POP

Spandau Ballet
Once More
(Mercury)
***

As musical reunions go, Spandau Ballet’s is almost Take That-esque. The success of a band who seemed, shall we say, very much of their time, is eyebrow-raising.

Yet whereas Take That seized the moment and immediately made a wholly new album, the Islington quintet have hedged their bets.

Once More comprises two new songs book-ending re-recordings of some hits (scandalously, there’s no The Freeze or Musclebound, from what musciologists regard as Spandau’s mildly homoerotic phase), plus, for reasons obscure, With the Pride, an unlamented makeweight.

It’s as if, not quite registering the affection that they’re held in, they didn’t have the courage to push the artistic boat out.

For the old fare, they’ve dumped the synthesisers and guitars in favour of a sound that’s somehow simultaneously big and, sort of, acoustic.

When it works, you’re reminded that for all the ridicule they attracted, they were not without craft and quality.

For all its wedding dance over-familiarity, True is strong enough to handle being taken back to basics, while those half-memories suggesting that She Loved Like Diamond deserved better than a Number 49 placing are royally vindicated.

And time has failed to diminish Gary Kemp’s more off-kilter lyrical concerns: True’s “seaside arms”; To Cut a Long Story’s unsettling “I was beautiful and clean”; and Through the Barricades trying to solve what was then the Northern Ireland problem by ropey ballad.

The new songs pass by pleasantly enough but for all its charms Once More sits on the fence so resolutely that there may be splinter difficulties ahead ...
JOHN AIZLEWOOD

Alexandra Burke
Overcome
(Syco)
***

Will last year’s victorious X Factor contestant be a Leona — or a Leon? Like the past two winners, Islington’s Alexandra Burke has not rushed her debut album.

The wait has allowed time to put together a high-quality production for her to sing over, with one eye on a US audience (American stars Ne-Yo and Flo Rida appear on the electronic pop of Good Night Good Morning and Bad Boys respectively).

The style suits her, especially on the highlight All Night Long, though Burke’s future status as
a British Beyoncé is questionable: her voice is technically impressive but lacks individuality.

A couple of attempts at Winehouse-esque retro soul and her tedious cover of Hallelujah complete a package that isn’t sure where it’s going. DAVID SMYTH

Whitney Houston
I Look to You
(Arista)
****

These lady singers come and go but here is a rejuvenated Whitney, the gospel-doused goddess, to set the tone.

Her recent troubles are, one hopes, a thing of the past and I Look to You is her first new LP since 2002 but she is not about to cheapen her act by going all foolishly modern with a flash of suspenders or some other blatant come-on. I Look to You is a sumptuous showcase for a terrific voice.

R. Kelly’s song — which gives the album is title — will spark romance in the most unlikely places, while dependable songwriter Diane Warren supplies the uplifting I Didn’t Know My Own Strength. Lovely tonsils.

Pick of the bunch, however, is Stargate’s touching Call You Tonight. We have no problem here, Houston. PETE CLARK

Mr Hudson
Straight No Chaser
(Mercury)
***

Mr Hudson must be pinching himself. After the Oxford graduate — Ben to his friends — released a debut of unremarkable indie music as Mr Hudson and the Library, you’d have got long odds that, two years on, he’d have moved to the US, become best buds with Kanye West and returned as one of 2009’s most hotly tipped artists. Straight No Chaser largely justifies the hype.

West’s influence is apparent on the skittering hip-hop beats of the title track and the Auto-Tuned vocals throughout, which make Mr Hudson sound like a robotic Sting.

If this vocal doctoring gives some of the songs an impersonal air, then the lovelorn lyrics of Knew We Were Trouble prove that there’s soul to match the style. RICK PEARSON

JAZZ

Outhouse
Outhouse Ruhabi
(Loop Records)
****

Some multi-cultural crossover projects are more organic than others.

This one, unlike those disastrous shotgun weddings sometimes arranged by festival producers, results from extended study in Gambia by four of London’s brightest young players.

Tenorists Robin Fincker and Mark Hanslip, bassist Johnny Brierley and drummer Dave Smith composed and performed with Sabar hand-drummers, five of whom are featured here.

West Africa’s ancient chants and propulsive polyrhythms blend well with modern saxophone lines, as discovered earlier by John Coltrane in his Africa Brass album and tenorist Alan Skidmore’s South African group, Ubizo. A most worthwhile collaboration. JACK MASSARIK

WORLD

Speed Caravan
Kalashnik Love
(Real World Records)
***

The Cure and the Chemical Brothers meet the Arabic oud of Mehdi Haddab in Speed Caravan, a Paris-based quartet of Arabic lute, bass, percussion, vocal and electronics.

The group’s guests on this album include Rachid Taha, who performs The Cure’s controversial Killing an Arab. This is no fragrant Arabesque album but grungy, amplified, mongrel fusion.

But other tracks — Kalashnik Love and Erotic Chiftetelli — take their inspiration from the Armenian-Turkish oud master Udi Hrant and display Haddad’s dextrous instrumental technique.

All in all, it’s a highly original mix of drum-heavy grooves, oriental colour and irreverent fun. SIMON BROUGHTON