Latest CD releases reviewed
Gil Scot-Heron
XL
****
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that are Gil Scott-Heron’s lot have been well documented, with the result that the drug charges and prison spells have overshadowed an illustrious musical past.
We should be grateful, then, that XL label boss Richard Russell looked beyond Scott-Heron’s lengthy police record and reckoned the sixtysomething veteran, last seen in album mode with
Spirits
in 1994, still had some musical gold to offer. With Russell serving up a primal, sparse, eerie, raw backdrop, the way is clear for Scott-Heron’s raw vocals and spoken word soul-baring to colour some powerful voodoo blues.
I’m New Here
may be sketchy (28 minutes in length) and relies more on covers than new Scott-Heronpenned material, but it’s still a stentorian and bracing blast of reality.
www.gilscottheron. net
Download tracks:
New York Is Killing Me, Me and the Devil, I’m New Here
JIM CARROLL
Universal ****
If you'd previously chalked Fionn Regan down as a purveyor of maudlin folk ditties, prepare for a shock. The Bray man's second album sees him enter his "electric" phase. Yet there won't be too many outraged protests at this new and improved direction. And the Dylan analogies don't end there. The upbeat, ramshackle tambourine thud of the excellent
Protection Racket , the gnarled, nasal quality of the voice, and the occasionally astute turn of phrase all strongly hint at Regan's immersion in the folk-rock god's back catalogue.
There are other influences at play, as well: aspects of early Ryan Adams (the brisk
Genocide Matinee surely doffs its cap to
Shakedown on 9th Street ), Simon Garfunkel and even Johnny Cash surface. An unexpectedly strong effort that gets better with every spin.
www.fionnregan.com
Download tracks:
Protection Racket, House Detective
LAUREN MURPHY
KE$HA
Animal
RCA
**
You have to admire Kesha Sebert's persistence: she wanted to be famous, and nothing but nothing was going to get in her way. After previous dalliances with country and rock,
Animal sees Sebert borrowing heavily from the Lady Gaga playbook, adding a ton of trashy attitude to the mix and hoping for the best. It's a wild, raucous ride, as Sebert attempts to party harder, faster, louder and wilder than anyone else.
Lyrically, there may be a sense that she is out to shock, but there's little in her off-the-shoulder wisecracking, screwball hard-chawing and acid retorts that we haven't heard and dismissed before. Musically, a gallery of producers (including Dr Luke, Max Martin and Shellback) dig out the broadest and brashest electro brushstrokes in their arsenal to create an album that is big, dumb and sometimes fun ( Backstabber is a hoot). But don't expect anything more than that. www.keshasparty.com
Download tracks:
Backstabber, Party at a Rich Dude's House
JIM CARROLL
Soldier of Love
Sony
***
Yes, it's true: the last 20 years haven't happened. We are stuck in an era where Spandau Ballet are still flaunting their (chubbier) New Romantic wares, and now we have a new album from Helen Folasade Adu. Better known as Sade, the chanteuse from Clacton, Essex brought love and romance to the charts with the likes of
Your Love Is King and
Smooth Operator . It's nine years since the now 50-year- old Sade last bothered the world with a studio album (
Lovers Rock ), and it's likely that this most unprolific artist will wait another several years before her next outing. Which is a shame - although
Soldier of Love sticks very much to the decade of Dallas, it exudes the kind of effortless, whipped-cream pop-and jazz-inflected rhythms that, if they're still around at all, have been wilfully spiked by über- contemporary digital trickery.
www.sade.com
Download tracks:
The Moon and the Sky, Babyfather, In Another Time
TONY CLAYTON-LEA
Nerve Up
***
What's most striking about Julie Campbell's debut album is how she ever-so-smartly sidesteps the usual post-punk ponderings. Of course, like any admirer of that wired, spiky, tense sound, the Mancunian is in thrall to the usual suspects. But she balances the necessary seriousness - and therefore dilutes any drabness - with a beautifully understated, strangely fresh, pop nous. For all the many nods to ESG, Wire and The Fall, Campbell also knows her way around the early 1980s hip-pop dancecard, as both Intuition and Immaterial show. In fact, it's Campbell's sharp sensibility when it comes to those timeless rhythmic nips and tucks that really elevates this album to another level. When Nerve Up jangles, it does so with a magnificent panache that will draw you back again and again.
www.myspace.com/hiholonelady
Download tracks:
Intuition, Immaterial
JIM CARROLL
Ship of Light
Catskills Records
**
In the past few years a number of Finnish bands have drifted into the indie realm, although few have left an indelible impression. It’s unlikely that Husky Rescue, the music collective based around Helsinki native Marko Nyberg, will buck that trend. Upon hearing their fourth album, it makes sense that Husky Rescue was conceived effectively as a solo project influenced by art and cinema.
Much of Ship of Lightseems subconsciously repetitive and clinical in a way that music really shouldn't be. Wolf Trap Motelmisses an opportunity to be evocative due to Reeta-Leena Korhola's apparent inability to express emotion, and it's only the semi-quirky Sound of Love(which sounds like a tattered Mew B-side) that rescues this vessel from total wreckage. www.husky-rescue.com
Download tracks: Sound of Love
LAUREN MURPHY
