ALBUM OF THE WEEK
MARTHA WAINWRIGHT – GOODNIGHT CITY
THE cover of Martha Wainwright's Goodnight City has the 40-year-old singer-songwriter looking sleekly glamorous, but with two faces, one looking left, the other right.
It's as if this most mutable of singers cannot be captured in one position in the speed of a camera shutter click.
The chameleonic nature of Wainwright's voice flies from the Kate Bush-like dramatic swoops of lead single Around The Bend, through to the Patty Smith snarl of So Down and even the tortured torch singing of Beth Gibbons on the baleful Portishead electronica of Take The Reins.
With Wainwright, such a searching for style, rather than highlighting a lack of her own voice, seems to suggest an exploration of her own vocal range. On Window she seems determined to crack all the glass in a two-mile radius such are the throes of her emotion.
This is an adventurous album for all its lounge music and American Songbook moments, with a fragility and openness in its lyrics.
Wainwright has a reputation for caustic revelations of her personal life and the pressures of being brought up among musical royalty – folk singing parents Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright and singer and sometime opera writer brother Rufus – but here she can often be found trying to inhabit the character of others, such as Edith Piaf in the darkly humorous couplets of Around The Bend.
The album was produced by Wainwright's husband Brad Albetta and Thomas 'Doveman' Bartlett, known for his work with Sufjan Stevens, and Wainwright, always a collaborative artist, has brought in the songwriting talents of Beth Orton, Merrill Garbus from tUnE-yArDs, novelist Michael Ondaatje and brother Rufus.
Whether singing her songs or others though, Wainwright confides such intimacy and emotion she is a singular talent, and that will never change.
Rating: four stars
(Mark Edwards)
BRUNO MARS – 24K MAGIC
IT'S all Uptown Funk for Bruno Mars as he boldly swaggers back into the charts with his third studio album, 24K Magic.
The 31-year-old Hawaiian singer-songwriter ups the ante – and the tempo – with nine playfully groovy tracks harking back to the 80s and early 90s, including Chunky, Perm and the title tune.
Drawing inspiration from R&B acts of that era he grew up with, particularly Babyface (who he worked with on Too Good To Say Goodbye), Boyz II Men, New Edition and Jodeci, Mars shows his romantic side, as he croons about seducing dates on Versace On The Floor, Straight Up & Down and Calling All My Lovelies.
Too Good To Say Goodbye is a slow jam that will satisfy fans of his ballads, such as When I Was Your Man, Just The Way You Are and Rest Of My Life.
It may have been a four-year wait since 2012's Unorthodox Jukebox, but Mars, fast establishing himself as the prince of funk, proves he still has the Midas touch.
Rating: Four stars
(Shereen Low)
BALTIC FLEET - THE DEAR ONE
IF STRANGER Things and John Carpenter's recent gigs have re-kindled or sparked your interest in retro electronic music, Baltic Fleet should be your next port of call.
The brainchild of Warrington musician Paul Fleming, Baltic Fleet's third album builds sweeping soundscapes of synth and beats that take you back to the experimental days of the 1970s and 1980s – but this isn't just nostalgic noodling.
Influenced by Eno, Kraftwerk, Neu! and The Radiophonic Workshop, the songs are atmospheric, instrumental anthems built around some muscular tunes.
Sheriff Full Of Blessings wouldn't sound out of place alongside Gold Panda's ambient offerings, while tracks like Tuns and Royving pound with a more industrial urgency.
Elsewhere, 90s dance grooves infiltrate and bring a euphoric element to epic songs like Swallow Falls.
Electropop at its very finest.
Rating: four stars
(Darryl Webber)
LITTLE MIX – GLORY DAYS
DESPITE claims that Little Mix's smash single, Shout Out To My Ex, has some similarities to GRL's Ugly Heart, it's still arguably the sassiest pop tune of the year, and I defy you not to watch the video on repeat.
It's all candy floss colours, lippy-lyrics and brilliant cheek from a girl band that might have started out by winning The X Factor, but have since become something far more powerful and talented than that would suggest.
Glory Days is chocker with R&B spliced pop, although on Oops they dabble in funk, on FU it's 60s soul and You Gotta Not is laced with carnival beats.
They're not afraid to experiment, pitching from ballads to rap. It's fun, fierce, silly at times – Power is particularly all over the place, but addictive nonetheless – and at others it's tackling tough topics, from who has control in relationships to cheating.
Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson, Jade Thirlwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock's voices aren't always massively distinct, but put Glory Days on before a night out and you're guaranteed the absolute best time.
Rating: three stars
(Ella Walker)
BEANS ON TOAST – A SPANNER IN THE WORKS
IF YOU thought the protest song was a dying art, Beans On Toast, aka Jay McAllister, is here to prove otherwise.
The singer-songwriter's eighth album consists of 13 heartfelt songs about the state of the world. Album opener 2016 takes in the deaths of Bowie, Prince, Muhammad Ali as well as Brexit, terrorism and the rise of Trump.
After that, he veers away from his familiar guitar strumming into a beats and beeps approach. Amid the synths and samples, Jay holds forth on the environment, politicians, family and the fallout of socio-economic upheaval.
The Drum Kit combines a Madness-style skank with a serious lament about the closure of music venues, while Money For War is a gospel sing-along about the skewed priorities of politicians.
It's not always subtle, but Beans On Toast makes his point with humour and humility.
Rating: three stars
(Darryl Webber)
JUSTICE – WOMAN
HIRSUTE, leather-jacketed duo Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay, otherwise known as French electro group Justice, are back with their third record, Woman.
Alakazam! sputters like an arcade game that refuses to cooperate, but that you're desperate to master, Safe And Sound swoops and arcs melodically, jangling with a disco beat while Heavy Metal is anything but, in fact, it's got a strangely skewed Addams Family vibe going on.
Justice require time, reflection and a quirky ear, but put the effort in and it's hard not feel as though Woman would be best enjoyed while grooving nonchalantly on a light-up dancefloor, a glitter ball sparkling above.
Rating: three stars
(Ella Walker)
