It's compare and contrast week at List Towers, so first up are a brace of female singers. and there couldn't be more contrast between Amy Winehouse and Melanie c. The former‘s
'Back to Black' (Island) 0000 is a gorgeous. melancholic Phil Spector hip-shake. while the latter's hapless movie tie-in cover of ‘I Want Candy' (Red Girl) 0 is the hollow sound of a solo career hitting rock bottom.
Next up are Arctic Monkeys' ‘Brianstorm’ (Domino) 0.. versus ‘The Don' (1965)
00 by the new Arctic Monkeys. namely The View. ‘The Don' is The View at their most jaunty. which also happens to be their most irritating and least effective. all head-bobbing and comedy elbows-Out dancing. ‘Brianstorm' has a lot more edginess and bloody-minded energy. but still lacks the killer punch much of their first album displayed.
And so to heads-down rawk. Now back to the three-boys line-up. Ash’s ‘You Can't Have It All' (Infectious) 000 has the expected chunky riffs and a big dumb chorus. but doesn't hang together in the way their best tunes can. In contrast. 'Sparkle‘ (Shy) 0000 by Bristolian upstarts Fortune Drive has stacks of drive and a pleasantly off-kilter, ramshackle sleaziness to it.
On to electronica, and the sleaziness continues. ‘l'Il Lick Your Spine' (Pnuma) 000 by weird dude Let’s Go Inside is an unsettling slice of clicky low-key beats with an extremely saucy vampire voiceover. More subtle is ‘The Strike Pandemonium‘ (Soma) 000 by Lee Van Dowski. an insistent head-twitcher of underground techno which builds almost imperceptibly to a rather juicy climax.
And finally. it's leftfield indie time. 'She Can Do What She Wants' (Memphis Industries) 000 by Field Music rattles along a treat. with some wee strange bursts of strings and plinky-plonk. which is nice enough but lacks charisma. Unlike Herman Dune, whose 'I Wish That I COuld See You Soon' (Scurce Etc) 000. is Single of the Fortnight. With Mariachi horns, incessant bongos and a gloriously naive call and response vocal. it's like a Beach Boys surf song passed through a nu-folk filter and given a bespectacled indie-boy twist. Odd. in other WOrds, but oddly great. (Doug Johnstone)
COVERS
PATTI SMITH Twelve
(Columbia) 000
It's not much of a leap of imagination. Patti Smith singing Jefferson Airplane's 'White Rabbit'. like she does on this odd album of cover versions. It's practically her territory. More complicated are tracks like Tears For Fears' late 80s (angle- pop hit ‘Everybody
Wants to Rule the World': such a weird luxtap(_)sition of singer and song ought to produce interesting results. but Smith
64 THE LIST 1? Po Apr Wit)?
makes absolutely no effort to alter the karaoke-friendly backing track of the original. pitching her warped. lowing voice up an octave and ending up with something so characterless and anodyne that if it isn't an elaborate joke you wonder why she bothered. However. there are fleeting. brilliant moments — most notably the sweetly. cra/ily crooned version of 'Smells Like Teen. Spirit'. all flamenco guitar and ululated klet/mer rhythms round the edges — when Twe/ve seems like genius.
(Kirstin lnnes)
ROCK
ANDREW BIRD Armchair Apocrypha (Fargo Records) 00000
The arch rock snobs on American music website Pitchfork decry this. the fourth Andrew Bird solo album, as brilliant. but not as good as his first three which were all pretty much perfect. Sadly. the colossal man hours required to be quite as nerdy as the alt.music encycloi)aedias that compile Pitchfork are too great for anyone With a Job. life. or any friends outside of their local rare vinyl vendor to even contemplate. so we'll have to put up With this being our first exposure to the considerable talents of this stunning Illinois songwriter.
Dealing in a sound that is gently playful. comfortably wordy. good-humoured but not self-effacing. Bird constructs uncluttered songs from the smallest fragments musically but makes them sound incredibly lush. Rufus \iVaiihxvi'iglit. Pavement. Radiohead. Fiona Apple and Shellac all strive for a similar emotional clarity and this record is on par With any of them.
While others feel compelled to layer their
music with affections to make them sound smart. A/‘iiic/ia/r Apocrypha is smart. not clever. but intelligent. beguiling and. well. perfect. So now to seek out those first three records . . .
(Mark Robertsoni
POP ROCK
SISTER VANILLA Little Pop Rock (Chemikal Underground)
km. As soon as the hallucinoyocals kick in. your ears Will transport you a pair of decades back in time. The almost bored tones of little Linda Reid signal this first leg of The Jesus and Mary Chain r'eunion-of-sorts to be cemented when the band play California's Coachella Festival at the end of April.
While Jim and William are considered to be simply helping out on this album. the Reid aesthetic has clearly been handed down. ensuring that this dozen-tune collection is buried under the weight of history. Being muddy. confused and out of tune are far from bad things (legends have been made out of this stuff). but this iust sounds like a self- indulgerit family gathering With no outsiders allowed. (Brian Donaldson)
JAZZ
BILLY COBHAM, COLIN TOWNS HR BIG BAND Meeting of the Spirits (In and Out) .000
hr", ‘1 , H'- ' v ‘v. A . .‘III‘U VA A‘l(‘ L]: ‘5‘.“ r -> «wiflurh '1 ."w-
'..".i;.".'.";¢ittw 0 uiiljfll . Sub- titled ‘A Celebration of the Mahavrshnu Orchestra'. this project takes on the improbable challenge of r'ecasting the music of John McLaughlin's seminal electric fusion outfit for a
big band. and Succeeds triumphantly. The process involves shaping the music into new aural configurations. but retains the energy and much of the spirit of that band. and emphasises the often unackiiowledged intricacy of McLaughlin's composrtions.
Colin Towns was the ideal choice for the task of arranging the music. supported by the input of the original Mahavrshnu drummer. Billy Cobham. who lends his authentic experience to the project. and drives the band from the drum chair in his usual formidable fashion. The German big band rise to the challenge in fine style. playing the arrangements superbly and soloing in convincing fashion not only on guitar. but also across a range of instruments that were never part of the original Mahavishnu concept. but work superbly here. (Kenny Mathiesoni
POLK
LAUREN MACCOLL
When Leaves Fall (Make Believe Records"
Fiddler Lauren MacColl first came to Wider notice when she won the BBC2 Young Folk Award in 2004. She is highly accomplished technically. but also has a genuine feel for the expressive nuances of the music. a quality entirely evident in this strong debut recording. Her emotive rendition of slow airs like the traditional ‘Tha mi tinn leis a'ghaol‘ and ‘An T- larla Diurach' or Allan MacDonald's 'The Seventh Wave' belie her youthfulness. while mid~ tempo marches and fast reels and iigs are dispatched With equal
She is arguably still developing the fully indiVidual signature that would make her really
stand out in a generation of highly competent young players. but this is a very promising step. Guitarist Barry Reid and pianist James Ross provide sympathetic support. With notable contributions on three tracks from guest Luke Daniels on button accordion.
(Kenny Mathiesonl
MIX VARIOUS Spank Rock: Fabriclive 33 (Fabric; .000
A big, fat. QED-track mix album by Spank Rock. last year's boys most likely to. Featuring tracks by Miss Kittin. Hot Chip. Daft Punk and this year's girls most likely to. CSS. It screams hip electro party album brilliance from the tracklisting out. until you listen to it. The first thing you notice is that this isn't a hip hop album. and there's very little bass. Baltimorian or otherWise —- the boys have consciously gone for a sligiiter. more European electro sound. Even guaranteed flooifillers like ‘Over and Over' and the ineVitable ‘Drop The Pressurt‘i' are stripped down and curiously low key. You've been listening wrong. haven't you? The ringing cash register scratched into Bonde Do Role's ‘Melo Do Tabacco' takes you into Miss Kittin's 'Stock Exchange'. under which Chicks on Speed whisper ‘What are words worth’?' their rat race leading into Rick Ross' meditation on street life. 'Hustlrn". Despite the misleading associations of the title. this certainly isn't a clubbers medley by any stretch. It's a mixer's album. a studied. clever. linguistic pu/xle that you need both ears and some very good speakers to appreciate in its totality. (Kirstin InnesI