Album reviews: February 2014

This month's album releases reviewed by the Evening Standard's music critics
Evening Standard Critics21 February 2014

Released on Mon Feb 24

POP

ST VINCENT

St Vincent

(Loma Vista/Caroline International)

★★★★★

Although Annie Clark’s maverick genius has rarely been in doubt, previous albums under her St Vincent moniker could at times be arduous listening. Clark’s dazzling fourth solo record feels like a breakthrough: the twisted pop, slow-burning ballads and shuddering electronic grooves draw you into her surreal netherworld. On the pensive Prince Johnny, she’s singing about snorting remnants of the Berlin Wall, while the squawking synth-pop of Rattlesnake documents her encounter with a serpent during a naked stroll in her home state of Texas. The hilarious, brass-laden Digital Witness has Clark ready to “jump right off the London Bridge” for the delectation of social media followers. Her sardonic lyrics make a serious point; for St Vincent, it’s about the songs not the selfies.

Andre Paine

NENEH CHERRY

Blank Project

(Smalltown Supersound)

★★★★☆

Despite a smattering of cameos and some stuttering band projects, Neneh Cherry has been missing in inaction since 1996’s underwhelming Man. She may now be a grandmother, but on what is only her fourth solo album, she hasn’t sounded so fresh and so inspired since Buffalo Stance. Rather than attempting to re-create past glories, the key to her rejuvenation lies in the marriage between Cherry’s unchanged voice of authority and a clattering, sparse Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet) production with gives a veneer of urgency to the inspired, electro-propelled Weightless and the glorious lengthy closer Everything. Along the way there’s Out Of The Black, a near-pop duet with fellow Swede Robyn; thumping percussion on Spit Three Times and the overall sense that Blank Project is less a comeback, more a wholesale, wholly successful re-invention.

John Aizlewood

BECK

Morning Phase

(EMI/Virgin)

★★★★☆

It’s been a while since Beck released an album of new material, but his 12th effort shows that the time has been well spent. The singer/songwriter has come a long way since his early forays into slacker funk and Morning Phase is the work of a mature artist who is comfortable in his skin and the gifts within. Without meaning to sound in any way prejudicial, this is a supremely laid-back record, never seeking to startle with unexpected innovation, simply a collection of mostly gentle tunes, occasionally embellished with string arrangements (courtesy of Beck’s dad), confidently-strummed acoustic guitar, keyboards, and concise percussion. Also Beck’s voice – often multi-tracked – has become a delicate instrument in its own right. Morning, Heart Is a Drum, Blue Moon and Say Goodbye are acoustic ballads, free of angst and content to luxuriate in the joys of a contented life. Unforgiven has atmospheric synthesisers, Country Down is a smart take on C&W with a smidgeon of mouth organ, while Blackbird Chain boasts the judicious use of electric guitar and subtle hints of the fairground. Best of all is the closing Waking Light which build into a quietly thrilling, orchestrated finale. One for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Pete Clark

WILD BEASTS

Present Tense

(Domino)

★★★★☆

Kendal’s Wild Beasts have become much more popular since their debut album in 2008, with a Brixton Academy show booked for April 1, but with album number four they’re still not moving towards the mainstream. Rather it’s necessary for us to enter their louche, daring sound world, a move that can’t be recommended enough. There’s an increase in electronic textures this time, with Palace floating along on the softest cushion of synths, while A Simple Beautiful Truth has some of the casual slinkiness of R&B. Hayden Thorpe’s mellifluous tones still sound unique, though co-vocalist Tom Fleming’s portentous voice is equally prominent this time, providing a stronger contrast with the plush sounds beneath. Increasingly, there’s no other band like them – a fine achievement.

David Smyth

JAZZ

JACQUES SCHWARZ-BART

Jazz Racine Haiti

(Motéma Records)

★★★★★

“Music at its best is a dialogue with silence, and the melodies from Voodoo rituals are in my opinion the most powerful embodiment of this ritual.” So writes Jacques Schwarz-Bart, who proves his point by distilling the steely lyricism of John Coltrane into exotic tribal music with stunning success here. An outstanding tenor-saxophonist/composer of French and Guadeloupe ancestry, he taps New York talents (drummer Obed Calvaire, bassists Ben Williams and Reggie Washington) with fine newcomers including trumpeter Etienne Charles and pianist Gregory Privat. But his trump cards are vocalists/chanters Erol Josué, Rozna Zila and Stephanie McKay and hand-drummers Bonga Jean-Baptiste and Claude Saturne. The results are as addictive as his previous album, Soné Ka-La, now hard to find. Grab this long-overdue sequel.

Jack Massarik

WORLD

THE IDAN RAICHEL PROJECT

Quarter to Six

(Cumbancha)

★★☆☆☆

Singer, keyboard player and composer Idan Raichel is a huge star in Israel. He certainly has a melodic gift, but I find the music and string arrangements bland. It’s his guest artists that are interesting. His last album, with Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré, was excellent, and Touré features again here as vocalist and guitarist on Mon Amour. But it’s Sabe Deus, with Portuguese fado singer Ana Moura, that really stands out - her breathy, husky voice making it irresistible. The Arabic-language song, I Am What I Am, by Palestinian singer Mira Awad is also strong, but feels like it’s ticking boxes. Most unexpected is countertenor Andreas Scholl’s In Stiller Nacht, which hardly helps the album hang together. Idan Raichel plays Koko on March 2.

Simon Broughton


Released on Mon Feb 17

POP

NINA NESBITT

Peroxide

(Island)

★★★★☆

Apparently she was discovered by Ed Sheeran and is already an iTunes star, and half-Scottish, half-Swedish teenager Nina Nesbitt’s ascension seems assured. With a string of download hits behind her, she’s very much the modern pop star, hence the rattling Selfies. But, less cynically, she’s also toured like a Fifties act and her debut album merges both sides of her. Essentially, it’s perky, whipsmart pop, bursting with irresistible tunes. She channels K.T. Tunstall on Mr C and 18 Candles; successfully goes for depth in Hold You, a duet with hotly tipped Dubliners Kodaline, while We’ll Be Back For More is as catchy as winter flu. The title track (“you’re with a new girl… she’s only 16”) is a wry cautionary tale and it’s not the only moment where Nesbitt is knowing and gifted beyond her years. She deserves all she’ll get.

John Aizlewood

DAWN LANDES

Bluebird

(Western Vinyl)

★★★★☆

Dawn Landes has called this fifth album a break-up record, following her divorce from her fellow American singer-songwriter Josh Ritter. Their loss is our gain. While past releases have been more eclectic (including a 2012 EP of French chansons) this is a coherent collection of real beauty. It’s downbeat and low-key, switching between acoustic guitar and piano, with Norah Jones on occasional backing vocals. Even when the guitar goes electric on Heel Toe it sits back in the mix, leaving plenty of space for Landes’s sleepy voice. Songs such as Oh Brother and the standout Try to Make a Fire Burn Again, recall Gillian Welch’s melancholy country-folk. This is deceptively simple music that packs a real emotional punch.

David Smyth

THE JEZABELS

The Brink

(Play it Again Sam)

★★★☆☆

Just as Blondie were derided by snooty New York punks in the Seventies, so The Jezabels seem destined to attract the ire of modern musical purists. While the Aussie four-piece describe themselves with the ghastly portmanteau “intensindie”, there’s a soft rock sheen to their second album that’s obviously neither intense nor indie. You also have to contend with the scattershot lyrics and crazed falsetto of singer Hayley Mary (mercifully, not her real name). Like Debbie Harry’s band, The Jezabels can do insistent choruses adorned with new wave synths and sparkling guitars. The record also benefits from ingenious magpie moments that sound a little like Coldplay (Got Velvet), Goldfrapp (Psychotherapy) and Haim (Beat to Beat). Ultimately, though, The Brink is really only a guilty pleasure.

Andre Paine

ANGEL OLSEN

Burn Your Fire For No Witness

(Jagjaguwar)

★★★★☆

As the somewhat lugubrious title of this record implies, Angel Olsen is a somewhat serious chick and she has a rather fine voice that hovers between the ethereal and the belting. On her second LP, Olsen reveals herself to be a performer of two distinct parts: the first is encapsulated in the charmingly titled opener, Unfucktheworld, an acoustic lament for the way things are and how they could be better; the second track, Forgiven/Forgotten reveals another side to her musical personality, a punkish (US-style) reverb stomp. These contrasts continue throughout the album. Hi-Five is an amusing take on the lachrymose tendencies of C&W, High & Wild recalls the spirit of the Velvet Underground, while White Fire is a mournful and affecting solo acoustic outing. Olsen, perhaps, needs to decide whether to pursue the latter avenue, or continue to combine with her small band – Josh Jaeger (drums) and Stewart Bronaugh (bass and guitar). The closing Windows, which starts in a folk vein and develops electric tendencies, suggests the band is the better option.

Pete Clark

JAZZ

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Duo Art: Creating Magic

(ACT Records)

★★★★☆

Anticipating St Valentine’s Day and acting upon the Marvin Gaye dictum that it only takes two to make dreams come true, ACT are proffering this double-disc helping of romantic duets. Highlights - and there are many - include the last recording by US tenorman Eddie Harris, singing and playing a soulful ballad with pianist Gil Goldstein; the fine guitar-tenor sax pairing of Wayne Kranz and Bob Malach, and the all-Scandinavian meeting of trombonist Nils Landgren and late lamented pianist-composer Esbjorn Svensson. Fellow international keyboard stars Iiro Rantala, Danilo Rea, Gwilym Simcock, Emil Viklicky and Michael Wollny are also represented and fans of vocalists Viktoria Tolstoy and Sidsel Endresen, guitarists Philip Catherine and Ulf Wakenius, and Norwegian sax sensation Marius Neset will not be disappointed either.

Jack Massarik

WORLD

SALSA CELTICA

The Tall Islands

(Discos Leon)

★★★★☆

They do what it says on the tin – extremely well. Salsa Celtica play a compelling fusion of Afro-Cuban music with Scottish and Irish folk. The Scottish-based collective formed in the mid-1990s and now features musicians from Scotland, Cuba, Ireland, Argentina and England, this is their fifth studio album. The opening Descarga Gaélica is probably the first ever salsa track in Gaelic, firing on tumbao beats with a blazing Cuban trumpet. It’s highly danceable, with a couple of slower-paced guajira songs. Alongside pattering Cuban percussion, the instrumental line-up includes a Latin horn section, fiddle, flutes and uilleann pipes. The idioms blend so well now that it sounds totally natural. Salsa Celtica have already wowed them in Havana and Cartagena. They are formidable live and play at Rich Mix March 13.

Simon Broughton


Released on Mon Feb 10

POP

KATY B

Little Red

(Columbia)

★★★★★

For a singer once known by the fluffy moniker Baby Katy, Peckham’s Kathleen Brien has delivered a surprisingly single-minded second album. An underperforming comeback single was expunged from the tracklisting, while the Brit School graduate ditched dubstep for a modish Nineties house sound. Never mind that bleepy throwback, Everything wouldn’t be out of place on a dusty copy of Now That’s What I Call Music! This record is an emotionally textured, dance-pop triumph: Next Thing, 5AM and I Like You already sound like club classics. A couple of luminous ballads reveal the redheaded singer’s knockout vocal, and there’s a winning duet with Jessie Ware on Aaliyah, a reboot of Dolly Parton’s green-eyed anthem Jolene.

Little Red should make Katy B a big star.

Andre Paine

NINA PERSSON

Animal Heart

(Lojinx)

★★★☆☆

Nina Persson’s first proper solo album comes 20 years after her debut as the singer of Swedish pop band The Cardigans. Today the early cutesiness of her voice has been edged out by something more weary and husky – there’s some of the gothic grandeur of Lana Del Rey’s work on the slow-motion ballad Burning Bridges for Fuel. However, there’s also something a bit cosy and Radio 2 about the production, and the almost constant slow pace could do with some zippier songs for balance. The steady Americana of The Grand Destruction Game stands out, as does the gentle twinkle of Forgot to Tell You. Otherwise it drifts along pleasantly enough without producing the killer song to make this a vital comeback.

David Smyth

NEIL FINN

Dizzy Heights

(Lester Records)

★★★★☆

I used to love Neil Finn. Nothing good had come from New Zealand before him except sheep, bits of Split Enz (which Finn was in, with his brother Tim) and a rugby team. Neil Finn was the driving force behind Crowded House, who delivered great, old-fashioned pop songs, one of which (as I suggested years ago) Paul McCartney might have been proud of (Four Seasons in One Day).

This third solo record requires a little time to make its presence felt. Finn is a master of melody but also a bit of a hippy — the opening track, Impressions, is a little dreamy for the modern world. There are also touches of mild psychedelia on the title track and White Lies and Alibis. Synthetic strings and brass abound on such tracks as Better Than TV and Divebomber.

You will like this record after three or more listens, but treat it gently.

Pete Clark

TEMPLES

Sun Structures

(Heavenly)

★★★☆☆

From Kettering, but also from the late-Sixties/early-Seventies, Temples are not so much in thrall to the era’s twangsome, vaguely psychedelic phase, as on a lunatic quest to turn back the hands of time. Each of these 12 echo-laden, reverb-heavy tracks harks to the age of The Byrds’ post-country phase and John Lennon’s #9 Dream. The foursome so loved by Noel Gallagher may lack originality but they’re not without style and conviction. Colours To Life ambles along woozily like the soundtrack to a lava lamp advertisement but Fragment’s Light crackles with manly energy, while The Golden Throne and Shelter Song suggest that songwriting craft is timeless whatever the setting.

Temples’ stubborn refusal to move with the decades may be quixotic but it’s also admirable — and Sun Structures is curiously addictive.

John Aizlewood

JAZZ

OSIAN ROBERTS/STEVE FISHWICK SEXTET

When Night Falls

(Hard Bop Records)

★★★★☆

Not to be confused with some crude branch of the martial arts, Hard Bop is a straight-ahead yet polished jazz style personified by the early groups of drummer Art Blakey and pianist Horace Silver. Britain’s leading exponents include Welsh tenorist Osian Roberts and the Fishwick twins, trumpeter Steve and drummer Matt, whose group tours the UK this month.

Featured with them on this high-quality album are Italian pianist Albert Sanz and New York baritone-saxman Frank Basile. Sanz’s expressive keyboard touch reflects Cedar Walton and other modern masters, while Basile’s angular lines recall the late Pepper Adams. Steve’s trumpet gives the ensembles brassy authority and Roberts’s warmth and fluency evokes a young Tubby Hayes.

Catch them at the Crypt in Camberwell tonight or Pinner Parish Church tomorrow.

Jack Massarik

WORLD

AZIZA BRAHIM

Soutak

(Glitterbeat Records)

★★★★☆

The international debut of a fine vocalist from Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. Aziza Brahim was brought up in the refugee camps in Algeria but is now based in Barcelona. Through her music, she is trying to re-awaken awareness in this seemingly forgotten conflict. Brahim has a sonorous voice with just a touch of desert grit, accompanied here by an acoustic band of guitars, electric bass, percussion and tabal, the Saharawi hand drum. The latter underpins Julud, a memorable song of resistance dedicated to her mother.

While La Palabra (The Word) sums up what she is trying to do: “Cradled by the wind it left/ it went around the world and returned/ and there beyond the word was heard.”

Hers is certainly a voice worth hearing.

Simon Broughton

Released on Mon Feb 3

POP

BROKEN BELLS

After the Disco

(Columbia)

★★★★☆

Brian Burton, who as Danger Mouse has worked with everyone from Norah Jones to Beck and U2, doesn’t tend to stick with a collaborator for long. However, this is his second album with James Mercer, frontman of The Shins, and it’s a relationship that deserves to last. Burton has also produced Gorillaz, and just as Damon Albarn brightened his sonic palette moving from Blur to that band, so this is a similar shift towards full colour from the restrained indie rock Mercer makes with his other group. There’s an easy groove to Control that sounds fantastic when the horns arrive, and the sci-fi funk of Holding on for Life finds the singer affecting a Bee Gees falsetto that suggests the disco is ongoing.

David Smyth

MAXÏMO PARK

Too Much Information

(Daylighting)

★★★★☆

Rather like the reinforced crotch that Maxïmo Park singer Paul Smith had installed to withstand his on-stage scissor kicks, there’s an impressive sturdiness to the songs on the Sunderland band’s fifth record. Setting out to record a few EP tracks, they ended up with an eclectic album that may be a career best. Headlong guitar anthems, including the opening Give, Get, Take, mingle with bookish indie jangle such as Lydia, the Ink Will Never Dry, a tribute to US author Lydia Davis that’s simultaneously in thrall to The Smiths. Moody synths underpin the paranoia of Brain Cells and there are shades of The National on Drinking Martinis. The majestic Leave This Island might even secure Maxïmo Park the hit that’s eluded them in recent years.

Andre Paine

BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB

So Long, See You Tomorrow

(Island)

★★★★☆

In 2009, a dull first album, a gimmicky name and some lacklustre live showings suggested Bombay Bicycle Club would not detain us for long. Half a decade later, the Crouch End foursome are seeking their fourth consecutive gold album and they’ve evolved beyond recognition. So Long, See You Later is an ambitious, sprawling song cycle, packed with invention, warmth and grandstanding melodies that suggest Noah & The Whale and Elbow as much as Brian Wilson. There’s an Asian tinge, not least to Feel, and It’s Alright Now’s swirling peaks and valleys form both the album and Bombay Bicycle Club’s peak, but Carry Me and the vocal pyrotechnics and twinkling piano of Whenever Wherever run it close. An unmitigated joy.

John Aizlewood

AUGUSTINES

Augustines

(Votiv/Caroline International)

★★★☆☆

This Brooklyn three–piece thrive on personal turmoil – check the details of their turbulent existence and you will find much darkness, involving suicide and excess. Singer and guitarist Billy McCarthy sounds like a man who has been through hard times and these he would like to share with you. He specialises in keening vocals, tending towards the gruff, with a multi-tracked backing choir and occasional strings and brass courtesy of fellow Augustine Eric Sanderson. Cruel City is an updated sea shanty, Weary Eyes has big keyboards and maybe should have been called Weary Ears. Don’t You Look Back features much guitar and Walkabout takes us back to the keyboards. The problem, or virtue, of Augustines is that they take life and music very seriously indeed – there is not a wink or raised eyebrow to be found. Life is tough. Take it or leave it. I think I’ll take a rain check.

Pete Clark

JAZZ

PAT METHENY UNITY GROUP

Kin (←→)

(Nonesuch)

★★★★☆

For guitarists every new Pat Metheny album is a major event, but the shock-haired American has outdone himself with this one. Self-styled “a lush and more orchestrated concept without sacrificing energy, focus and intensity,” it has an epic feel, with scored sections of up to 35 manuscript pages linking dazzling solos by the touring quartet he calls “the slam band”. Joining drummer Antonio Sanchez, bassist Ben Williams and multi-reedman Chris Potter is Giulio Carmassi, an ultra-versatile newcomer who sings, whistles and plays piano, trumpet, trombone, French horn, organ, vibes, cello, flute, clarinet and alto sax. Presumably he charges extra. Mercifully Metheny himself makes no change to his customary cool, high-pitched and slightly woolly sound. Fans should enter “Hammersmith Apollo, Wed June 11” in their diaries.

Jack Massarik

WORLD

TINARIWEN

Emmaar

(PIAS/Co Op)

★★☆☆☆

Tinariwen are the first and the greatest of the Touareg rockers from the Sahara who’ve become celebrated the world over for their ferocious electric guitar blues and long desert robes. Because of the political instability at home in northern Mali, this album was recorded in the Californian desert. It’s a pretty sombre affair, however. The pace is predominantly slow and the songs lack the drive and subversive energy of their previous records. It’s tempting to link this to the problems back home and the lyrics of the opener Toumast Tincha show a prevailing gloom: “The ideals of the people have been sold cheap, my friends / A peace imposed by force is bound to fail.” This is probably for Tinariwen completists only.

Simon Broughton

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