Album of the week
Bruce Springsteen
The Ties That Bind – The River Collection
Columbia
★ ★ ★ ★
By October 1980, when his fifth album, The River, was released, Bruce Springsteen and his trusty E-Street Band were so hot that, in Phil Lynott's phrase, they were steaming. The backlash to the hype over Born To Run in 1975 was a distant memory, eclipsed by critical acclaim for the brooding power of 1978's Darkness On The Edge Of Town and a series of legendary live shows.
But behind the curtain matters were not so rosy. Springsteen's search for the right tone, his yearning for perfection, was driving the suits and the band to distraction. And then, finally, a single album called The Ties That Bind, after the song of the same name, was forwarded to CBS, only for Springsteen to have second thoughts and take it back. He had more songs, better songs, so many that it would have to be a double album. He was right.
The swinging bar-band sound was a surprise after the intensity of Darkness and Born To Run, but the jaunty neighbourhood pop of the likes of Sherry Darling and Hungry Heart helped obscure a more ominous narrative summed up in the haunting closing track, Wreck on the Highway.
The road was no escape, there was no happy ever after. Springsteen, turning 30, was also moving beyond his New Jersey shore heartland. Independence Day was about father/son but also about place and being "brought up to do the things your daddy done", the fate of the male character in the key title track inspired by his sister's experience.
The River is a sprawling album, flawed but deeply felt and emotionally resonant. It is about family, about friends, about himself. It marks the end of one life and the beginning of another. It is the bridge to the stark Nebraska and the universalism of Born in the USA and it is also worthy of this lavish production.
The box set includes the original double album, plus the single album that was pulled, and 22 other tracks from the same time, 12 not heard before, mostly good songs but crucially not better. It also includes three DVDs of live footage and a documentary on the recording, all of which I've yet to see, though clips look promising.
Joe Breen
New releases
Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood and The Rajasthan Express
Junun
Nonesuch
★ ★ ★ ★
Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood is no stranger to musical odyssey, having composed the soundtracks to Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, The Master and Inherent Vice. Junun is the product of Greenwood's recent collaboration with Israeli composer and musician Shye Ben Tzur and the Rajasthan Express, a group of Indian qawwali (Sufi devotional) musicians.
At the core of this double CD is an hypnotic and meditative ensemble that manages to sound utterly exotic and yet somehow familiar. The qawwali singers are intensely focused and disciplined, at one with the rhythmic backbone of each song. The richly evocative individual vocals meshed with the choral whole is what lures the listener ever inwards into this celebratory swirl of devotion.
Siobhan Long
Corrie Dick
Impossible Things
Chaos Collective
★ ★ ★ ★
Drummer Corrie Dick’s conception of music is a generous and wide-ranging one, embracing the raucous and the sublime, the complex and the disarmingly simple, with the same sense of mischief and discovery. As well as jazz, the rising Glasgow-born percussionist’s training has included studies in Morocco and Ghana, and he has also delved into Celtic music. It all comes together on this impressive debut album.
For his nine-piece "pocket" big band, Dick has assembled a cast of similarly rising talents on London's contemporary scene – including vocalist Alice Zawadzki, trumpeter Laura Jurd, and saxophonist Joe Wright – and they deliver on the promise of the leader's original compositions. By turns folksy, rootsy, bluesy and indy, Impossible Things announces the arrival of a new and compelling voice in contemporary European jazz.
Cormac Larkin
Barry Green Trio
Great News
Moletone Records
★ ★ ★ ★
UK pianist Barry Green travelled to New York and recruited two of that city’s leading players – saxophonist Chris Cheek and drummer Gerald Cleaver – to make this absorbing bass-less trio record, referencing some of New York’s greatest sons. As well as overt homages to his immediate influences – there are tunes dedicated to pianists Mulgrew Miller and Cedar Walton – Green is interested in the liberated, post-bop territories discovered by drummer Paul Motian’s groups of which Cheek was a member.
The leader's thoughtful originals sit easily alongside Motian's Owl of Cranston, Monk's Off Minor and a joyous, gospel-soaked version of John Martyn's May You Never, the album's stand-out track which also makes evident a debt to Keith Jarrett's free-spirited American quartet.
Cormac Larkin
Sophie
Product
Numbers
★ ★ ★ ★
If Sophie has anything to do with it, pop’s next great leap forward will be bright, bold and brash.
London producer Samuel Long’s work as Sophie has produced a run of giddy, fizzy, infectious pop belters which zig and zag and rave and roar around the houses. While associated with the PC Music gang, Long’s own work stands taller than his peers by virtue of his strong, confident, idiosyncratic ability to shape earworms, which may be why acts like Charli XCX, Le1f and Madonna have worked with him on songwriting and production collabs.
Product puts some previously released bangers like Lemonade and the thrilling Bipp shoulder to shoulder with new tracks like Vyzee and Just Like We Never Said Goodbye. Throughout, Long's sense of what it takes to generate instant sugar highs and sonic endorphins is always on show.
Jim Carroll
Gavin James
Bitter Pill
Good Soldier Records
★ ★ ★
Up until the start of this year there was chatter from the dogs on the streets that Dublin singer-songwriter Gavin James had left it too late to capitalise on his grassroots following – where, oh where was his debut album? And yet as the year draws to a close, James is mates with Ed (Sheeran), has supported Sam (Smith) in the US, and followed up sold-out shows at Whelan’s with dates in January at the Olympia Theatre.
And there is proof on Bitter Pill that James has enough emotionally depth- charged tunes in his back pocket to take him from here to the top of the charts and back again. His approach may not be the subtlest – there are songs that could benefit from less emotive sky scraping – but they are rammed to the rafters with hooks and melody lines. Those dogs? They know nothing.
Tony Clayton-Lea
Emilie & Ogden
10000
Secret City Records
★ ★ ★
Don’t let the name mislead you: Emilie & Ogden is not a duo – at least, not in the way you may think. In fact, the debut album of Montreal native Emilie Kahn and her harp (that’s Ogden) are actually supplemented by a clutch of guest musicians, although it is her songs and her voice taking centre stage.
You might guess that none of these songs are balls-to-the-wall rock numbers, instead utilising the delicate zing of harp, strings and gentle percussion to create an indie-pop sound that falls somewhere between Feist and Joanna Newsom. As nice as the soft clatter of Long Gone and the twinkling Blame are, however, things become samey very quickly. The result is an album that's perfect pleasant, but a little forgettable.
Lauren Murphy
Michael Knight
Physics is Out to Get Me
Jigsaw Records
★ ★ ★ ★
Berlin-based Richard Murphy is one of those stalwart types who continues with music despite the fact that he has never been within earshot of mainstream popularity. Such dedication might be foolhardy if Murphy wasn't such a good songwriter, and his latest album confirms what we have always strongly suspected (particularly on his previous album, 2008's I'm Not Entirely Clear How I Ended Up Like This) – that Murphy is the missing link between Belle & Sebastian and The Monochrome Set.
If for some people such a description is too fey (Jigsaw Records proudly state that it "sticks up for the little guys") and/or the song titles too whimsical (Hang On, I Need To Count The Stops, A Stoppard Fop Is Right Half The Time), then it may not be to your taste. For lovers of smart-pop individuality, however, it's a doozy.
Tony Clayton-Lea
Johnny Marr
Adrenalin Baby
Warner
★ ★ ★ ★
The last time Johnny Marr featured prominently on a live album, it was on The Smiths' 1988 record Rank. Twenty-seven years later, the guitarist has lost none of his prowess. His first live album, compiled from gigs in London and Manchester, takes in both of his solo albums The Messenger and Playland and dips into the Smiths catalogue for good measure.
The Headmaster Ritual and a lush, tremulous How Soon is Now are particularly fantastic, sleekly slotting into a set-list alongside the breezy punch of Easy Money and the pleasurable extended jam on Electronic's Getting Away with It. It doesn't quite evoke the same joy as getting to watch him do his thing, but it's as polished, tight and stylish as you might expect from a consummate professional like Marr.
Lauren Murphy
Various
Pop Ambient 2016
Kompakt
★ ★ ★
Ambient music is experiencing another moment as people seek solace from the stresses of modern life by plugging in their headphones and going beatless. There's a new demand for music to fall asleep to or, at least, music which forsakes the groove. This won't come as news to the folks at Kompakt who've compiled the Pop Ambient series since 2001, maintaining a balance between new visionaries and seasoned contributors.
The old school is represented here by such well seasoned travellers as The Orb, Jens-Uwe Beyer and Kompakt founder Wolfgang Voigt. The newcomers include Thore Pfeiffer, whose Idyll is a gorgeously detailed pastoral delight. There's also fantastically detailed passages like the elegant April In Oktober from Stephan Mathieu. Soundtracks for falling asleep have never sounded so exciting.
Jim Carroll
