Album reviews: Ani DiFranco | Tribes | Milagres | Jazz | Folk | Classical

Our critics lend their ears to the pick of this week’s longplayers

POP

Ani DiFranco

Which Side Are You On?

Righteous Babe Records £10.99

Rating: ***

If age and/or motherhood have mellowed DiFranco, it does not show. It may have slowed down her usual album-a-year productivity, as this new record arrives nearly four years after the last, but any thoughts that her agitpop approach has been moderated should be dead in the water on recognising that the title track is her updating of the Pete Seeger rabble-rouser, with the man himself making a guest appearance.

Reaganomics, dodgy elections and other Ani pet hates get a good airing, but clearly still reek of the same stench getting up the DiFranco nose.

It is not as jerky a sound as has been her trademark in the past, but is all the better for that.

The opening Life Boat is smooth and strangely soothing, and Splinter’s gentle bossa nova borders on the soporific, before the title song stomps and fist-pumps any lethargy clear away. If Yr Not tries the same trick but with insufficient grace to have the same effect.

Best song on the record? Albacore. It is lyrically sharp, with talk of wedding band tattoos, melodically charming and beautifully performed. J continues in the same vein without hitting the same heights. Sitting somewhere between the bark of Lucinda Williams and the nippiness of Liz Phair, she is a strong independent voice in an increasingly corporate entertainment world.

Download this: Albacore, Which Side Are You On?

Tribes

Baby

Island £10.99

Rating: **

Despite the nonsensical Nirvana hyperbole accompanying this London band’s debut offering, they never muster sufficient grunge gravitas. Singer Johnny Lloyd considers the death of his pal Charlie Haddon on Corner Of An English Field, but this clumsy tribute to the late frontman of Ou Est Le Swimming Pool could make poppies wilt.

On an album that’s overwhelmingly average from start to finish, not even a rip-off of Blur’s Tender in the form of Alone Or With Friends can approximate a memorable tune. This is the sound of the past asphyxiating the present.

Download this: Halfway Home

Milagres

Glowing Mouth

Memphis Industries, £10.99

Rating: ***

Halfway through opening tune, er, Halfway, there is a lovingly crafted chord sequence of Brian Wilson quality, but any Beach Boys obsessions are swiftly brought to heel on this impressive debut. New York quintet Milagres make sophisticated, savvy pop music – the title song and Fright Of Thee being particularly fine examples.

Some songs – Gone, for example – are not as well developed as they might be, but this will be looked back upon as an auspicious beginning.

Download this: Here To Stay, Gentle Beast

JAZZ

Bernd Lhotzky

Black Butterfly

Echoes of Swing Productions EOSP 4507 2, download only

Rating: *****

Lhotzky, as anyone who heard him at the last Nairn Jazz Festival in 2009 knows, is a pianist of impeccable taste and class, with a gentle warm sound and delicate touch, plus a penchant for the stride style pioneered by James P Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith and Eubie Blake. Their music is featured on this lovely 16-track solo album, which also includes Lhotzky’s takes on Chopin, Kern and – particularly memorably – George Shearing’s Children’s Waltz.

Download this: Children’s Waltz, Black Butterfly

FOLK

Oliver Schroer & Nuala Kennedy

Enthralled

Borealis Records BCD206, £12.99

Rating: ****

This is the final testament from the unique fiddle and musical imagination of the late North American, and a moving expression of the enjoyment and exploratory vitality he shared with the talented young Edinburgh/Irishwoman through his last years.

Schroer’s unusual sense of structure and melodic line marries with Kennedy’s fluid flute and vocals in an international album that is overflowing with ideas and tuneful invention.

The anthemic Whispering Wind evocatively deploys found sounds, but the album’s power rests in the joyful, creative discovery and palpable spirit of adventure shared by all the highly skilled collaborators.

Download this: Choufl

CLASSICAL

Erich Korngold, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Violin Concertos

Naïve V5280, £12.99

Rating: *****

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto In D Major is regular, though exacting, concert hall fare. There is little to connect it with Erich Korngold’s Violin Concerto in the same key, save difficulty.

The only tangible link, perhaps, is Gustav Mahler, who conducted the Hamburg premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin in the composer’s presence, and who encouraged Korngold.

Yet their differences make them a fascinating pair on this sterling recording by Laurent Korcia with the Liege Royal Philharmonic under Jean-Jacques Kantorow.

Download this: Korngold Violin Concerto: Finale