Music at Elsewhere
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Yael Naim: Yael Naim (Warners)
14 Mar 2008 | <1 min read
The fact this French-Israeli singer has a song which currently helps sell the Apple Macbook has doubtless condemned her in some circles and to be honest that track, New Soul, is among the weakest songs on this folk-cum-jazzy outing (some sung in English, others on French and/or Hebrew). The album is co-credited to producer/arranger/artistic director David Donatien but Naim handles all the... > Read more
Yael Naim and David Donatien: Pachad
Joe Jackson: Rain (Ryko/Elite)
14 Mar 2008 | <1 min read
By the end of the first, somewhat leaden track Invisible Man, even longtime fans might be gulping hard. But things take off after that clunker (which is much better live as the DVD which comes with early copies of this album shows). Jackson's desperate sounding vocals and his exceptional piano playing get a long overdue showcase on this pared back outing with just the rhythm section from his... > Read more
Joe Jackson: King Pleasure Time
Gary Numan and Tubeway Army: Replicas Redux (Beggars Banquet)
14 Mar 2008 | <1 min read
It drones on for more than five minutes, doesn't have a chorus, seems to have some kind of sci-fi story and the band was in truth just one guy, Gary Numan, a monotone singer who had some eye-liner and bleached-out look going on. On paper it couldn't succeed and in fact TA were largely ignored by the UK media until Numan performed Are Friends Electric? on The Old Grey Whistle Test, got picked... > Read more
Tubeway Army: Are Friends Electric? (demo version)
Wolfert Brederode, Currents (ECM/Ode)
9 Mar 2008 | <1 min read
Minimalism may have run its course but there are pieces on this appealing album by pianist Brederode (and group) which find a romantic heart within the steady pulse. Brederode and his band -- Claudio Puntin on clarinets, Mats Eilertsen on double bass and drummer Samuel Rohrer -- represent a new generation for the ECM label which is now approaching middle-age and needing to find new, creative... > Read more
Wolfert Brederode: Soll
Dudley Benson: The Awakening (Golden Retriever)
9 Mar 2008 | <1 min read | 3
The charming and slightly eccentric art music of Benson will be familiar to longtime Elsewhere people: his previous EPs have been posted here -- and now comes the long-anticipated debut album. The former chorister indulges himself in some oddly appealing Elizabethan language as much as in sometimes gorgeous arrangements for voice, harpsichord, strings, harp and some traditional Maori... > Read more
Dudley Benson: Audrey H
Jill Scott: The Real Thing, Words and Sounds Vol 3 (Inertia)
9 Mar 2008 | <1 min read
To be honest, this one might take a few goes: initially it seems fragmented, opening with a taut and percussive two minute track, kicks into something soulful driven by a distant rock riff, moves into a blast of tough r'n'b, then a mellow and intimate mood enters . . . But it was nominated for best r'n'b album at the Grammys and Scott for best female r'n'b vocal for the track Hate on Me.... > Read more
Jill Scott: Celibacy Blues
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Dig Lazarus Dig (Mute)
9 Mar 2008 | <1 min read | 3
My guess is that by this time in his career (and your life) you are either for Cave or couldn't care less. If you are with him but have your critical radar alert you might not concur with the extreme approval some reviewers have given Dig Lazarus Dig. After the very amusing Grinderman project -- which really was rack-it-up music -- this one finds Nick in that kind of Lou Reed/William... > Read more
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: We Call Upon the Author
Melody Gardot: Worrisome Heart (Universal)
9 Mar 2008 | <1 min read
There is nothing a music journalist likes better than a musician with a backstory, it just makes for better copy. And 23-year old Gardot has a backstory. She spent a year in rehab. But not THAT kind. When she was 19 this New Jersey-born singer/pianist was knocked off her bike and suffered serious injuries. She couldn't sit, her short-term memory was impaired, she had constant headaches... > Read more
Melody Gardot: Sweet Memory
Dawn Landes: Fireproof (Shock)
8 Mar 2008 | <1 min read
Located somewhere between alt.folk and alt.country (sort of the urban/rural crossover) this Kentucky-born, New York-based singer-songwriter has supported the likes of Andrew Bird, Jose Gonzalez and Suzanne Vega, and overseas writers say if you like Cat Power, Beth Orton or Regina Spektor then Landes' subtle and intimate style is for you. Agreed -- but there is more to her than that. The... > Read more
Dawn Landes: Bodyguard
Black Mountain: In the Future (Rhythmethod)
8 Mar 2008 | <1 min read
The other night I was watching Richard Linklater's '93 movie Dazed and Confused, that terrific look at a bunch of Middle America slacker and stoner teenagers on their last day of school in '76 -- and the soundtrack of Alice Cooper, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kiss, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and so on. My guess is that Black Mountain from Vancouver watch it on their tour bus, they lock right into that... > Read more
Black Mountain: Stormy High
Jeffrey Foucault: Ghost Repeater (Signature)
2 Mar 2008 | <1 min read
Not sure where this album has been -- it was recorded in 2005 and released in the rest of the world the following year - but it has just turned up in my letterbox. Produced by Bo Ramsey (a hallmark of quality) these are troubadour country songs grounded in a dark America of lonesome travellers, the search for a place, ghosts of the past and the freedom of the open landscape. And plenty of... > Read more
Jeffrey Foucault: Appeline
Shelby Lynne: Just a Little Lovin' (Lost Highway)
2 Mar 2008 | <1 min read | 1
Quite why anyone would get excited over the over-emoting 19-year old Adele's debut album when Shelby Lynne conveys more depth of ache in one line is beyond me. This exceptional album sees country singer Lynne go down a very difficult route: taking on songs made famous by the late Dusty Springfield (and offering one stunning original). And rather than try to out-gun Dusty in terms of pushing... > Read more
Shelby Lynne: You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
BB King, Live (Geffen)
1 Mar 2008 | <1 min read
This may not be the best live album King has made -- there is a case made for another under Essential Elsewhere, see tag -- but from his comments in the tie-in DVD bonus footage it will be his last. In interviews King is breathless and wistful, and he has, at 82, all but retired. He speaks now about when he is gone . . . These concert -- before predominantly white audiences -- were... > Read more
BB King: Key to the Highway
Billy Bragg, Mr Love and Justice (Cooking Vinyl)
1 Mar 2008 | <1 min read | 1
This is the album that famously wasn't released in time for Bragg to promote at this year's Big Day Out appearances. Not that he seemed to mind (much), he noted that he was flown to the other side of the world, there was an all-day backstage bar, he got to hang out with great musicians, and he only had to play for about 30 minutes. "We call it the Big Day Off, " he laughed. This... > Read more
Billy Bragg: I Keep Faith
Various: Song of America (Split Rock/Southbound)
1 Mar 2008 | 1 min read
This beautifully packaged 3-CD set (with explanatory booklet) is doubtless very useful as a teaching aid in American schools: it is a chronological collection from a Lakota dream song through colonial period and Civil War songs, to Depression Era laments for the parched land and Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? then into the civil rights period and up through hip-hop to Bettye LaVette soulfully... > Read more
Old Crow Medicine Show: Deportee (words by Woodie Guthrie)
Okkervil River: The Stage Names (UN Spin)
1 Mar 2008 | <1 min read
At his most dramatic, OkkRiver singer Will Sheff sounds like a heavily caffeinated Richard Thompson (the ripping opener Our Life is Not A Movie) or Morrissey with a very nasty attitude (on Unless It Kicks which is like a seriously angry Smiths). His voice is pushed to its upper register and he sings with a passion that is rare. That both of those connections are English may seem surprising... > Read more
Okkervil River: Unless It's Kicks
Supreme Beings of Leisure: 11i (Elite)
1 Mar 2008 | <1 min read
So, whatever happened to chill-out music? About a decade ago the world was lousy with the stuff and you barely move for people raising martini glasses and trying to look like they'd stepped out of a 1960 Pan Am ad. But the cooler-than-thou crowd seemed to fade away quietly (into mortgages and kids maybe?) which is a pity because some of that hip'n'cool music was pretty darn good. Among... > Read more
Supreme Beings of Leisure: Mirror
Willie Nelson: Moment of Forever (Lost Highway)
29 Feb 2008 | 1 min read
Whether he's singing sentimental songs (like the Kristofferson-penned title track here), evoking some kind of outlaw mentality or harking back to history (his take on Randy Newman's Louisiana here lightly updated to make it more relevant post-Katrina) there is still something magical about Willie's vocals. He slides behind a beat to give a lazy and jazzy quality, his twanging vocal style has... > Read more
Willie Nelson:Over You Again
Gary Louris: Vagabond (Ryko/Elite)
21 Feb 2008 | <1 min read
Louris was a founder of the cornerstone alt.country band the Jayhawks whose career in the 90s saw them weave their way from country-rock to post-grunge rock and sometimes pure pop They were hard to get a bead on but that was the great pleasure of their career. With the Jayhawks seemingly on hold Louris steps out for a debut album under his own name, but manages to get plenty of help from... > Read more
Gary Louris: She Only Calls Me On Sundays
Eilen Jewell: Letters from Sinners and Strangers (Signature)
21 Feb 2008 | <1 min read
This singer-songwriter from Idaho (originally, then LA and latterly Massachusetts) will be deluding herself if she thinks that no one will say "early Lucinda Williams" when they hear the track In the End here: the same world-weary, vowel dragging delivery . . . But Jewell has much more going for her than that comparison: with a small band (clarinet, upright bass, violin) she... > Read more