CDs of the week

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Second album slump: The View

Sweet: The Bird and The Bee

Strong melodies: The Airborne Toxic Event

Clever themes: Janette Mason

Banjo record; Jayme Stone & Mansa Sissoko

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The View's latest has the swagger of those who already have a number one album tucked into their filthy jeans and Janet Mason's record has clever themes.

POP
The View
Which Bitch? (1965)
***
The latest from this scruffy Scottish quartet has the swagger of those who already have a number one album tucked into their filthy jeans. Oasis producer Owen Morris gives the same ragged roar to their guitars they had on their 2007 debut. Glass Smash and the single, 5 Rebeccas, are particularly raucous. But when they experiment, as on the acoustic skiffle of Gem of a Bird and orchestral oddity Distant Doubloon, Kyle Falconer's voice is revealed as a thin, unremarkable instrument. Yet when he has a bit of bluster around him and a fine tune, there's hope of avoiding the second album slump.
David Smyth

The Bird and the Bee
Ray Guns Are Just Not the Future (EMI)
***
This Californian duo is made up of bluesman Lowell George's daughter Inara and Lily Allen's co-writer Greg Kurstin. Their second album together is as sunny and impish as their first. Underpinned by George's sing-song vocals and Kurstin's way with a jangly tune, they're a treat in wintry times. There's a joyful reggae lilt to Meteor, a pop urgency to Love Letter to Japan, and Diamond Dave is, apparently, a tribute to David Lee Roth (“Come on, Dave. Show me what you got. I can take it”). In less astute hands, this would have been a syrupy mess, here it's a multi-layered, sparkly gem.
John Aizlewood

The Airborne Toxic Event
The Airborne Toxic Event (Major Domo)
***
This intriguingly-named combo — a phrase from Don DeLillo's novel White Noise, meaning that which will precipitate the end of life on earth — come from a suburb of Los Angeles but are unashamedly anglophile. Their template is the post-punk of the late Seventies and they construct an impressive, guitar-driven barrage of sound, tempered by viola-inspired melancholy. Main man Mikel Jollett is a fine lyricist — eloquent and accessible, much like DeLillo. Songs such as Gasoline and Sometime Around Midnight sound as if you've always known them but never known which album they were on. One reservation: for all the passion and craftsmanship, this is short of strong melodies.
Pete Clark

JAZZ
Janette Mason
Alien Left Hand (Fireball)
****
Janette Mason's debut album as leader, Din and Tonic, was pensive and largely arhythmic, but this impressive follow-up is a revelation of her gifts as composer and piano improviser. The title is a neurological disorder of which she shows no sign while combining piano and organ in The Blues Walked Out, or developing Four Wheel Drive from a fugue through funk to the post-bop of NY Cab Ride. Trumpeter Tom Arthurs, tenorist Julian Siegel and scat-singer Lea de Laria enjoy themselves with her clever themes.
Jack Massarik

WORLD
Jayme Stone & Mansa Sissoko
Africa to Appalachia (Jaymestone)
****
This record is the result of Canadian banjo player Jayme Stone spending seven weeks in Mali with kora player and vocalist Mansa Sissoko to explore the West African roots of the banjo. Sissoko then moved to Quebec and the two musicians recorded together in Toronto. As in the best collaborations, you can feel the respect, understanding and interaction between the musicians — the delicate rippling of the kora and the nasal twang of the banjo. The track Tunya is a version of a well-known Malian tune that will be familiar to anyone who knows the music of kora maestro Toumani Diabate. There are well-chosen guest musicians, including bluegrass fiddler Casey Driessen and Bassekou Kouyate on ngoni, the west African banjo.
Simon Broughton

 

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