London,

CDs of the week

Bruce Springsteen: A return to simple pleasures

Strummer-esque: Pete Doherty has surprisingly stirred himself to make the second Babyshambles album

Soulful: Sandi Russell is a New York diva

Gypsy craze: Shantel can generate a party

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• Pianist with a big appetite

Among the CDs of the week are a return to form for Bruce Springsteen, while Pete Doherty gets on with his day job with a new Babyshambles album.

POP
Bruce Springsteen
Magic (Columbia)
****
Bruce Springsteen is attached to his E Street Band by a long rubber band, stretching away to expand his musical palette but always eventually returning to their feelgood, sax-packed rock 'n' roll. Magic is his first album with his old muckers since 2002's The Rising but as that was tainted rather grey by its September 11 subject matter, this is the real return to simple pleasures. Songs such as Gypsy Biker and Girls in Their Summer Clothes show a renewed interest in classic Americana, while on the blast of Radio Nowhere he's back in the cars he loves again. If it feels like he could do this kind of thing in his sleep that doesn't dampen the enthusiasm with which these songs are delivered. DAVID SMYTH

Babyshambles
Shotters Nation (Parlaphone)
***
As Pete Doherty seems to spend most of his life in court, in rehab or smearing blood on his walls, it's all-too-easy to forget the grubbiest man in pop has a day job. Surprisingly, he's stirred himself to make the second Babyshambles album and while only a blinkered buffoon would regard it as a work of genius, he is not, musically at least, a waste of space. Blessed with an appealing, Strummer-esque vocal rasp and a fairly frequent grasp of melody, there are moments (the lovely and gentle Unstookie Titled; the soaring Delivery) where Babyshambles make music to treasure. Not even the certainty that further along the line Doherty will ruin everything can take that away from them. JOHN AIZLEWOOD

JAZZ
Sandi Russell
Sweet Thunder (33 Jazz)
****
Better late than never, this album reveals the soulful talents of a New York diva, writer and scholar sequestered up at Durham University for longer than has been good for her vocal career. One glance at her supporting cast (including US tenorman David Murray and such British stars as guitarist Jim Mullen, pianist Dave Newton and trumpeter Guy Barker) confirms Sandi Russell's quality. She makes even that self-pitying dirge Send in the Clowns sound fresh, while stronger songs (Skylark), jazz standards (In Walked Bud) and protest numbers (Tryin' Times, Compared to What) receive the ebullient kind of makeovers that London's pallid Norah Jones clones can only dream about. Catch her album launch at the Purcell Room tomorrow (Sat 29, 6.30pm). JACK MASSARIK

WORLD
Shantel
Disco Partizani (Crammed Discs)
****
One of those responsible for the current Balkan Gypsy craze is DJ Shantel, or simply Shantel because here he's shifted from the decks to work with a real band. Listen to the title track with its danceable beat, cheeky sax and electric guitar solos and the vocals playing on the juxtaposition of "party" and "partizani" and you'll get the appeal. Shantel was born Stefan Hantel in Frankfurt but his mother came from Bucovina, the province split between northern Romania and Ukraine, and he took the music in with his mother's milk and turned it into a craze with his Bucovina Night parties. Shantel's band includes some first-class Balkan musicians, but his real gift is in generating a party and not taking himself too seriously. SIMON BROUGHTON

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