Album reviews: Stereophonics | Self Esteem | Billy Idol | Cloth

Much of the new Sterophonics album is either mellow or middle-of-the-road, while Billy Idol is still committed to the cause, writes Fiona Shepherd

Stereophonics: Make ’em Laugh, Make ’em Cry, Make ’em Wait (EMI) ★★★★

Self Esteem: A Complicated Woman (Polydor) ★★★

Billy Idol: Dream Into It (Dark Horse Records) ★★★

Stereophonics PIC: James D Kelly

Cloth: Pink Silence (Rock Action) ★★★

The tile of Stereophonics’ latest album, Make ’em Laugh, Make ’em Cry, Make ’em Wait, suggests some whizz-bang showbiz jazz hands action from a band who don’t obviously adhere to old school entertainment traditions, with frontman Kelly Jones even advising “buckle up, it’s time to go to those places you don’t wanna go” on the tremulous coda of first track Make It On Your Own.

In reality, there are no white knuckle thrills and spills to be found across the trim eight tracks. After flexing their Springsteen muscles on the soaring opening moments of the album, they settle into a softer slipstream with manicured strings and wistful wishes, then switch to the mid-paced amble of There’s Always Gonna Be Something, a shoulder shrug of a song on the slings and arrows of day-to-day life.

Far from amping up the drama, Jones and co take a sober view. Seems Like You Don’t Know Me is a pleasant rumination on unpleasant sentiments, soundtracking the bitter fallout of failed relationships with mild acoustic strumming, gently pattering drum machine and just a hint of guitar heroics at the end.

Billy Idol PIC: David Raccuglia

Much of the album is either mellow (rhythm’n’blues ballad Colours of October) or middle-of-the-road (standard roots rocker Mary Is a Singer) but they do perk up on dirty blues rocker Eyes Too Big For My Belly which rips a page out of Jack White’s book, with Jones whooping it up over fuzz guitar and surging strings.

Rebecca Lucy Taylor aka Self Esteem follows up her hugely acclaimed Prioritise Pleasure album with a mixed bag of styles and stances, wrangling with her changed circumstances and mental health with ample wit and a troupe of sisters in tow.

Nadine Shah, Moonchild Sanelly and Sue Tompkins of Glasgow’s Life Without Buildings all guest on A Complicated Woman alongside the House Gospel Choir, who function as her Greek chorus on the ambivalent opening number I Do & I Don’t Care. “If I’m so empowered why am I such a coward?” goes the chant. Later they are called upon to get expletive on The Curse, a big, slick orchestral anthem on alcohol dependency.

The pop dominatrix is back on prowling electro numbers Mother, featuring the withering advice “I recommend listening”, and 69’s inventory of sexual positions before the massed voices return on epic a cappella What Now, which applies a touch of musical theatre to its rousing sentiments.

Cloth PIC: Sandra Ebert

Billy Idol is among this year’s nominated inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Whether or not he receives official recognition, one can’t fault his commitment to the cause. His first album of new music in a decade is broadly themed around his somewhat arthritic insistence that he’s still good to go with Still Dancing, his salute to survival, the closest thing to his classic sleek but revved-up rock’n’roll sound.

His fellow Sunset Strip rocker Joan Jett makes a tame cameo on Wildside, while Alison Mosshart of The Kills turns on the torch on the melodramatic John Wayne. Idol’s trusty wingman Steve Stevens doesn’t see too much action but does what he can on Too Much Fun, a bubblegum punk tribute to his tearaway days.

Glasgow-based twins Rachael and Paul Swinton have named Pink Silence, their third album as Cloth, after their term for the ethereal gloaming around dusk and dawn.

Mellow minimalism is mainly the order of the day with instrumental incursions from their label boss Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai, Portishead’s Adrian Utley and string arranging supremo Owen Pallett. Standout tracks include the markedly peppier Polaroid, the cool Eighties pop vibes I Don’t Think So and the bare beauty of The Cottage.

CLASSICAL

Ancient Modernity: Louise McMonagle (Delphian)

★★★★★

The notion that the “past and the present are contained within one another” lies at the core of Scots cellist Louise McMonagle’s debut solo album Ancient Modernity. Best know for her work with frontline contemporary group Riot Ensemble, McMonagle echoes that interest from a sole perspective, performing works almost exclusively by female composers that explore the extreme possibilities of her instrument while harnessing mindful allusions to the past. From Errollyn Wallen’s pithy opener Postcard for Magdalena to the extended experimentalism of Liza Lim’s Cello Playing – as Meteorology (played with a bow in each hand) the journey is both fascinating and diverse. Ailie Robertson’s Skydance owes its magic to the delicacy of harmonics, while the captivating mystique of Josephine Stephenson’s Anamnesis, the spectralcharm of Lisa Robertson’s the light through forest leaves and the wistful contemplation of John Maxwell Geddes’ Callanish IV all offer singular delights. Evocations of folk music offer nostalgic touches. Ken Walton

JAZZ

Joe Lovano & Marcin Wasilewski Trio (Homage) ★★★★

There’s something enveloping in this second collaboration between US elder saxophone statesman Joe Lovano and the younger but much-esteemed Polish piano trio of Marcin Wasilewski with double-bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskiewicz, as they draw you into their animated free-improvisatory dialogues. It kicks off, however, in lushly melodic ballad form with Love in the Garden, Lovano’s tenor sax tone true as a bell alongside richly responding piano, while the subsequent Golden Horn rides a stealthy piano and bass groove with insistent shades of Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. The title track confirms the joyfully improvisatory character of these sessions with sporadic piano cascades interspersing with tenor sax and bass musings before Lovano resumes the conversation with the reedy strains of the eastern European tarogato. This Side – Catville is another rolling free improv excursion, stabbing sax phrases interspersed with boisterous drumming and outbursts of glistering piano. Jim Gilchrist