Colorado is not one of Young’s great albums but it’s a grower and could go down as one of his later-career highlights. There’s a film with it; Young’s films are best avoided but someone who did watch said he comments in it to his band: “It doesn’t have to be good, just feel good.” That’s […]
Echoes Of Swing: Winter Days at Schloss Elmau
Echoes of Swing are in top form for this festive album, the quartet of Bernd Lhotzky (piano), Colin T Dawson (trumpet), Chris Hopkins (alto saxophone) and Oliver Mewes (drums) joined for this by US jazz singer Rebecca Kilgore (“one of the best interpreters of the Great American Songbook” says Wikipedia). The premise of the album […]
Cipriano de Rore: Missa Vivat Felix Hercules / Motets
If your idea of heaven is male vocalists singing religious Renaissance music as you ponder the meaning of life, this beautiful CD is for you. Cipriano of Rore (1516-1565) composed the Mass in honour of his patron, Ercole II d’Este, the sound meant to convey the latter’s Godliness. The sleeve notes are interesting; the tenor […]
Francisco de Peñalosa: Lamentations
This is a beautiful collection of religious music from the Renaissance. If you like religious vocal music that errs towards the sombre — the album title gives it away— this is a must. The singing is fantastic and the acoustics of wherever it was recorded only add to the experience. Peñalosa’s music is redolent of […]
Various: Folk Music of China, Vol II: Folk Songs of Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang
This is part of Naxos’s newly-launched world music catalogue, and it’s more interesting than some of the modern rock/pop releases we listen to; admittedly it won’t shift so many copies. The songs featured are the folk songs of five minority ethnic groups of Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang — Mongol, Daur, Oroqen, Evenki and Hezhen. They’re […]
Wilder Woods: Wilder Woods
Wilder Woods is Bear Rinehart, the lead singer of Needtobreathe (us neither) and the album is named after his two sons — Wilder, (3), and Woods, (1). Sweet. Rinehart can write a song and knows how to arrange his instruments, and this is a rich, luscious set of songs. We were expecting something indie but […]
Sunjay: Devil Came Calling
Sunjay has been seen at award ceremonies: he was a young folk award finalist in 2012 at Radio Two and the same year won the young performers award at the Wath Festival, as well as being a winner at the New Roots competition in St Albans. In 2014 he was nominated three times at the […]
Neil Young and Stray Gators: Tuscaloosa
It’s unlikely to win any new fans but it’s a good Young album for old ones. Tuscaloosa features The Stray Gators, Young’s band between 1971-73, playing five songs from Harvest, not long released. His self-titled debut and After The Goldrush also supply tracks. Young is on top form, the band knows his moves and he […]
Lizzo: Cuz I Love You
We came across Lizzo some time ago with Batches and Cookies, a stripped down semi-joking but addictive rap song (sample lyrics: “I got my batches and cookies / I got my batches and cookies / I got my batches and cookies / I got my batches and cookies”). The album Lizzobangers was less interesting and […]
David Gray: Gold in a Brass Age
We can’t have been unusual in seeing Gray at Glastonbury (on the telly) promoting White Ladder and buying the album; we seem to remember that while he was doing ok before, the Glasto show pushed the album out to the masses. Like other bands before and since (Dido, James Blunt) Gray was then everywhere — […]
