Morning:
13°c
An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
London faces a wave of bus and Tube strikes that could cause chaos for millions of passengers as unions walkout over pay and conditions
More...
CDs of the week
Evening Standard 01.12.06
The pop seems deliberately intended to irritate on Gwen Stefani's latest album
Look here too
Gwen Stefani is back with her second solo album, Lee Hazlewood releases the life-affirming Cake or Death and Emma Bunton descends into bland cabaret...
POP
Gwen Stefani
The Sweet Escape (Interscope)
**
Former No Doubt frontwoman Stefani's debut solo album was a multi-platinum smash, a riot of Eighties pop and quirky electro, so it's no surprise that she's returned for more. The big name collaborators are still here en masse, notably ingenious producers the Neptunes, R&B star Akon and a more unlikely appearance from Keane's Tim Rice-Oxley. However, this time around the ballads are drearier and the pop seems deliberately intended to irritate. Wind It Up, which attempts to mix stuttering electronica with Sound of Music yodelling, would send almost anyone diving out of the nearest window. Don't Get It Twisted is even worse. There is a good reason why no one has previously combined Jamaican dancehall with circus clown music. Avoid. DAVID SMYTH
Lee Hazlewood
Cake or Death (BPX)
****
Now 77 and with his renal cancer approaching its final stages, this will be Lee Hazlewood's final album. The writer of Some Velvet Morning and These Boots Are Made for Walkin' has been a revered figure for the best part of four decades. Remarkably, Cake or Death (Eddie Izzard gave him the title) is wholly without self-pity. Instead, it's a life-affirming set packed with mischievous fun (White People Thing) and chirpy characters such as Fred Freud (Sigmund's fictitious psychiatrist brother who cures patients with classical music). Please Come to Boston is a wry duet with jazz singer Ann Kristin Hedmark and a reprise of Some Velvet Morning, mostly sung by his granddaughter, miraculously avoids sentimentality. This is a joyfully fitting farewell. JOHN AIZLEWOOD
Emma Bunton
Life in Mono (19/Universal)
*
They may have sold 40 million albums, but the Spice Girls' success had little to do with the bandmembers' vocal or songwriting talents - a fact that has proved a stumbling block for their solo careers. Emma Bunton's latest contains a major nod towards the Sixties. Nothing wrong with that, except that she seems to have found most of her inspiration from that decade's musical low points. Her pleasant voice lends itself well to the self-penned opening ballad, All I Need to Know. However, Mischievous, whose cheeky minor-key and vaguely Middle-Eastern vibe brings to mind an ad for the Turkish tourist board, signals a descent into a bland cabaret sound. We're in the world of cruise ship entertainment. CHRIS ELWELL-SUTTON
JAZZ
Joe Zawinul and the WDR Big Band
Brown Street
****
A dazzling keyboard improviser who shrewdly anticipated the market for jazz-rock and later for Afro and Latin-American world-beats, Joe Zawinul is an enterprising jazzman. Alongside his group - bass-guitarist Victor Bailey, drummer Nat Townsley and percussionist Alex Acuna - we find the WDR Big Band, a streamlined 15-piece studio massive from Cologne. Trumpeter John Marshall and altoist Karolina Strassmayer sparkle in beefed-up arrangements of Weather Report classics such as Black Market, Night Passage and A Remark You Made, but it's the old synth-meister who gives real substance to this glossy package. JACK MASSARIK
WORLD
Various artists
Golden Afrique Vol 3 (Network 495115)
*****
Even if you've never consciously listened to African music, you will recognise Mbube, the song that begins this collection. Originally recorded by Solomon Linda in 1939, it became internationally famous as The Lion Sleeps Tonight - and his family finally won the rights to royalties earlier this year. The song opens a treasure house of music recorded in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia from 1939 to 1988 featuring the great names - Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Oliver Mtukudzi - alongside unknown rarities. This township sound is soulful and exuberant, with great vocals plus seductive sax and guitar playing. The two discs give a superlative overview of some of Africa's most powerful music. SIMON BROUGHTON
