Hundred Waters | 3:30
Artists’ names are in the color of the stage they’re appearing on. See our previews of the bands playing on Saturday and Sunday.
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Neneh Cherry | 4:35
Brooklyn-based singer Sharon Van Etten has steadily grown in confidence and strength since her wonderfully modest 2009 debut, Because I Was in Love, and she drives that fact home on the recent Are We There (Jagjaguwar). As usual her songs dive headfirst into the painful side of love, depicting with grueling fidelity the way devotion and desire can blind the rational mind. Her lovely voice can cover a greater emotional and expressive range than ever, which seems to have tempted her into melodramatic excess on the stormy piano ballad “I Know” and the overstuffed anthem “Tarifa.” My favorite songs are more restrained: on “I Love You but I’m Lost” Van Etten’s hushed voice glides through a backing track that’s just piano and drums, and on the sleek ballad “Nothing Will Change” she uses subtle soul inflections to complement a slaloming clarinet. —Peter Margasak
Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks | 7:15
Beck Hansen has never made loneliness sound as gorgeous as he does on this year’s Morning Phase (Capitol). It’s been compared to his 2002 breakup album, Sea Change, but it’s more elegant and thoughtful. His lyrics suffuse desolation with vulnerability and hope, and his slower-than-leisurely tempos feel more contemplative than depressed. He stretches his deep, lugubrious voice to lend fragile beauty to melodies that could’ve been maudlin, aided by rhythms so restrained they sometimes that seem artificially slowed down—on “Unforgiven,” drummer James Gadson inserts a pregnant pause just as Hansen sings, “I will wait for you.” Lush string arrangements by Hansen’s father, David Campbell, add extra gravity to several tracks, including hovering, beatless post-Radiohead paranoia of “Wave” or the contrapuntal stabs on the relatively brisk “Blackbird Chain.” Judging by reviews of earlier shows on this tour, Hansen cordons off Morning Phase songs from his extroverted party material—if he plays more than one or two of them here, it’ll probably be in a block. —Peter Margasak
Deafheaven (see Sunday), Perfect Pussy (see Sunday) 10:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, $12, $10 in advance, 17+
