Album reviews: Take That | Bryan Ferry | Jacob Yeats and the Pearly Gate Lockpickers | Ghost Singers

This Life suggests a potential new path for Take That as they reckon with the contradictions of becoming a middle-aged boy band, writes Fiona Shepherd

Take That: This Life (EMI Records) ****

Bryan Ferry: Mamouna (Deluxe) (BMG) ***

Jacob Yates and the Pearly Gate Lockpickers: Murder 24/7 (Errol’s Hot Wax) ****

Take That

Ghost Singers: Schizophrenic Lovesick Blues (self-released) ****

Top pop practitioners Take That return a slightly altered outfit with their first album in six years. The core trio – Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald – remain a stable unit but they are happy to mature and evolve on the gentle but uplifting This Life, recorded predominantly in Savannah, Georgia with additional spells in two legendary studios – Nashville’s RCA Studio A and New York’s Electric Lady Studios.

The classic Americana heritage has clearly rubbed off. The soaring harmony vocals throughout suggest Barlow has taken a leaf out of fellow northern expat Graham Nash’s songbook, while various sun-kissed publicity shots attest to the hazy summer pop atmosphere of the album.

Opening track Keep Your Head Up is a beguiling tapestry of harmonies, the vocals thrown into relief by the uncluttered arrangement, while recent single Windows is one of the year’s most pleasing earworms, a warming shot of hope which slips down easily with sweeping strings and burnished guitar.

Bryan Ferry PIC: Gavin Evans

The album continues in this charming easy listening vein. Brand New Sun is a little too middle-of-the-road but the Seventies and Eighties power pop influences on the title track and Mind Full of Madness recall the maestro likes of ELO and Fleetwood Mac respectively, while the brazen influence of The Police is all over the deft phrasing and AOR guitar of Days I Hate Myself.

March of the Hopeful does what it says on the tin, pushing for the positive, while balmy Laurel Canyon breezes blow through The Champion and the autumnal melancholy of Fleet Foxes infuses We Got All Day, making This Life an album for the seasons and a potential new path for Take That as they reckon with the contradictions of becoming a middle-aged boy band.

The Bryan Ferry re-issue programme, marking a half century of solo recording, continues with slinky 1994 album Mamouna, retooled in time for its 30th anniversary and notable for featuring the first Ferry/Eno co-write, Wildcat Days, and illustrious guests Phil Manzanera, Nile Rodgers, Carleen and Jhelisa Anderson and Maceo Parker, though the main interest lies with the inclusion of previously unreleased album Horoscope, showcasing early versions of Mamouna tracks, as well as the mucho wah-wah of The Only Face, intriguing squeaky sax of Gemini Moon and an alternative take on Roxy classic Mother of Pearl.

The fourth album from swamp rockers Jacob Yates and the Pearly Gate Lockpickers is the first release on new Glasgow label Errol’s Hot Wax, operating out of hip southside pizza parlour Errol’s Hot Pizza. Murder 24/7 was inspired by lockdown viewing sessions of the show of same name, giving a true crime twist to the murder ballad tradition, from the grisly interrogation of Operation Cromwell to the grimy ghost train ride of The Killing of Joss Stone. The humour is pitch black throughout, not least on Black Nike Tracksuit (“nice kitchen blade from TKMaxx, I like to use it in all my attacks”), remixed later as an Adrian Sherwood-style dub punk odyssey.

Christy Harrington is one of the artists features on Ghost Singers - the new project from Glasgow-based singer/songwriter Brian O’Neill

Ghost Singers is a remote musical collective helmed by Glasgow-based singer/songwriter Brian O’Neill, who has recruited a global line-up of largely unknown singers via YouTube – blank slates, mysterious oracles – to front his delicate acoustic songs. There are shades of Stirling’s Constant Follower in the holistic conception and enigmatic acoustic blues of debut album Schizophrenic Lovesick Blues. O’Neill is a suicide survivor writing for his life about mental illness, addiction and recovery, with his words tenderly rendered by the likes of Australian Filipino Beloved Abe on the pure and haunting Remember When I and Colorado singer/songwriter Christy Harrington on Takes Like Muddy Waters.

CLASSICAL

Circus Dinogad (Zefir) *****

At Music at Paxton last summer, the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam revealed their propensity to do things differently, often irreverently. Here they are with further proof, teaming up with Hilary Summers (contralto), Mike Fentross (theorbo) and Maarten Ornstein (bass clarinet) as the cooky collective Circus Dinogad for a debut album that takes fusion to its wildest extremes. The opening juxtaposition of traditional English folk song with Jen-Luc Ponty’s Celtic rock-style Jig immediately sets the delinquent tone. A Purcell song sails along as purebred Baroque, slipping imperceptibly into smoky jazz. Violinist Judith van Driel’s bizarre A Hubristic Hornpipe is pure burlesque with its foxy, mind-bending key changes, while John Dowland’s “In darkness let me dwell” is an exquisite closing track. Feeding through this substantial miscellany is a series of pithy reflections on the Seven Deadly Sins, each composed by one of the performers. All in all, an irresistible indulgence. Ken Walton

JAZZ

Royal New Zealand Air Force Jazz Orchestra: Kaiwhakatere – Navigator (Thick Records) ****

Military bands don’t generally feature on these pages. However, this album from the Royal New Zealand Air Force Jazz Orchestra commands attention, not just for its full-blooded, traditional big band sound, but for its co-production by Scotland’s unofficial jazz consul to New Zealand, drummer John Rae (boasting the honorary rank of Leading Aircraftman). The opening Behemoth of the Bathyal Waters sets the big, rich tone, trumpeter Cam Robertson coming to the fore then Louisa Williamson on tenor sax. There’s limber swing to View to the Sea with garrulous baritone sax from Andre Paris, while Stephanie Paris’s languorous vocals deliver Let’s Not Fall in Love. Birds of Prey proves a vivid showcase, suspenseful interludes giving way to eruptive brass, whirling woodwind and churning drums (Darren Mathiassen), while the insistently racy Royal Blue with its potent soloing demonstrates that this Navigator can really travel. Jim Gilchrist