Album Reviews

Ever since he recorded Southern Man 40-odd years ago, the grizzled Canadian rock war horse has never been a favourite south of the Mason-Dixon Line, and his rousing reinvention of Oh Susannah is unlikely to mend those fences.

Fans of the North American nursery rhyme canon will doubtless take a dim view of the brutalisation of Clementine, or This Land Is Your Land, but having regrouped the awesome rock combo Crazy Horse, what else would you expect? Certainly not the disembowelling of God Save The Queen, but the national anthem has seldom sounded so contemporary, or hilariously relevant.

Download this: Gallows Pole, God Save The Queen

Patti Smith

Banga

Columbia, £12.99

***

Ticking over smoothly as opposed to burning political rubber, Patti Smith’s first album in eight years finds the high priestess of punk in mellow musical mood.

April Fool is the most radio-friendly thing she has recorded in a long time, unless you count the tribute to the late Amy Winehouse, which is also included here.

This Is The Girl is touchingly simple. Nine, a birthday tribute to Johnny Depp, is more perplexing but no less heartfelt or sincere.

She may look like Geronimo on the cover art, but Smith is conciliatory in mood, as epitomised by Constantine’s Dream.

Download this: April Fool, This Is The Girl

JAZZ

Benny Carter

Four Classic Albums Plus

Avid Jazz AMSC1048, £8.99

****

The quartet of 1950s/1960 LPs featured on this double CD showcases almost every one of jazz legend Benny Carter’s talents: as composer, arranger, alto saxophonist, tenor saxophonist and trumpeter.

These LPs also find him in the top-notch company of the likes of Ben Webster, André Previn, Jimmy Rowles, Frank Rosolino and Barney Kessel – all of whom play on the opening album, the terrific Jazz Giant – and Earl Hines.

It’s perhaps not essential Carter, but a superb snapshot of the great man in his (very long) middle period.

Alison Kerr

Download this: I’m Coming Virginia, If I Loved You

FOLK

James Ross

Chasing The Sun

Trinkie Records TR001, £12.99

****

The youthful pianist/composer – with producer Calum Malcolm, the strings of Mr McFall’s Chamber and Fraser Fifield on saxophone, bagpipes and whistle – takes the listener on an instrumental seven-piece swoop through the ostensibly lonely landscapes of his Caithness homeland.

As in the suite’s touring inception, the north coast is represented by Catriona Murray’s subtly emotive cover photo images, completing an absorbing aural document that increasingly rewards subsequent hearings.

Sensitively played, texturally dense and deeply felt, it’s a powerful, personal musical meditation.

Norman Chalmers

Download this: Beyond The Strath

CLASSICAL

Anna Netrebko

Opera Arias

DG 477 9968, £9.99

****

This reissue of Anna Netrebko’s 2003 debut CD reveals much about changes in the recording industry over the past decade, and it comes with web-based bonuses such as videos for smartphones.

What made this CD notable at the time was that Netrebko was in her thirties when this recording was made, but it was only then that she stepped out from supporting roles into the limelight.

Hers is a class act: if her lyric coloratura voice was already maturing when this recording was made, it still shows the lightness and flexibility of youth.

Alexander Bryce

Download this: Rusalka, Song To The Moon