Sarabeth Tucek - Sarabeth Tucek
From the Cat Power/Mazzy Star school of smoky, female understatement, Miami-born Tucek has recorded an album of country-flecked, bittersweet beauty - perfect for warming chilly winter evenings. Produced by Bill Callahan, it has the same quiet qualities as his band Smog - slow, aching songs that take time to grab you but once they do, they hook you in like any top 40 pop song. Holy Smoke, Hey You and Ambulance are all sparse, subtle slow-burners topped by Tucek's wondrous voice. Meanwhile, proving she's not a one-trick pony, Nobody Cares is a sparkling melody that recalls Rilo Kiley when they weren't quite so polished. Bat For Lashes and Regina Spektor may be operating more successfully in the same field, but Tucek has some major supporters in Bob Dylan and Ray Lamontagne - both of whom asked her to support them recently. Captivating.
Sarabeth Tucek is out now on Echo
Rufus Wainwright - Rufus! Rufus! Rufus! Sings Judy! Judy! Judy!
Promoted as the gayest event ever, Rufus Wainwright sets out to recreate - in exact song order, in the same vocal key (where possible), with a slickly conducted orchestra and with talking bits in the same spots - Judy Garland's classic 1961 concerts. It is something only someone as witty and flamboyant as Wainwright could achieve. Released simultaneously as a CD and DVD and taken from his performances at Carnegie Hall in New York and at the London Palladium earlier this year, they demonstrate a singer at the top of his game. More vamp than camp.
Rufus! Rufus! Rufus! Sings Judy! Judy! Judy! is out on Universal
The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
This Danish duo of Sune Rose Wagner (on guitar, instruments and vocals) and Sharin Foo (on bass and vocals) were much hyped on their arrival in 2002 when they released an album built entirely around the key of B- flat minor. There are a few more notes explored here but The Raveonettes' song structure is still a simple one (layers of guitar noise plus pounding drums and sweet vocals). It works a treat on the fabulous Hallucinations and Blush, which are both wonderful 60s pop songs cut through with chiming, discordant, ear-piercing feedback, while The Beat Dies is pure Twin Peaks camp. With its themes of death, sex and desire, this is the perfect alt-rock soundtrack for fatalist bikers.
Lust Lust Lust is on Fierce Panda
Wu-Tang Clan - The 8 Diagrams
Getting the eight surviving members of Wu-Tang Clan together again (Ol' Dirty Bastard died in 2004) must have taken some doing. The original business model, based in part on organised-crime families, was that they worked as a collective of individuals who helped each other's solo careers as well as their joint project - but the group itself has been largely forgotten in the past decade. The 8 Diagrams is an incredible return, mixing dusty thriller movie dialogue with their trademark grime beats and violent rap narratives to stunning effect and proving that they're still a step above their hip-hop peers. The Heart Gently Weeps brilliantly builds around a sample of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, while elsewhere White Linen Affair and Walk Around demonstrate that they remain a unique force.
The 8 Diagrams is out on Bodog
Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War
The toast of the Canadian indie scene, Stars have made an album that deserves more attention than it got when it was initially released a couple of months back. It's quite an 80s-sounding record - shifting between Bacharach-esque melodies (My Favourite Book), the occasional U2-style epic (Take me to the Riot) and keyboard sounds that wouldn't have been out of place on a China Crisis B-side. Lyrically, though, it's totally of its age and focuses on the fragile nature of modern love, from online dating to a romance that begins in the midst of a football riot. Melodrama and melody have always been a good combination and Stars pull it off with style.
In Our Bedroom After the War is on City Slang
Gorillaz - D-Sides
Sadly, it seems this animated supergroup is no more - 2D, we are told, is finishing his law degree and Russell is re-inventing himself as a personal trainer. It's a great loss to pop music, but as send-offs go, this is a remarkably good one - and is far, far better than odds-and-sods collections of B-sides and remixes really ought to be. The first of this double CD set features a couple of interesting demos, including a very early version of Dare (minus a chorus and Shaun Ryder but with a fine Human League sample). The second disc demonstrates how far remixes have come in recent times – they're not always an improvement but Soulwax's version of Dare and Hot Chip's Kids with Guns come close.
D-Sides is on Parlophone
Remi Nicole - My Conscience and I
Twenty-something drama school drop-out Remi Nicole - who was inspired to pick up a guitar after spotting Noel Gallagher outside Tiffany & Co in Mayfair (how street!) - has a serviceable line in sprightly pop tunes with dashes of ska, indie-rock and comic cut-ups of 50s BBC continuity-style voices. On the whole, it's upbeat, fun and much more summery than an album released in the depths of winter ought to be. There are also bonus points for getting kids TV show Grotbags into a lyric and for sticking two fingers up to those who think black girls shouldn't be into guitar music on the fab Rock ’n’ Roll. Remi's debut stands on the meridian line between Kate Nash and Jack Penate, so if you like or dislike either of those two, you'll feel the same way about this light and casual offering.
My Conscience and I is on Universal
Sufjan Stevens - Songs for Christmas
As a side project, Stevens began recording a Christmas EP for friends and family every year - re-arrangements of hymns, cute instrumentals and his own original tinsel-themed ballads. The results are gathered together here in a handsome 5-CD box set. By their very nature Christmas albums are tacky novelties that often leave an embarrassing stain on the artist's career - but, strangely, Songs for Christmas manages to walk a line between sincerity and irony, and, despite Stevens's evident religious beliefs, even avoids being remotely preachy.
Songs For Christmas is out now on Rough Trade
Kylie - X
Following the format well trodden by Britney, Fergie, Gwen - and before them all Madonna - X teases cutting-edge dance sounds and production techniques into a shiny box and ties them all up with a sparkly bow. It doesn't really work. Kylie is at her best when setting out to make feel-good pop rather than a cool statement, so it's the more simplistic tracks that work best here - which means that the camp disco of The One and Wow, the kitsch Like a Drug, single 2 Hearts and Sensitized are all fabulous. But, sadly, like an under-stuffed Christmas stocking, there are plenty of fillers to pad out the treats. All said and done, though, a solid comeback from the popstar's popstar.
X is on Parlophone
Jaymay - Autumn Fallin'
A rising star of the American 'anti-folk' scene (essentially folk music that doesn't sound like folk music) Jaymay is a singer-songwriter blessed with many talents. The story of a love affair in New York, Autumn Fallin' beautifully treads a line between stagy and confessional. It's smartly written, sardonically delivered, full of clever lines and there's a lot of fun and heartache along the way. The peak is the epic You'd Rather Run - a ten-minute chugging waltz that owes much to Bob Dylan and sloshes about with dashes of tinkling toy piano, plucked fiddles and a glowing Hammond organ. A great album that's certain to build via word-of-mouth, so start spreading the news.
Autumn Fallin' is on Heavenly
The Maccabees - Toothpaste Kisses
You would steadfastly avoid a pub if what happens in the wonderful new Maccabees video was ever likely to occur in it - we're worried about cold sores for a start. However, like the song itself, the video is slight, sweet and lovely - a simple idea well executed. Toothpaste Kisses is a wee small tune that will give soppy-hearted folk the warm and fuzzies for the length of its mayfly-like existence. The dust-on-the-needle production is wonderful also, plus any song with whistling at the end can only be a good thing.
Toothpaste Kisses is out on January 7 on Polydor
Malcolm Middleton
The former Arab Strap man takes his campaign for an unlikely Christmas number one with We're All Going To Die to Radio One, complete with children's choir.
Gay For Johnny Depp
This screamy, New York hardcore band's songs - as you may be able to deduce from their name - are almost entirely focused on their lascivious obsession with the Hollywood heart-throb. They are not particularly new (their EP Erotically Charged Dance Songs For The Desperate was released three years ago) but have just got around to releasing an album. A side project to a gaggle of bands (including the marvellous God Fires Man), the surprise is how fierce, loud and actually pretty good they are (Kerrang! described the album as "one of the best punk outbursts of the year", and rightly so). Brave UK residents can discover them for themselves in early 2008 when they tour for the first time. We're asked to expect nudity, sexual frisson, big melodies, crowd participation and crowd procreation. In the meantime, have a poke around their MySpace page - but not until, as they advise, you "put your sex pants on". You have been warned.
See more of the band at myspace.com/ gayforjohnnydepp
Camp Bestival
Not content with hosting that traditional end-of-summer fancy-dress shindig on the Isle of Wight, the team behind Bestival is launching a new weekender in 2008. Camp Bestival will take place between July 18 and 20 at Lulworth Castle in Dorset and will feature a typically eclectic line-up with headliners The Flaming Lips, festival favourites Billy Bragg and King Creosote, the lesser-spotted likes of Suzanne Vega and Kid Creole, plus two legends in the form of Chuck Berry and, somewhat disturbingly, The Wurzels - who're in the area anyway doing a bit of combine harvesting. Standard adult price is £120, children £60 and under 12s free.
For full details go to ticketline.co.uk/
campbestival.html
Reviews by Johnny Dee
FIRST POSTED DECEMBER 14, 2007
