Album reviews: Marianne Faithfull | Avril Lavigne | Noah And The Whale | Classical | Folk | Jazz | World

Published on Sunday 6 March 2011 18:50

Our critics review the best and worst of this week's new releases from around the world of music...

POP:

Marianne Faithfull: Horses And High Heels

Dramatico, 10.99 ***

WHILE peers such as Rod Stewart are happy to churn out lazy easy listening collections, Marianne Faithfull chooses her material with care, mindful of making a connection with the song. But she has never been one to be pinned down, so this latest mix of covers and originals dabbles in various styles without committing. The Stonesy blues rock of Jackie Lomax's No Reason and southern soul feel of her own Prussian Blue are professionally dispatched by her band of New Orleans musicians but Faithfull herself sounds more comfortable with the space afforded by the delicate, pastoral arrangement of Love Song, while her deep, throaty voice brings just the right balance of sage experience and plaintive regret to the Carole King / Gerry Goffin gem Goin' Back.

Avril Lavigne: Goodbye Lullabys

RCA, 12.99 **

WITH the likes of Katy Perry and Taylor Swift impinging on her teenage girl market, now would be the time for Avril Lavigne to bust out with something distinctly hers. But as she already has her own "lifestyle apparel brand" and three – count 'em – perfumes to her commercial portfolio, why take the risk? Instead, Lavigne conforms with a fourth album which could just as easily have been recorded by any of her peers – a couple of lame bad-girl pop rockers here, a few girl-angst ballads there, sprinkle on some Glee-style paeans to teen love and the album's good to go. Avril Lavigne is 26 years old.

Noah And The Whale: Last Night On Earth

Mercury, 13.99 **

YOU can't stay brooding in your bedroom forever. Even though Noah and the Whale frontman Charlie Fink relished a good emotional wallow on his band's terribly earnest second album The First Days Of Spring, even he is bored with all that navel-gazing indulgence now and returns to the more carefree, celebratory tone of the band's debut Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down, minus the songwriting promise he showed back then. Fink continues to moon over girls and romance the everyday to his heart's content, but Last Night On Earth barely elicits a sideways glance, its banal polished breeziness simply falling into line behind the band's more successful buddies Mumford & Sons. FIONA SHEPHERD

CLASSICAL:

Bach: Easter & Ascension Oratorios

Linn, 13.99 *****

MUSICAL highs don't come much better than a good dose of Bach in "rejoice" mode. So here's a double dose – a coupling of the Easter and Ascension Oratorios, served up with tingling and ecstatic energy by the excellent Retrospect Ensemble. Three components combine with single-minded unity and intent: the vital but stylistic flair of the small chorus; the poetic eloquence and lack of preciousness of the period instruments; and a star-studded band of soloists that include the purebred lustre of soprano Carolyn Sampson, resplendent tenor James Gilchrist, and the furiously agile countertenor Iestyn Davies. Conductor Matthew Halls gleans warmth from this wonderful music.

KENNETH WALTON

JAZZ:

Courtney Pine: Europa

Destin-E Records, 12.99 ****

ANOTHER departure from an artist who has traversed a lot of musical territory since emerging as a bright new jazz hope in the mid-1980s. Courtney Pine has drawn on his extensive touring across the length and breadth of Europe for inspiration, and invokes an equally wide range of musical references in the course of this album, from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean, the Balkans and Middle East to Ireland, all convincingly integrated with his jazz roots. It is also the first studio project in which he has chosen to play exclusively on bass clarinet, and he makes effective use of the instrument's rich, voluptuous sonic qualities. A very strong band that includes pianist Zoe Rahman, bassist Alec Dankworth and drummer Mark Mondesir is augmented by several guests, including emerging saxophone talent Shabaka Hutchings and the electric violin work of Omar Puente. KENNY MATHIESON

FOLK:

Barbara Dickson: Words Unspoken

Greentrax, 11.99 ***

IT'S GOOD to hear Barbara Dickson returning to her Scottish folk roots. The chart-topping singer and actress has a rich voice and, as some of these tracks demonstrate, a real affinity with traditional song. Produced by multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley, this album's rather lush "instant Celtic" settings – echoing whistles, fiddles, keyboards, electric guitar and drums – tend to smother things, as in Smile in Your Sleep, or The Trees They Do Grow High, in which she shares vocals with Nick Holland. The old ballad King Orfeo, given an up-tempo, near-orchestral setting, has a certain drama, but it is in the simpler arrangements that Dickson's voice is allowed to shine – Ythanside, for instance, skips along sassily while the minimally accompanied My Donald and in particular her peerless a cappella rendition of Will Ye Gang Love? suggest that, in this instance, less is certainly more. JIM GILCHRIST

WORLD:

Nour Eddine: Morocco – Traditional Songs and Music

ARC MUSIC, 11.99 ***

WITH the world's spotlight moving westwards across North Africa, this is a good time to remember Morocco's music, which is very pleasantly reflected in these recordings by Nour Eddine Fatty. Led by the Berber singer Nour Eddine, this group has here drafted in players from across the Maghreb to perform the music of a Gnawa ritual called "derdeba". The Gnawa is a religious confraternity whose members are descended from the slaves and prisoners brought across the Sahara by Arabs in the middle ages. But they claim spiritual descent from an Ethiopian named Sidi Bilal, who was the Prophet's first muezzin. Their ceremonies are known as "lilas" ("lil" being Arabic for night), and the purpose of each ceremony is to cleanse the participants of evil spirits, or sometimes – more practically – scorpion stings. "From the heavens / Come to meet me / Make me feel / In repose with myself" sings Nour, as the musicians accompany him on drums, harp, and the gimbri long-necked lute. The mood is gentle and cheerful throughout.

The Rough Guide to Bellydance

Rough Guide, 8.99 ***

THIS is terrain which the Rough Guides have visited before, but this new compilation covers a very wide field, ranging from the latest Egyptian styles to traditional Turkish Taksim, and from Lebanese "shaabi" to modern tribal fusion. And the liner note stresses this art-form's ancient origins. Its local name, "raqs sharki", means literally "dance of the East", with the European notion of "la danse du ventre" (reflecting the undulations of the torso) indicating a focus on just part of it. American exponents figure here as well as musicians from the Caucasus: this really is a danse sans frontires. MICHAEL CHURCH