The result is an ambitious, varied, but largely unlovable work, its individual songs crammed with too many divergent ideas. “I Hope This Whole Thing Didn’t Frighten You” is the album’s most complete and striking piece, its protagonist looking up old friends to find they’ve turned into survivalists with bulletproof vests and bunker mentalities: the dark underbelly of the American Dream, laid bare and raw-nerved.Įnjoy unlimited access to 70 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign upĭownload: IMF African Airways Kalakuta Boyĭoves frontman Jimi Goodwin makes the classic solo-album mistake with Odludek: buoyed by the realisation that he can do it all himself, he then goes and does it all himself, with no outsider input to rein in his indulgences. But there’s a doughty perseverance about them, whether it’s the girl “two years off some prairie town” diving into big-city nightlife in “Spinners”, or the struggling small-time drug-dealer “waking up with that American Sadness” in “On with the Business”. The characters peopling songs like “The Ambassador” and the drug-dazed “Oaks” are low on trust, heavy on foreboding. Reconstituted with a brawny two-guitar attack, The Hold Steady return with another portfolio of dirty-realist tableaux in Teeth Dreams. The Hold Steady Teeth Dreams (Washington Square) Supertramp’s “Lord Is It Mine”, a favourite of Bailey’s late father, is the joker in this pack – but even that is ploughed into an identical furrow. The material plays directly to this formula – the hit “Skyscraper”, covers of Jennifer Rush’s “The Power of Love”, Brenda Russell’s “Get Here”, and a duet with Michael Bolton on “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” that, compared to the joyous original, sounds more like mutual torture. Sam Bailey’s victory was the biggest foregone conclusion in the history of The X Factor, but even that predictability pales in comparison to her debut album, which simply presses the same button over and over again – the kind of overwrought belting that irons out any emotional wrinkles, but passes for great singing on TV talent shows. For his part, Daltrey matches Johnson every step of the way, fighting his corner just as fiercely as in his dayjob.ĭownload: Going Back Home I Keep It to Myself Some Kind Of Hero Sneaking Suspicion Save for the maudlin ballad “Turned 21”, it’s stuffed with brusque Wilko R&B cuts, with brilliantly condensed, biting fills chopped out in tracks like “Some Kind of Hero” and “Ice on the Motorway”, where the guitarist’s trademark slashing, staccato riffs evoke echoes of R&B pioneers Clarence Gatemouth Brown and Ike Turner. Recorded with his Blockhead rhythm section of drummer Dylan Howe and bassist Norman Watt-Roy, choice selections from the guitarist’s back catalogue are augmented by a lone cover, of Dylan’s “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?”. If Going Back Home turns out to be Wilko Johnson’s last album then it’s a great final curtain. Wilko Johnson & Roger Daltrey Going Back Home (Chess) As with the album generally, it’s a subtle balance of hot and cold, a work of fiery cool.ĭownload: Blowin’ in the Wind Who By Fire First We Take Manhattan 1000 Kisses Deep The best of the Cohen interpretations utilise the compassion in Jungr’s voice, particularly “Land of Plenty” and “1000 Kisses Deep”, the latter’s mélange of desire and despair beautifully captured in the quiet, intimate treatment. And the alliance of Clive Bell’s shakuhachi flute with Simon Wallace’s jazz piano arrangements opens up “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Masters of War”: in the former, the yearning breath of woodwind subtly emphasises the wistful air of battered hope in Jungr’s inflections, while the latter becomes a coolly desolate declamation, rather than a vengeful diatribe. Cohen’s commemorative “Who By Fire” acquires a brooding menace in alluring guise, becoming a death-song delivered as by a stealthy serpent. It’s a masterclass in the value of interpretive liberty, with songs transformed in almost revelatory manner. Having established herself as one of the most imaginative of Dylan interpreters, Barb Jungr here extends her expertise to incorporate the Leonard Cohen catalogue, combining six songs from Dylan’s protest period with five of Cohen’s intriguing, compassionate reflections.
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