CDs of the week

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Elvis Costello

Baaba Maal

Chick Corea

The Pretenders

Pop

Elvis Costello
Secret, Profane & Sugarcane (Universal)
****
Even though he burst upon our consciousness as the re-incarnation of Buddy Holly, it has been clear for some time that Elvis Costello is, at heart, a chunky, country sort of guy. Secret, Profane & Sugarcane sees him return once more to Nashville and the production and co‑songwriting wiles of the great T Bone Burnett for 13 mostly new songs which are predominantly acoustic but retain a fiercely contemporary feel despite being drenched in bluegrass traditions.

Costello is aided and abetted by sterling work from the likes of Stuart Duncan (fiddle), Jerry Douglas (dobro), Jeff Taylor (accordion) and Mike Compton (mandolin).

There's no flash and filigree here, just the reassuring sound of solid craftsmanship unselfishly placed in the service of deft narratives of ordinary lives, shot through with extraordinary emotion. Thankfully, Burnett (I assume) has even managed to put a brake on the singer's mannered vibrato, so that a song such as the magnificently worldly My All Time Doll is unmired by sentiment.

There are many nods to the country-music establishment — songs originally composed for the late Johnny Cash, one co-written with Loretta Lynn — but this is essentially music of the moment. Down Among the Wine and Spirits, How Deep Is the Red and Sulphur to Sugarcane all speak of a man securely in touch with his muse.

My advice, should you care to take it, is to invest in a bottle of something warming, cuddle up to a sympathetic spirit, and let the evening drift away in a haze of shared — and somewhat naughty — experience.
Pete Clark

POP
The Pretenders
Break Up The Concrete
(Rhino)
****
Having released no album since 2002's not-that-bad Loose Screw, Chrissie Hynde has opened a vegan restaurant in her native Akron and seemingly lost interest in her Pretenders meal ticket. Yet even at 57 she still packs a punch, both musically on the stomping Don't Cut Your Hair and lyrically — hence her sneers at the “oversized schlong” on Almost Perfect. Strangely, she's best at her most vulnerable, be it the rueful You Didn't Have To or the understated closer One Thing Never Changed. There's also a free, 22-track “Best Of” which reminds us that nobody has quite done the woman in rock business as convincingly and consistently as Hynde.
JOHN AIZLEWOOD

Paolo Nutini
Sunny Side Up
(Atlantic)
****
When his double- platinum debut album was released three years ago, young Scot Paolo Nutini seemed like just another bland singer-songwriter, albeit one endorsed by The Rolling Stones and Atlantic Records legend Ahmet Ertegun. More creative freedom is the result of his healthy sales figures, making for an impressively varied follow-up with something for everyone. There's rowdy reggae on Ten Out of Ten, Otis Redding soul on Coming Up Easy and No Other Way and traditional folk on Chamber Music. The flute and ukelele bounce of High Hopes is the quirky standout and deserves to be a hit. Nutini unites the whole with his ragged old man croak, sounding increasingly like one of pop's finest voices.
DAVID SMYTH

Patrick Wolf
The Bachelor
(Bloody Chamber)
**
Patrick Wolf's fourth offering is part-funded by his fans, who bought shares in the record after the enigmatic singer songwriter parted company with Universal last year. Originally intended as one side of a double album – the second part, The Conqueror, will now follow next year – The Bachelor sees the elfin art-rocker in shift-shaping mode. There's Eighties rock (Hard Times), folktronica (Theseus) and piano balladry (Blackdown), with Wolf's voice moving from hushed whisper to anguished howl. Sadly, The Bachelor doesn't always marry ambition with songwriting. Aside from the fist-pumping electro of Vulture, it's slim pickings for anyone looking for a hit. Wolf's stock remains high, but there's little here to entice new investors.
RICK PEARSON

Eels
Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs Of Desire
(Vagrant/Universal)
****
Still sporting the pop's most unsettling beard, Mark E' Everett remains a genuine outsider. His seventh album, but his first new material since 2005, is vaguely based around the “wolf man” character of the title - last heard of as Dog Faced Boy on 2001's Souljacker - and his quest for an understanding lover. As on all Eels albums, there are moments of tear-jerking loveliness (most notably The Longing, which finds Everettat his most lonesomely elegiac), some mildly deranged shouting such as the bluesy grind of Tremendous Dynamite and, in Fresh Blood, the most pertinent reminder that he could effortlessly craft straight pop if the mood took him.
JOHN AIZLEWOOD

JAZZ
Chick Corea & John McLaughlin
Five Peace Band
(Concord)
*****
One of few true supergroups in jazz thrilled a new generation of listeners on their European tour last autumn. Their iconic co-leaders, pianist Corea and guitarist McLaughlin, enhanced their massive reputations with variously skilful, lyrical and storming performances captured on this double album. Bassist Christian McBride and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta supply the post-rock power and ex-Miles Davis altoist Kenny Garrett adds his soulful dynamism to Davis favourites (In a Silent Way, Dr Jackle, Someday My Prince Will Come) and such newer gems as The Disguise and Hymn to Andromeda. Absolutely top-class.
JACK MASSARIK

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
(Transgressive)
***
There are many reasons to warm to this young Oregon/Brooklyn man, not least the splendid video for Buriedfed – the opening track – which convinced this old sceptic that there might be some point in YouTube after all. The song, which could be a rowdy celebration of the singer's own funeral, builds to a rousing finale that might well be the finest recorded testament to the temporary ascendancy of life over death. Unfortunately, the record peaks early and nothing that follows has quite the same resonance. Robinson has a love of words, a flair for witty self-deprecation and a sturdy attitude to how much battering a guitar can take, but he lacks that feeling for melody which elevates the work of his heroes Bob Dylan and Neil Young. A warm welcome, then, for a fresh urban troubadour, but an earnest plea for some songs that will see out the long night.
PETE CLARK

WORLD
Baaba Maal
Television
(Palm)
***
Baaba Maal is undoubtedly one of the great voices of African music and this is his first studio album since 2001 — so it's eagerly awaited. But the Senegalese singer's raw, powerful voice and the vibrant talking drum which drove Missing You are not to the fore here. On the catchy title track they are overlayed with washes of electronica and backing vocals. Joining Baaba Maal are Sabina Sciubba, singing in Italian, and keyboard player Didi Gutman, both of New York's Brazilian Girls, who rather dilute the sound of A Song for Women, one of the tracks with a powerful message. Dakar Moon is the stand-out song, performed largely in English with soft, elegant guitar playing.
SIMON BROUGHTON

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