Latest CD releases reviewed
ROBBIE WILLIAMS
Greatest Hits Chrysalis
***
Give a former boyband singer his due - the boy Williams done well in his eight-year solo career. OK, he hasn't cracked America, but he's sold enough records and packed enough arenas everywhere else to qualify for a particularly generous pension. Here's how Rob done it: first, release a rubbish version of George Michael's Freedom (not included here, thank god), then out-rock Oasis with Old Before I Die, out-ballad Bryan Adams with Angels, before morphing into a full-tilt pop entertainer with a string of massive hits, including Millenium, She's The One, Strong and Rock DJ. Do a dodgy swing album, sign an £80 million deal, and get your pic taken feeling up Rod Stewart's ex. Lose the plot completely with new single, the Franz-lite Radio, and shove out the Greatest Hits album before the jig is up. I'd call that a result. www.robbiewilliams.com
Kevin Courtney
STINA NORDENSTAM
The World Is Saved V2
***
Scandinavia's Nordenstam is one of those fringe artists who border on the esoteric but shy away just before everything becomes too wilfully obscure. She used to be the darling of the cult lounge jazz/electronica scene, but it seems that her five albums for Warner offshoot EastWest didn't sell the necessary levels to warrant further investment, so here she is on V2 Scandinavia, all chilly and calm and very collected. And very melodic, too, judging by the whispery tunes on display. The likes of Winter Killing, I'm Staring Out The World, From Cayman Islands With Love and The Morning Belongs To The Night are just the kind of low-key, in-key songs we need as blue turns to grey. The album is eminently accessible, too, which means Nordenstam must have listened to her back catalogue and decided to rack up the whistle factor. Something of a North Star to guide you though the winter . . . www.stinanordenstam.com
Tony Clayton-Lea
DECLAN O'ROURKE
Since Kyabram RMG Chart
***
Joining the ever-lengthening queue of singer/songwriters waiting in line for their star to ascend, Declan O'Rourke is possessed of a superb songwriting sensibility, not to mention a pair of vocal cords that tackle the intricacies of lounge-lizard schmooze and the perennial delights of bedsitland with equal agility. Already the darling of Paul Brady and Eddi Reader, O'Rourke has slogged his way from Wexford St to Leap, his songs shimmering from the spitshine. He handles straight-up rock 'n' roll (No Brakes) as effortlessly as he does the moonlight sonata that is Gallileo, a song that'd give Dean Martin's That's Amore a run for its money any day. Self-produced and orchestrated with surgical precision, this is a debutant who'll be back long after the champagne corks have floated oceanwards. www.declanorourke.com
Siobhán Long
MAGNETIC FIELDS
The Wayward Bus/Distant Plastic Trees ****
The House of Tomorrow *****
Holiday *****
The Charm of the Highway Strip ****
Get Lost ****
69 Love Songs ****
Domino
Pop genius? Misanthrope? Lovelorn chump? You are never sure which Stephin Merritt will step up to the plate. Begun as a melancholic indie act, the Bostonian's group dabbled in electro-revival and gothic country before settling on their current guise as purveyors of arch chamber pop. Somewhere along the way Merritt, whose leaden voice suggests a choirboy enunciating from the end of a very deep well, assumed vocal duties and a distinctive TMF "sound" was forged. As this back catalogue reissue by Domino demonstrates, albums of astonishing poise and vitality followed through the 1990s. For long-term fans, the arch witticism of the 69 Love Songs phase always paled against the bubblegum flourish of the House of Love/Holiday/Charm of the Highwaystrip triptych. Simultaneously sunny and devastating, here were records that proved you could reference Abba, Johnny Cash and HP Lovecraft and still cleave to the fundaments of pop flawlessness. www.houseoftomorrow.com
Ed Power
PERRY BLAKE
Songs For Someone Reekus
****
Highly regarded in certain svelte areas of Europe, Irishman Perry Blake is a quantity known only to a small coterie of people over here; it would seem that Europe's gain is our loss, as Blake fashions the kind of music that hasn't been heard since the Fantasy Island line-up of Scott Walker, Neil Hannon and Gavin Friday jammed together in God's Lounge. Lush without being inebriated and luxurious without being ostentatious, Blake's music certainly doesn't go for the lowest common denominator; but neither is it so archly urbane that the milkman won't get what he's up to. Tracks such as When I'm Over You, You're Not Alone and The End Of The Affair ooze velvet-lined smoothness while simultaneously tackling tough, manly subjects. The result is suave yet tensile. www.perryblake.com
Tony Clayton-Lea
DEPECHE MODE
Remixes 81 . . . 04 Mute
***
A significant reason to be cheerful is that there is no sign of Paul Oakenfold anywhere on the three CDs marking Depeche Mode's remixing history. Success ensures an act can get any remixer on the planet to lovingly tease their boxfresh tracks into dancefloor dynamite, so it's reassuring to see that DM have exercised impeccable taste in hiring knob-twiddlers. Of course, it probably didn't escape the attention of band or record company that shipping in Francois Kevorkian, DJ Shadow, Kruder & Dorfmeister or Danny Tenaglia also ensures plenty of credibility brownie points. Notwithstanding such marketing sleights-of-hand, the highlights here are in the small print: Ulrich Schnaus applying finely-tuned polish to Little 15, Colder's take on Halo, Renegade Soundwave's clanging dub treatment of I Feel You and Jon Marsh's toasty handiwork on World In My Eyes. www.mute.com
Jim Carroll
THE CZARS
Goodbye Bella Union
****
The Czars' début, Before . . . But Longer, was an album you would happily recommend to your best friend, while both follow-ups, 2001's The Ugly People vs The Beautiful People and now Goodbye, are albums to force on anyone who claims that pop has misplaced its soul on a lost highway. Here's proof that there are still many perfectly crafted, downbeat and melancholic songs about love, loss, conflict, sorrow and anger to be sung. From the captivating baritone vocals of John Grant to the rich, sumptuous, brooding production, which sketches rather than paints the outlines, Goodbye thrills on many levels. Songs that appear deceptively simple on the outside soon reveal considerable depth and troubled darkness, Grant's voice constantly expressing new doubts and thoughts in Pain and My Love. A work of exceptional grace. www.theczars.net
Jim Carroll
THE CAMEMBERT QUARTET
The Camembert Quartet Sell Out Cosmic Music
***
Coming to a TV screen near you, as Ryan Tubridy's house band, The Camemberts have been doing their lounge-based satire revue for a while now, and their second album is another cocktail of jazz, rock, swing, salsa, death metal, rap and comedy. No Irish sacred cow is safe from Clint Velour and his ten-legged urine extraction machine: boybands (Boybands are Runts), grungy students, slushy singer-songwriters, earnest indie bands (Serious), hair-metal toffs (We Came to Rock), rapping wankstas (It's all About Me), techno twits (Battaburger) - even The Thrills come within the Camemberts' cheesy cabaret radar, and are promptly zapped back to Santa Cruz with a scathing couplet. The songs are punctuated by short sketches, but these are mere fillers until the next target is lined up. Book them for your wedding now before their diary gets too full. www.camembertquartet.com
Kevin Courtney
