Caroline - Murmurs - TRR97

This CD is another result of the power of whatever's playing in record shops when I walk in has on me. I heard barely two minutes of this album before asking what it was and then buying it! Anyway, Caroline is a Tokyo born singer/songwriter who'll instantly remind you of a slightly poppier and more focussed Bjork, and more modernly will remind you of Imogen Heap. 'Murmurs' is a really pretty 9-track ambient/electronica album set off by Caroline's fragile, restrained yet thoughtful vocals.

It's definitely an album for this reflective winter that's around us, but thankfully has more than enough soul to avoid chill-out/coffee table status. I've still got quite a soft-spot for well written and haunting songs by female singer/songwriters so I'm a little biased, but even though it's a short album there's plenty here to keep you coming back for more, not least the emotional peaks she so often reaches like on 'I'll Leave My Heart Behind'. Highly recommended stuff.

The Beatles - Love (EMI B000JK8OYU)

A new album by the Beatles? This is a collection of their best remixed by George Martin and his son Giles for Cirque de Soleil's Las Vegas spectacular, Love. The tracks are not chronological, contain echoes of other Beatles tunes in the transitions between songs, sometimes brilliantly reworked and run together almost seamlessly. Some tracks are stripped right down, others substantially re-mixed, and they bring out aspects of over familiar songs you might not have remembered. It's a bit like a really good cover version of The Beatles by, um, The Beatles. If you are a Beatles fan, this is a must. If you are slightly nostalgic about them but feel sated by 40 years exposure to their repertoire, this may refresh your palate. In the end, however, it is a very high class, beautifully produced soundtrack to a Vegas spectacular. Perhaps that's inevitably the way music which once changed the world gets laid to rest.

JJ Cale and Eric Clapton - The Road to Escondido (Warners)

I better be moderate in what I say as I wouldn't want to have to make another recantation about the late career recordings of sixties legends. We know that these two fit perfectly together from Clapton's covers of Cocaine and After Midnight. And their voices and guitars work seamlessly together here. Indeed the opening track has a similar riff and the same structure as Cocaine. And later on there's a track with a strong similarity to Call Me The Breeze. This album won't challenge you, but it's high class blues shuffle and very listenable. It feels like snug, cosy fireside blues if you like, comfortable and warm. It's just that I prefer mine out in the wastelands, born in a cross-fire hurricane, and screaming in the teeth of a howling gale (to coin a phrase).

Damien Rice - 9 (14th Floor)

If you liked his debut album O you will like this. It's very much in the same vein - intense, intimate, haunting. For me 9 Crimes and Rootless Tree stand out. It is a class apart from David Gray and other modern acoustic singer songwriters and Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens wouldnt have bothered going back into the studio if he'd heard and thought about this first. A lot of it is about loss and therefore not to everyone's taste ("Does he have to drone on? What a dirge" was the reaction in the car ...) but I think it has moments of great beauty. The concert televised on BBC4 last year was one of the best recorded concerts I've ever seen.

Soweto Kinch - A Life In The Day of B19: Tales of the Tower Block - DUNE CD014

Two years after the multi-award winning 'Conversations With the Unseen' comes Soweto's second album. How's this for a synopsis; it's part one of a two-disc concept package based on the stories of 3 fictional characters living in a run-down flat block in Birmingham. Former Newsreader Moira Stewart acts as a narrator. Oh, and Soweto spends half his time rapping and the other half playing saxophone. Intrigued or put-off? Well, read on anyway.

It does make for quite a baffling read for those who haven't heard his work, just because it's such an ambitious album concept. Kinch is, however a very impressive saxophonist and lets the jazz songs really aquire a certain wistfulness amongst his blistering sax work. Which acts as a total compliment for his impressive narrative-rapping-storytelling style. There's nothing brash about his delivery, just a confidence, uniqueness and grasp of a totally different lyrical content which really sets him apart from anyone in the rap/hip-hop field.

High points for me, if I have to seperate them out are the stunning '10.30 Appointment' in which one of the album's characters, named 'S' visits the benefit office and has a disagreement about jobs with a Brummie employee (both voiced by Soweto himself). Also 'Adrian's Ballad' sticks out, a slow moving mid-life crisis sort of jazz song (come on, we all know them) with a ridiculously catchy sax refrain and the closing groove of 'The House That Love Built'.

It's very different to his previous album; there's more rapping and the jazz songs are a good amount shorter. However, this feels like a definite step up for the man, and quite simply it's a pretty daring, ambitious and incredible record. For sceptics, you can hear 4 songs from the album over at www.myspace.com/sowetokinch.

The Handsome Family - Last Days of Wonder - VJCD166

For days now, the lines "after we shot the grizzly" and "I can still see you there in your grass-stained underwear" have been going round in my head. The former comes from the song of the same name and is set to a particularly jaunty tune which continues along its merry way cataloguing a series of disasters befalling a stranded group of men - airship crashes, madness, disease - culminating in setting to sea on a boat made of skin and bone. And no, things don't get any better, as you might expect. The latter comes from Flapping Your Broken Wings, a tale of the violation of a golf course and possibly more. In their own way, both songs are beautiful and utterly original.

No one in their right minds would expect anything ordinary from The Handsome Family, of course, but, as ever, Brett and Rennie Sparks consistently transform the mundane into the extraordinary, and, in Somewhere Else To Be, the chance encounter into the life-changing event, if only we had the gumption to realise it was a life-changing event, and the nerve to grasp the opportunity. So there's plenty to identify with, even though Rennie, who writes the songs, is clearly blessed with a particularly rich imagination. Hunter Green is an original but could easily be a folk song in its disturbing imagery of a lover's transformation.

She recently gave an interview about the panic attack she suffered when she lost Brett in an airport and there are two songs which presumably draw on that experience. We've all been in similar situations, but who else would conclude that fact that automatic taps fail to see one's hands is a sign that death is imminent? Or, as she puts it, "your last journey has begun." It's a wonderful, haunting album. Watch out for those automatic taps and stray dogs gathering in your yard.

Recantation!

I would like to formally disown my criticisms of Dylan's Modern Times. There is, as the song has it, a thin line between love and hate. And over the last 35 years there are a handful of albums which I have, for one reason or another, started off hating but which have grown to be much loved, definitive, favourites - stronger than those I liked immediately. Modern Times is joining them. Somewhere over the last two weeks it crept under my skin and is now recognised as a work of beauty and genius....

Nostalgia reigns:

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly - The Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager - B000H30938

God knows what Sam Duckworth, lone Get Cape-er was thinking of when he came up with this moniker, but this homegrown guitarist clearly has his musical heart in the right place at least. Coming across like a modern day acoustic troubadour backed only by his guitar and a laptop (with some sparse strings and a trumpeter in some places), he's definitely a likeable singer/songwriter on paper. And the media attention is warranted to some extent, too; he's got a great ear for melody and doesnt let his lyrics get bogged down in the standard singer/songwriter relationship problems. Makes a bloody nice change, actually.

Sam's not putting on a faux-American accent too, letting his southern English voice come through, if a little harshly for the songs at times like on part 2 of the title track. But his acoustic strumming is well complimented by the electronic drum backing, which simply allows the songs to breathe when they arrive and doesnt constrict them. Like with Halloween Alaska, it's hard to compare him to someone, and whilst he isn't the second coming (experience says no one the British media hypes up will ever be), this is a pretty damn good CD.

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ballad of The Broken Seas - VVR1035822

That’s Isobel Campbell of Belle and Sebastian and Mark Lanegan of Queens of The Stone Age, and my copy of the CD came with a sticker full of one-liners from various reviews claiming that this album would change the course of music as we know it. Of course, they’re wrong but the whole thing does have an intriguing air about it, making you wonder where they’re going to go next, and whether you care.

The duo share the vocals, Campbell’s being light, sweet and breathy. Lanegan, by way of contrast, comes from the Waits/Cohen school of singing (which is not a bad thing in my book). The first track, Deus Ibi Est, is pure Waits in tone and content. Next, Campbell’s Black Mountain is pure folk, reminiscent of Scarborough Fair and with a really annoying refrain of “I choo, I choo.” The third track, The False Husband, is Tom Waits meets Enrico Moricone, as Sara described it. Baffled by all this? I was.

Then, thank goodness, they produce something of themselves in the title track, lapse briefly back into The Waits Land in Ramblin' Man, complete with Mark Ribot-style guitar, and finally settle into a pleasant country-rock groove with the two voices playing off against each other. There are two rather pointless instrumental tracks before the album closes with a piece of pure Springsteen, The Circus is Leaving Town. It’s all rather pleasant and beautifully played, but I don’t think it’s going to change anything. Of course, there's no need for the album to change anything but you might decide to listen to the real thing, or things, instead.

The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely - 4AD 2614

Well, we'd better (see below) have a review of The Goats' latest album then. John Darnielle, who is The Goats, has never been one for shying away from emotional trauma. As RS and Iwan noted, The Sunset Street was all about his relationship with his abusive stepfather. In Tallahassee, which is still his best album for my money, he explored the what it was like to be in a relationship that was on the rocks in the visceral No Children. In Get Lonely, he goes a step further and explores the aftermath of the departure of a partner.

If you don't like albums of sad songs, then this is clearly not for you because these songs are really sad. He expresses perfectly the desolation, the loss of purpose, the grief, and the futile attempts to find distraction in a succession of perfectly turned and beautifully played songs, rather more lavishly orchestrated than in previous offerings. He ranges from the mundane consequences - making coffee for two out of habit and drinking it all because she didn't like waste - to the cosmic - "an astronaut could have seen the hunger in my eyes from space." At best, relief comes only for a minute. He takes refuge in memories until they become too vivid to bear.

So, it's not going to send you skipping down the street exactly but the attraction comes because we've all been there and everything he describes is instantly recognisable, expressed clearly and poetically, and seamlessly combined with his music. The good news is that he's touring Australia in the near future and playing Sydney in January. I'm going

Razorlight (Mercury) + The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree

Two clicks on iTunes and two Indie albums later...
The Mountain Goats was released last year (and properly reviewed at the time by Iwan) but I have only just caught up with it. And it's definitely a case of better late than never. John Darnielle writes autobiographically of growing up in California with an abusive step father (to whom the album is dedicated). It captures teenage angst, sorrow, anger and more put to compulsive often joyful tunes. "This Year" with it's refrain ("I'm gonna make it through this year if it kills me") and salvation through a girl called Kathy ("two high maintenance machines") is the best track for me - but there is much to admire and sing along to. Catharsis through pop. Worth a second review if it encourages someone else to discover it!

Razorlight's second album lives up to the promise of their first. For me they are the best of the new indie bands sweeping the festivals in the UK over the last couple of years. "Somewhere Else" was a great single last year. The new one, from this album, is just as good: America, "All my life, Watching America, All my life, There's panic in America"...but other tracks like Who Needs Love and Before I Fall To Pieces are just as strong. Lead singer Johnny Borrell's arrogance irritates some - but if you're 26 years old with a great band and some great songs, that's as it should be. And the fact that Pete Docherty decided to physically attack him only to be floored by Borrell endears him to me even more.

Bob Dylan - Modern Times (Columbia)

"Epic", "another masterwork", "his best in decades" ran some of the reviews. It isn't. It's not bad - but we've come to hope for more after 40 years of innovation and turning expectation on its head. And that's my real problem with the album. Once you've started, it's predictable. Rolling Stone magazine said in its review: "This music is relaxed; it has nothing to prove. It is music of accumulated knowledge, it knows every move, anticipates every step before you take it." I would sum that up in one word: tired.
In a series of slow waltzes and blues shuffles, Dylan sounds like the pensioner he is, taking another turn around the tea dance floor. He says the band is the best he has ever worked with. They are tight - but you can anticipate every turn of musical phrase bars ahead and they never defy your expectation. Is this, as some suggest, an homage to tradition, their blues folk roots, or is it, as I fear, just a failure of imagination?
Someday Baby and Workingman's Blues 2 lift their heads and show what might have been and the final track Ain't Talkin' has a trace of the old menace. But for the most part the songs, like his voice, sound frail. I shall return to Desire, Blood on The Tracks and even Time Out of Mind, but not often to his view of Modern Times I fear.

Ali Farka Toure - Savane - WCD075

This was the last album he made before his death and, like its predecessor In The Heart Of The Moon, it was recorded in the Hotel Mande in Bamako. Many were disappointed with that album: it was undeniably beautiful but perhaps too intimate, Toure and Toumani Diabate too involved in each other’s skill and musical cultures to draw in the listener. Well, this one is different.

It’s a return to the plaintive, driving, dry-as-dust desert blues of his early albums, played with even more assurance and beautifully recorded, and really feels as though it was recorded for an audience. It’s becoming hard to find a mainstream African album without an itinerant Westerner or two popping up on a few tracks, not always to good effect. Here we have Pee Wee Ellis, who has been playing with many Malian musicians, but I’m glad to say his sax doesn’t sound too out of place and adds to the atmosphere on Bato.

More effective is the harmonica of Little George Sueref, Cardiff-born, and now based and playing clubs in London. As far as I know, he’s released only one album of his own and it’s splendid. He sounds perfectly in place and, hopefully, this collaboration means we’ll hear more of him.

Even so, the unadorned title track really can’t be beaten. The whole album is wonderful. Can’t recommend it enough.

Jolie Holland - Springtime Can Kill You - ANTI 86788-2

I thought the enigmatic RS would have reviewed this as he’s a big fan of Ms Holland and introduced me to her music but he’s clearly too busy reliving his mis-spent youth. Musically, that is. For newcomers, I suppose I should start with her voice, which I know some find irritating. The unkind might describe it as fey or overly winsome but you could equally describe it as beguiling and, anyway, if you feel her voice lacks substance, the songs more than make up for it.

The first track, Crush In The Ghetto, is a pop ballad describing how her neighbourhood seems to be transformed after a night with new lover. There is one dubious line about ants and pants, but we’ll pass over that. At the other end of the affair, Please Don’t ends with the line “don’t tell ’em what you know about me,” a common fear at the end of intimacy and neatly summed up. In between, she swings from blues to country through jazz, with a variety of accompaniment from baritone horn to cello. It’s a feast.

Strangely Strange but Oddly Normal - An Island Anthology (Island 9822950)

Back in the very early 70s teenage boys were often to be seen walking around ostentatiously carrying "samplers" of island records - the two best known beng El Pea and Bumpers. Indeed Bumpers was my introduction to "progressive" music. The best of five years of island records is now available on this anthology - and may have been for some time but i have only just discovered it How the years melt away. It was a remarkable five year period from 1967 to 1972 showcasing new acts like Free, Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention, John and Beverley Martyn, Nick Drake, Cat Stevens, ELP, Traffic, and others less well remembered like Dr Strangely Strange, Quintessance, Clouds and more. WIth 48 songs this is a generous collection which recaptures the time admirably - and much of it still stands up well (although may be propped up by nostalgia.) It was a period of innocence and creativity, long past, but fondly remembered. If you grew your hair 35 years ago, wore loons and quivered when Sandy Denny sang, indulge yourself in this.

Ursula Rucker - Supa Sister !K7 106CD; Silver or Lead !K7 153CD; !K7 194CD

I heard about Ursula Rucker last month and, in the last couple of weeks, have bought all three of her CDs. Ursula Rucker is a member of Philadelphia’s Hip Hop community. But saying that in no way conveys how unique she is. She is so far off the beaten track that she has to record for a German company, since what she does is of no value to the US entertainment industry. Ursula Rucker shows how far other rappers, even the best of them, fall short of creating beautiful music.

It is argued, cogently, that life in the ghetto is anything but beautiful and that Rap reflects that. But there have been musicians such as Lester Young, Mingus, Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, who have been able to draw from the ugliness transcendent beauty. The difference is that Ursula Rucker does this, not with the abstraction that is music, but with concrete words; words that WILL NOT LET YOU ESCAPE THE REALITY. And yet, through these inescapable words, accompanied by intelligent, sympathetic, music, the miracle of beauty arises; I’m not sure how.

Some of it stems from her delivery. She is no MC, standing in front of a turntable basher, yelling into a mike. She delivers her extremely uncomfortable messages in a calm, controlled, fury. And this delivery, too, makes it impossible to escape the message through not hearing the words clearly.

Much of it stems from her articulacy. Her messages are deeply felt, carefully thought out, and clearly expressed in uncompromising language that makes no concessions to “dumbing down”.

Her messages are mainly described as dealing with “women’s issues”; an attempt at a brush-off, if I ever saw one. She sees things from a woman’s perspective, it’s true, which doesn’t invalidate the message in any way. And perhaps because of that, she also sees things in a way that understands motivations, without condoning anything. And expresses herself in a way that communicates her fury to the listener. Everyone in the world ought to listen to Ursula Rucker. Her work is beautiful but it isn’t, even slightly, entertaining.

Amazon is the best place to buy her CDs – they are expensive but there are bargains at Amazon, I should imagine because so many people have found her too uncomfortable to live with - AM

The Derek Trucks Band - Songlines - 82796 92844 2

At first glance, this doesn't have much going for it. There's the band's name to start. Then there's the fact that Derek Trucks appears to be a young, old-fashioned guitar hero and has a long, irritating pony-tail. You can see the pony-tail in a photo on the album which shows him sitting on a camp chair in the desert, guitar poised, with his back to the camera while the rest of the band walks adoringly up a slope toward him. That irritated me as well. And then he latches on to Aboriginal songlines and quotes Bruce Chatwin on the subject, who, while a brilliant writer, wasn't known for sticking to the facts about anything when it didn't suit him.

So it was just as well that I heard the music on the Jazz and Conversation blog before I was exposed to any of the above. I suppose it's mostly jazz or blues with, inevitably, horror of horrors, some jazz-rock, and there is an air of nostalgia hanging over the whole thing, stemming from the style rather than the content, which is nearly all up-beat. I'm sure I heard something like it when I was in college but I can't think what it was. However, it's all tightly played, only sinks into self-indulgence on the Indian-influenced track, Sahib Teri Bandi, and has loads of strong melodies. I knew there had to be a reason I keep playing it.

Great Lake Swimmers @ Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff 11/05/06

In retrospect, I would rather have caught John Vanderslice supporting Death Cab back in March than the two bands who supported Great Lake Swimmers last week. Anyway, after two supports, on came Tony Dekker, quiet leader of the band and they kicked off about an hour or so of wistful, VERY low-key and intimate folk; Dekker on his acoustic, accompanied by a Banjo player and drummer for most of the set.

Gigs like this can go either way, much like the albums, and you were one of two people at the gig. Either you were quietly chatting away with the support band or you were taking Dekker's songs in and getting annoyed at the ones talking. Problem was that the songs were so quiet that the chatting was actually louder at times!

Dekker got everyone to shut up with a mesmerising and moving solo rendition of 'This Is Not Like Home'; you could literally hear a pin drop (think I did too). He's such a quiet character, and an unassuming frontman also. My mate went up to ask him for a setlist two seconds after he'd gotten off stage, and Dekker actually shyed away, bless him. Still, the mind wandered rarely during the setlist, and was a good advert for the 'South By South Wales' festival (see what they did there?).

35X35 – Alligator Records – ALCD 120/21

This compilation has one track from each of the 35 years of Alligator Records, set up in 1971 by the then 23-year-old blues fan, Bruce Iglaur. The first signing was Hound Dog Taylor who, appropriately, kicks off the compilation with She’s Gone (well, it wouldn’t be the blues if she’d come back, would it?). There’s barely a dud on the two discs, with contributions from Professor Longhair , Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Charlie Musselwhite, C J Chenier and The Holmes Brothers, among others.

Some are worth it for the names alone: Lil’ Ed and The Blues Imperials, Little Charlie and The Nightcats and Guitar Shorty but there’s no explanation of why they’re all apparently challenged in the physical stature department. It’s the women who stand out, though: Saffire – The Uppity Blues Women, Koko Taylor, Katie Webster, and Shemekia Copeland. The latter's 1998 recording of Salt In My Wounds, made when she was only 18, makes me think Joss Stone might as well retire now.

You can buy 35X35 direct from
Alligator Records which would be a good thing to do.

Bruce Springsteen - The Seeger Sessions (Columbia)

Can I apologise for doing this straight away. Sorry. I bought this album 30 minutes after seeing it performed live in one of the best concerts of my life. Springsteen and his 17 strong Seeger Sessions band live at St Lukes in East London in front of 200 people for a BBC recording. They were sensational. The album, his latest tribute to the american working man, is traditional US folk songs in honour of Pete Seeger. The band are tighter than a banjo string and perform the whole thing (on disc as well as live I must add) with what comes over as real spontaneity and joy. A great horn section, violins, accordians and much else. It all has a strong Louisiana twist and I defy anyone not to join in, if only with a tapping toe. Far better, pour a large JD, fire up the barbie and holler along with the bluegrass spirit. For those of us who were there at the beginning it's been a great journey from Asbury Park via Thunder Road, The River, and Nebraska, passing The Ghost of Tom Joad to The Rising and now this. And on this form, plenty more to come. If you want to see or hear the concert it's on Radio 2 on Saturday evening (May 13th - available worldwide via the BBC RadioPlayer) or on BBC4 on Friday 19th or BBC 2 Saturday 20th. Set your recorders...


(The TV picture will be better than my phone cam...)

The Wood Brothers - Ways Not To lose (Blue Note B000E6UK4G)

The Wood Brothers are a guitar- bass duo. They combine into a blues - country- folk - jazz- gospel kind of mix. (I'm tempted to stop the review at that). Chris (bass) and Oliver (guitar and vocals) are brothers who have played in other bands and just got together and released this album. I heard a couple of tracks on the Paul Jones show on Radio 2 on Thursdays (yes the Manfred Mann Paul Jones - I recommend the show) and they really hit the spot - you know, that one in your stomach that's attached to your spine. Sample Atlas as a great example of their work, or The Luckiest Man strikes a particular chord with me. More information available here. Just go and listen. You won't regret it.

Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days SPCD 630

The 'one bloke with an acoustic and a bucket of tunes' bus is surely getting a little crowded, but Sam Beam, a lecturer from Florida who makes up Iron & Wine's studio line-up, gets by thanks to being perhaps the quietest of them all. Singing in a mid whisper, and almost always just with his guitar, he writes simple slow summery songs about life. So of course, that means he's reflective, wistful, has songs about love, but the great thing is the low volume really does create a rare sense of constant intimacy. Honest.

Songs like 'Fever Dream' and 'Naked As We Came' are just stripped down songs about love to absorb yourself in; all simple melodies and caring lyrics. He's definitely moved on from previous album 'The Creek Drank The Cradle' which suffered from repitition for me, and whilst I dont think Beam will ever be anyone's favourite singer/songwriter, his albums are like a walk in a nice forest; not something you want to overdo but something you can always rely on for a nice, different and thoughtful experience.

Salif Keita - M'Bemba - 0602498312278

Salif Keita once said he developed his voice as a child while scaring the monkeys away from his father's crops. In that case, we have a lot to thank the monkeys for. For many, me included, his soaring, powerful vocals on Soro, were an introduction to the music of West Africa and the album helped launch "world music" as a genre. He was always more other-worldly than his contemporaries, like Baaba Maal and Youssou N'Dour, and never quite followed their path to international fame. He is famous, of course, but he did get lost along the way and his output has been patchy.

His last album, Moffou, was rightly welcomed as return to form. Quiet and traditional, it had a sense of calm. M'Bemba builds on that. It has a stellar cast of Malian musicians, including Kante Manfila and Toumani Diabate, and was recorded in Keita's own studio in Mali. Buju Banton's contribution on Ladji is rather dubious, but the rest is flawless, with even a touch of soukous. And on the last two tracks, M'Bemba and Moriba, that voice starts soaring again.

Van Morrison - Pay The Devil (Polydor E6EIT4)

And while we're in a country mood, there's this. I tried, really tried, not to buy it. I defer to no-one in my admiration for Van Morrison but too many recent albums have been way off the pace - and I assumed this would be too. Then I heard Playhouse and then his version of Your Cheatin' Heart and gave in. It's country covers and a couple of originals. His voice is great and the band, handpicked and honed to perfection. Not everyone's glass of JD but if you're in the mood - or need to keep the country feel going after listening to The Little Willies - it hits the spot. Anyone for Nashville?

The Little Willies (Parlophone E6UJXS)

Every so often you discover something which you know is going to become a fixture in your life. It may not be the stonking great settee in the middle of the room, but it will fit comfortably in some corner and be returned to and appreciated often. So it is with The Little Willies - a group of friends who got together to play in a New York Club but who happen to include some great musicians and Norah Jones singing. It's a country feel, with covers of songs by Hank Williams, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson amongst others. The lazy vocals fit the laid back feel like the proverbial silk glove, the guitar, just behind the beat, always seems to head in an unexpected direction and you can just tell they are having a good time. If they played in a bar near you every Friday you'd be a regular. If you want to download a taste choose "It's Not You It's Me".

Cat Power - The Greatest - OLE 626-2

Everyone's agreed that Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, is a bit of an enigma. For a start, Chan is pronounced "Shawn". Then, apparently, no one knows what to expect at her gigs other than chaos. And she seems to have something of a hit on her hands with this album but has cancelled her tour for "health reasons." Which may, of course, be true. If so, I hope she gets better because, despite what one might expect, The Greatest is a collection of tightly-written and played, sparse, hypnotic songs. It's quite beautiful. Recorded in Memphis, it swings between country and blues, with Marshall breathing, rather than singing most of the lyrics.

But when she does open up her voice, as in Where Is My Loveand Lived in Bars, it's dramatic and effective. She's also a good piano player but like the other musicians on the album, she restricts herself to under-stated and subtle contributions to the songs. If this sounds rather low-key, well, it is. But there's more than enough change of pace and tone to hold your interest. By the way, the band's name, and she is the band, has nothing to do with felines. She chose it after seeing the words on a baseball cap so it's got more to do with large earth-moving machinery. Incongruity piled upon enigma.

Death Cab For Cutie - Live at Nottingham Rock City 02/03/06

Maybe it's the fact that I'm surrounded by trendy people who only know the mighty Death Cab from that most hideous of teen shows, The O.C. but there seems to be a definite divide between them and us devoted converts singing along to every word of (mostly) genius soft rock stylings. Regardless, the band roll through 19 songs in a little under 90 minutes; great value for money I reckon.

Not wishing to be elitist, but 7 songs of tonight's set are culled from last year's 'Plans', which is possibly just Death-Cab-by-numbers. Not bad songs by any means, but thankfully, its left to 'Transatlanticism' to deliver the moments of the evening, including a weighty rendition of 'We Looked Like Giants', and a mesmerising run through the album's title track to end the set. As great an end to the gig as it was, I did find myself wishing for a few more ardent fans and less curious onlookers to make the unifying sing-a-long at the end a bit more powerful. Maybe I'm just getting old. Still; great band, great songs, great gig.

Sonny Stitt - Just The Way It Was: Live at The Left Bank - Hyena 9337

This is the hottest album of live black music I’ve ever heard.

It was recorded in 1971 in Baltimore. Stitt was accompanied by Don Patterson, the most articulate jazz organist, and Billy James, an underrated drummer. They had been working together for a decade; the rapport is absolutely there.

Six weeks earlier, Sonny and Gene Ammons had been in Van Gelder’s. Jug told Sonny that he sounded terrible using an amplified sax and Stitt apparently never recorded with it afterwards. Well, he was still using the amplifier in Baltimore. I don’t like the sound either but, this time, I don’t give a damn. Anyway, you can hear why Sonny was using it; he needed it!

The sleevenotes of Don Patterson’s albums are full of references to how unlike most organists he is, in eschewing volume pedal and pounding organ. Well, those were studio recordings. This is the only live recording Don made. He is totally overpowering; fast, articulate, visceral, breathtakingly exultant – oh yes, and loud, too.

That night, the three men played music that is the ultimate in excitement. I’m sure the audience left the ballroom with blistered faces and scorched clothes.

A warning: Hyena is Joel Dorn’s fifth label, following Wolf, Night, 32Jazz and Label M. This album was released on Label M in 2000 but, a few weeks later, Label M followed its predecessors into bankruptcy. I was lucky to get one. Now it’s reissued, the message is: don’t delay too long - AM

Paul Weller - As Is Now (V2 9S2G8C)

Something's happened to Paul Weller. Britain has decided to embrace him as a national treasure. It came to a head with the Brits award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement (or something). But before that he was already being written about in terms normally reserved for 60s icons and any appearance was marked by inreasingly frantic behaviour by those seeking tickets. And Why Not (as Barry Norman would say)? While no-one would call him humble he has certainly patiently built a remarkable career. The Jam (together with The Clash and The Ramones) stand as the best legacy of 70s punk and new wave. He then made a genuinely bold career change into white soul with The Style Council, again called it a day at the top of their popularity and embarked on a solo career encompassing Stanley Road, Wild Wood, Studio 150 (a covers album) and now to this. He's back in top-volume-hard-edged form - but, as ever, not shy of a sweet melody either. Blink And You'll Miss It and From The Floorboards Up stand out for me. But everywhere on here you'll find echoes of nearly 3 decades of fine Britpop innovation coming together in his strongest album for years.

Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I am That's What I'm Not (Domino BTDMDC)

I nearly didn't bother with this as so much has already been written about them. Post-punk nervous energy married with clever lyrics (again heavily influenced by The Streets). They now famously built a fan base on the internet (My Space.com) and with relentless touring without the support of a record company became unignorable. The album is sharp, edgy and very assured. My favourite tracks - "Bet you look good on the dancefloor" and "Still take you home". If you want to remember what it was like to be 17 put this on and turn up the volume. No place for a burnt-out-40-something to be hanging around? Maybe - but I'm not alone. 50 quid bloke pointed me to a piece by Andrew Collins’ in Word magazine this month. "Titled: ‘How Arctic Monkeys saved my life’, it’s basically a description of how they have turned him - a middle-aged, seen-it-all music hack - into a stammering fan again." Indeed.

Hard-Fi Stars of CCTV (Atlantic B90U2M8)

Current british radio favourites based on the infectious single "Cashpoint" about the hardships of a hand-to-mouth existence and teenage pregnancy when the machine swallows your card. Surprisingly catchy in the circumstances. The album is refreshingly varied in influences including reggae, ska, indie rock anthems and much else. The tone is very much about the alienation of modern youth - but as they come from Staines that's understandable. Think Mike Skinner (The Streets) meets Bloc Party with a dash of The Specials and you're close. Can't quite envisage that? Take a glimpse then....

Cash Machine (Hard-Fi)

Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat. (Rough Trade CBEWM4)

Jenny Lewis is the singer from Rilo Kiley who decided to make this solo record (with vocal support from the enigmatic Watson twins) in between RK albums. Those of you who know Rilo Kiley will already appreciate her clear, nuanced and beautiful vocal style with a country/gospel twist more noticeable here than when she's with the band. The lyrics are as piercing and intriguing as you would expect covering religion, relationships, parenthood among much else. As music writer Andy Greenwald puts it "She's got hair the color of a Pacific sunset, a voice as sweet as an ice cream cone, and a wit sharper than a razorblade." Pretty much sums it up. Stand out tracks for me are Rise Up With Fists and You Are What You Love - but you really need to hear the whole thing through rather than pick on individual songs. A cover of the Travelling Wilburys Handle With Care doesn't quite come off, but I'll forgive her. You can find out more and sample some of it here.

Nada Surf - The Weight is The Gift - bark46ltd

I've been a fan of Nada Surf since I discovered their second album Let Go and then heard them on a memorable night in Barfly in Cardiff. A trio from New York, they have, apparently, been doing it hard since they formed when they were in their teens, had one hit, saw their first album Proximity Effect sink without trace and consequently became embroiled in a lengthy legal dispute with their then record company.

However, that all seems to be behind them and their latest album The Weight is The Gift is a fine collection of bouncy and accomplished songs. Their hallmark is good, strong rock guitar work, verging on, but just about missing, cliches, pop catchiness, and an overall sensibility that draws me in all the time. The songs in this album all seem to be about the end of love or life not going terribly well (there's a surprise but does anyone listen to unrelentingly happy albums?) without being dreary and then they pop up with The Blankest Year which begins: "Oh f**k it, I'm going to have a party...". I think Let Go is better - fresher, more uplifting and more varied - but The Weight has been playing since I bought it.

Curtis Amy - Mosaic Select 007

Most people have heard Curtis Amy, if only the tenor solo on the Rolling Stones’ Honky Tonk Women or the soprano sax solo on Carole King’s It’s Too Late. Amy was a great Texas tenor player; not as important as Newman, Jacquet or King Curtis, but well up there. This set of three CDs contains all six of the LPs he recorded between 1960 and 1963 for Pacific Jazz. There is not a dud track anywhere.

The first CD covers The Blues Message and Meetin’ Here, two albums by a quintet Amy co-led with the brilliant, but obscure, organist, Paul Bryant. The front line of tenor, valve trombone and organ is pretty unusual and sounds wonderful, quite aside from the playing.

CD #2 covers Groovin’ Blue and Way Down – you can tell where Amy is coming from by his titles, can’t you? Roy Brewster is once again on valve trombone, but Bryant was replaced by two up and coming vibes players – Bobby Hutcherson and Roy Ayers, and three piano players.

The final disc covers Tippin’ on Through – a live LP with Ayers and Brewster once more on board – and Amy’s masterpiece, Katanga, one of the albums that I’d take to a desert island (even if it meant leaving some Grant Green behind) - AM