ALONG with their fellow young Americans MGMT and Vampire Weekend, this Floridian five-piece have been tipped by just about everyone as one of this year's sure things. They definitely pull out the pop stops on a debut album that celebrates the highs
and the heartaches of youth with a succession of amped-up, infectious electro-pop tunes, such as the Pulp-do-Spector of I've Underestimated My Charm (Again), which make the most of Ali Youngblood and Dawn Watley's spirited backing vocals. The suave intro to I'm Making Eyes At You suggests they have it in them to turn on the pop sophistication, but they can't resist pouring some sugar on top in the form of cheesy keys.
ALBERT HAMMOND JR: COMO TE LLAMA
***
ROUGH TRADE, £10.99STROKES guitarist Albert Hammond Jr has again tired of waiting for his parent band to get a move on with their next album, and has beaten them into the studio with a second solo effort. After the unexpected pastoral tweeness of his debut, Yours To Keep, Como Te Llama is a fuller, more ambitious effort. The trouble is that the underwhelming songs sound like the idle dalliances of a man killing time, trying pot luck on extended instrumental Spooky Couch, reggae rocker Borrowed Time, the plodding Feed Me Jack, and even the lo-fi hyperjangle of G Up, one of a couple of sub-Strokes tracks which is no substitute for the real thing.
LEILA: BLOOD, LOOMS AND BLOOMS
***
WARP, £10.99APART from touring again as Björk's right-hand woman, Leila Arab has spent most of the eight years since her last solo album out of the limelight, recovering from the double blow of losing both her parents. Blood, Looms And Blooms is the eventual result of her self-confessed quest to "woo music back" and it is another tastefully composed collection of graceful electronica featuring a number of guest vocalists. Her sister Roya contributes a beautiful jazz vocal to the trip-hop-flavoured Daisies, Cats And Spacemen, Tricky's former muse, girlfriend and musical collaborator Martina Topley-Bird puts in a silky appearance and, best of all, Terry Hall sounds surprisingly chipper on Time To Blow.
FIONA SHEPHERDCLASSICAL
OLIVIER MESSIAEN: ORGAN WORKS VOL III
*****
DELPHIAN, £12.99THIS is perhaps one of the most interesting and moving of Michael Bonaventure's unfolding Messiaen organ series for Delphian. The timing is right, this being Messiaen's centenary year, and the setting is right, the pungent colours of the splendid Rieger organ in Edinburgh's St Giles' Cathedral capturing, for me, the delicious fruitiness of Messiaen's music – its intrinsic Frenchness and sensual Catholic spirituality. Added to which, this double disc is dedicated to the composer's final collection for organ, the substantial Livre du Saint Sacrement. The parallel with Bach's chorale preludes is telling – music that was created primarily for instant use in the church service, probably improvised in the first place, but ultimately refined and written down to create a body of liturgical organ music that stirs us through its immediacy and ethereal brilliance. Of course, Messiaen's highly personal style is a million miles removed from Bach's baroque miniatures. Its intensity is thrillingly portrayed in Bonaventure's expansive delivery. Chords hang timelessly, creating awesome aural images of deep devotion and belief, but equally representative of Messiaen's impassioned persona and unique musical language. There are overwhelming moments of originality – the distant rumblings that open L'Apparition du Christ ressuscité à Marie-Madeleine, or the twittering trademark bird calls of La Joie de la grace. All of which add up to yet another triumphant release from Scotland's most prolific and adventurous record label.
BIZET: L'ARLÉSIENNE
****
NAÏVE, £14.99TO SOME extent, Bizet remains a one-hit wonder, despite the near equal popularity that snippets from his incidental music to Alphonse Daudet's theatre play L'Arlésienne enjoy in relation to that single most famous hit, the opera Carmen. In his debut recording for the French label Naïve, Marc Minkowski seeks to broaden our appreciation of the music in L'Arlésienne with a selection of three orchestral suites from the score – one by Bizet himself, another written shortly after the composer's death by his friend Ernest Guiraud, and, most interestingly, a further eight pieces selected by Minkowski himself, played with intoxicating vigour under his direction by Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble. Besides the alluring music, which includes the famous bits of Carmen, this is an attractively packaged disc, its voluble booklet packed with erudite notes and reproductions of appropriate illustrative paintings.
KENNETH WALTONJAZZ
ALISON BURNS AND MARTIN TAYLOR: 1AM
***
P3 MUSIC, £12.99DUNDONIAN singer Alison Burns and her rather more famous father-in-law turn in a classy set of easy listening slow-tempo jazz standards. This is straight mainstream pop-jazz from start to finish, honed in their many live collaborations over the last year and more. Jazz singers are currently in plentiful supply, and if Burns does not stand out against the competition, she handles the material sweetly and expressively in a selection that mixes the very familiar with less often covered songs. She phrases in conventional but attractive fashion over Taylor's subtle and intricate guitar accompaniments, although the chosen format does not allow him to unwrap his prodigious improvisational skills, and fans buying in expectation of the kind of pyrotechnics he serves up in his solo projects should be aware that he is in a different frame of mind here.
FOLK
DUNCAN CHISHOLM: FARRAR
*****
COPPERFISH RECORDS, £11.99ADMIRERS of fiddler Duncan Chisholm's solo projects generally need to be patient souls, but it is usually worth the wait when they do finally arrive. Farrar is no exception, and is well up to the high benchmark set by Redpoint and The Door of Saints. Slow airs are a speciality, and he reaffirms his mastery of the art on Gordon Duncan's lovely Lorient Mornings as well as several plaintive traditional tunes. His immaculate phrasing and finely judged rhythmic sense is displayed to equally impressive effect on the more up-tempo material, including Fred Morrison's lilting Farewell to Uist, Angus Grant's 250 to Vigo and his own The 303. There is not a weak moment or superfluous note on the album, and he is supported by a fine cast of friends that includes Phil Cunningham, Chris Drever and former Wolfstone band mate Ross Hamilton.
KENNY MATHIESONThe full article contains 1072 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
