Album reviews: The View | Hozier | Jah Wobble | Kim Moore

It may be eight years since The View’s last album, but they still sound full of youthful energy on their latest release, writes Fiona Shepherd

The View

The View: Exorcism of Youth (Cooking Vinyl) ****

Hozier: Unreal Unearth (Island) ***

Jah Wobble: A Brief History of Now (Cleopatra Records) ****

Kim Moore: A Song We Destroy To Begin Again (Blackford Hill) ***

Dundonian indie favourites The View return to the day job with their first album in eight years – older, certainly, wiser, hopefully. The title of their sixth album carries a double meaning – both a joke about their producer Youth, a man who likes to create a spiritual vibe with no bad juju in the studio, but also a farewell to youth, a putting off of childish things.

In execution, however, the sound is fresh, youthful, almost gamine, with frontman Kyle Falconer flexing his pop muscles, co-singer/bassist Kieren Webster bringing the headlong energy and guitarist Pete Reilly joining the songwriting party for the first time.

The title track begins in light, upbeat style but covers a fair amount of ground in under four minutes as the grungier guitars rev up, Feels Like turns the dial and ends up on a Seventies soft rock station and The Wonder Of It All features blasting power pop guitar and a propulsive thrash of a chorus – all greasing the wheels for the distinct influence of the Bay City Rollers on Arctic Sun, with its glam beat and Falconer’s semi-spoken interlude.

Hozier PIC: Leigh Page

Allergic to Mornings is full of tips for combating an aversion to the AM – “wake up in the afternoon” being the most obvious. “Sometimes the wheels come off but don’t let the walls come in,” advises Falconer, who has not had his own troubles to seek over the years, but responds with life-affirming vim. The fleet-footed pop of Dixie is almost Eurovision-worthy in its melodic choice but, for those looking for something to chew on, Black Mirror builds up to a melodramatic head of steam with Falconer giving it all vocally.

Irish singer/songwriter Hozier returns with a third album influenced by his pandemic reading. Unreal Unearth is themed loosely round the nine circles of hell from Dante’s Inferno – not that there is anything infernal in his delivery of the haunting Gaelic folk of De Selby (Part 1), which references a Flann O’Brien character.

The chestbeating declamation of Francesca represents the sin of lust, if you want it to, but beyond the literary themes this is another accessible soul pop album, slightly overcooked with sweeping strings, but with a few interesting sonic tendrils such as the gentle, floaty, slick folk pop of I, Carrion and the largely instrumental sonorous reverie of Son Of Nyx.

Bass ace Jah Wobble will tour a dub tribute to his former band PIL’s classic second album Metal Box this autumn. In the meantime, he has decided to record his own PIL-like album, drawing on his longtime dub, punk and spoken word influences. A Brief History of Now encompasses the gothic bass and jazz punk saxophone of Soo 135 Popsong and the snotty vocals and clamorous backing track of Fashion World. I am, I am, I am is a droll odyssey through a local supermarket and Wobble combines the rough bass rumble with smooth legato saxophone on 80 Beats Per Minute. His raucous cover of Wire’s post-punk classic I Am The Fly might just be a message to his former paymaster John Lydon, who also releases a new PIL album this month.

Jah Wobble PIC: Tina Korhonen

Multi-instrumentalist Kim Moore, formerly of blithe indie spirits Zoey Van Goey, is now a contemporary composer and sound artist. Her latest commission, A Song We Destroy to Spin Again, is a 23-minute meditation on collective loss, performed by violinist Katrina Lee and cellist Alice Allen and then manipulated by Moore to produce distant hazy drones abruptly interrupted by stabbing strings, gentle waves of sound punctuated by a mournful folk air on violin and a satisfying bass note to finish.

CLASSICAL

Martin Owen plays Strauss, Schumann and Weber (Chandos) *****

There’s nothing so resplendent in music as the ripe glow of a full horn section. Schumann’s Concerto for Four Horns throws this normally backroom unit to the foreground as a solo quartet. Leading the pack is Martin Owen, principal of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, performing here with the BBC Philharmonic under John Wilson alongside fellow hornists Chris Parkes, ex-SCO principal Alec Frank-Gemmill and Sarah Willis. It's a dazzling opener to a disc otherwise dominated by Owen himself, first in the comfortable operatic narrative of Weber’s Horn Concertino, before raising the temperature again in Richard Strauss’ two Horn Concertos. The first is a sturdy affair, lyrically expansive within a safe and predictable ground plan. Owen’s flawless artistry sources the directional finesse. The second is a bolder Straussian adventure, full of impish character, deviant sidestepping and gymnastic thrills. Owen and the BBC Phil capture its playful spirit. Ken Walton

FOLK

Rachel Hair & Ron Jappy: Élan (March Hair Records) ****

Harpist Rachel Hair and guitarist Ron Jappy renew sparky musical acquaintanceship with a second duo album. It opens at a brisk skelp with the Transatlantic Proposal jig set, one of several exuberantly paced excursions such as Tom Toi’s Polkas, Hair’s harp skipping brightly over Jappy’s tightly syncopated guitar and guest Adam Brown’s bodhrán. Another jig set, this time from the Cape Breton tradition, also rolls along in an easeful manner, while the closing sequence, To the Rock, is a vivacious manifestation of Hair’s Manx connections. It’s not all fireworks, however: a pairing of waltzes includes Hair’s own fond tribute to grandparents, Irene’s Waltz. Another of her compositions, Dinan Dawn, revolves gently, Breton style, before leading on to Shetland fiddle patriarch Tom Anderson’s Daybrak, and there’s a fine stillness to the air McLeods of Waipu, inspired by her visit to New Zealand’s immigrant Hebridean community. Jim Gilchrist