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‘New’ proves Macca’s
talent is timeless
 With
71 years of supreme career, how easy it would have been for Sir Paul
McCartney to play it safe. Instead, the former Beatle has teamed up
with a string of current notable producers (Giles Martin, Mark Ronson,
Paul Epworth) and created a scrupulously modern record. Throughout the
album, Paul calls for love and compassion. "Keep on sending
your love," he advises on the firm and lean rocker Save Us,
and counsels "Do some good before you say goodbye,"
on the folk-rock "Everybody Out There". The title
track and Alligator are the ones that most closely resemble
McCartney’s classic work but he’s given them a modern-sounding
density. Breaking the mood soon after "On my Way to Work"
is the swift-paced and amusing "Queenie Eye", as
produced by Epworth. The track starts off with a sweet string
introduction but quickly drives onward with a multi-layered rock track
that evokes memories of the best of McCartney’s solo career. New’s
standout track is easily "Early Days", that finds
McCartney remembering his early years with John Lennon and how The
Beatles changed the world. The second half of the album gets
increasingly experimental without losing its inherent catchiness.
"I Can Bet" and "Looking at Her",
each is the kind of effervescent pop treat McCartney has traded in for
decades. The collection reaches a unique conclusion here with the
fabulously strange "Road", with bizarre piano and
xylophone riffs and group chants colliding in a kind of frenzied hymn
to positivity.
Best track: Early Days Worst track: Hosanna A return to the rock arena
Best track: Sirens Worst track: Infallible Rating *** California troubadour’s most stylistically diverse release
Best track: Brighter! Worst track: Honesty
Is No Excuse A catalog of
viciously swinging moods
Best track: Carry Me Over Worst track: Suddenly Rating **
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Pearl
Jam’s 10th studio album is a combination of two distinct approaches.
One, the veterans’ trademark grunge sound, and secondly a more
laidback, acoustic-style songwriting approach. The record finds Pearl
Jam comfortable in themselves again, assured in their legacy.
Lightning Bolt strikes with Getaway, a typically high-octane
yet lyrically formulaic burner about the trials and tribulations of
first-world problems. Mind Your Manners is one of the most
aggressive punk tracks the band’s recorded in recent years, and My
Father’s Son finds Eddie regaining some rage as he rails against
inherited inclination. Guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard have
fun with reverb and vibrato, giving a country/rockabilly vibe to Let
the Records Play. Sleep By Myself continues with the theme of
melodrama that involves pristine vocals and earthy instrumentation
that does the trick by tugging every heartstring. Elsewhere, there’s
the Eddie-penned title track and Swallowed Whole, two pleasing
mid-tempo rockers about the majesty of nature, and the ethereal
Pendulum, which marries echo-laden guitar work and whispered
vocals to a stunning effect. Pearl Jam, like most grunge bands, are
best when they turn up the volume and distortion but have a secret
weapon in their slower and more sensitive numbers. Yellow Moon is
a menacing piece of dusky folk rock that sounds like a clip from an
early Counting Crows record, while album closer, Future
Days, is a gorgeous acoustic lullaby that, along with Sirens, stands
as Lightning Bolt’s most lingering contribution to the Pearl Jam
songbook.
On
his seventh full-length double-album Big Wheel And Others, the
cult singer songwriter skips effortlessly through folk, country,
blues, ballads and jazz with his trademark wit. The album begins with Big
Wheel, one of the more conventionally structured tracks on the
album. With an 85-minute runtime, it covers majority of the musical
themes and narrative fixations McCombs has drawn upon since his 2003
debut. Dotted throughout with elements of jazz, blues and avant-garde
noise, the album explores and reworks everything that McCombs has done
in previous efforts, this time bringing them all together to simmer
gently. As part of an expansive hour and a half running time, each
track on the album is permitted to take its time to fully brew in its
slow, purposeful way, to the complete satisfaction of the listener.
Late actress Karen Black (who sang on McCombs’s 2009 song Dreams
Come True Girl) takes lead vocals on the beautiful and moving
"Brighter!", a clear standout. Like his fellow Indie-pop
pranksters Jens Lekman and Mac DeMarco, McCombs has a flair for
progressions and melodies that thoroughly complements his wit. The
sublime Angel Blood is a mesmerising gentle folk-balladry while
the surprising Satan Is My Toy is a full-bodied bubbling rocker
boasting funk-fuelled guitars that wouldn’t sound out of place on a
Stone Roses album. The music might take some time to get used to, but
be patient, there’s gold here.
With
One Breath, the London-born musician has reassuringly picked up
where her first album left off, producing a work that is again
impressive, explosive, delicate and tender in equal parts. Anna Calvi
is maturing her sound, creating more depth and layers, but it’s also
familiar enough to keep fans onside. Her voice still verges on the
operatic, and the guitars still soar high and scream loud, but there
are more dimensions here, more subtlety. Anna has kept a moderately
low profile since her critical breakthrough, continuing with her tried
and tested approach of writing her songs painstakingly over many
months before recording the finished material swiftly over just a few
weeks. Tristan and Sing to Me are both fine examples of
just how potent Calvi’s voice can be when soaring above one of her
massive, dynamic arrangements. One Breath is an album of
swinging moods and, perhaps that is the intent, to evoke both anger
and optimism at the same time. The orchestra is employed to more
compelling effect on Carry Me Over where it collides with a
hypnotic rhythm, rising and surging with the band. On Piece by
Piece, she scales to breathy heights, and then cascades to croon
sweet nothings, while the stunningly stormy Love of My Life has
her wheezing like Karen O. The element of surprise is employed in Cry
as the calm is pierced by a noisy rock band and the song retreats
again. The album benefits from its diversity and from a taste for
experimentation, which tempts the listener to stay and revisit.