debut.

Investigating dysfunction, depression and self-sufficiency with fearless candour, Maries veers

between post-punk, electro-pop and folk, owning each soundscape with uniformly gripping
results.

Must-have reissue

Tori Amos
Little Earthquakes