M&G staffers review this week’s latest releases, from Jeff Beck to Erykah Badu.
Erykah Badu Part 2: Return of the Ankh (Universal Music)) 
Erykah Badu is back with the second part of the album series, Return of The Ankh, and it sounds very much like what you’d expect it to sound like. Jazzy neo-soul tunes with the psychedelic noises that are so Erykah in the background. But that’s exactly what’s so great about the album — you know what to expect from Miss Badu and you get just that.
Badu called her latest release Part Two because she says “this album is the sister of the left side of my brain — it is the right side … Part I was the left side of my thoughts — it was more socially political and my thought process was more analytical. This time there wasn’t anything to be concerned with — the album is more emotional and flowy and talks about feelings,” says Badu. The Grammy-winning producer, singer and songwriter is in a league of her own and that’s what makes it so difficult to criticise her. Her unique style means you can’t compare her to anyone or anything. A personal favourite of mine is track two, Window Seat, which was the album’s first official single. In the song Badu talks of how she just wants “a ticket outta town/ a look around/ and a safe touch down/ so can I get a window seat/ don’t want nobody next to me”. The song is accompanied by a very risqué music video, in which Miss Badu strips naked while walking down a street in Dallas before being shot by an unseen assassin. — Karabo Keepile
Youssou Ndour: Dakar to Kingston (Universal Music) 
On Dakar to Kingston, Senegalese musician Youssou Ndour makes a connection between Jamaican reggae capital Kingston and Dakar, the main city of his homeland. The album, featuring new and old songs, is resonant with a throbbing reggae sound and boasts seasoned and celebrated Jamaican-born artists such as Tyrone Downie (from The Wailers), dub poet Mutabaruka, guitarist Earl “Chinna” Smith (who has played for Burning Spear), Bunny Wailer and Max Romeo. Other artists include the royal family of reggae, Morgan Heritage, on my favourite track, Don’t Walk Away, and saxophone maestro and producer Dean Fraser, who lends Ndour’s sound a jazzy feel. Other guests include the Nigerian-born crooner Ayo in the revivalist Africa Dream Again. Ayo’s soft accents fit smugly into the cracks in Ndour’s baritone voice. The album, recorded in France and at the Tuff Gong studios in Kingston, is stranded somewhere in the Atlantic where it can’t quite decide whether it’s going to be reggae or Ndour’s mbalax sound. This is an accomplished, collaborative effort. — Percy Zvomuya
Morphine: At Your Service (EMI) 
It was just a decade that Morphine were with us, before front man Mark Sandman, in July 1999, suffered a massive heart attack on stage, collapsed and died.
Before that, the band managed to release four studio albums and record a fifth, The Night, which was released posthumously in 2000. Their sound was a fascinating new take on rock music, with elements of blues and jazz thrown into the mix. The bass, drums and saxophone combined to create a funky low-end sound. Sandman’s vocals owed a lot to the Beat mythology and sounded like a hybrid of Nick Cave, Jim Morrison and Anthony Kiedis. Low-rock is how the band described it; kick-ass is the way this critic would. This double-disc is a compilation of 35 previously unreleased recordings, whether they be outtakes, alternate takes or live versions. For fans, this is a treasure chest of Morphine goodness. For the uninitiated, this might not be the best introduction to the band’s work; perhaps you should try 1997’s Like Swimming. But having said that, if this compilation hits the spot, it will inspire you to go out and get the albums one by one. — Lloyd Gedye
The Duke & The King: Nothing Gold Can Stay (MIA) 
The Duke & the King, named for the duo of confidence tricksters in Huckleberry Finn, will steal your heart.
Nothing Gold Can Stay, their debut release, is shot through with sweet melancholy. Listen closely enough and it will tear your soul — or just sing along and enjoy the ambience. There aren’t any pyrotechnics here, mostly just straight country songs and, although it’s a crowded field — The Avett Brothers, The Felice Brothers — to name but two, Duke bring a quiet understated elegance to the genre. Simone Felice left his famous brothers in 2009 and formed the band with Robert “Chicken” Burke. Felice delivers his lines in a downbeat manner and the record sounds a bit like you’re listening them outside their rehearsal room. Water Spider is a wonderful song with the memorable line “Jesus walked on water, but so did Marvin Gaye/ And Harriet didn’t you hear they never caught her, she just slipped away, she skipped away …” which could be a homage to Harriet Tubman, an African-American Union spy during the American Civil War. There’s hardly a bad song on the record but the best is saved for last in One More American Song. Sentimental, sure, but never mawkish. — Matthew Burbidge
Jeff Beck: Emotion & Commotion (Gallo) 
With Jeff Beck’s first studio album in seven years, the hero of electric guitar has moved away from playing the instrument full-shred on every track. This is a far more tempered album than we’re used to from him. Although the songs are still guitar heavy, he allows more room for other instruments and collaborative artists, and on most of the tracks he’s accompanied by an orchestral arrangement. A number of tracks are covers, but he marks each with his virtuosic signature. There are nods to Jeff Buckley with Corpus Christi Carol and Lilac Wine, long-time collaborator Jan Hammer with Hammerhead, and even to Judy Garland with Somewhere over the Rainbow, in which he wields his instrument as though it is a voice and eases on the vibrato to match Garland’s original. There’s a brief pop-rock departure with Joss Stone featuring on vocals on two songs, and even further sideways movement with opera classics Nessun Dorma and Elegy for Dunkirk, but it all works remarkably well together. Some might say the master’s getting old, but Emotion & Commotion could secure Beck a whole new generation of fans. — Ricky Hunt