This week's CD reviews

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Should he change his spots? Wainwright's music is as flamboyant as ever

Johnny Boy: Disco style pop-punk

Amerie comes close to R&B perfection

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Rufus Wainwright
Release the stars
(Polydor)
**

Lavender Diamond
Imagine our Love
(Rough Trade)
*****

Pop is a far from level playing field. Here are two records that share a certain approach to music - both could be categorised as " chamber pop" or "baroque rock".

They share a sensibility that pop music can be serious, that it can make a difference, that it can evolve as an art form. Yet it's very unlikely that you will have heard of Lavender Diamond, while Rufus Wainwright is probably a very familiar name: his fifth album Release The Stars has been slavered over by music magazines and broadsheets. Meanwhile Lavender Diamond's debut has barely picked up any reviews. Why?

Well, Rufus has been around a while. His flamboyance, arrogance and family connections also make good copy. He's signed to a huge label and represented by a very influential publicist. Lavender Diamond, conversely, are on the Rough Trade label which is hip but under-resourced.

But Imagine Our Love, which follows last year's impeccable Cavalry Of Light EP, is so much the better record that it almost makes me question the integrity of other journalists. How can you mistake Wainwright's claustrophobic, operatic schtick for genius if you've heard Imagine Our Love?

At the start of this perfect record a muffled We Will Rock You drum thump is followed by sleigh bells and then a big bruiser of a piano riff, ushering in Becky Stark's searing soprano as she sings, over and over and with increasing desperation, "Oh no, when will I love again?" Utterly spine-tingling.

Over in Rufus-world, Release The Stars starts promisingly too - Do I Disappoint You and Going To A Town have lovely tunes that just about survive being suffocated by overbearing instrumental flourishes and a pudgy production.

As you plough on, however, dodging kitchen sinks and stray lederhosen, the tunes become buried ever-deeper in the sludge. Meanwhile, Lavender Diamond barrel along joyfully with the lush pop of Open Your Heart, staring sadly into a half-empty wine glass on the spare, guilty beauty of I'll Never Lie Again and making tears flow on the almost unbearably heartrending My Shadow Is A Monday, which somehow recalls both Patsy Cline and the Cowboy Junkies.

The contest between the two is one-sided - but not in the way you'd expect.

Amerie
Because I Love It
(Columbia)
*****

1 Thing was the best single of 2005, no contest. It's go-go-driven rhythms melded perfectly with Amerie's ferocious voice and startling harmonies. Because I Love It, the American's third album, confusingly features 1 Thing, but at least five other songs are just as good. Current single, Take Control, with its back-to-basics beats and its echoes of Thriller-era Michael Jackson is one.

But it's Crush that really impresses. Human League synth washes and Madonna samples go part of the way to explaining the song's appeal, but it's the ambition of the overall arrangement and the mighty tune that lifts it into the same class as 1 Thing. Close to R&B perfection.

Megadeath
United Abominations
(Roadrunner)

Dave Mustain's thrash metal band have been going for nearly 25 years and this is their 11th album. Following a creative dive off the cliff at the back end of the Nineties, 2004's The System Has Failed showed signs of recovery.

United Abominations will be a real fanpleaser, although it's unlikely to drag in many casual listeners. Jackhammer rhythm guitars and fluid leads spiral all over the shop. Mustaine's best tunes for an age are on the title track and Washington Is Next! but his hackneyed attempts at political lyrics (Amerikhastan's "Hey Jihad Joe, we're coming to get you", should give you a clue as to the level of debate on offer here) would have a five-year-old rolling her eyes in exasperation.

Johnny Boy
Johnny Boy
(Johnny Boy recordings)

Three years ago, Johnny Boy's second single, You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve, arrived to such praise - I was one of many to instantly acclaim it single of the year - that success seemed inevitable. So of course this euphoric chunk of Sixties-influenced pop vanished without trace.

Amid record company murmurings of discontent at the single's anti-consumerist bent, the band was dropped and the album shelved. Now on their own label, Johnny Boy never quite matches the sky-scraping genius of its lead track but Johnny Boy Theme, with its sparkling cut-and-paste aesthetic, and the punk-disco of Formaldehyde come close.

Various Artists
Hyphy Hits
(TVT)

Last year I was in San Francisco when I heard Nump's brilliantly low-slung I Got Grapes. The song advocated "getting hyphy". I soon discovered hyphy was a feelgood branch of hip hop local to the Bay Area in the same way that crunk is mainly native to Atlanta.

Hyphy's about pure escapism and hedonism rather than bragging and bling and it's occasionally really funny, as with The A'z's Yadadamean. Relying on straightforward electro rather than samples, it needs hooks and melodies to snag your attention. There are plenty of juicy hits on this bluffer's guide and primer to the scene. Perhaps it's not socially conscious hip hop but it's really good to hear rap having a good time again. It has been far too long.

 

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