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Duffy - Rockferry
Aimee Duffy was the
runner-up on Wawffactor, the Welsh alternative
to Pop Idol in 2003, before disappearing
off to university after releasing a completely-ignored
Welsh language EP that you can buy from
iTunes (it's not bad, though sounds very
little like her current material). Sometimes
not winning something can be more useful
than actually going all the way, and while
winner Whatsherface is languishing in obscurity,
Aimee has given up on her first name and
stormed the UK charts as Duffy. Of course,
in between she's not just been sitting in
a bedsit waiting for stardom to find her,
she was out there singing in clubs and bars
and impressing people with her lovely voice.
Whilst working as a waitress and in a fishery,
she was providing vocals for an album by
Mint Royale, but her big break came when
Rough Trade co-owner Jeanette Lee, who took
her to the bright lights of London and introduced
her to former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler.
And the rest is history, etc. Her debut
single Rockferry came out last year and
wowed music critics with both Duffy's Dusty-esque
voice and the sweeping orchestration that
Butler had provided to back her up. Of course,
she's captured a bit of a zeitgeist at the
moment with a whole host of similarly Winehouse-a-like
female vocalists out there, like Adele,
Laura Marling, Beth Rowley, Candie Payne,
etc, and that recent single Mercy got to
number one on downloads alone says that
the world is at Duffy's feet at the moment.
It can't hurt that someone who looks and
sounds less like Dusty Springfield than
she does recently won BBC 1's The One And
Only by singing classic Dusty songs, only
serving to further whet the appetite of
the public for this kind of music. And Duffy
does it very, very well. From the opening
notes of the title track to the closing
beauty of Distant Dreamer (the best song
on here by a mile and an instant classic
of modern pop-soul), this is a very accomplished
debut album that oozes class. Amy Winehouse's
Back To Black raised the bar for this kind
of thing in terms of production, vocals
and song quality, but Duffy looks to have
matched it here. She has made a very rapid
rise in the last few months, but it has
taken her long enough to get to this stage
and hopefully she will be able to cope with
it better than her soulful predecessor,
because the evidence on show here suggests
that a long and impressive career could
and should be ahead of this Welsh girl.
She lost out in Wawffactor, but she's certainly
not lacking in wow factor (sorry, that was
bad, but we couldn't resist).
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Nick Cave & The
Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!
Dig!!! Lazarus,
Dig!!! might be the best album title
of Nick Cave's entire career (and
that's saying something) and instantly
makes any Cave fan want to hear it,
which is exactly what album titles
are for. We all know that he is the
master of Biblical apocalyptic musical
masterpieces and that title evokes
all that is great about Nick Cave
& The Bad Seeds, so it would be a
massive disappointment if the music
contained within didn't live up to
that. Fortunately, that is not a problem
here, because Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!
is a classic album that stands up
to anything in his impressive back
catalogue, starting with the awesome
title track, which burns itself into
your memory from the first time you
hear it. As Cave explains, the lyrics
are exactly the kind of thing that
we've come to expect from him: "Ever
since I can remember hearing the Lazarus
story, when I was a kid, you know,
back in church, I was disturbed and
worried by it. Traumatized, actually.
We are all, of course, in awe of the
greatest of Christ's miracles - raising
a man from the dead - but I couldn't
help but wonder how Lazarus felt about
it." That's where the song comes from
and in typically obtuse fashion, Cave
transplants 'Larry' to New York City
and crafts a cracking song out of
his disgruntled plight, with an anthemic
chorus and typically raucous instrumentation.
After the more orchestral and reflective
direction that the Bad Seeds had grown
into at the turn of the century, Dig
sees them continue their more recent
return to rocking out, as shown on
Abattoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus
and the Grinderman record, though
this is understandably less 'garage
rock' than the latter, with more of
the tattered grandeur of the former.
Abattoir Blues was a rollicking return
to form for Cave after the lukewarm
Nocturama, and Dig continues that
upward trend by honing down everything
that was good about that double-album
into just 11 songs, making for a more
focused collection of music. There
are some slower numbers, like Moonland,
but even they are more edgy than lush,
and the vast majority of the tracks
on here belie Cave's 50 years by sounding
as energetic (if slightly less drugged-up
and fucked-up) as any of the early
Bad Seeds records. The anthemic We
Call Upon The Author is a clear highlight,
but frankly there are no weak tracks
on Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! and it is maintains
its high standards right up to the
last moments of slow-burning 8-minute-long
closer More News From Nowhere. Surely
already a shoe-in for most people's
Albums of 2008 lists...
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Billy Bragg
- Mr Love And Justice
Billy
Bragg is 50 years old and after
the very political and musically
diverse England, Half English
six years ago, he has returned
sounding more like his age.
That's not to say that he sounds
tired or past it, nor has he
lost the socialist fire that
has always burned inside him
and decided that the establishment
were right all along. It's just
that Bragg and his backing band
The Blokes have made a more
relaxed and mature-sounding
album here, influenced by country
music, folk music and soul music
equally. Lyrically, there are
also plenty of personal songs
in amongst the political rhetoric
of tracks like O Freedom and
The Beach Is Free, though the
latter still has a positive
message behind some of the complaining
about land ownership and suchlike.
Sometimes his lyrics do overwhelm
the music, with The Johnny Carcinogenic
Show, which has some nice melodies
but a clunky pun in the chorus
that undermines the song. Much
better is the lovely opening
track I Keep Faith, which has
Robert Wyatt on guest vocals
and rolls along at a very pleasant
pace before the memorable and
touching chorus. M For Me's
lyrical gimmicks are a little
laboured, but again it shows
that Bragg does have a great
understated knack for writing
love songs, even if he is better
known when raging against the
machine. Sing Their Souls Back
Home is Mr Love & Justice's
focal point, almost a gospel
folk protest song that occasionally
needs something to cut through
the treacle but is a very warm
and enjoyable song that perfectly
sums up what an impressive and
mature album Bragg is releasing
here, certainly his best for
a good while.
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Malcolm
Middleton - Sleight Of
Heart
Malcolm
Middleton's last album
was only released a year
ago, but with his career
getting the kind of attention
it had never received
before over Christmas
with the campaign to get
We're All Going To Die
to Number 1 (it actually
only got to 31), it looks
like he decided to cash
in quickly. However, it
would be wrong to suggest
that Sleight Of Heart
is a rush-job even though
there's only nine tracks
on it, because it is far
from rushed-sounding.
Indeed, it's one of the
more relaxed and mellow
albums of Middleton's
career so far, so maybe
he's been enjoying himself
with all the increased
support and attention.
Well, not really. Sleight
Of Heart is lyrically
just what we've come to
expect from him, full
of dry Scottish humour
and the occasional touch
of lighthearted morbidity.
We could demonstrate this
with some examples of
great one-liners, but
there's so many of them
that we can't really pick
the highlights. Two of
the musical highlights
though aren't even written
by Middleton, but are
leftovers from the original
concept of this album,
which was meant to be
a collection of covers.
Instead there's just three
as he started writing
songs that were too good
to be left off, but they
are certainly memorable,
with Jackson C. Frank's
Just Like Anything and
King Creosote's Marguerita
Red given a Middleton
going-over, though the
most remarkable is his
interpretation of Stay
by Madonna. It's already
a very good pop song,
but he transforms it and
makes it even better by
slowing it right down
and using every Scottish
inflection at his disposal
to wrap around the lyrics
and give them so much
more meaning. This may
only be a stopgap release
from Middleton, but with
songs like that and the
seven-minute Love Comes
In Waves, it's still a
great record and a worth
addition to his canon.
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Kathryn
Williams and
Neill MacColl
- Two
One
of the loveliest
singers of
her generation,
Kathryn Williams
has released
six wonderful
albums on
her own so
far and this
new release
finds her
linking up
with a member
of folk music
royalty. Neill
MacColl's
dad was Ewan
MacColl while
you might
also have
heard of his
sister Kirsty,
though Neill
himself is
more of a
session musician
than a star
in his own
right. Nevertheless,
he brings
a lot to this
album, even
if Williams
is the one
who dominates
with her subtly
charming vocals.
The immediate
highlight
is clearly
first single
Come With
Me, which
is the perfect
distillation
of his guitar
and her voice,
mixing them
together to
make a beautiful
little song
that sums
up the charms
of this album.
It doesn't
all work,
and frankly
it is best
when MacColl
is in the
background
rather than
at the forefront,
like on disjointed
and slightly
discordant
second track
Innocent When
You Dream.
There's more
highs than
lows thankfully,
though one
problem with
Two is that
it has a relatively
short running
time for an
album with
13 songs,
meaning that
only two of
them get past
the 3.40 minute
mark, and
given that
they are all
slow-burning
quiet little
tunes, a lot
of them brush
past your
ears without
making much
impact on
your brain.
But of course,
the only thing
to do in that
situation
is to listen
again and
again until
they do and
it's certainly
worth that
minimal effort
to get the
most out of
what is a
delightful
collaboration.
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