CAVALCADE

Based on the first Black Midi album, a lot of people thought they were going to move in the direction of becoming more of a post-punk band. However, their sophomore album "Cavalcade" absolutely blows all expectations out of the water. The album is a wild journey that combines Tom Waits with 70s Krautrock, brutal avant-prog, math rock, and jazzy melodies. The album is simultaneously much more calculated and organized than their noise rock-style debut, but still sounds incredibly chaotic and intense. From the brutal avant- garde riffs in songs like" John L" and "Chondromalacia Patella", to the much softer, heartfelt sound of "Marlene Dietrich", to the almost jazz fusion-esque complexity of "Diamond Stuff", to the outright chaotic noise rock of "Hogwash and Balderdash", Cavalcade is the freshest album I have heard in a VERY long time, and is quite possibly the most creatively intense album I've seen since David Bowie's Blackstar. Somehow, despite all the stellar moments of the preceding seven tracks, "Ascending Forth" is absolutely the pinnacle of the album, in a way that simultaneously subverts all expectations while fully meeting the precedent set by the rest of the album. I had high expectations for the record given that it is the highest rated album on RYM from this year, and I am very happy to say that it managed to exceed those expectations. Easy 5/5 stars, this is a truly stellar release.