ROCK
Bruce Springsteen
Magic (Sony/BMG)
The Boss is back with a killer new album and the E Street Band in tow. Devils and Dust in 2005 might have been a huge step up from his poor 9/11 opus, The Rising, and last year’s We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions might have seen Bruce Springsteen reinventing himself as a folk troubadour, but this is the year in which the Boss has returned, delivering his best album since 1984’s Born in the USA. This is a straightforward Springsteen rock record, on which his euphoric brand of songwriting creates the perfect template for the E Street Band to work their magic. You’ll be Comin’ Down, Girls in Their Summer Clothes and Your Own Worst Enemy are some of the best rock songs written this year. — Lloyd Gedye
Foto Na Dans
Intervensie (Rhythm Records)
The five-piece alternative band from the Cape suburbs showed great potential when they released an EP at the beginning of the year, so when they started work on their first full-length album fans held their breath to see if Foto Na Dans would fulfil its potential. The album Intervensie does not disappoint. It is filled with the kind of music you would expect from the band and their big influence Muse is ever present. Musically the album is a work of art and the band’s instruments create a symphony of rock. In the background explosive lead singer Leroi Nel bemoans young life in South Africa. The highlight of the album is Vergeet van My, a story about summer love gone wrong, while the acoustic version of Soldaatvolk is a new take on their hit song that is already a classic in Afrikaans rock circles. Another hit in their poetic exploration of Afrikaans is Oggendstilte. The debut album is an excellent start and if the band matures they will outgrow comparisons with Fokofpolisiekar or any other band for that matter. They might eventually escape comparison with Muse completely. — Yolandi Groenewald
Cherry Ghost
Thirst for Romance (EMI)
Cherry Ghost has that indefinably English sound, reminiscent of Athlete and the Doves. As with those gems, the dreary little island makes up for its gloominess by churning out another set of gruff, warm and self-assured artists. Lead singer Steven Aldred apparently started out solo, using Cherry Ghost as a pseudonym, but as recording progressed he slowly gathered musician mates to fill out the band. Whether it is mostly his stuff or a collaborative effort, this album is a sleeper hit. Aldred’s voice seems old beyond his reputed 32 years — it is stretched and husky and utterly compelling. The simply beautiful People Help the People demands attention, but then so do most of the songs in this collection. There might be the occasional nod to a subtle country influence, but the band stays firmly grounded in the north of England. And Aldred’s astonishing lyrics only add to the complexity of this wonderful debut — ‘a fiery throng of muted angels” indeed. — Lynley Donnelly
Lukraketaar
Lukraketaar (Rhythm Records)
Lukraketaar elevates Afrikaans acoustic rock to a new level with their unique take on smooth Afrikaans folk rock. In student town Stellenbosch, where they have reached cult status, many students refer to them as ‘Afrikaans’s own Simon and Garfunkel”. The strength of Lukraketaar is their almost intuitive interaction with each other and the rocking harmonic sound they produce. Other features of the band are their sense of rhythm and honest lyrics. The album is a relaxing alternative to the angry Afrikaans rock that South African campuses are buying into at the moment. But older listeners will find Lukraketaar accessible and this might be a CD that both parents and kids can listen to on the long drive down to the sea this Christmas. — Yolandi Groenewald
BLUES & ROOTS
Iron and Wine
The Shepherd’s Dog (MIA)
There is just no ignoring the sonic leap that Iron and Wine have taken on their new album. There were hints, yes: 2005’s Woman King EP and the In The Reins EP with Calexico offered Sam Beam’s songs with a full band behind them and they sounded great, invigorated. Now Beam has recruited a wide array of musicians to create The Shepherd’s Dog, including Calexico’s Joey Burns and Lambchop’s Paul Niehaus. In total there are 12 tracks of some of the finest folk rock recorded, with a little African rhythm thrown in for good measure. White Tooth Man has a loose blues swagger, while Lovesong of the Buzzard is a hauntingly beautiful country song. Beam’s psychedelic Americana places him among the likes of Mercury Rev, My Morning Jacket and The Kingsbury Manx as a true innovator. Just beautiful, his best yet! — Lloyd Gedye
The South Jersey Pom Poms
The South Jersey Pom Poms (Independent)
The South Jersey Pom Poms’ debut is not merely the affirmation of the most delightful band to emerge from Durban in the past year, but also the confirmation of a gorgeous new voice on the country music scene. Vocalist Eva Jackson has drawn comparisons with PJ Harvey and there are indicators that the breathless flutter she holds delicately on the edge of her vocals will gather raspiness with time — while it remains precocious and characterful in the now. Comprising Jackson, Jochen Zeller (guitar and vocals), Ben Murrell (bass guitar) and Grant Emmerich (drums), the band describe their music as ‘laid-back barstool ballads with a distinctly acoustic flavour”. That it is: the musicianship is tight, with a sensitivity to texture and mood. It is enhanced by a trumpet here and a violin there. It is a journey where elements of blues and acoustic folk-rock-pop hop into a cruise liner’s lounge, donning a sliver of a cabaret dress at times, discarding it for a more emotive belle époque number at others. This is a playful, sometimes poignant offering with several killer tracks, including Beautiful Star (a sure-fire radio single), Le Dernier Mot, Faith and Strumming. — Niren Tolsi
Xavier Rudd
White Moth (Alter Ego)
This multi-instrumentalist from Down Under might come off as a bit of didge-toting, barefoot hippy, but he knows his stuff. Rudd’s voice, with its echoes of Paul Simon, and music that is all his own belongs in the loveliest, most-chilled spot you can dream up, peopled with best friends with drinks in hand. His folksy, eco-friendly and versatile rock is all about
‘message” — save the whales, save the world — but it’s also just lekker sound. A campaigner for aboriginal rights in his native Oz, White Moth, Rudd’s third album, moves from a chorus of Aboriginal singing in Land Rights to heavier rock in Footprint. If you dig Jack Johnson, ‘world” music and like the occasional heavy electric riff, Rudd is a must buy. — Lynley Donnelly
Mavis Staples
We’ll Never Turn Back (Alter Ego)
This is a quiet record that a lot of people will have missed, but it’s just incredible. To hear this Sixties soul singer blasting out a repetoire of American civil rights movement songs, backed by Ry Cooder on guitar, Jim Keltner on drums and Ladysmith Black Mambazo on backing vocals, is a delight. This is no retro revisionist crap, this is a living, breathing soul record that grooves and shakes for its money’s worth. Staples has a message and she gets it across. The beautiful Eyes On the Prize, the anthemic We Shall Not Be Moved and the stunning title track We’ll Never Turn Back add up to one of the greatest comebacks of all time. — Lloyd Gedye
Antibalas
Security (Alter Ego)
New York’s Afrobeat funksters return with a smoking hot album that pokes some boney looking fingers at George Bush’s fear-loving America. The rhythms are just killer; orchestrated percussion, basslines that will make your bones bend and enough studio trickery to get the head-music crowd too. Afrobeat, rock, funk, reggae, dub, jazz and electronica effortlessly intertwine. Produced by Tortoise’s John McEntire, Security is laced with social commentary and political sloganeering; these are angry young musicians, but the beats are just irresistible, as are the horns. — Lloyd Gedye
Singer/Songwriter
Elvis Perkins
Ash Wednesday (Just Music)
The opening song to Ash Wednesday, Elvis Perkins’s sublime debut album, is possibly the best song released this year. Starting with a delicate acoustic guitar lick, it builds and builds, incorporating sparse percussion and double bass, until it crescendos with a killer horn section at about the five-minute mark. But this is no one-hit wonder; May Day, It’s Only Me and the title track Ash Wednesday add up to a beautiful debut that fans of Leonard Cohen and the Violent Femmes should relish. Perkins has released one of the most assured debuts of the year, which has catapulted him to the top of the singer-songwriter pile alongside contemporaries such as Conor Oberst, Rufus Wainwright and M Ward. — Lloyd Gedye
Various
A Tribute to Joni Mitchell (Gallo)
The worst track on this breathtaking reworking of Joni Mitchell’s classics has to be a sedate version of River by one-time Seventies toy boy James Taylor. It’s not that Taylor does anything wrong with this simple tune from Mitchell’s album Blue. He just brings it down to the level of dullsville cozy crooner Carol King. The album Blue was a turning point in Mitchell’s career, when she rose from being a kind of hippy-era Earth mother to a more edgy composer of ambition. The song’s lyrics speak of a person wanting to escape good society during the festive season but you wouldn’t think so given Taylor’s unambitious, unremarkable makeover. Björk, on the other hand, does something extraordinary with The Boho Dance, doing justice to Mitchell’s uncanny ability to draw a full picture of the immediate emotional problem she’s engaging with as she composes a song. The same goes for Cassandra Wilson (For the Roses), KD Lang (Help Me) and Sarah McLachlan (Blue). There are also magnificent, characteristically big productions done by Caetano Veloso, Elvis Costello and Prince. — Matthew Krouse
PJ Harvey
White Chalk (Universal)
White Chalk, PJ Harvey’s seventh studio album, is a monumental feat from an artist at the top of her game. 2004’s Uh Huh Her was a raw, stripped-down, gritty snarl of an album but White Chalk is a darker, moody, transcendent affair. After self-producing her last album, Harvey roped in producer Flood and longtime collaborator John Parish for her new effort and laid her guitar down while she was at it. Yes, I know that Harvey has made a career out of raunchy guitar trickery, but hearing her pour her heart out at the piano is something quite remarkable. White Chalk is seductive and will have you transfixed for all of its 33 minutes. If it wasn’t for a five-man rock group from Oxford, White Chalk could quite possibly be the best album released this year. — Lloyd Gedye
Katie Melua
Pictures (Just Music)
Melua’s music is all about love and beautiful stories, but surprisingly it is not sugary sweet and indigestible. Instead this talented Georgian singer-songwriter uses her striking voice to sculpt each song into something special. Melua’s work has often been compared to that of Norah Jones, but to say that the two artists are the same would be insulting to Melua, whose charm and dreamy voice make you believe that love is just a skip and a jump away and that picturesque summer evenings can indeed lead to the romanticism of a former era. Tracks such as the enchanting Scary Films make you long for someone to snuggle closer to and What It Says On the Tin is a plain love song that has been taken to masterful levels. If you are in love, you will adore the album. But if you’ve had a break-up, steer clear as Melua’s soulful love declarations will surely send you into the depths of depression. — Yolandi Groenewald
Laurie Levine
Unspoken (Beyond the Box Music)
Singer-songwriter Laurie Levine’s music speaks to the heart. Her style of emotive folk has been compared with that of Tori Amos, but Levine is a talent all on her own. Her album takes you on an emotionally and musically intense journey through topics such as love and personal tales of longing and hope. The Amos influences are not hard to miss on the album, but Levine finds her own haunting notes in her music. She has the art of achieving an intimacy with her listener, especially through tracks such as In Your Arms. Levine has been around for a while on the Johannesburg circuit and her album definitely adds a new dimension to her work as a performer. — Yolandi Groenewald
Joni Mitchell
Shine (Universal)
Photographs of the contemporary dance company Alberta Ballet adorn Joni Mitchell’s new album which, according to her sleeve note, contain her first compositions in a decade. In the images dancers seem to be paying homage to the planet — there’s an Earth-like orb in the sky that keeps changing. The clue comes in the song If I had a Heart, which swings along in a gentle groove but asks the question, ‘Holy Earth, how can we heal you?” It’s an unremarkable question coming from a remarkable artist. References to current wars are not lost but Mitchell seems to be remote from engaging with harsh realities, although in places she takes it out on capitalism and religious dogmas. There are percussive songs reminiscent of the drumming on Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter and moments of sweeping emotion when Mitchell simply sings about her relationship problems with piano accompaniment like she did in the old days. Then there is an abstract, 2007 makeover of Big Yellow Taxi, which sees Mitchell reminding us that she was the first to agitate through popular song about eco-concerns. Any offering from Mitchell is welcome, but the quality on this one is uneven. — Matthew Krouse
INDIE ROCK
Besnard Lakes
The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse (MIA)
On the surface the Besnard Lakes might appear to be the Johnny-come-latelies to the Montreal indie rock scene that includes Arcade Fire, Sunset Rubdown and Wolf Parade, but their second album might have proved them to be the dark horse after all. Indeed, these Canadian musos are bringing up the rear and have produced one of the finest albums this year, littered with Beach Boys-inspired harmonies, Pink Floyd space rock, rolling organs, snarling guitars and shoe-gazing pop genius. Having laid down the gauntlet for their peers and friends it is onward and upward from here. I can’t wait to see what they do next. Fans of Mercury Rev’s Deserter Songs, Air’s Virgin Suicides soundtrack and Sigur Ros’s album Takk — should check this one out. — Lloyd Gedye
The Pyramids
The Pyramids (EMI)
When an album arrives out of nowhere to bring you endless joy, it really is the gift that keeps on giving. The Pyramids’ debut album was exactly that, a random side project from two members of the Archie Bronson Outfit that wormed its way into my daily rotation. Now I’m going to temper this review by stating that I am still in the honeymoon phase with this record, but hell if I get sick of this, I’d be sick of music. It would be like being sick of the Velvet Underground. If opener White Disc of Sun doesn’t get you hot under the collar, then Hunch Your Body, Love Somebody with its Stooges meets Arcade Fire torrent will blow down your door with dynamite. ‘I’m here” this record screams. It’s about bloody time, did you get caught in traffic? — Lloyd Gedye
Radiohead
In Rainbows (Just Music)
Okay, let’s just forget all the hoo-ha about Radiohead allowing their fans to pay what they want for their new album and focus on the music. Because the music on In Rainbows is the stuff that’s going to knock your socks off. Hell, you might even buy two. Radiohead do not disappoint; they are one of the few bands out there who continue to grow musically, all the while dragging their dedicated and thankful fans along for the ride — I know, I am one of them. Anyway this is the most consistently amazing record that the band have released since Kid A. Although I loved the last two records, there were always one or two songs that I felt could have ended up as scraps on the cutting-room floor. I am not sure whether In Rainbows could lose any of its songs. Radiohead’s fourth masterpiece — not bad for a band that has made only seven albums. — Lloyd Gedye
The Kissaway Trail
The Kissaway Trail (Just Music)
There is nothing more refreshing than a band out of the musical hinterland that is Scandinavia that sounds nothing like Abba, Michael Learns to Rock, Ace of Base or Roxette. The Kissaway Trail, from Denmark, are a million amazing miles away from any kind of Eurotrash. Their songs are tightly crafted with bells, banjos and drum rolls that go straight for the jugular and squeeze. Their anthemic track 61 has to be a song of the year, starting out with a bizarrely melancholy banjo refrain, building up to some ass-kicking drums and a foot-stomping guitar-powered chorus. Another winner is the wicked Tracy — trippy, indie sounds underpinned by the fraught, angry refrain ‘they say we are dancing but we aren’t”. The Kissaway Trail has been positively compared with a bunch of other artists, but get them for their totally refreshing, innovative and complicated selves. — Lynley Donnelly
JAZZ
Jimmy Dludlu
Portrait (Universal)
Afro-jazz legend Jimmy Dludlu wields his incredible talent to produce a smooth-sounding album that is as expressively emotive as it is revealingly introspective. Dludlu shares with listeners an earnest piece of himself. From the wistful, lilting guitar on End of a Love Affair to the haunting piano on June 16, it is clear he wishes to share the significance of the music and personal relevance. The album is a refreshing and transparent set. Dludlu, though sometimes employing the ever-annoying ‘scat” technique, artfully combines African elements of percussion with electric jazz to produce a sound that is both unique and invigorating. — Warren Foster
Pat Metheny, Brad Mehldau
Metheny/Mehldau Quartet (Gallo)
The simply titled Metheny/Mehldau Quartet is the second collaboration between two jazz giants, guitarist Pat Metheny and pianist Brad Mehldau. Both have illustrious careers on the modern jazz cutting-edge, with Metheny holding the jazz guitar summit for 20 years and the younger Mehldau working to catch up since forming his own trio in 1994. Metheny was the composer of seven of the album’s all-instrumental tracks and Mehldau three, with one co-composed piece (the opening track A Night Away). However, it’s clear that the two share a similar musical direction and both relish the improvisatory process of working within the other’s framework. Resting on a solid rhythm section, provided by drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Larry Grenadier, Mehldau and Metheny showcase their gift for melodicism, as well as Metheny’s more experimental sounds grounded by Mehldau’s fluid piano playing. The Sound of Water features the other worldly sounds of Metheny’s custom, 42-string Pikasso guitar while Fear and Trembling shows the two trading tense and dissonant solos. However, these frantic climaxes are balanced by balladesque tracks such as Mehldau’s Secret Beach or the album’s denouement, Metheny’s Martha’s Theme. — Dillon Davie
CLASSICAL
Maxim Vengerov
Mozart Violin Concertos 2 & 4 (EMI)
In 2005 violin virtuoso Maxim Vengerov took a sabbatical from performing and used his free time to learn to tango, study improvisation and prepare for new recordings of the Mozart violin concertos. Teaming up with the UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra and violist Lawrence Power, the resulting album features the Sinfonia Concertante and the Violin Concertos 2 and 4. Vengerov also worked with acclaimed mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli in uncovering the links between these instrumental works and Mozart’s operatic output. Vengerov approached these violin parts very vocally, ‘singing” the melodic lines with his instrument. The incredible clarity of sound is the first thing that strikes one on listening to this album. The opening Sinfonia Concertante features the soloists emerging from the orchestral texture more cohesively than a normal concerto. This aural clarity, combined with a lightness and clear articulation from the orchestra and soloists, is the ideal approach to Mozart’s interpretation. Vengerov is also clearly playing in service of the music, restraining his overwhelming virtuosity, most obviously in the cadenzas, composed by Vengerov as solo climaxes to the fast movements. The resulting album as a whole is excellent and utterly convincing; the latest triumph in an already illustrious career. — Dillon Davie
Ian Bostridge
Great Handel (EMI)
Ian Bostridge, the world’s leading lyric tenor, sets out to shed light on well-loved composer GF Handel in his new album, Great Handel. Specifically, his aim is to illuminate lesser-known pieces Handel wrote for the tenor voice. Bostridge does this by selectively choosing a mix of arias from across Handel’s work in Italian and English, from oratorios such as Messiah to operas such as Samson. The tenor’s backing ensemble is the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted by Harry Bicket, which specialises in performances using original instruments from the 17th and 18th centuries, to better recreate the appropriate Baroque sound. Bostridge brought in upcoming English soprano Kate Royal for two soprano/tenor duets, including the beautifully lyrical As Steals the Moon. Bostridge is an academic, holding a doctorate from Oxford, and displays a musicological wisdom in his selection, backed by research on Handel and the world he inhabited. A voice such as Bostridge’s is ideal for Baroque repertoire such as this, with its minimal and restrained vibrato. Listen to his fresh reading of Ombra mai fu, overplayed in an instrumental arrangement as Handel’s Largo. His beautiful, sustained high notes on clear open vowels illustrate the perfect connection between a great composer and an inspired performer. — Dillon Davie
ELECTRONIC
DJ Kicks
DJ Kicks: Hot Chip (Kurse Music)
The DJ Kicks series of guest-artist remixes are always innovative and delightful: for their ability to draw together various strains of music and highlight their commonality while revelling in their differences. A personal favourite remains the seamless mix hosted by Massive Attack’s Daddy G, which featured artists such as Willie Williams’s through Melaaz, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Les Negresse to Barrington Levy and Foxy Brown. This time it’s the Eighties electro-pop resurrectors, Hot Chip, whose journey places emphasis on synthesisers, heavy percussion, anthemic dance tunes and timeless classics, such as Ray Charles’s Mess Around. Also included for musical manipulation are New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle, This Heat’s Radio Prague and Lanark’s Stone That the Builder Rejected. Intelligent, dance-inducing alternative to the mundane. — Niren Tolsi
MIA
Kala (Just Music)
Since the release of her debut album Arular, Sri Lankan-born MIA has been at the forefront of electronic music, crafting a sound that melds dancehall, baile funk, grime, Baltimore club and hip-hop but still manages to be all her own. Arular, named after her politically active father, was a playful yet subversive collection of club-ready songs, which not only highlighted the oppressive socio-economic circumstances that proliferate the globe but helped to popularise lesser-known electronic styles such as the Detroit- bred ghettotech. Her second album Kala was pretty much made on the road (travelling in India, Trinidad, Liberia, Jamaica, Australia). As a result, the album has a more frenetic pace and a more varied percussive palate compared with its predecessor. Moreover, MIA seems more concerned with celebrating Third World culture as opposed to bemoaning the politics that govern it. With Kala, she manages to stay true to her aesthetic and avoid the pop conveyor belt. — Kwanele Sosibo
HIP-HOP
Various Artists
Hip-hop Love Movement (Outrageous Records)
‘The love movement” is one of those hackneyed hip-hop phrases that people have largely moved on from, making the sensibilities behind this compilation project a tad last century. Listening to 15 consecutive hip-hop songs centred around the idea of love is not my kind of stimulation. You kind of know what to expect: two or three 16-bar verses of recycled vocab wrapped in syrupy hooks, not to mention production that is closer to R&B than hip-hop. This collection stacks big names, such as Prokid, Tuks, H2O, Optical Illusion, HHP, Amu and Skwatta Kamp, to name a few. But all that means is that the couplets really rhyme. Standouts for me include Pebbles’s opener Love Is (for its futuristic soul), the Mizchif and TK combination A Place for A Wife (for reminding us of a time when the hip-hop love song was less gimmicky) and the HHP Lois and Proverb combination Love of My Lewe for daring to be different. — Kwanele Sosibo
Cornel West & BMWMB
Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations (Just Music)
Academic Cornel West is one of the United States’s great thinkers and as the grandson of a preacher he is also an impeccable orator. A rapper and musician he is not. All this is evident in this 15-track collaborative album Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations. I’m not sure what BMWMB stands for but it may as well be Black Men With Major Beef, as the album is one of the most fiercely political releases in recent years. Although top shelf MCs such as KRS-One, Black Thought, M1 and Andre 3000 feature here, it is West, who stands out as he castigates Amerikkka and its legacy of racism. A great portion of West’s intellectual concern is directed towards African Americans and what they can do to emerge as a more self-reliant group. This probably explains why a ‘song” such as the N-Word (it’s really an excerpt of a radio debate) strolls in at number six as opposed to appearing as a bonus track at the tail end. The beats and most of the vocal contributions are sub-standard, but the album is worth a listen for West’s thoughts alone. — Kwanele Sosibo
Jill Scott
The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Volume 3 (Just Music)
For me, what separates Jill Scott from most of her neo-soul contemporaries is her simplicity and sincerity, qualities that seem to become more pronounced with each subsequent project. The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Volume 3 has been a long time coming and seems to follow on logically from Beautifully Human, shedding that hip-hop edge for a more organic, soulful sound. This album was released around the time of Scott’s divorce from her spouse, who was also a professional partner. Fittingly, at various parts of the album, she is sensuous (Crown Royal, All I), angry (Hate On Me), morose (Insomnia, How It Make You Feel, Only You) but also resolute (Wanna Be Loved). As a poet, she understands the nuances of vocal tone and cadence, which is why the album works on an emotional level. By the time the sassy, brief closing track Breathe comes around, you get a sense of not only having bonded with the artist, but also of the temporal nature of adversity. — Kwanele Sosibo.