By Fiona Shepherd

Published 24th May 2024, 04:55 BST

Lenny Kravitz: Blue Electric Light (Roxie Records/BMG) ***

Paul Weller: 66 (Polydor) ****

Shellac: To All Trains (Touch And Go) ***

Bee Asha: Goodbye, Gracious (self-released) ****

“Lockdown!” whoops Lenny Kravitz on the opening track of his 12th album. Is this a good or a bad thing? Well, the title of the song is It’s Just Another Fine Day (In This Universe of Love) and Kravitz did spend most of the pandemic holed up in his Bahamas studio, cranking out enough tunes to fill several albums, so presumably he was fine with imposed exile.

Blue Electric Light is the first fruit of this creative burst, a double album outpouring of his trademark funk, rock and blues blend, refined, tweaked and polished (cos he had the time) yet landing just nicely with a dash of soulful angst, smoochy vibes and some of that Prince/George Clinton-style psychedelic grooviness as already heard on his Star Wars-referencing single TK421, a song so full of beans that Kravitz dances naked a la Saltburn in the video.

Positivity abounds. Human is his freewheeling pledge to keep it real with bonus disco chimes, Bundle of Joy is pure pop uplift and Spirit In My Heart a slice of breezy Stevie Wonder-style psych soul. Love Is My Religion is even more upbeat, with Kravitz cheerleading “come on world” as the brass kicks in.

There are moodier moments, such as the minimal dirty funk mantra Let It Ride and the rock balladry of the closing title track. Until now, Kravitz has been too buoyant to unleash the axe angst but dammit he’s gotta let his girl know how he feels through the medium of meaty guitar riffola before it’s too late.

Paul Weller is in altogether mellower mode on his 17th album, titled Adele-style to mark his age on release. Old pals assemble to contribute lyrics, tunes and performances – Suggs, Noel Gallagher, Bobby Gillespie, Richard Hawley, actor Max Beesley, Blow Monkeys mainman Dr Robert and Orcadian composer Erland Cooper are all in the creative mix, with the legendary Peter Blake on artwork, but 66 is a far from cluttered affair.

Its reflective record collection rock contains some of Weller’s most touching songs in some time, kicking off with the pastoral psych pop of Ship of Fools, gliding on to the dancefloor for Flying Fish, delivering the symphonic soul hit of Rise Up Singing and the Hawley-like urban romance of A Glimpse of You before blissing out on languorous coda Burn Out.

Cult alt.rock hero Steve Albini died mere days before the release of the latest Shellac album. To All Trains unwittingly becomes his musical epitaph and testament to his tight partnership with bassist Bob Weston and mighty drummer Todd Trainer. Clocking in at a taut 28 minutes, it encompasses the controlled derangement of Girl From Outside, Chick New Wave’s hell-for-leather sprint to an abrupt finish and the contrasting rolling rhythm, impish bassline and staccato vocal delivery of Tattoos. How I Wrote How I Wrote Elastic Man is a sideways smirk to The Fall, while the gothic punk stylings of Scabby the Rat surely nod to The Damned’s incorrigible drummer. Albini’s final musical utterance is the unintentionally poignant I Don’t Fear Hell.

Edinburgh-based singer, songwriter, poet and activist Bee Asha swaps the playful social commentary of her rap trio The Honey Farm for a far less uproarious solo album of thoughtful, intimate spoken word and ambient soul. Written and recorded last year as she struggled with her mental health, Goodbye, Gracious tracks a journey from melancholy to a lighter place. Butterflies is light-on-its-feet electronic jazz despite the heavy sentiments, Nada is a soulful rap about self-care while Grey fits a mellow jazz soul backing to a foreboding inventory of everyday sexism and harassment but it’s all kissed better on Gitika, a silky, sprightly dance number with a heady backing chorus.

CLASSICAL

Shostakovich: Symphony No 13 “Babiy Yar” | Pärt: De Profundis (Chandos) ****

It’s hard to dismiss the contemporary poignancy of Shostakovich’s Symphony No 13, bravely premiered in Moscow in 1962 despite censorial interference still facing artists a decade after Stalin’s demise. It was the subversive poetry of Yevgeny Yevtushenko, set by Shostakovich, that most risked offence. The first movement alone uses the poet’s Babiy Yar, bemoaning the lack of memorials to the Nazi’s murder of Jews dumped in a ravine near Kiev, but continues with barbed digs at wider Soviet social ills under Khrushchev, eerily resurfacing today. So this is powerfully emotive music, dauntingly expressed in a chilling performance by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the excellent Estonian National Male Choir and bass soloist Albert Dohmen under the baton of John Storgårds. It’s not all grim: the second movement, “Humour”, is full of Shostakovich’s acid wit, the slow movements not without impassioned humanity. Arvo Pärt’s De Profundis provides a powerful, tolling scene-setter. Ken Walton

FOLK

Jack Badcock: Cosmography (Own Label) ****

Jack Badcock’s cosmos is multifarious. Frontman of the award-winning Scots-Irish-European band Dallahan, here he casts off as a singer-songwriter of persuasive ability, accompanied by players including fellow-Dallahan member Andrew Waite on accordion, pianist-clarinettist Tom Gibbs, drummer Louis Abbot and producer Euan Burton on bass. The triple-song opening track, Life in Three Dimensions, sets the vibe of his musical enquiries into the strange accident of existence, delivered in his warm tenor tones (reminiscent at times of Gerry Rafferty, particularly when couched amid rich support vocals from singers including Siobhan Miller, Josie Duncan and Beth Malcolm). Mood and subject matter range from the catchy folk history of The Ghost of Leland Birch or the mellifluous Deep in the Hills to the historical preoccupations of The English Samurai. Particularly moving, though, is the reproachful plea of How You Raise a Child, its entreaty swelling to a tender closing chorus. Jim Gilchrist

Album reviews: Lenny Kravitz | Paul Weller | Shellac | Bee Asher