We review new albums from the Sugababes, John Legend, AC/DC and Buena Vista Social Club.

POP

Sugababes
Catfights and Spotlights (Island)
***
LIKE Trigger’s broom in Only Fools and Horses, which lasted 20 years with only 17 new heads and 14 new handles, Sugababes plough on unchanging regardless of who’s in the line-up. Their sixth album, the second with Amelle Berrabah as a full-time employee, features more of the same quality, grown-up-friendly pop. There’s a bit more Mariah Carey-style warbling on it than usual, and their current hit Girls was a lazy choice for a comeback single. However, there’s a fun Motown bounce to No Can Do, and the tearjerking Sound of Goodbye is surely a Christmas hit.
David Smyth

John Legend
Evolver (RCA)
****
AFTER just three albums, the former John Stephens is building a substantial, filler-free body of work. This time around he’s more upbeat, funnier (“Do I have a girlfriend? Technically, no,” he hedges on Greenlight) and more loose-limbed. And he’s a master of melody. Guests from Kanye West to Estelle contribute more than their names and in If You’re Out There, Legend has a genuine rarity: a non-mawkish social consciousness song. No Other Love, the Estelle duet, is sultriness itself. Much more of this and those Stevie Wonder comparisons won’t seem quite so far-fetched.
John Aizlewood

AC/DC
Black Ice (Columbia)
****
THOSE who like their noise delivered straight-no-chaser have been a bit worried about AC/DC. Their last couple of albums were below par and it was beginning to look as if Back In Black was the final word. The good news is that Black Ice is a strutting return to form: 15 snappy and concise tracks of controlled rock’n’roll, showing no mercy for wimps. The AC/DC worldview remains a simple one — Rock ’n’ Roll Train, She Likes Rock’n’Roll, Rocking All the Way — and there’s no room for introspection, no truck with ballads. Angus Young remains a masterful guitar player, setting up simple riffs that lodge in the head and never overstaying his welcome on solos. AC/DC are back in the pink.
Pete Clark

JAZZ

Kenny Garrett
Sketches of MD (Mack Avenue)
****
HAVING signed the real Kenny G, Mack Avenue wastes no time in recording this exciting saxman live as leader. It’s a mystery why his previous labels overlooked such an obvious ploy. Sketches of MD is for Garrett’s former boss Miles Davis but most tracks have a trance-like Coltrane vibe, thanks to guesting tenor-sax legend Pharoah Sanders. Both hornmen have technique to burn but also appreciate space, a rarer insight. Kenny’s singalong encore, Happy People, drags on forever and costs this review a deducted star.
Jack Massarik

WORLD

Buena Vista Social Club
At Carnegie Hall (World Circuit)
*****
A DECADE after it took place, this is the “live” album of the Buena Vista Social Club concert that formed the climax to Wim Wenders’s film. But if you are one of the eight million people who bought the studio album, do you need this as well? Yes, you do. The rock-star reception to the opening bars of Chan Chan is extraordinary and the performance is completely different, with a soaring trumpet solo from Octavio Calderon. Elsewhere, there are solos from pianist Ruben Gonzalez and Compay Segundo and Ibrahim Ferrer having the time of their life. All have since passed away.
Simon Broughton