Reviews

Inside Reviews

Album: Pearl Jam, Backspacer (Universal) (Rated 3/ 5 )

Friday, 25 September 2009

Commercially, Pearl Jam have followed a fairly steady downward trajectory since the huge success of Ten in 1991, a momentum the band has attempted to arrest by re-positioning itself as the Grateful Dead of Grunge and issuing "official" bootleg recordings of virtually every concert it's played since 2000 – some stretching to double- and triple-album length.

Album: Chris Smither, Time Stands Still (Signature Sounds) (Rated 5/ 5 )

Friday, 25 September 2009

Chris Smither has been steadily releasing classy albums for decades, honing his craft as a songwriter of thoughtful ruminations on and acute observations about life's bitter ironies.

Album: Mika, The Boy Who Knew Too Much (Island) (Rated 2/ 5 )

Friday, 25 September 2009

According to Mika, the songs on his second album deal with his teenage years – which presumably means that the multi-million-selling Life In Cartoon Motion dealt with his early childhood, which would explain why it sounded like the musical equivalent of a dressing-up box being ransacked.

Album: Paloma Faith, Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? (Epic) (Rated 4/ 5 )

Friday, 25 September 2009

The ancients may have believed that art was all about truth and beauty; these days, as Paloma Faith recognises from her previous stints as burlesque performer, it's more about interesting lies.

Album: Ian Brown, My Way (Polydor) (Rated 3/ 5 )

Friday, 25 September 2009

Ian Brown's sixth solo album – which, it's worth noting, is three times the total output of The Stone Roses – follows in much the same vein as its immediate predecessors Solarized and The World Is Yours.

Elton John, Royal Albert Hall, London (Rated 3/ 5 )

Thursday, 24 September 2009

I'm raising money for a new organ," Elton announces in his archest Carry On voice, near the beginning of this three-hour charity show in aid of the Royal Academy of Music's fund for that very instrument. Such generosity on Elton's part, from a man who can also be self-indulgent to Louis XIV extremes, is of a piece with the contradictions which power him. He has spent much of the past decade helping young musicians more directly, pushing rising hopefuls from Ryan Adams to the Scissor Sisters, and, ever since Songs from the West Coast (2001), has concentrated on re-establishing his own artistic credentials since his pop-hit power finally wilted. But the blowsy sentiment of a "Candle in the Wind" is always just a breath away.

Metronomy, HMV Forum, London (Rated 3/ 5 )

Wednesday, 23 September 2009

Klaxons started the nu-rave "movement" as a semi-fictional scam, but its after-effects can still be felt tonight. Devon's Joseph Mount, the man behind Metronomy, is associated with the briefly burning scene through remixing and touring with Klaxons, and the nod to their glow-stick fad in the pulsing chest-lights his band wear. More vitally, the way he approaches introspective, guitar-loaded indie music as if it's dance music pulls the same genre-bending trick. Last year's breakthrough album, Nights Out, also offered a version of The Streets' 21st-century kitchen-sink tales. Add Mount's interest in clunky 1980s synth-pop, and Metronomy become an honest cross-over hit waiting to happen.

Mumford & Sons, Scala, London (Rated 5/ 5 )

Wednesday, 23 September 2009

With their first album out on 5 October, Mumford & Sons' London performance was a key test for the young English folk group who've already been tipped for next year's Mercury Prize. With a sold-out venue and anticipation about the show high on the back of much recent hype, there is nonetheless something dark and confessional in songs like "White Blank Page", which resonates with an audience who observe the tribute to lost loves unfold with a reverence rarely witnessed at live performances. Even amongst the broken tiles and sticky floor of a venue far past its best, Marcus Mumford's vocals seem to soar.

Alela Diane, Shepherds Bush Empire, London (Rated 4/ 5 )

Tuesday, 22 September 2009

In the true tradition of folk, singer-songwriter Alela Diane's shows are a family affair. Her father Tom Menig plays guitar and mandolin, while her boyfriend is the bassist.

The Lemonheads, HMV Forum, London (Rated 4/ 5 )

Tuesday, 22 September 2009

The tangy taste of past glories

Jay-Z, Roundhouse, London (Rated 3/ 5 )

Monday, 21 September 2009

For Jay-Z, 2008's Glastonbury stunt was just the prelude, a cocky act of clout intended to broaden the rapper's clientele in the way it seemed only white rockers could.

Massive Attack, Brixton Academy, London (Rated 2/ 5 )

Monday, 21 September 2009

You don't really dance to Massive Attack, so much as sway to their dark tones, acid house keyboards and soulful vocals. At Brixton Academy though, the once untouchable masters of trip-hop struggled to elicit even that muted reaction.

Aziza Brahim, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Monday, 21 September 2009

“I live the life of a modern-day nomad” jokes Aziza Brahim reflecting on how she has moved from the deserts of the Sahara, to Cuba and is now based in Spain.

Album: Dizzee Rascal, Tongue N’ Cheek, (Dirtee Stank)

Sunday, 20 September 2009

Those two No 1 singles didn’t happenby accident. They’re evidence of one of the most enjoyable renaissances in recent pop history.

First Night: Jay-Z, Roundhouse, London (Rated 3/ 5 )

Friday, 18 September 2009

Hova swaggers into the mainstream

Album: Dizzee Rascal, Tongue n' Cheek (Dirtee Stank) (Rated 4/ 5 )

Friday, 18 September 2009

It's taken Dizzee Rascal four albums to develop from cult exponent of a marginal London-based scene to fully fledged pop star bordering on youthful national treasure, a process that speaks volumes about the sustained commitment and support required to establish fledgling acts.

Album: Basement Jaxx, Scars (XL) (Rated 2/ 5 )

Friday, 18 September 2009

The problems which attended the troubled gestation of Basement Jaxx's fifth album – among them family illness, relationship break-up and a lack of confidence about their direction – have clearly left their mark on the aptly-titled Scars, the weakest release of their 10-year career.

Album: Monsters of Folk, Monsters of Folk (Rough Trade) (Rated 4/ 5 )

Friday, 18 September 2009

Obvious differences of scale prevent this alliance of American indie luminaries

Album: Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba, I Speak Fula (Out Here) (Rated 4/ 5 )

Friday, 18 September 2009

Bassekou Kouyate's follow-up to the acclaimed Segu Blue has an energy indicative of the live performances of his band Ngoni ba, where the four ngoni lutes stir up a storm of sparkling notes, reflecting both the twinkling, cyclical cascades of Mali's classical kora music, and the earthier, desert-blues style popularised by the likes of Ali Farka Toure.

Album: Jay-Z, The Blueprint 3 (Atlantic) (Rated 4/ 5 )

Friday, 18 September 2009

His main subject may still be himself, but Jay-Z tackles it here with a renewed vigour and freshness.

Album: Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band, Between My Head and the Sky (Chimera Music) (Rated 4/ 5 )

Friday, 18 September 2009

Advancing age clearly poses less of a barrier to pop success than in previous eras, as the recent chart placings of Bob Dylan and the Beatles can confirm.

Micah P. Hinson, Cargo, London (Rated 4/ 5 )

Thursday, 17 September 2009

As with Bon Iver's yarn of backwoods isolation, the first story we heard of Micah P. Hinson is the one that stuck. With Hinson, it was trouble with the law, after abandonment by an aristocratic femme fatale and fellow drug addict. But as tonight unfolds, this boyish 29-year-old Texan reveals that trouble is a life-long affliction.