CDs of the week

Evening Standard   12.09.08

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POP

The Streets
Everything is Borrowed (679)
***
Four albums in and Mike Skinner is becoming one of our most poetic chroniclers of urban life. Here, he's at various points cheeky (Never Give In), lovelorn (the hushed Strongest Person I Know) and fascinating (The Way of the Dodo). The problem, of course, is that we've ambled down The Streets' street before and, for all the loveliness of his settings, even on the inspirational title track, he's chronically limited by his vocal inflexibility. Meanwhile, Skinner's decision to dump collaborations with Muse and Robert Wyatt, allied to his repeated suggestions that the fifth Streets album will be his last, suggest he's unsure of the way forward.
John Aizlewood

Jonas Brothers
A Little Bit Longer (Polydor)
***
Imagine a more wholesome McFly and you're close to the Disney Channel-starring, virginity-promoting appeal of these three New Jersey siblings. Already superstars in America, they sold out the Hammersmith Apollo in no time last night and will easily seduce Britain's schoolgirls with this second album. They're not quite as mawkish as they appear: One Man Show and Shelf amps up the guitars to parent-worrying levels, and Burnin' Up and Pushin' Me Away boast huge singalong choruses. But Nick and Joe Jonas's yearning singing voices are pure boyband, and when they reach for the ballads it's fingers-down-throat time.
David Smyth

Queen + Paul Rodgers
The Cosmos Rocks (EMI)
***
At the beginning, a distorted voice asks the question “What planet is this?” I can answer that: this is planet rock. Within seconds, Brian May's guitar enters with a characteristic flourish and Paul Rodgers starts to growl. Cosmos Rockin' is a new song, but you have heard its like before. The arrival of Rodgers has had some effect. Still Burnin' has some of the swagger of Free and on Voodoo, May attempts to replicate the dirty blues of Paul Kossoff (late guitarist of that band). Mostly, though, this is old-style Queen still committed to showcasing preposterously empty lyrics in the flashiest of settings. It's a record like your dad used to make.
Pete Clark

JAZZ

David Sanborn
Here & Gone (Decca)
****
Purists who scorn middle-of-the-road artists like David Sanborn should remember what made him successful in the first place. Here at last, after a surfeit of bland and generally unworthy albums, is a reminder of what a strong player Sanborn can be. Wisely reconnecting this emotive US alto-saxman with the blues, producer Phil Ramone assembled a dream-team of session heavies including guitarist Derek Trucks, bassist Christian McBride and drummer Steve Gadd. Sam Moore (of Sam and Dave) and two Brits, Eric Clapton and Joss Stone (like Duffy, a jazzer at heart), add vocal enhancement to Sanborn's best effort for years.
Jack Massarik

WORLD

Kayhan Kalhor and Brooklyn Rider
Silent City (World Village)
****
Kayhan Kalhor is Iran's leading player of the kamancheh (spike fiddle) and Brooklyn Rider is an innovative New York string quartet. The kamancheh has a nasal deserty tone and brings a taut, keening sound to the music. The title track, Silent City, is a memorial to the city of Halabja where 5,000 Iraqi Kurds were gassed by Saddam Hussein in 1988. By contrast, Ascending Bird, which opens the album, is largely a furious dance which sweeps all before it in an exhilarating swirl of strings. This is music of great profundity, drawing on the rich well-springs of Western and Persian classical music.
Simon Broughton

 

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