Reviews

Inside Reviews

Album: Mercury Rev, The Complete Peel Sessions, (Universal) (Rated 4/ 5 )

Friday, 13 November 2009

Mercury Rev are the kind of group for whom Peel Sessions were originally conceived: an all-channels-open, questing outfit who took the opportunity to reassess old favourites and break virgin territory.

Just Jack, Shepherd's Bush Empire, London (Rated 3/ 5 )

Thursday, 12 November 2009

A happy-go-lucky Jack Allsopp steps forward to meet the crowd, peers around and announces: "I just saw my mum and dad up there. That's pretty cool." He explains his usual trick of finding something to greet each new audience with, concluding, a little relieved, "We're home."

Staff Benda Bilili, Barbican, London (Rated 4/ 5 )

Thursday, 12 November 2009

When Staff Benda Bilili spin wheelchairs, dance on their legs' stumps and pluck instruments created from abandoned debris, they are embodying their nation's contradictions. They are homeless youths and paraplegic men from Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, sub-Saharan Africa's most cursed country. But their UK debut proved that a history of colonial and local dictators, civil wars and corporate mineral-stripping can still fuel defiant art.

The Cinematic Orchestra, The Roundhouse, London (Rated 4/ 5 )

Wednesday, 11 November 2009

The Cinematic Orchestra defy classification. Is it jazz? Electronica? Hip-hop or trip-hop? Or movie soundtrack music? What is obvious, though, is that the shape-shifting outfit formed by John Swinscoe in the late 1990s does not lack musical conviction. Which other band could perform an hour-long instrumental accompaniment to an 80-year-old silent Soviet movie and be confident of a capacity crowd?

Wilco, Forum, London (Rated 5/ 5 )

Tuesday, 10 November 2009

Cult classics with an electric charge

Steve Martin with The Steep Canyon Rangers, Royal Festival Hall, London

Tuesday, 10 November 2009

Rich pickings for comedy and bluegrass fans alike

I Love Techno, Flanders Expo, Ghent, Belgium (Rated 4/ 5 )

Monday, 9 November 2009

Techno has acquired a reputation somewhere between Eurotrash and Madchester in recent years in the UK, but Ghent's annual I Love Techno festival is proof that neither the music nor the fans are as naff or as addled as either of these connotations unfairly suggest.

Nneka, ULU, London

Monday, 9 November 2009

A hip-hop star with more to say

Muse, Hallam FM Arena, Sheffield
3OH!3, Millennium Music Hall, Cardiff

Sunday, 8 November 2009

Muse show how to handle a huge audience, while an American duo are small fish in a large pond

Album: JLS, JLS (Epic)

Sunday, 8 November 2009

You already know what this sounds like. JLS, the they-seem-like-nice-boys losers (though probably, in the long run, winners) of the last X Factor, are being carefully slotted by LouisWalsh into a lucrative gap in the market.

Album: Luke Haines, 21st Century Man (Fantastic Plastic)

Sunday, 8 November 2009

The publication of his Britpop-based memoir Bad Vibes has increased the perception that all Haines' works, written or musical, are essentially autobiography laced with bitter socio-cultural critique.

Album: Basil Hodge, Sound Reasoning (Seal)

Sunday, 8 November 2009

Timeless (that is to say,emblematically 1960s sounding) and enjoyably unpretentious modal bop with strong themes, punchy choruses and spirited playing from the pianist/composer Hodge's London quintet of Tony Kofi on sax, Fulvio Sigurtaon trumpet, Larry Bartley on bass and the great Winston Clifford on drums.

Album: Jamie Cullum, The Pursuit (Decca)

Sunday, 8 November 2009

No one can accuse Cullum of resting on his laurels.The Pursuit finds the pint sized jazz-popper running the gamut of his musical meanderings from triphop to show tunes to a house number to straight up love balladry.

Album: Karin Krog, Joy (Meantime)

Sunday, 8 November 2009

"Mr Joy", the opening song of this 1968 album by Norwegian vocalist Krog, still sounds startlingly contemporary, like a newwave folk-jazz project referencing Robert Wyatt and early John Martyn.

Album: Julie Fowlis, Uam (Spit and Polish)

Sunday, 8 November 2009

There is degree to which Scots Gaelic trad music must remain a mysteryto non-Celts, but only a small degree.

Album: AA Bondy, When the Devil's Loose (Fat Possum)

Sunday, 8 November 2009

Too understated and unoriginal to find its way on to anyone's albums of the year lists, the second solo effort from the former Verbena (nope, never heard of them either) singer will, none the less, tickle these ears more frequently than many a "worthier" contender.

Album: Nguyen Le, Saiyuki (ACT)

Sunday, 8 November 2009

The Japanese title means "Journey to the West", which in this case indicates a journey – led by the Paris-based Vietnamese Nguyen – with the Japanese koto-player and singer Mieko Miyazaki, tabla-player Prabhu Edouard and the great Hindustani flute player Hariprasad Chaurasia.

Album: Robbie Williams, Reality Killed the Video Star (EMI)

Sunday, 8 November 2009

"It ticks all the boxes,"says Williams of hiseighth solo album. And itdoes – at times joyously(the first three tracks), atother times mechanically(pretty much the rest ofthe album). Trevor Horn'sproduction is blessingand curse: when thematerial's strong enough,Horn is more than up toit; when it's not, thewhole thing sounds a bit1980s (and not in a good,retro way). Essentially, aswith Russell Brand, it all comes downtowhatyou think of Robbiealready. A comeback ofsorts, then. But is theaudience still there?

Album: Biffy Clyro, Only Revolutions (14th Floor) (Rated 3/ 5 )

Friday, 6 November 2009

The progress of Ayrshire prog-metal trio Biffy Clyro demonstrates again that, outside of the short-term imperatives of Cowellised talent-show pop, the best way for a proper rock band to develop is through faith and persistence, rather than coaching and consultancy.

Album: Bon Jovi, The Circle (Mercury) (Rated 2/ 5 )

Friday, 6 November 2009

With an average of a new studio album every two years so far this century, few bands could challenge Bon Jovi as the most dependably prolific rockers on the planet.

Album: Brett Anderson, Slow Attack (BA Songs) (Rated 3/ 5 )

Friday, 6 November 2009

Save for "Julian's Eyes", which brings a louche cabaret mood towards the end of the album, Slow Attack finds Brett Anderson in strangely pastoral mode, eschewing the sleazy outsider urban glamour which once obsessed his muse, in favour of brisk, improving constitutionals and reflections upon the changing seasons.

Album: Robbie Williams, Reality Killed the Video Star (EMI) (Rated 3/ 5 )

Friday, 6 November 2009

Robbie Williams' albums have increasingly come to focus upon the singer himself, which has consequently made them less and less appealing to those not entirely smitten with his charms.

Album: Martha Wainwright, Martha Wainwright's Piaf Record (Drowned In Sound) (Rated 3/ 5 )

Friday, 6 November 2009

As with her brother Rufus's tribute to Judy Garland, Martha Wainwright's tribute to Edith Piaf is the kind of album project one can admire, but without ever wanting to hear it again.

Album: Joss Stone, Colour Me Free! (EMI) (Rated 4/ 5 )

Friday, 6 November 2009

Delayed for a year by a label with whom she has fallen into dispute, Colour Me Free! represents a return to the retro-soul style of Joss Stone's debut following the ill-advised attempts to squeeze her into the R&B; diva mould.

Doves, The Roundhouse, London (Rated 4/ 5 )

Thursday, 5 November 2009

Doves released their fourth album, Kingdom of Rust, earlier this year, and it has been widely hailed their best yet. Its bittersweet lyrics and sweeping melodies, delivered in epic rock songs, are not far from their first album, Lost Souls, that won them a loyal fan base in 2000. That's not to say their music hasn't developed – it just hasn't flirted with fads.

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