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Emmylou Harris
& Rodney Crowell
The Travelling Kind
Emmylou Harris and Rodney
Crowell’s Grammy Award-winning,
2013 release
Old Yellow Moon
was
the first full album collaboration
for these long-time friends. Having
known one another for 40 years,
they are two exceptionally talented
individuals who are outstanding as
a duo. They’ve done it again with
another release of duets featuring
six new songs written by Harris
and Crowell, and new renditions of
previous Crowell, Lucinda Williams
and Amy Allison tracks. Joe Henry
has produced this album, highlighting
the magical coming together of
classic vocals from two modern
day, country singing legends, with
yet again another fantastic song
selection. (
Warner) Denise Hylands
Saun & Starr
Look Closer
Saundra Williams and Starr
Duncan Lowe usually sing
back-up for soul queen
Sharon Jones, but
Look
Closer
pairs them with
Jones’ band The Dap-Kings
for a dynamite album of their
own. This isn’t just retro soul,
though: the songs take funk
and R’n’B to stark and spacey
places, all while hinging
on those honeyed voices.
If the themes of romance
and redemption are
familiar, the pitch-perfect
arrangements make
everything sound utterly fresh.
Again, the vocals are the star,
with Saun & Starr shining like
a stripped-back girl group.
(Shock) DougWallen
STREAMYOUR FAVOURITE ALBUMS AT JBHI-FI NOW... NOW!
MUSIC
REVIEWS
Ruby Boots
Solitude
“Is your bottle half-empty or is it too full?” So
starts the debut album by Ruby Boots, aka Bex
Chilcott. After signing to Lost Highway Records,
the pressure is on. Can she deliver? The answer is
a resounding yes. File alongside Lucinda Williams,
Mia Dyson and Lisa Miller; this Perth singer is so
confident and assured, it sounds like she’s been doing it forever. Though
the album was recorded in six separate sessions over nine months
with four producers, it’s a cohesive and classy piece of work, with pop
highs (check out
Wrap Me in a Fever
) and bittersweet laments. Her
voice is capable of conveying ache and longing, and she exhibits superb
storytelling abilities. And the cleverly chosen collaborators add value,
including Jordie Lane (who duets on
Lovin’ in the Fall
), Bill Chambers, The
Waifs’ Vikki Thorn, and You Am I’s Davey Lane, who adds a brilliant guitar
solo to the title track which sounds effortless but golden.
Solitude
should
be the start of an impressive career. As Ruby Boots declares, “I know I
ain’t leaving any time soon.”
(Lost Highway/Universal) Jeff Jenkins
AlbumsThat Should Live in Every Collection
Temple of the Dog
Temple of the Dog
When grunge arrived in the early '90s, this
band – Soundgarden's Chris Cornell alongside
soon-to-be Pearl Jam, on a tribute to the late
Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone – were a
supergroup... except at that time, none were in a
group which was super. Soundgarden and Pearl
Jam's breakthrough albums would soon come,
but TOTD's sole album showed the way in its
distillation of Led Zepp, molten heavy metal and
bellicose ballads – all delivered with emotional
intensity for their late friend.
The Wombats, Glitterbug
The Wombats are more champagne than Schumacher in their
latest,
Glitterbug
. The Liverpool trio's latest is slower and more
placid than their previous works, yet manages to retain their
kookily askew pop thing – and truest to this new exploration
of their marsupial genre is
Your Body is a Weapon.
The band’s
newer sounds are emphasised in the less-so-but-still-upbeat
This Is Not a Party
,
as well as
Be Your Shadow’
s ability to sound exactly like a cross between
1996
and
Tokyo
. Worth a listen for fans of The Wombats keen for a different-yet-
trademark sound, and so too for newcomers wanting to appreciate three lads
who successfully rhyme 'exclusivity' and 'proximity'.
Alesha Kolbe
Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Multi Love
Ruban Nielson's gift for melodic twists and weighty lyrics
hasn't deserted him; it's deepened on this album, which refers
to Prince-style soul with a disco bassline (opener
I Can't Keep
Checking My Phone
), deep funk (the brittle
Acid Rain
), dreamy
falsetto pop (the title track), and broody balladry (the Bacharach-
style horns of
Necessary Evil
). What keeps the diversity coherent is a funky
bottom end, Nielson's effortless delivery (which sounds intimate, or annoyed),
and the pop economy of these nine, discrete songs. Nielson/UMO twist them into
musically literate, white-boy pop-rock with its feet on the dancefloor and stars in
its jaded eyes.
Graham Reid
Also Spinning
Roky Erickson
True Love Cast Out All Evil
With songs and soundscapes pulled together
from old tapes and newer material by Okkervil's
Will Sheff, the brain-damaged Erickson had
never sounded so heartbreaking or confident.
A musical and emotional revelation.
Frank Sinatra
In the Wee Small Hours
Back in the late '50s, Sinatra made what we came
to call concept albums: a collection of songs
around a theme. This one is ideal for melancholy
late night listening. Great songs, that voice, and
the wee small hours all combine perfectly.