Album reviews: The Waterboys | Erasure | The Mavericks

The Waterboys: Good Luck, Seeker (Cooking Vinyl) ***

Erasure: The Neon (Mute) **

The Mavericks: En Español (Mono Mundo Recordings) ****

Callum Easter: Green Door Sessions (Moshi Moshi) ****

Who knows if lockdown has impacted much on Mike Scott. The ever-engaged chief of The Waterboys remains absorbed in his own trip on his latest “almost accidental” album, Good Luck, Seeker. Envisaged as the end of the eclectic, electric trilogy begun with Out of All This Blue and Where the Action Is, the album came together spontaneously in Scott’s home studio with recorded contributions fired over the wires by trusty wingmen Steve Wickham and Brother Paul.

Like its predecessors, it’s an odd blend of freewheeling jamming and studio processing techniques, with Scott indulging his maximalist tendencies on carefree cut-and-paste creations which, to fall back on the old faint praise, were probably a lot of fun to put together.

Scott continues to pay tribute to his inspirations – James Brown on the overly slick rhythm’n’blues of The Soul Singer, Dennis Hopper on the eponymous playful tribute to the cinematic renegade (though the music is strictly straightsville) and The Rolling Stones on processed blues rock instrumental Sticky Fingers – while he reworks his 1997 cover of Kate Bush’s Why Should I Love You with alacrity. Best by far of this first half smorgasbord is Low Down in the Broom, an urgent, souped-up arrangement of a Scottish folk tune.

The second half of the album – side two for vinyl fans – is given over to a largely spoken word spiritual odyssey, weaving elements of previous Waterboys works around quotations from mystical writings. Scott uses a sample from The Unthanks collaboration with Brighouse & Rastrick Brass Band for the basis of the title track, but applies a distracting shuffle beat to the noble swell of backtracked brass. However, he and his fellow travellers summon a cathartic spirit to the semi-autobiograpical blowout My Wanderings in the Weary Land.

Erasure are also immersed in well-worn preoccupations on their latest album, The Neon – “a beautiful light to be bathed in” redolent of fairgrounds, nightclubs and other symbols of leisure and escapism.Conceived as an optimistic counterpoint to 2017 album World Be Gone, it begins with the relatively extrovert Hey Now (Think I Got A Feeling), about finding yourself at home in a new location, and makes explicit its love affair with analogue synthesizers on Nerves of Steel.

Ultimately, The Neon is not much of a party, as Vince Clarke explores the darker tones of his keyboard armoury to create a bittersweet or melancholic backdrop to a pretty pedestrian collection of songs.

In contrast, the first Spanish language album from The Mavericks is all passion, drama and dynamism, dressed in musical clothes which are a natural fit for the Miami-based Cuban-American band, from the soulful, soaring mariachi trumpet and powerhouse vocals of La Sitiera to the symphonic Tex Mex spirit of Me Olvide de Vivir.

These classic Latino covers are complemented by originals from frontman Raul Malo, ranging from the mighty salsa of Recuerdos via the slow dance syncopated sashay of Mujer to the border rock’n’roll of Suspiro Azul. Muy bien.

Edinburgh-based Callum Easter is one of the most singular musical voices to emerge from Scotland in recent years with a constantly evolving DIY sound. Of late, he has added charity shop-bought accordion to his repertoire, which he feeds through a sub harmonic generator to haunting effect.

Green Door Sessions, recorded at the titular Glasgow studio, features new accordion-laced versions of previously released Easter material, recorded in one take with no overdubs. It can be a bare, desolate sound, never more so than thelooped wounded wheeze of Fall Down, but Easter exudes something of an old soul via the mournful combination of accordion, lonesome whistling and his beautifully bruised voice on Lonely World, while the lo-fi swagger of Pop Goes the Weasel and lean blues mantra Feelings Gone vary the palette.

CLASSICAL

Tallis: Spem in Alium | MacMillan: Vida aqua (Harmonia Mundi) ****

Beginning and ending with a cappella motets in 40 parts, there are both curiosity and thrill factors to this new album by the ORA Singers under their director Suzi Digby. Choral aficionados will guess that one of these is Thomas Talllis’ 16th century masterpiece Spem in Alium. The other, specially commissioned as a reflection on the Tallis, is an equally luxuriant setting of the Easter text “Vidi aqua” by James MacMillan. To hear both together is to appreciate the inspiration MacMillan takes from Tallis and the original thought he freely applies. The newer piece is both a homage and a reimagining. Separating these are a collection of motets by Tallis contemporaries, the equally well-known William Byrd and lesser-known Derrick Gararde, Alfonso Ferrabosco and Philip van Wilder, all richly-served by ORA’s powerf performances. The recording comes with an illustrative documentary DVD. Ken Walton

FOLK

Saskia: Are You Listening? (www.saskiagm.com) ****

Saskia Griffiths-Moore is a London-based therapist turned singer songwriter with a beautifully supple, full-toned yet unforced voice that immediately bears comparison with classic Joan Baez (in fact her last album was titled Baez, Dylan and Me). This album is a retrospective compilation, which is fine for those, such as this writer, who haven’t previously heard her. She commands attention from the outset with that title question, the beguiling flow of In Our Time and the unguarded plaintiveness of Come Comfort Me. Delicately accompanied by guitar, bass, occasional piano and cello and some multi-tracking of her own vocal harmonies, some songs make more of a lasting impression than others – the most riveting is The Presence – but all are persuasively melodious and straight from the heart. To close with a cover of Leonard Cohen’s well-worn Hallelujah is taking a risk, but it comes over straight, no makeover, and with easeful panache. Jim Gilchrist

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Album reviews: The Waterboys | Erasure | The Mavericks | Callum Easter