After 18 years, 11 albums and the tragic loss of key member Mary Hansen in 2002, the group lead by husband and wife team Tim Gane and Laetitia Sadier remains one of the most distinctive sounds in indie music. This time, they’ve all but abandoned rock — aside from the two-chord instrumental Pop Molecule, there’s more vibraphone than guitar on show — and brought back occasional-collaborator Sean O’Hagan to add icy string and brass flourishes. The title track is a lounge-tango that recalls the band’s earlier interest in bachelor pad exotica with Emperor Tomato Ketchup’s proud strings. Three Women’s rock-solid bass and tambourine shout out to Motown’s halcyon days. Daisy Click Clack is an ebullient revision of British wartime dancehall standards, with guitar riffs that overlaps perfectly with the classic Van Helsing Boombox. The heart of the record has to be Silver Sands, an expression of wonder at the delicate and intricate natural magic of gardening, where "sunlight and water transform into life". And then there’s The Ecstatic Static, a cosmic rendering of Brian Wilson chords pushed along at plodding tempo, with strings falling out and martial drums angling in. The alternating, chorusing strings on Cellulose Sunshine and Fractal Dream of a Thing are particularly hopeful, and similarly their exposition on Self Portrait With ‘Electric Brain’ are pure charms. Neon Beanbag opens on a jaunty note, with organs on harpsichord settings and Laetitia Sadier doing her scat-minded best to summon the spirit of doo-wop.

Best track: Cellulose Sunshine

Worst track: Vortical Phonotheque

Rating **

Glen Campbell — Meet Glen Campbell (Capitol)

After almost 50 years, it’s hard to imagine Glen Campbell needing an introduction. But not only is Meet Glen Campbell his first major release in two decades, it shows a new side of the 72-year-old singer. For his new album, Glen Campbell has reinterpreted and re-imagined both older and contemporary songs with his own signature vocal and guitar arrangements. A true musician’s musician, Campbell’s distinct guitar playing, along with the lucidity and emotion of his powerful vocal performance, come together to give new life to the songs he selected for this ambitious outing. There’s the Velvet Underground (Jesus), Travis (Sing), Tom Petty (Dream, Walls, Angel), Foo Fighters (Times Like These), Jackson Browne (These Days), U2 (All I Want Is You), Green Day (Time Of Your Life, Good Riddance) and John Lennon (Grow Old With Me). The album features musical contributions by Campbell contemporaries as well as younger rock and alt-country artists who joined him in the studio, including Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. and Jason Faulkner from Jellyfish, Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander, and Chris Chaney from Jane’s Addiction. Campbell handles his assignments with admirable aplomb.`A0The album will certainly surprise and delight long time fans and turn many new ears to the music icon’s legendary career.

Best track: All I Want Is You

Worst track: Sadly Beautiful

Rating ***

Ice Cube — Raw Footage
(LM)

Rapper-turned actor O’Shea Jackson b.k.a Ice Cube has come up with his latest album Raw Footage which is definitely classic Ice Cube material. At 16 tracks deep, the album clocks in at exactly an hour, but very rarely does it feel like it drags. The album is narrated by actor Keith David (Kirby from Dead Presidents) who does a tremendous job setting the tempo for a number of songs throughout the disc. Standout tracks include I Got My Locs On featuring Young Jeezy which is destined to become a street anthem, as well as the previously released Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It where Cube goes after his hip-hop style critics. Most of the album’s beats, however, consist of generic minor-key synths and heavy piano, with the exception of Stand Tall, a black empowerment`A0song anchored by Willie Hutch’s Diamond in the Back. The unique addition of R&B keeps pace with Cube’s maturity as he collaborates with soul singers Angie Stone and Musiq Soulchild on songs like Hood Mentality and Why Me? On the piano backed track Why Me Cube plays the part of the shooting victim in one of the most brilliant heartfelt moments on the album. Cold Places presents an apocalyptic view where even funerals can be sponsored by multinational companies yet Cube still urges listeners to survive by keeping their heads up and staying aware. On Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It, Cube hits on hypocrisy and global crisis, with its video showing spliced news footage of countries at war, government scandal and racism in the media. Cube approaches the subject with twisted irony, and fights back by bearing the burden wholeheartedly for all of the world’s ills at present time and prior to his birth. He cynically snarls, "Blame me".

Best track: Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It

Worst track: Jack N The Box

Rating ***

Album of the month
Verve — Forth (Parlophone)

"There’s no need for introductions," sings Richard Ashcroft on Rather Be, one of the signature tracks from Forth. The Brit-rock group had already broken up once before reconvening long enough to record its magnum opus, 1997’s Urban Hymns, and then dissolving again in 1999. It took eight years, but the lure of such volatile creativity seems to have proven irresistible to singer Richard Ashcroft and his occasional mates. They re-formed late last year to tour and work on Forth, the Verve’s first album of new material in 11 years. Balancing McCabe’s love of athletic guitar jamming with Ashcroft’s vocal aspirations, the album is centered on slowly building the temp that pay off in transcendent choruses and popwise tracks. The first track, Sit and Wonder is densely layered with The Cure-like ambient sounds that lazily stretch and build. With its upbeat dance pace and heartbreak lyrics, Love is Noise is one of the most striking tunes. It’s a stately album, but there’s a raw streak in Ashcroft’s wrenching vocals on Valium Skies and a surprising ray of optimism on the synth-soaked Rather Be, in which he expresses uncharacteristic contentment. Numbness is a bluesy slow-burner that features McCabe channelling David Gilmour as Ashcroft intones about being stoned ("Here comes Mother Nature’s Child / Numbness on the brain / Yeah numbness on the brain"). Appalachian Springs is Forth’s spacey d`E9nouement. It returns the Verve again to the psychedelic sounds associated with earlier works, but does so without simply repeating a formula. With the gripping Judas, the band has come out swinging and managed to combine just enough novelty and familiarity to portend a triumphant return.

Best track: Love Is Noise

Worst track: Columbo

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