Richard Ashcroft: Alone With Everybody
If there's an underlying theme to the Verve vocalist's debut solo album, it's probably that being alone ain't so bad after all. Here's Ashcroft, without his former band, playing the music he hears in his head, baring his soul to the world, and revelling in his role as rock 'n' roll's last outcast. There he is in the studio, plumes of cigarette smoke wafting meaningfully around his head, or with his wife, Kate Radley, and new baby Sonny, striking a Lennon/Ono pose in the park. Alone With Everybody could be the next Verve album or a very early Stones album; the emphasis is on the "feel" rather than the songs, and though it may lose points on sing-alongability, it's certainly dripping with both atmosphere and attitude.
Kevin Courtney
National Prayer Breakfast: The Sociables Prefer Pop Music (Catchy Go Go Records)
National Prayer Breakfast have been grafting away on the underground for a few years now, playing the kind of quirky, alterno-rock that makes A&R execs and radio formatters run for cover versions. NPB are Daire, Paul and Patrick, and they claim to be influenced by The Pixies, Rocket From The Crypt, MC5 and The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. With a list like that, you can guess that Space Race 25, Sadder Day Blues and Like A Ball are filled with jerky beats, buzzsaw guitars and off-the-wall lyrics. There's an element of pisstake in tunes such as Kim Novak, Feeding Frenzy and Can't Go On, and sometimes the swinging and syncopation gets a bit too giddy, but this first serving from the Breakfast will certainly wake you up in the morning.
Kevin Courtney
Johnny Mathis: Mathis On Broadway (Columbia)
Tony Bennett can do it, Andy Williams can do it, but Johnny Mathis probably always was too much of a gay icon to be rediscovered by the "lounge" music brigade. That's a pity, because albums like this prove that Mathis is one of the few US male pop singers from the 1950s still singing classic pop. The singing, though mannered and lacking depth, is as beautiful as ever. He sounds like he's back on home turf, in every sense, sailing through sumptuous arrangements of more modern Broadway hits such as On Broadway, Bring Him Home and All I Ask of You. Mathis also closes the set with a nod to the gay community, the moving Seasons of Love, from Rent. For Mathis fans, this is another album to treasure.
Joe Jackson
Carly Simon: The Bedroom Tapes (Arista)
No Secrets is undoubtedly Carly Simon's most famous, revealing and focused album, a seminal work in the 1970s singer-songwriter genre. Now, nearly 30 years and many patchy records later, comes the companion piece to her original classic. Apparently written when Simon didn't even have a record deal and was recovering from a cancer scare. The Bedroom Tapes directly addresses this crisis in Scar, simple lust in Big Dumb Guy and the transient and hypocritical nature of celebrity friendships in We, You Dearest Friends. It's Carly Simon at her most magnificent and merciless. Marginally less successful are relatively superficial ditties such as The Actress. But, overall, The Bedroom Tapes just may be Simon's best album.
Joe Jackson
