CDs of the week

 Add your view

No looking back contains solos of great authority

When Ian Brown sings, it always seems worth listening

Mitchell is on furious, smoky-voiced form in her new album

Music maverick Manu Chao is currently topping the charts around Europe

Pj Harvey has put down her trusty guitar of old for her latest album

Look here too

• Off the record

Pop

PJ Harvey
White Chalk (Island)
****
Devotees of Ms Harvey will scarcely be able to believe their ears: the uncompromising emotional banshee has found within herself the voice of a little girl. And with this new voice comes a piano accompaniment instead of the trusty guitar of old. All of which might suggest that Polly has abandoned some of the emotional force which made previous albums exhilarating and unbearable in equal parts. This is not the case. Devil, which opens the record, is a masterpiece of insidious horror, the double-tracked vocals at once beguiling and unsettling. The title song is an otherwordly paean to the beauties of the singer's Dorset home, yet she still ends up with blood on her hands. Piano sets its vicious lyrics against a stirring melodic backdrop. Beautiful and damned. Pete Clark

Ian Brown
The World is Yours (Fiction)
***
Having once been derided for his singing and considered an inferior talent to his Stone Roses bandmate John Squire, Ian Brown is now five albums into a fertile solo career. He's gradually found a sound which is far from the baggy dance-rock of his influential former band, now smothered in dramatic strings and beats that have more in common with US hip hop than Mancunian indie. Lyrically he can be heavy-handed, but the uncompromising stance on Iraq that he displays on Illegal Attacks, a powerful duet with fellow firebrand Sinéad O'Connor, and the anguished Save Us, earns respect for not softening up for the charts. Some of the wisdom may be of the stoned variety, yet when he sings, it's still worth listening. David Smyth

Joni Mitchell
Shine (Hear Music)
****
If the fact that, like Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell - arguably the 20th century's most influential female singer-songwriter - is now a Starbucks artist is a grim sign of the times, the good news is that her retirement, announced in 2002, isn't going at all well. Before 2007 has passed, Shine will be followed by a ballet and a visual art exhibition. Here Mitchell, 63, is on quietly furious, smokyvoiced form. As part of a vague (but rarely preachy) ecological theme, she revisits her much-loved Big Yellow Taxi and turns it into an accordion-led romp, but the angry and sorrowful title-track and the instrumental One Week Last Summer are among her most beautiful moments. She really should retire more often. John Aizlewood

Jose Gonzalez
In Our Nature (Peacefrog)
***
Downtempo, tantalisingly plucked acoustic guitar had a headlining slot in 2005 when Jose Gonzalez's cover of The Knife's Heartbeats soundtracked that ad with pretty bouncy balls. The Argentinian-Swede's debut album, Veneer, similarly bounced off shelves and Gonzalez became a household name. Two years on it's more of the same. Or less of the same on a short album with fewer notes, fewer lyrics and subtler distinctions between songs. Gonzalez's tracks are uniformly graceful - Abram and Fold, er, fold you in his sombre world and the meatier Cycling Trivialities is distinct enough to stand alone where others can sound similar. A sparse cover of Massive Attack's Teardrop is pretty enough but you can't help wonder if Jose would be raking in quite so much cash if Heartbeats had fronted an ad for Toilet Duck. Martha De Lacey

Dance

Tom Findlay
Watch the Ride (Harmless)
****
With Harmless's second Watch The Ride mix the darker half of Groove Armada has compiled a near-perfect Saturday night. The record opens, curiously, with Lindstrom's warm I Feel Space, a minimal electro gem usually reserved for spangled 5am clubbers in need of a musical hug. Here it's interrupted by Love Honey's bouncy breakbeat, the first of two Sugardaddy tracks, Findlay's newish project with Tim Hutton. Their second, Chasing My Tail, is an irresistible indieelectro soundclash to keep kids dancing. Antena get pride of place with their euphoric Camino Del Sol wrestling deep house with summer-rave techno. Findlay even chucks in Claude Von Stroke's The Whistler for after-party silliness before Lisbon's Buraka Som Sistema wish you a merry goodnight. Martha De Lacey

Indie

Future of The Left
Curses (Too Pure)
****
The idea of an indie supergroup may seem faintly ridiculous and conjure up images of fights over cardigans but Future Of The Left, an amalgam of Welsh bands McLusky and Jarcrew, are super in pretty much the basic sense. One of their main attractions is that they don't bring to mind the usual references --their sound is distinctive and clear. And while many songs are politically motivated (F**k The Countryside Alliance is self-explanatory) they're often brilliantly constructed and steer clear of rudimentary sloganeering. And on songs such as Manchasm they brandish fantastic tunes and thrilling guitar and synth riffs too. A leftfield classic, no less. Paul Connolly

World

Manu Chao
La Radiolina (Because)
****
Manu Chao, born in Paris, living in Barcelona, is a musical maverick and La Radiolina currently tops the charts in Europe. Politically outspoken and dismissive of the music industry, he's a true original, slowly composing his albums on his laptop. His solo debut, Clandestino, in 1998, was a masterpiece and has sold more than four million copies. La Radiolina uses many of the same techniques of catchy riffs, sirens, an array of languages including Spanish, French and English with the addition of rock guitars. With standout tracks like 13 Dias and Politik Kills, Manu Chao is an important voice of our time. His three Brixton Academy dates in October are already sold out. Simon Broughton

Jazz

Paul Booth
No Looking Back (Basho)
***
Like many young pros, Paul Booth leads a double life. Derek Nash's Sax Appeal and Tim Garland's Northern Underground Orchestra know him as one of our most fluent and stylish tenormen, but musicians have mortgages too, and touring with rockers (Steve Winwood), showbands (Riverdance) and living in Margate all keep his overheads down. It also keeps him under the jazz radar, but screens should light up when this album appears on Monday. He solos with great authority on seven substantial originals and three jazz standards, including Mingus's Better Git it in Your Soul and a fine unaccompanied version of Ellington's Come Sunday. Among his quintet is Mancunian guitarist Stuart McCallum, another nascent talent worthy of closer attention. Jack Massarik

 

What's on today   What's on tomorrow

Receive our newsletter