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CDs of the week
13.03.09
New man: Peter Doherty
Beware: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Toxic: Marianne Faithfull
Healing feeling: John Scofield
Raw power: Novalima
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POP
Peter Doherty
Grace/Wastelands (Parlophone)
***
Now a Kate Moss-free zone, Potty Pete has become Proactive Peter and is releasing his first solo album and a third Babyshambles effort in the same year. This largely acoustic effort is more focused than most of his output, with Blur's producer, Stephen Street, and their guitarist, Graham Coxon, teaming up to tidy the sound, though Doherty's slurring, weak vocals can't be fixed. With its dramatic strings, there's a trip-hop feel to A Little Death Around the Eyes, and he even tries ragtime jazz on Sweet By and By, but this is mostly low-key strumming and not the stuff to excite anyone beyond his most rabid followers.
David Smyth
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Beware (Domino)
**
Beware is the sixth album from Will Oldham, aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy, since 2006's The Brave and the Bold and, as eventually happens to all over-prolific artists, the absence of quality control eventually takes its toll. Like most of Oldham's output, Beware is a downbeat affair, but rather than the brooding darkness of his best work, he's gone for the maudlin approach of bog-standard country, hence the steel-guitar laden I Don't Belong to Anyone, the self-pity of You Don't Love Me (although it does rhyme “jiggle” with “wiggle”) and overly affected porch-song vocals. Oldham has never sounded this short of inspiration and feeling.
John Aizlewood
Marianne Faithfull
Easy Come Easy Go (Dramatico)
***
Marianne Faithfull, as we have heard one thousand times over, has paid her dues and, boy, does she want to be recompensed. Buxom, blonde, convent-educated, posh, she was a butterfly broken early on the rockn'roll wheel and has been trading on it ever since. If you can get past the Sister Morphine persona, then this record will reward your patience. Marianne rasps her way through 18 songs by artists ranging from Billie Holiday and Merle Haggard to the Decemberists and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. It has some marvellous moments, but is a musical downer, probably best listened to under the influence. (Not, by the way, necessarily recommended.)
Pete Clark
JAZZ
John Scofield
Piety Street (Enja)
****
Unlike his many rivals, who anxiously fuse jazz with folk, classical, world, pop, rock (and poppycock, as Ronnie Scott would sigh), guitar star John Scofield is stylishly leaning back to gospel. Good for him. Along with the blues, this bittersweet, passionate church music put the heart and soul into American modern jazz. Alongside New Orleans vocalist John Boutte, rollicking pianist Jon Cleary and a propulsive rhythm section with Shannon Powell's tambourine on top, Scofield's guitar sings Motherless Child, Walk with Me and 11 more soul-cleansers that all transmit that healing feeling.
Jack Massarik
WORLD
Novalima
Coba Coba (Cumbancha)
***
We hear the black music of Peru much less than that from Brazil or Cuba, but it has a real emotional depth and rhythmic bite. From Lima and London, Novalima, as their name suggests, bring a new DJ twist to the traditional sound — with a rapper added to the classic song Ruperta and a reggae feel to Camote. One of the best tracks, Africa Lando, sung by the dark voice of Milagros Guerrero, tells the story of her grandmother's voyage from Africa and the drums beating the rhythms of slavery. Given the raw power that these images suggest, it's a shame so many of the tracks get stuck in repetitive grooves. They will probably sound more exciting live — at Cargo on 1 April.
Simon Broughton
