The five best pop albums to listen to over the summer holidays, including Beth Gibbons' Lives Outgrown
Scotsman pop critic Fiona Shepherd selects her favourite albums of the year so far
Beth Gibbons: Lives Outgrown (Domino) There is something both earthy and elemental about Beth Gibbons’ debut solo album yet, despite its ethereal blues, its music is no cathartic conjuring. Lives Outgrown has been a meticulous ten years in the making, its songs of motherhood, menopause and mortality carved and whittled from experience to produce a memento mori for the trip-hop generation. Read the full review here
Gruff Rhys: Sadness Sets Me Free (Rough Trade Records) Former Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys optimises his strategy for “shedding some light on sadness and the general terror of cosmic loneliness” on his consistently delightful album Sadness Sets Me Free via the medium of whimsical Lee Hazlewood-style country folk, floaty retro backing vocals and lavish strings – and that’s just the opening title track, which changes pace to become a soused country waltz in the last 90 seconds. Read the full review here
Kathryn Williams & Withered Hand: Willson Williams (One Little Independent) Dream team of the week, however, goes to Kathryn Williams & Withered Hand, two natural born songwriters with, it transpires, an effortless chemistry, sounding like a unisex Everlys as their voices intertwine on Our Best, a melancholy memorial for those they have lost. Read the full review here
Willie Nelson: The Border (Legacy Recordings) Willie Nelson is 91 years young and an estimated 152 albums into his career. The Border Album is another gem to add to the bumper collection. He showcases his outlaw spirit and supreme storytelling gifts on the opening cover of Rodney Crowell’s The Border, a gentle Tex Mex reproach for those who would exploit immigrant tensions which sounds like it could have been written by or for him. Nelson also celebrates his home state on the playful western swing of Made In Texas and rolls out the droll humour over impish pedal steel on What If I’m Out Of Mind. Read the full review here
Arab Strap: I'm Totally Fine With It Don't Give A F*** Anymore (Rock Action) Arab Strap continue to demonstrate why getting the band back together in 2016 was a wise move with a second album for Rock Action Records, titled with their usual lack of concern for politesse after a text from the band’s drummer and accompanied by faintly disturbing pics of the duo holding up mobile phones as if photographing themselves in the mirror. Read the full review here