The timing is just unbelievable. In March, the almighty Chicago energy trio Shellac introducedTo All Trains, their sixth studio album and their first in a decade. Shellac have all the time been an unbelievably tight unit, and so they’ve by no means had any member adjustments. You all the time obtained the sense that the three musicians have been actually speaking to one another, and bassist Bob Weston and drummer Todd Coach have been equal individuals within the noise that they made. However most of us nonetheless considered Shellac as Steve Albini’s band and a key a part of Albini’s legend. 9 days in the past, Steve Albini died on the way-too-young age of 61, and there’s been an enormous outpouring of affection and gratitude since that information got here out. Now, as scheduled, Shellac’s To All Trains is out on the planet.
Shellac began recording To All Trains in 2017, and so they performed many of those songs stay for years. Nonetheless, there have been no advance singles from To All Trains, and I don’t know any critics who obtained an advance copy. The album is out on Contact And Go, the storied Midwestern indie that began placing out Steve Albini’s data within the mid-’80s, when he was in Massive Black. Contact And Go stopped being an energetic label in 2009; so far as I can inform, To All Trains is the primary new Contact And Go album since Shellac’s final report, 2014’s Dude Unimaginable. So this factor is basically new to anybody who wasn’t in Shellac.
This isn’t a Blackstar state of affairs. So far as anybody is aware of, Steve Albini’s dying was sudden, and he couldn’t have identified that To All Trains would stand as some type of ultimate assertion. The album is brief and muscular, 10 songs in 28 minutes, and it really works as a sterling instance of this band’s type of apocalyptic rock minimalism. All three musicians are actually locked-in with each other, and the report sounds incredible, particularly when turned up loud. The legendary Albini drum sound is in full impact. I’m solely on my second pay attention now, and I haven’t actually parsed the lyrics but, however Albini’s acerbic wit continues to be apparent: “I’m via with music from dudes!”
If To All Trains was only one final nice rock report from an amazing rock band, that might be sufficient. However the final music on the album occurs to be the one known as “I Don’t Concern Hell.” One lyric: “One thing one thing, and when that is over, I’ll leap in my grave just like the arms of a lover.” (That’s not me being unable to discern a lyric. He actually says, “One thing one thing.”) One other lyric: “I don’t concern hell. Their baseball staff is undefeated.” Another lyric: “If there’s a heaven, I hope they’re having enjoyable. ‘Trigger if there’s a hell, I’m gonna know everybody.” Come on, man. That’s humorous and heavy, and if I go away a ultimate assertion like that one earlier than I am going, I’ll really feel fairly fucking good about it.
One humorous factor about To All Trains is which you can now stream it on Spotify. In reality, Spotify now has the catalogs of Albini’s bands Massive Black and Shellac, which was not the case when he was alive. As Brooklyn Vegan factors out, Albini eliminated his music from Spotify in 2022, nevertheless it’s again now. Albini hated Spotify, and he wasn’t shy about it. However in a current Wire oral historical past, Albini and his bandmates say that their plan was all the time to return the music to streaming companies when To All Trains got here out.
Stream To All Trains beneath.
To All Trains is out now on Contact And Go Information. Learn our We’ve Bought A File On You interview with Steve Albini right here.
