CDs of the week: Rihanna, Michael Jackson, Kate Bush

RIHANNA
Talk That Talk
(Mercury)
***

For all her ever-present in-your-faceness and worldwide popularity, it's hard to discern Rihanna Fenty's gifts. She doesn't write her own songs, she's so-so live and she's not one for an opinion, even after she's been beaten up. It's as if she won X Factor without actually going on X Factor.

Her sixth album offers few clues. Totalling just 37 minutes, these 11 relentless tracks are milking things while they last. Having little part in the creative process, Rihanna herself is a spectator on an album dominated by its eight sets of producers, including Stargate - who worked with Rihanna's obvious template, Britney Spears. The scarf-waving We All Want Love has what sounds like depth charges in the background, Where Have You Been resurrects Eighties stadium house and Calvin Harris sprinkles his tub-thumping thunder over We Found Love.

Offering a soupçon of vocal urgency, Jay-Z rattles out the first half of the title track, but then disappears until he returns for a couple of grunts as it fades. Cockiness (Love It) goes for sex ("suck my cockiness, lick my persuasion," indeed) but ends up as nudge-nudge playground smut. Roc Me Out is packed with grandstanding synthesiser swirls, Watch'n'Learn has a certain cheeky twinkle and the whopping closer Farewell is the best thing here by some distance. So, while no grandstanding triumph, Talk That Talk is no disgrace; but surely the clock is ticking...
JOHN AIZLEWOOD

MICHAEL JACKSON
Immortal
(Sony)
**

Like Tupac before him, Michael Jackson is becoming more prolific in death than he was in life. This is the second album that's been released since his passing in 2009 and, again, there's a distinct feeling of money being exchanged for old rope. This time round, it's as the soundtrack to Michael Jackson's The Immortal Tour by Cirque Du Soleil. A similar feat was achieved with The Beatles' Love album, where George Martin brilliantly re-imagined the group's back catalogue, but producer Kevin Antunes lacks the lightness of touch, hurriedly constructing songs that lurch from one section to another.
RICK PEARSON

KATE BUSH
50 Words For Snow
(Noble & Brite)
****

One could hardly have expected great things from the notoriously unproductive Kate Bush, who has released 50 Words For Snow hard on the heels of Director's Cut. The album's title is not auspicious - the theory that the ice-moustached denizens of the polar regions have many words for snow was debunked long ago - but the central metaphor holds good: these songs may seem alike, but like snowflakes, they are all different. You are going to have to give this record a bit of time. The opening Snowflake is mesmeric, built on Bush vocals and simple piano, as is Lake Tahoe and Misty. Things get interesting when Elton John joins in for a duet on Snowed in at Wheeler Street, perilously close to a show tune, and Stephen Fry gets his dictionary out for the title song. Kate Bush sings erotically throughout. Make of that what you will. PETE CLARK

MARY J BLIGE
My Life II The Journey Continues (Act I)
(Geffen)
***

The queen of hip hop soul gives a jump start to a fading recording career by giving a new album the same name as a past hit. My Life, from 1994, "changed a lot of lives", according to her spoken intro here. Among the new songs there are plenty of examples of what she does best - thudding hip hop beats and smooth melodic vocals on Don't Mind, Feel Inside and Midnight Drive. Over 18 tracks she necessarily branches out, sounding dull on the acoustic Need Someone and too obvious on the synthed-up cover of Rufus and Chaka Khan's Ain't Nobody. On Someone to Love Me (Naked), however, she discovers a slinky groove that is irresistible. For the most part, her talent lives on. DAVID SMYTH

PHIL ROBSON
The Immeasurable Code
(Whirlwind)
****

Rigorous post-bop is guitarist Phil Robson's game and one he plays to international standard. Flute virtuoso Gareth Lockrane and nimble US tenorist Mark Turner illuminate his current quintet, and if you missed their London Jazz Festival set, this live recording is the next-best thing. Eight Robson originals form a suite based on modes of communication, a theme cleverly exploited by the Morse-code signals of the title track. Instant Message, The Net and Telegram are other thoughtful examples, but every number is elegantly developed by Robson. His probing streams of consciousness touch corners of the jazz mind lesser guitarists cannot reach.
JACK MASSARIK

HAVANA CULTURA
The Search Continues
(Brownswood Recordings)
***

Do we really need Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Damon Albarn and Gilles Peterson to make Latin or African music acceptable to a wider audience? There are great tracks here chosen by Peterson from contemporary groups working in Cuba, but it all becomes a comfortable Western stereotype
of radio-friendly tracks with beats and rap vocals. But these won't be the presiding memory of anybody who has been to Havana and got a taste of the scene there where dance music still rules. A highlight here is Check La Rima with underground artists Los Aldeanos and vocalist Danay Suarez. Cuban music still has a cutting
edge and it comes across in many of these tracks.
SIMON BROUGHTON