A great capacity for recollection

PAUL MCCARTNEY: MEMORY ALMOST FULL

HEAR MUSIC, 12.99

YOU might think Paul McCartney would be sick of talking about The Beatles, but it appears that the 40th anniversary of the release of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band has come along at just the right time for him. At last, something to divert attention from his personal annus horribilis.

McCartney has maintained a dignified silence throughout the messy breakdown of his marriage to Heather Mills, which has dominated headlines. At least he has had creative matters to attend to that have kept him otherwise occupied - the premiere of his choral work Ecce cor Meum, his departure from EMI, striking a new deal with The Man (caf division) by signing to Starbucks' new record label of all places, and completing a new pop album, which he had begun as far back as 2003, before breaking off to record his last album, Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard, with Nigel Godrich.

He is happy to class Memory Almost Full as a personal album, sometimes shamelessly so - just not in the way you might expect. Anyone hoping for a confessional from his first post-Heather release will be disappointed. Instead, there is the apprehension he is trying to redirect attention to a different section of his biography as he reflects back on his childhood in particular. Maybe his recent travails have caused him to become especially contemplative about his life, because McCartney has described the astutely titled Memory Almost Full as "purposefully retrospective".

The album's uncluttered first single Ever Present Past refers to "the things I did as a kid" rather than the more illustrious portions of his past implied by the title, and a five-song cycle towards the end of the album is a permissibly rheumy-eyed indulgence. However, elsewhere McCartney adheres to universal sentiments, simply expressed.

Producer David Kahne has helmed the project throughout its gestation but, as before, McCartney plays just about everything himself. He has recently added mandolin to his repertoire, likening the process of teaching himself to play a new instrument to the excitement he felt when he first learned guitar chords.

The current single, Dance Tonight, is his excuse to show what he learned at school today. It's a very basic, disposable ditty, and not the greatest advert for an album which, though musically straightforward for the most part, does have interludes of considerable sophistication.

The album contains some of Macca's best melodies in years. With a more souped-up arrangement, See Your Sunshine could easily be a boyband song worth cherishing for its nice hooks, cooing backing harmonies and summery atmosphere. In fact, didn't Take That just gleefully rip off The Beatles on their last single? In contrast, You Tell Me showcases his vulnerable side.

Wings fans will lap up the raucous Only Mama Knows but it's not the only heavier moment on the album. McCartney puts on his hoary rock voice for the bluesy Gratitude, which is reminiscent of The Who in slightly overcooked rock-opera mode. There has been considerable speculation that this track could be a droll pop at Mills. Lines such as "I was lonely, I was living with a memory, but my cold and lonely nights ended when you sheltered me" seem to bear this out, but that's about your lot for a riposte.

He also has fun with the eccentric Mr Bellamy, another timeless portrait in the Eleanor Rigby tradition, about a man who finds liberation by opting out of the world.

There is a Kate Bush-like quirkiness to the musical dialogue between the protagonist and his would-be rescuers, and the bonus of a blissed-out coda with trilling woodwind.

The closing song cycle reprises the album's chief themes, looking backward and forward. Ignoring his own "don't live in the past" advice on Vintage Clothes, McCartney barrels straight into That Was Me, an aural photo album from childhood holidays, which is redolent of his late Beatles work. The suitably dreamy Feet in the Clouds is embellished with heavenly harmonies reminiscent of the work of his old pal Brian Wilson.

Sticking with the musical giants, there is a distinctly Pink Floyd feel to the baleful, echoing, epic and indulgent House of Wax, while The End of the End is just pure McCartney.

Nod Your Head rounds off the album like a Beatles bonus ball, in a flurry of distorted guitars, hollered vocals and sturdy rhythms, and it's not difficult to hear why this has been the most enthusiastically received Paul McCartney album in some time, even though there is still an element of wishful thinking in the rush to praise a songwriter who has been so much more inspired in his ever-present past.

PAUL HAIG: ELECTRONIK AUDIENCE

RHYTHM OF LIFE, 10.99

ALTHOUGH better known as the home of the jangly guitar, Scotland has produced its fair share of electronica artists, with Mylo and now Calvin Harris emerging as the bedroom boffins du jour. Paul Haig has been making electronic music on the fringes for more than two decades, but is still more recognised as the frontman of post-punk pioneers Josef K. With its hypnotic grooves, vocoder effects and minimal lyrics, Electronik Audience is his most club-friendly and commercial recording in years, even if it occasionally sounds like an album out of time. Besides the blatant Kraftwerk influence, his film soundtrack sensibilities come through on the moody Life Goes On, while Disco Gem finds common ground between Scissor Sisters and Joy Division.

DIZZEE RASCAL: MATHS+ENGLISH

XL RECORDINGS, 11.99

A THIRD confident missive from Dizzee Rascal, rightly lauded for sculpting an eclectic Brit-hop landscape. Maths+English rolls out its reasonable share of inventive backing tracks - check out the sleek, sinister atmosphere of U Can't Tell Me Nuffin' for evidence of what he can construct. Vocally, he has tempered his distinctive squawking tone, but his subject matter is the same old mean-streets rigmarole, plus an ode to his favourite brand of trainers. He samples Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys and enlists the help of Lily Allen, but nothing truly audacious jumps out of the mix.

LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III: STRANGE WEIRDOS

CONCORD RECORDS, 12.99

STRANGE Weirdos is music from and inspired by the film Knocked Up, but it works just fine as an album in its own right. In collaboration with the equally respected songwriter/producer Joe Henry, Wainwright Sr has crafted a beautifully nuanced collection which would be a great starting place for anyone investigating Rufus and Martha's dad for the first time. You can hear where his offspring got their lyrical bite from on the wonderfully sardonic Lullaby about a couple's pre-bedtime tiff ("shut your mouth and button your lip, you're a late-night faucet that's got a drip").

DONNACHA DENNEHY: ELASTIC HARMONIC

NMC, 12.99

DONNACHA Dennehy is a completely new name to me. But if the music on NMC's profile disc of this 37-year-old Irish composer is anything to go by, he's one to take note of. The essence of his style embraces obvious aspects of minimalism - feisty and explosive in the crazed electro-acoustic idiom of Junk Box Fraud (for which the two vocal soloists dye their hair red and blue respectively); mesmerising and liquid in the newest work featured, Dennehy's 2005 Elastic Harmonic for violin and orchestra.

The performances are fresh, furious and frenetic. Central to Junk Box Fraud, with its virile intrusions of jazz and rock, and to his catchy Streetwalker, are the idiosyncratic Crash Ensemble. They display an "ownership" of these works somewhat reminiscent of The Fires of London and Peter Maxwell Davies. According to Dennehy, Crash was intrinsic to their conception.

I like the variety of the music represented. Between bigger works, such as the hauntingly abstract Glamour Sleeper performed by Ensemble Integrales, Hungarian solo percussionist Tatiana Koleva demonstrates the wild virtuosity of Paddy, while irrepressible all-weather pianist Joanna MacGregor is superb in her delivery of the elusive and atmospheric part for solo piano and tape.

If the point of this release is to whet your appetite to seek out more of Dennehy's music, then it works a treat.

PARRY: VIOLIN SONATAS

HELIOS, 5.99

WHILE the world admires Elgar in his 150th anniversary year, a disc honouring his slightly older contemporary, Sir Hubert Parry, is worth some investigation. Better known for his big English anthems - the coronation classic I was Glad among them - Parry remained intrinsically conservative as a composer. But there are moments in this trio of works for violin and piano that hint at something more daring. Violinist Erich Gruenberg and accompanist Roger Vignoles highlight these in their mellifluous performances of the D major Violin Sonata, the sketch-like Twelve Short Pieces.

CLAIRE MARTIN: HE NEVER MENTIONED LOVE

LINN RECORDS, 12.99

CLAIRE Martin has remained at the top of the ever-growing heap of UK jazz singers over the past decade and more. This latest disc, her 12th for the Glasgow-based Linn Records, is her tribute to the work of the great American jazz singer Shirley Horn, who died in 2005. As with the best tributes, she puts her own imprint on material associated with Horn and includes a song she wrote in her memory, Slowly But Shirley (slow tempos, of course, being one of Horn's hallmarks).

Martin is a mature artist with a real understanding of the music, and is supported by an excellent trio led by pianist Gareth Williams, with guests that include Scottish guitar maestro Jim Mullen and Skye-based saxophonist Nigel Hitchcock.

SIMON THOUMIRE & DAVID MILLIGAN: THIRD FLIGHT HOME

FOOTSTOMPIN' RECORDS, 12.99

THE duo of concertina player Simon Thoumire and pianist David Milligan is a well-established musical partnership, and one that offer a diverse range of stylistic options. The combination of instruments is an unusual but effective one, and both players wear their considerable instrumental virtuosity lightly. Their selection of material, much of it from contemporary sources, is spot-on, and the music has a refreshing zest and sparkle that never flags, whether on conventional reels and Strathspeys from the Scottish tradition or more off-the-wall selections like Russian pianist Misha Alperin's Wedding in the Wild Forest.

TONI IORDACHE: SOUNDS FROM A BYGONE AGE VOLUME 4

ATR, 13.99

THE tambal is Romania's name for the zither played with two sticks with their heads wrapped in cotton: Toni Iordache (1942-87) was its undisputed master in Ceausescu's Communist heyday. Indeed, when he was imprisoned for possessing a few dollars, one of his supporters angrily asked why one of their country's three celebrities (the others being Ceausescu and tennis ace Ilie Nastase) deserved such vengeful treatment. His fellow convicts ensured that his fragile health was not further damaged, by doing his hard labour for him. The sound here is sweet old-fashioned analogue - do we now prize that so much because it denotes genuineness?

And do those hammers fly! His top frequency was timed at an amazing 25 beats per second, and the faster he goes, the closer we pay attention. But there are other pleasures to savour here, notably violin, trumpet and clarinet riffs, and solos by Gypsy singers backed by the band in that wonderfully insinuating "aksak" rhythm which characterises their slow dances.

Recorded in the 1960s, this CD takes us back to the world of those Gypsy magicians Taraf de Hadouks before fame took away their edge, but it also has some deliciously jazzy moments.

LA NEF - MUSIQUES DES MONTAGNES

ATMA, 13.99

THIS is the music of the Balkans as recreated by a group of musicians in Montreal. La Nef have taken recordings made by ethnomusicologists in northern Greece and Macedonia and reworked them with the aid of a variety of traditional Balkan and Arabic instruments: oud, saz, derbouka drum, bagpipe, flute, and medieval vielle.

It's beautifully played and sung, very easy on the ear, and introduces the listener to dances, lullabies, and laments from a part of the world whose music tends to get overlooked in the current rush to find new world-music "stars".

To order any of these CDs at the special prices listed, call The Scotsman music line on 01634 832789. Prices quoted include P&P. Please allow 21 days for delivery.