James Taylor
Before This World
SOME singers are blessed with such sweet, distinctive voices that, no matter what they sing, you could listen to them eternally. James Taylor is fortunate to be such a one.
Before This World is the first album since 2002 for the singer-songwriter best known for 1970's soulful Fire And Rain – and it's a beautiful nostalgia-fest, recalling, but not quite equalling his best. From the catchy opener, Today Today Today, we're back in mellow Sweet Baby James territory. His voice has barely aged at all.
Snowtime shows him to still be the skilled storyteller (he holed up in a log cabin to write the record), while Watchin' Over Me is typically pensive, about his recovery from heroin addiction. He gets political with Far Afghanistan, while the melodic Montana is reminiscent of the late, great folk singer, John Denver. There's nothing that moves the listener as much as Fire And Rain here, but Taylor's back with some modern classics, proving he will endure.
THREE STARS
Kate Whiting
Everything Everything
Get to Heaven
MANCHESTER-based art-rockers Everything Everything – Jonathan Higgs, Jeremy Pritchard, Michael Spearman and Alex Robertshaw – return with their third, and probably most accessible, album to date.
Higgs's falsetto has never sounded so good as on the group's third full-length record, with To The Blade an agitated and engaging opener, lead single Distant Past reminiscent of a classic 1990s dance track when it kicks in, and poppy new single Regret sure to go down well at T In The Park, Leeds and Reading festivals this summer. The lyrics are sharp and witty in places, with the line, "It's all right to feel like a fat child in a pushchair, old enough to run" forming the crux of the excellent No Reptiles.
FOUR STARS
Andrew Carless
Sonny Landreth
Bound By The Blues
LEGENDARY Louisiana slide guitarist Sonny Landreth is back doing what he does best, furthering his already stellar reputation with another set of outstanding songs. A fine singer, Landreth is once again in excellent voice, with his outstanding guitar work making for another deeply satisfying listen.
Now 64, his lifelong love of the blues exudes from every one of the 10 tracks, with opener Walkin' Blues, a cover of the Robert Johnson classic, as good as anything he has recorded in recent years.
But there isn't a disappointing track on this beautifully crafted record, with It Hurts Me Too and Key To The Highway other must-listens. Fans of blues music will love this album, but Landreth's appeal goes way beyond the confines of that genre.
FOUR STARS
Kim Mayo
Mika
No Place In Heaven
MICHAEL Penniman, better known as Mika, is a bit of a weird pop hangover from the noughties, enjoyably inescapable for a few years with Relax and Grace Kelly, then like he never happened.
After a few false starts and bad albums, he's back again with his fourth album No Place In Heaven. The record may lack that chart-topping tune and he does still sound like he's a few pay cheques away from writing a shiny musical, but it's a good sound and his music's as confident as ever.
Rio is fun, as is Oh Girl You're The Devil, like being sandblasted with glitter. There's some attempt at identity politics ("Where have all the good gays gone"), ("I was a freak since seven years old, When cast away I felt the cold"), but this is a pop album, not a statement.
THREE STARS
Tobias Chapple
Plaza Francia
A New Tango Song Book
THE latest album from collaboration group Plaza Francia may be a pleasant surprise for non-French speakers and non-tango listeners. French singer Catherine Ringer performs translated vocals to the tune of Latin tango tracks created by the Gotan Project – Eduardo Makaroff (Argentina) and Christoph H Muller (Switzerland), who compose, perform, and produce their own work.
This is a testament to just how sharp their own skills are. La Mano Encima is a modern take on the classic tango sound with cool piano, sharp, jaunty violin, and well-toned synths, leading into the thick of the album; the less specifically modern and more traditional tango.
The combination of strings, accordion, acoustic guitar and double bass is so elegant and well-defined, and the intricacy is exquisite. This record is like DeVotchKa, who play a wide range of less typical instruments, mixed in with standard guitars and drums to create a modern blend of gypsy/folk stylings. In a similar way, Plaza Francia gives new life and dimension to past songs.
FOUR STARS
Liam Sheasby
Dylan, Cash and the Nashville Cats
A New Music City
THE home of country music, Nashville is now as much a mecca to the rock community, with artists such as Jack White, Kings Of Leon and The Black Keys relocating there. This album, a soundtrack of sorts to an exhibition at Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame, examines the period in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the cross-pollination of the genres led by Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash (especially on his TV show, which paired up rock and country stars to play live) and a group of session musicians nicknamed the Nashville Cats, was more ground-breaking.
It's unfortunate that this double CD is rather too inclusive. Because when the free-spirited innovation of rock artists combine with the traditionalism and narrative drive of country, the results are spectacular, such as Dylan's duet with Cash on Girl From The North Country and Gram Parsons' sojourn with The Byrds on Hickory Wind, both included here.
Such examples of the counter-culture's appropriation of country are few and far between, with most of the tracks giving evidence that the Cats were guns for hire to add a little Music City grit to some pretty standard pop tunes. There's a great album to be made about when rock went country, but this isn't quite it.
THREE STARS
Mark Edwards
