Efrim Manuel Menuck is a luminary for many. As co-founder of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion, he has made music with which many people feel an almost fanatical connection.
I have never had that connection with either band. But ‘Our Lady of Parc Extension and Her Munificent Sorrows’, from Menuck’s forthcoming solo album High Gospel, is utterly, grippingly, compulsive-repeat-listen beautiful.
It is at heart a simple folk song. At once celebratory and melancholic (‘All we’ve got is the dust and each other’), it is as effortlessly majestic as one imagines the Canadian landscape in which Menuck now lives to be. But alongside (or, rather, above) the simple, practically one-chord structure sits layer upon layer of analogue noise, signal bending, and distorted guitar swoops. It is these, combined with Menuck’s strange, strained vocals that make ‘Our Lady’ so exciting.
High Gospel is out on Constellation on 24 May.
- AJ Tracey links up with Pozer on new track, "Heaterz"
- ROSÉ shares new single, "Number One Girl"
- Kevin Morby and Waxahatchee feature on Patterson Hood's first solo album in 12 years, Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams
- Sacred Paws return with first release in five years, "Another Day"
- Nao announces her fourth concept album, Jupiter
- Rahim Redcar covers SOPHIE's "It's OK To Cry"
- Banks announces her fifth studio album, Off With Her Head
Get the Best Fit take on the week in music direct to your inbox every Friday
Kendrick Lamar
GNX
Father John Misty
Mahashmashana
Kim Deal
Nobody Loves You More
