Entertainment

Album Reviews: Who needs Peter Hook anyway?

New Order minus Peter Hook have made a surprisingly good album, their first of new material in 10 years
New Order minus Peter Hook have made a surprisingly good album, their first of new material in 10 years New Order minus Peter Hook have made a surprisingly good album, their first of new material in 10 years

John Grant

Grey Tickles, Black Pressure

FORMER lead vocalist with The Czars and now critically acclaimed solo artist, John Grant follows up 2013's Pale Green Ghosts with a collection that shows someone more settled but still with plenty of bite.

The Scissor Sisters-style dirty funk of Snug Slacks is on heat while the electropunk of You & Him is so full of rage and dark humour, it's exhilarating. Then there are the Denver singer's trademark tracks with strings, like the epic No More Tangles.

The lyrics come deep from within Grant's soul, all delivered in that warm baritone; sometimes the honesty is too intense. This is an album to immerse yourself in its many layers, and may be his most successful yet.

FOUR STARS

Lisa Allen

Rudimental

We The Generation

RUDIMENTAL just spew beams of summer. With every thump of bass you can feel the dust of scorched festival earth in your lungs and warm cider in your veins.

Well, you could on the Hackney-based drum and bass group's first record, 2012's Home, and the first single on We The Generation, I Will Love You. The rest of this effort, however, is even funkier and sultrier.

Ever the collaborators, they've got Ella Eyre back on board for the rolling, defiant Too Cool (she sang on their No 1 single, Waiting All Night), and Dizzee Rascal on Love Ain't Just A Word, while jazz singer Will Heard has stamped himself all over it. With Go Far they've played too safe, but Foreign World feat. Anne-Marie has a bit of otherworldly bite. Not as rammed with hits as their last offering, but solid work.

THREE STARS

Ella Walker

New Order

Music Complete

EXPECTATIONS probably weren't too high for New Order's new album Music Complete. With bass legend Peter Hook gone, an average collection was perhaps all that could be expected.

However, New Order have surprised many with their first new material in 10 years. Gillian Gilbert has made her long-awaited return on keyboards, and it seems it's her input that has revitalised the group.

The first half of the album in particular is storming, with Plastic and Tutti Frutti harking back to those heady Hacienda days of the 1980s and 90s in magnificent manner. Who's Hooky again?

FOUR STARS

Rob Barker)

Editors

In Dream

THE Editors lads have never shied away from proudly displaying their obvious love for post-punk, and on In Dream, they've gone full 80s and all but ditched the guitars, making this the most "synthy" sounding thing in the band's canon.

But, as Patrick Bateman would say, it's a little too new wave for my taste. The Stafford band, led by Tom Smith, can't be faulted for experimenting and plunging into waters they've only paddled in at this point and offering mood-filled, electropop pieces such as At All Cost and Salvation that are fine, but fans may crave for that Munich-like guitar epic that never came.

Smith's beautiful baritone is still fantastic, though, and keeps In Dream ticking along, even on less inspired tunes like Our Love.

THREE STARS

Steven Cookson

Kurt Vile

B'lieve I'm Goin Down

IN OPENING track Pretty Pimpin stoner troubadour Kurt Vile is having an identity crisis – not recognising his face in the mirror and feeling like he is "brushing some stranger's teeth".

The song and the whole meandering and transportative nature of his new album are recognisably the work of the same man who released 2013's wonderful Wakin On A Pretty Daze. There's his singular conversational delivery, so intimate it sounds like he's talking just to you, and those swarming curlicues of guitar.

Vile has expanded his palette. There's the banjo funk of I'm An Outlaw, the Laurel Canyon blue-eyed soul of Lost My Head There and the Beachhouse-like dream pop wash of instrumental Bad Omens. Grandest of all is That's Life Tho (Almost Hate To Say) which creates a landscape of sound as expansive as the highways of America's Midwest.

FOUR STARS

Mark Edwards

Avicii

Stories

INSTANTLY lovable beats and memorable choruses are what have made Tim Bergling, aka Avicii, a household name – quite a feat for a DJ.

Previous tracks such as Wake Me Up and Levels were huge hits which filled the ears of millions around the world, so expectations are high for the Swedish producer. From his second album Stories, sing-a-long dancefloor fillers Waiting For Love and Trouble bring what fans are used to while Talk To Myself seems to turn the clock back to a pre-Noughties dance sound.

Ten More Days and For A Better Day are not typical Avicii tracks but they bring a sophistication that works. The brilliantly named Sunset Jesus will bring a sunny glow to autumn, fuelling dreams of driving along a sandy beach in a sporty convertible. There are one or two weak tracks, so it's not a flawless dance smash – but it's pretty damn good.

THREE STARS

Catherine Wylie