CD Reviews

Published on Saturday 10 January 2009 13:05

POP, folk, jazz, classical and the Release of the Week.

RELEASE OF THE WEEK

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE

Merriweather Post Pavilion ****

Domino WIGCD216, 11.74

Relentlessly experimental and occasionally extraordinary, the ninth album from the US trio is a towering monument of pop harmonies and cacophonous electro grooves. David 'Ave Tare' Portner, Brian 'Geologist' Weitz, and 'Panda Bear' aka Noah Lennox, are immediately into their collective stride with 'In The Flowers', a captivating flight of psychedelic fancy improbably underpinned by growling Euro bass beats.

There is a warped rock sensibility in play on 'Summertime Clothes', working up to a repetitive playground chant of a chorus, and there are further nursery echoes in the gently swirling introduction to 'No More Runnin'.'

The album title is a nod to the legendary haunt of The Grateful Dead, and that spirit is preserved in lazy, lolloping tunes like 'Blueish', and 'Lion In A Coma'. The latter finds Panda Bear eschewing the stoners' drawl with an almost comically clear enunciation, enriched by musical suggestions of The Beatles' trippier times. Lennox now lives in Portugal and European influences abound, particularly in the vocal arrangement of the monstrous trance stomp 'Brother Sport'. But this song is concerned with serious stuff, offering his older brother advice on how to best cope with the death of their father.

For such seasoned performers, the Collective sound more fresh-faced than ever. This record should have a similarly restorative effect on even the casual listener.

Download this: Brother Sport, Lion In A Coma

COLIN SOMERVILLE

ROCK & POP

SECRET MACHINES

Secret Machines ***

V2 VVR1052022, 10.76

The departure of founder Benjamin Curtis has done the Texan outfit no discernible harm, with his brother Brandon and drummer Josh Garza combining with new guitarist Phil Karnats to produce an equally intense if slightly darker record than its predecessors.

'Now You're Gone' boasts a hitherto unheard lightness of touch, while 'Last Believer Drop Dead' and 'Underneath The Concrete' are great swirls of prog rock that conjure images of stages swathed in dry ice as the spirit of Hawkwind is raised from the undead.

'Atomic Heels' puts a new spin on the brutal bass contortions, with Brandon's vocals veering on the poptastic, not unlike his namesake Flowers.

Download this: Last Believer Drop Dead, Dreaming Of Dreaming

LADY GAGA

The Fame ***

Interscope, 10.76

New York gal Lady GaGa writes hits for Pussycat Dolls and Britney among others, and this debut sees her emphatically getting a piece of her own action and setting the pop pace for the rest.

Stefani Joanne Germanotta, as she is known to her mother, runs the gamut of topics suggested by the album title; 'Paparazzi' – an infuriatingly catchy tune – being the most obvious, although 'Beautiful Rich Dirty' is equally superficial.

'Boys Boys Boys' – "like boys in cars buy us drinks in bars" – is sung with tongue almost rammed through cheek, while the considerably saucier 'I Like It Rough' throbs along to a thrilling, reverberating snare beat.

Download this: I Like It Rough, The Fame

J TILLMAN

Vacilando Territory Blues ****

Bella Union Bellacd186, 12.72

Drummer with The Fleet Foxes, Joshua Tillman is perhaps more musically potent when doing his own thing and making lovely records like this.

Like a warm breeze blowing into a chilly room, his understated style is gently seductive.

'James Blues' chills and charms, Tillman's voice like a sanded and polished spectre of Kurt Cobain, with brittle random percussion adding to the fragility of the song.

'No Occasion' is a wolf of a tune in sheep's clothing, all warm and fuzzy with a bite of a chorus, while 'Firstborn' is further proof that less really can be an awful lot more.

Download this: All You See, Firstborn

COLIN SOMERVILLE

JAZZ

BILL EVANS

Theme From The VIPs And Other Great Songs **

Verve 0602517613577, 9.78

He may be playing on every track but pianist Bill Evans is barely heard on this reissued 1963 album of film music: most of the numbers are played in an absolutely straightforward style, along with orchestra and occasionally choir. Evans's own voice, his lyrical, improvisational piano style, is only glimpsed on a handful of tunes. In other words, this isn't essential listening for Evans fans – though aficionados of the kitsch Sixties sound should get a kick out of it.

Download this: Days Of Wine And Roses, On Green Dolphin Street

MOLLY JOHNSON

Lucky **

Verve 1788557, 12.72

Johnson is a singer with a craggy, throaty, 90-year-old-sounding voice (vaguely reminiscent of Billie Holiday's – just before she died) which is well known to both jazz and pop audiences in her native Canada, and definitely falls into the love-it-or-loathe-it category.

As with her last CD, the opening title track is a barrelhouse number that could have come from The Color Purple, but thankfully, unlike the last album, this doesn't morph into a rock album: it stays with jazz, and among the standards is a moving version of 'Lush Life', with rarely performed lyrics.

Download this: Lucky, Lush Life

ALISON KERR

CLASSICAL

FRANZ SCHUBERT

The Song Cycles *****

Deutsche Grammophon 477 7956, 17.60

Three complete song cycles, 'Die schne Mllerin', 'Winterreise' and 'Schwanengesang' feature in this box set of recordings from the 1970s by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore, with the quality of the performance suberb throughout. For Fischer-Dieskau, the emphasis is always on the 'natural' in these songs, with careful reference to the composer's original texts when questions of interpretation arise ; that he found in Moore an ideal accompanist can be established by the praise he lavishes on him in the liner notes.

Download this: Das Wandern

ANTONIO VIVALDI

Concertos *****

Deutsche Grammophon 477 7463, 12.72

A chance to blow away the winter blues with this highly enjoyable recording of Vivaldi concertos featuring long-time Vivaldi student Daniel Hope, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Anne Sofie von Otter. From the outset, the music – and its performance – is bright, keenly felt and highly enjoyable.

Von Otter's Italian in 'Sovvente il Sole', a Vivaldi contribution to a long-forgotten celebratory work, sounds over-enunciated, but perhaps that's because it was written for open-air performance. It never flags, however. Great fun, and a welcome antidote to the gloomy weather.

Download this: Concerto in E Flat Major, Allegro e Pesto

OTTO NICOLAI

Die Lustigen Weiber Von Windsor ****

CPO 777 317-2, 17.60

The German composer Otto Nicolai achieved recognition in his lifetime for his operas, written in a style akin to Bellini. But it was a brief life (1810-1849, the same as Chopin), with briefer recognition: only this opera remains known, principally because of its overture. That this opera should be the work by which he remains known may seem odd, since it demanded the least dramatic creativity: the libretto almost exactly follows the twists and turns of Shakespeare's The Merry Wives Of Windsor. Perhaps that freed Nicolai to focus on his sprightly, highly enjoyable music, here in a live recording with a talented cast conducted by Ulf Schirmer. A work worth hearing.

Download this: Overture

ALEXANDER BRYCE

FOLK

THE GREEN FIELDS OF AMERICA

The Green Fields Of America ****

Compass Records 01710-CD, 12.72

Formed in 1978 by Boston-based Irish folklorist and banjo player Mick Moloney, the GFOA were the first major Irish American new-wave folk band, brought back to life here in a recording by the new line-up of Moloney, John Doyle's frets, fiddler Athena Tergis, guitarist Robbie O'Connell and champion button box player Billy McComiskey. A few guests on pipes, piano and flutes add colour to powerful, driving instrumentals and songs in an album which, if not innovative, is full of great, cheerful performances.

Download this: Jim O Keefe's (Slides)

ALASDAIR WHYTE, KIRSTY MACKINNON AND VARIOUS ARTISTS

Oran Ur Do Mhuile ***

Oranurdo, 10.76

The fruits of a recent Gaelic contest and concert in Tobermory for 'A New Song For Mull' produced a rake of good entries performed by the two Mull award-winning singers and house band of Mary Anne Kennedy, Gillian Frame, Findlay Napier and others.

Piper Allan Macdonald's beautiful setting of classic poetry ('I'd Get A Good Sleep With My Love') by Angus MacKechnie took the main prize, but there's a charming, bang-up-to-date rendition by Shannon MacLean of 'Sin Shaun mo Bhrathair,' his song to a big brother who is 'Skinny as a pen, as tall as a horse… that's my brother Shaun, his head full of Bebo and Poker'.

Download this: Ghebhinn Cadal Math

NORMAN CHALMERS