Lloyd Webber is one of those composers you never think about; his music has become the background sound to modern culture in a way that few other performers manage. Don’t Cry For Me Argentina is a song that everyone can sing along to, from youngsters to pensioners. Listening to this four CD boxset, the overwhelming […]
Black Swan Lane: Under My Fallen Sky
We have a soft spot for Black Swan Lane in the Review Corner. Their sound doesn’t change but they do what they do well; we should imagine they have a rabidly devoted fanbase (who must be delighted, it’s got to be several years since their last album). Black Swan Lane is a US/UK indie rock […]
Joana Serrat: Dripping Springs
Not quite as intense as the Felice album (see elsewhere) this is still very good, and has a few standout moments. Vocally she sounds a bit Lana Del Rey but with a richer sound. The music is dreamy Americana that’s a little unvarying, rescued by a couple of outstanding moments that give the listener a […]
Ian Felice: In The Kingdom Of Dreams
This reached us before Christmas but “bloody good” seemed too brief a review. We can’t improve on it, though. The Felice Brothers are an American folk rock/country rock band, who seem to be bigger over there than here. The brothers bit is partly true: Ian and James are in the band and Simone was but […]
Rationale: Rationale
We were anticipative of contemporary hip hop but Rationale — real name Tinashe Fazakerley — is somewhat old school Rnb. Having been flummoxed by the lack of hippity hop, the album still left us slightly discombobulated (he started it, Rationale Fazakerley indeed): Fazakerley has a good voice, a soulful baritone that connects with the listener’s […]
Alexander Armstrong: In A Winter Light
We were expecting to mock this: a cursory play through, a pithy review, job done. Unfortunately, it’s pretty good; if it was more Christmassy, it’d come with free reindeer poo and tinsel. We played it about six times on the run. Armstrong is not only the voice of Dangermouse, he went to St Mary’s […]
Aretha Franklin: A Brand New Me
This is pretty good. Some digital boffins have got Franklin’s original vocals from her classic Atlantic masters, hired the Royal Philharmonic, booked Abbey Road studios — which always sounds good in a Press release — and then mixed the new music and old vocals, with added backing vocals from Patti Austin. What you get is […]
John Turner: Christmas Card Carols
This has got to be one of the coolest things: recorder player Turner writes a short Christmas carol each year and sends it to friends and family, not in the form of a recording but as notes written on a card. They’re all musicians, so they play the music for themselves. One recipient writes in […]
Engelbert Humperdinck: The Man I Want to Be
The existence of Engelbert Humperdinck has always baffled us: to whit why Arnold Dorsey, of Leicester, should adopt the stage name of a German 19th century composer of operas. The idea worked, which is more surprising. Even if you don’t know who Humperdinck is (the still-alive one) you’ll know his songs: described as “one of […]
Neil Young: Hitchhiker
This is a rather magical album: Young rolls up to a studio in 1976, on a night of the full moon, and plays some songs, accompanied only by weed and beer. Some songs go on to be classics, two have not been released before. It’s a got a bit of Clint Eastwood Man With No […]
