We look at the latest CDs from abroad, and let you know which ones to put on your Christmas wish list.
BEN FOLDS AND NICK HORNBY: Lonely Avenue (Gallo)
On Lonely Avenue, American Ben Folds and North London’s Nick Hornby team up to produce an album that’s best described as interesting. The biggest problem is that it keeps coming across as a novelty item. Hornby’s lyrics to Fold’s music — it’s the kind of music one would buy just to have the collaboration, rather than for an appreciation of the music. It all originated from Hornby’s book, 31 Songs, which he wrote in 2002 and in which he said that the reason he wrote books was because he couldn’t write songs. Being pals with Folds, he emailed lyrics to Folds who wrote the music in a Nashville studio. Although the lyrics are accompanied by great arrangements, many of the tracks, like the opening, A Working Day, sound like music written to words, rather than sounding just like real songs. There are four songs with women’s names, which add a tinge of autobiography. The ballad, Belinda, is a sweet, honest offering. Levi Johnston’s Blues is easily the most likable, ripping off American jock culture. The album is interesting, certainly something to check out and have an opinion on, but not necessarily something that will change your life. — Ilham Rawoot
THE BLACK KEYS: Brothers (Universal)
Back in 2007 Ohio’s The Black Keys were collaborating on an album with famed soul singer Ike Turner and this project was to be produced by Danger Mouse. But Turner died in December that year and the project morphed into The Black Keys’s fifth album, Attack & Release, which was eventually released on April Fools’ Day in 2008. Though the album was no joke, it did feel as though it did not hang together as a whole. It was good but not great. Now The Black Keys has released its sixth album, Brothers. Recorded in the famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama, Brothers sees The Black Keys branching out from its traditional sound. It is still rooted in the rough-and-ready blues that has inspired so much of its work, but also offers some gritty soul tracks, making this a true signifier of what Turner and the band could have achieved. Brothers is the closest The Black Keys has come to making a record that sounds as if it was recorded in the early 1960s and released on Stax Records or even Chess Records. Tighten Up is the kind of swinging blues stomper that could brighten up anybody’s day, and The Only One sees Dan Auerbach cracking out his best soul voice for a gentle soul number. The Black Keys has recorded its best album yet and one of the best albums of 2010. — LG
THE BOOKS: The Way Out
(Sheer Sound)
William Burroughs would have been proud of The Books. The band has taken the cut-up — or in this case found — sounds, such as messages left on answering machines, children’s voices, conversations from obscure films, hypnotherapy tapes, and layered them over lush instrumentation. Take these words, for example, from the track The Chain of Missing Links: ‘In this extraordinary time in history when consciousness is exploding and developing, take the room that you need to rotate and love — to be in this world — to be a fleshy temple, allow the deep energy to flow from below.” ‘Realise that your eyes are made up of atoms that are microscopic and are mostly space — they’re in fact filled with the substance of your life, your very essence fills these spaces and even if through accident or surgery those powerful structures have been removed out of your body, relax, let go, expand —” What does it mean? Who can say? But with a warm guitar, glitches, melodic drones and sharp intakes of breath, something wonderfully strange emerges. — MB
ERIC CLAPTON: Clapton (Gallo)
Eric Clapton’s latest album takes you on a trip down memory lane with a set of tracks that tell of the rich heritage of music from the first part of the 20th century. Many other aging musicians have chosen to release albums of standards that are endlessly familiar from being rehashed by other aging singers. Clapton takes songs that sound familiar but you probably haven’t heard before simply because they form part of the collective music experience but don’t get out much individually. There are a few new tracks, but it’s the oldies that steal the show. Bringing in collaborators such as JJ Cale, Sheryl Crow and Wynton Marsalis lets these artists add their own special touch to the album. Fortunately this is not an album of duets and most of the time you won’t notice that there are other artists involved. But what you do notice is the consummate blend of talent that Clapton has brought together for this album. If you are a fan of both the blues and Clapton, this is one album that should soothe the spirits on a hot summer’s evening. — Ben Kelly
GRASSCUT: 1 Inch/ ½ Mile (Just Music)
Grasscut’s debut album, 1 Inch/ ½ Mile, is best described as psychedelic electronica. The collaboration of television and film composer Andrew Phillips and double-bassist and keyboardist Matthew O’Daire is a winning one — the Brighton duo has created an album on which acoustics and electronics meet at a point that is playful and wonky, yet warm and well orchestrated. The album gets more chaotic as it goes on but it works. Breaks, beats, tinkling bells and whistles are all put together for a crazy mishmash of sound, but with beautiful melodies and tappable rhythms. The Tin Man has an old, Piafesque woman’s voice recorded on an old machine over catchy beats and hooks. Old Machines begins with a chattering of voices before flowing into layers of trippy melody. The album is a winner, a bewitching explosion of magically arranged piano, synth, strings, voice and percussion, creating an atmospheric and almost transcendental sound. — IR
LADY DAISEY: In My Pocket (Kurse)
Lady Daisey’s debut album is catchy and chances are, if you are into the Motown kind of sound, you’ll keep some songs such as Magical, Gotta Get Up and Goes Down Like on repeat. The album is refreshing, different and very welcome but admittedly there are some weaklings — not because she doesn’t sing them well but because the lyrics are weak, such as those in Day Old Bread and Wants and Needs. Lady Daisey’s husband, Batsauce, produced the beats and even wrote the song My Story, which talks of Daisey’s life growing up with her musical parents, who sang songs but never got a record deal. Classic! Lady Daisey’s whispery voice and hippie style guarantee her a following and I am one of those who’ve definitely jumped on the Lady Daisey bandwagon. — KK
LEONARD COHEN: Songs from the Road (Sony)
In 2005 the poet and folksinger Leonard Cohen discovered that he was near bankrupt and subsequently took his former manager Kelly Lynch to court alleging that she had misappropriated more than $5-million of his money, leaving him with $150?000. Cohen ultimately won the case in 2006 and was awarded $9-million, but Lynch has refused to comply with the ruling and has refused to respond to a subpoena for her financial records. The end result was that Cohen, who is now 76, headed back out on the road and has been playing shows all over the world to packed audiences who never thought they would ever get to see the great poet live. The live dates resulted in the magnificent 2009 release, Live in London, which was released on DVD and double CD. And now we get Songs from the Road, a single-disc collection and DVD of further live recordings from October 2008 to November 2009. So what can
you expect? Well, if you’ve already sampled Live in London, then more of the same. Songs from the Road is a great companion piece to that fantastic release, with eight of the 12 songs included not being featured on the former. The album features classic Cohen songs such as Bird on the Wire, Chelsea Hotel, Waiting for the Miracle, Suzanne, Famous Blue Raincoat and Hallelujah. — LG
LUISA MAITA: Lero-Lero (Cumbancha)
In her acknowledgements, Luisa Maita says her newest album is ‘deeply influenced by the music and personalities” of other Brazilian artists, such as her father Amando Maita. Listening to Lero-Lero you can’t help but get taken on a journey to the sexy coastal city of Sao Paulo. The seductiveness of the city is flawlessly captured by Maita’s sultry singing and the influence of the samba and bossa nova are reflected by the capoeira, Afro-accents and Sao Bento Pequeno rhythms. You don’t need to understand Portuguese to appreciate this fresh and unforced effort. This is Maita’s first solo album and, if first impressions speak volumes, then I am looking forward to Maita’s second effort. — KK
RATATAT: LP4 (Just Music)
Album number four from New York electronicists Ratatat is like a matured steak — it has taken time and patience and an infusion of herbs and spices to bring out an album that is all the best of what it has done before. Lead guitarist Mike Stroud and producer Evan Mast have created a collection of respectfully synthesised guitar riffs, with beats and drums, which bring it to an intersection where it is not hip-hop, electronic or rock ‘n roll, but rather just music. Bilalr and Drugs are probably the closest that the band comes to the sounds of 17 years ago, a sound the band could have been tempted to repeat endlessly, but doesn’t. Ratatat’s sound has not changed too dramatically but more focus has been placed on beats and more interesting play with time signatures. This album is a winner. It makes me happy. – IR
SOUL JAZZ ORCHESTRA: Rising Sun (Kurse)
The Soul Jazz Orchestra, not to be confused with the Soul Jazz record label, has just released its new album, Rising Sun, and fans of the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble will probably find a lot to enjoy here. Though the Soul Jazz Orchestra’s sound may appear familiar, this doesn’t mean it’s derivative — the band occupies a space all of its own between the jazz club and the dance floor and draws heavily on Afro-jazz rhythms. There’s also some funk in there, but it’s all firmly rooted in the jazz tradition, which is perhaps why some of the tracks sound as though they could have been recorded 20 years ago, perhaps with Alice Coltrane. Awakening starts the album and does indeed sound like a landscape slowly coming to life — there are some light touches on the snares, and then a shouted ‘Ha!” launches Agbara, a brilliant, driving number with a number of saxophone solos that seems to be channelling Fela Kuti. — MB
VARIOUS ARTISTS: Ninja Tune XX (Just Music)
Jeez, nothing like a 20-year anniversary to make you feel old. Formed in 1990 by Matt Black and Jonathan More aka Coldcut, the Ninja Tunes label continues to be a source of some of the most brilliant, diverse sounds out there. Everyone seems to be having fun making great, unpredictable, fresh stuff. This is an excellent compilation with mostly new material from staple artists such as Coldcut, Hexstatic, Jaga Jazzist, Mr Scruff, Cinematic Orchestra and DJ Vadim. Newer signings like Grasscut and the Bug are also on the album, which makes this truly representative of the label. They have included a few classic remixes from regulars, like Roots Manuva’s Witness, Finks’ This Is the Thing and Diplo’s Summer’s Gonna Hurt You. The collection has some striking moments and is peppered with some great, heavy tracks, the kind that just ask to be played really loud. Too much fun to be had. — Paul Botes