Album reviews: Grizzly Bear | Aimee Mann | Folk | Jazz | Classical

Published on 15/09/2012 16:33

OUR music critics give their verdicts on the latest longplayer releases

POP

Grizzly Bear

Shields

Warp, £12.99

Star rating: * * * *

The unconditional warmth of Grizzly Bear’s previous record is now gone, replaced by a more measured emotional depth. Which is to say the Brooklyn band’s wall of sound harmonies, which transported listeners into the trippy world of Arthur Lee’s Love, have been realigned.

The chord structures persist with the oblique yet melodic angles. Extraordinary opener Sleeping Ute ducks and dives into the affections, Adelma pulses beautiful patterns of electronica, and Yet Again remodels indie rock into jazz patterns. There is a sparkly glow to this record, glistening through tunes such as the intoxicating Gun Shy like a crystal sharp musical palate cleanser.

Colin Somerville

Download this: Sleeping Ute

Aimee Mann

Charmer

Superego, £12.99

Star rating: * * * *

The consummate pop chronicler of American aspirations delivers again with superb observation and lugubrious beat combo stylings. Mann is an 
exquisite under player, but her duet here with James Mercer is hard to resist. Instantly memorable and memorably insistent, it is 
the stuff FM radio dreams were made of. As is 
Labrador, a big bounding tune needing a good scratch behind the ear.

A connoisseur of what makes pop great, Mann perhaps suffers from being consistently good but rarely exceptional, but this record stands comfortably next to her superb soundtrack for Magnolia or stunning debut Whatever.

CS

Download this: Gumby, Labrador

FOLK

Various Artists

Old Songs And Bothy Ballads, 
The Little Ball Of Yarn

Autumn Harvest AH011, £11.99

Star rating: * * * *

Culled from rich live performance – inches from the audience, who sometimes join in the chorus – at last year’s annual Fife Traditional Singing Festival, these 21 tracks show the diversity 
of style and vocal flavour 
in British and Irish unaccompanied singers.

The songs, in Scots and English only, vary from beautiful rural local humour (like John Valentine’s Nicky Tams) to settings of long-lived lyrics (Len Graham’s Green Grows The Laurel) 
and Elizabeth Stewart’s innuendo of The Little Ball 
Of Yarn. Anyone who needs to hear the authentic aesthetic of contemporary traditional singing should listen here.

Norman Chalmers

Download this: Time Wears Awa

JAZZ

Nina Simone

Collector

Milan 399 397-2, £12.99

Star rating: * * * *

The last in the current batch of titles in the Collector series (which also included compilations by Marilyn Monroe and Juliette Greco) is the only bona fide jazz one, and comprises recordings by the great singer-pianist Nina Simone from the 1950s and 1960s. Unfortunately, it includes no information on personnel or precise recording dates, which is a terrible omission, especially when the selection works so well as a very accessible introduction to Simone, and features her in all manner of settings and styles.

Alison Kerr

Download this: Blue Prelude, Where Can I Go Without You

CLASSICAL

Franz Schubert

An Die Musik

Challenge CC72559, £13.99

Star rating: * * * * *

Given such well-known material as this, a singer or accompanist must find it hard to identify ways in which Schubert’s songs can be made to sound fresh or exciting: some singers go for the emotion of the line; others offset a cool vocal delivery by a more strongly textured piano accompaniment.

If bass-baritone Klaus Merthens doesn’t convey the emotional power of some singers, his more restrained singing approach is perfectly matched by Tini Mathot’s accompaniment. Mathot performs on a Viennese forte piano of 1810, an instrument of a type with whose tonal qualities Schubert would have been familiar. Its softer tone complements Merthen’s mature singing voice, never overshadowing and often adding a depth of colour missing in other recordings.

Alexander Bryce

Download this: Das Rosenband