Category: Singers
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Elevant: There Is A Tide
This is the third album we’ve had from Elevant, a Liverpool band treading their own furrow. Their ambition to get their music out there has always been a few steps ahead of their actual level of accomplishment: the music has always been impressive but (we felt) lacked that spark that would encourage anyone but friends…
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Chris Isaak: First Comes The Night
We’ve had a couple of Chris Isaak albums in the last few years, but we struggled to find much to say about them. Well composed and sung tunes, often with intelligent lyrics, but all a bit, well, worthy. Often a euphemism for dull. Still best known for Wicked Game, a career-defining tune. He’s popular in…
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Kimmo Pohjonen: Murder Ballads
Last week we reviewed Kimmo Pohjonen’s latest album (a take on accordion-led prog with classical leanings), but this week it’s one he did a couple of years ago. It’s in Finnish but it’s wonderful (English translations of the lyrics are supplied). The songs are all stories about murders and murderers. The tales are told in…
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Cor Cantiamo: Psallite
This is a rather wonderful album and will appeal both to people who like singing and choirs, and those who don’t care much about choirs but like nice music. Clearly, with a stained glass window on the sleeve and a title like Psallite, there’s a religious theme: the sleeve notes say Psallite is an exhortation…
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Josef Salvat: Night Swim
Salvat has had a hit with the album-opener Open Season and it’s easy to see why: it’s a catchy and likable pop tune. Soulful, tightly played and underpinned by his warming vocals, it’s almost a masterclass in pop writing. The same is true for the remix-ready Paradise, which is possibly even better. A sophisticated, dance-friendly…
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Fay Hield: Old Adam
Hield (it’s her real name, her parents were clearly wags) is as traditional folk as they come: she is a teaching associate in ethnomusicology at the University of Sheffield, wrote a PhD on “English folk singing and the construction of community”, guest lectures at places like Leeds College of Music and runs two folk clubs,…
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Basia Bulat: Good Advice
This is the Canadian singer’s fourth album and it’s a fairly run of the mill, even pedestrian, pop album. Two things lift it above the average: her voice (she’s a bit Sade and has the same glamorous sound) and the production, from Jim James of My Morning Jacket, which adds a pleasing retro echo to…
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Panic! At The Disco: Death Of A Bachelor
This OTT album sees Brendon Urie simultaneously impress with his talents and leave the listener slightly baffled. It’s a mix between MCR emo at its most burlesque and the operatic classic rock of Queen — “Let me be a killer queen” he sings within seconds of the opening so it’s clear what the influences are.…
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Steffen Schleiermacher / Holger Falk: Erik Satie Ultimate Melodies and Songs
Satie is best known for his classic piano piece Gymnopédie No1 (you’ve all heard it) and was endearingly eccentric. He was once so poor he shared a suit with lifelong friend JP Contamine de Latour, meaning they could only go out one at a time, and when he died, his flat — never visited by…
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Balsamo Deighton: Unfolding
We’ve had this for some weeks and we’ve played it a lot. It’s modern English pop/country and while there is nothing outstanding, it’s written and played to the highest standards. Some songs have got close to being earworms — Light In The Dark is one — and we love the guitar solo on the harmonica-laden…
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