DIDO
Safe Trip Home ***
RCA 88697403212, £12.99 Having sold more than 21 million copies of her first two, Dido's third album has more substance than its suave, stylish predecessors. Which is to say that the polished venee
r cracks to show some real emotion, and the record sounds like something with ambitions to go beyond the chic dinner party soundtrack.
Producer Jon Brion, having worked extensively with Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple and Rufus Wainwright, knows how to make the most of a distinctive vocal talent. The deceptively relaxed 'Burnin' Love' sets Dido's delicate tones against the warm, crackling vocal of Citizen Cope, bringing the best out of an affecting melody.
Experience has hardened her against the rigours of romance, with songs like 'Don't Believe In Love' refreshingly realistic, without totally stomping on sentimentality. 'It Comes And It Goes' fails to capture the same mood, although 'Look No Further' administers a gentle, sobering slap.
'Grafton Street' is a Celtic lament for the last days spent in the company of her dying father, and is moving without being maudlin. A similarly modest epic is 'Northern Skies', driven by a club-heavy bass line, and adorned with bubbly keyboard trills.
Most affecting is 'Let's Do The Things We Normally Do', "from your rebel songs sung out of tune, so my hand held longer than you need to". It is simply as fond as farewells can get.
Download this: Let's Do The Things We Normally Do, Burnin' Love
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
POP
SEAL
Soul ***
Warner 9362498246, £12.99 Seal's celebration of soul music's finest moments is a hit-and-miss affair, but still shines like a beacon in the gloom of this X Factor-induced karaoke climate. The pop-rock minimalism of 'Killer' with Adamski in 1990 appeared distant from the musical tradition celebrated here.
But the two work together beautifully when combined on Gamble and Huff's 'If You Don't Know Me By Now'. They falter on less judicious selections such as Deniece Williams' 'Free'. Better are his takes on Otis Redding's 'I've Been Loving You' and Al Green's 'I'm Still In Love With You'.
Download this: If You Don't Know Me By Now, It's A Man's World
TRACY CHAPMAN
Our Bright Future ***
Elektra 7567898212, £12.99Although Chapman has not ground to a halt since her breakthrough song 'Fast Car', she has stalled with subsequent efforts to make such a dramatic impression. While not a complete return to her quadruple-winning Grammy pomp, the title track is typical Tracy: "Where our bright future is in the past," she regrets with trademark inverse optimism. The single 'Sing For You' is a prettily constructed modern folk melody, while 'I Did It All' is a sweet study in drink and delusion.
Chapman is potently political 20 years on, but methinks she might not protest enough.
Download this: Our Bright Future, Sing For You
TONY CHRISTIE
Made In Sheffield **
UMTV 4781410, £12.99 In which the 'Is This The Way To Amarillo' crooner is presented as a serious artist à la Johnny Cash, wrapping his cabaret tones round the Arctic Monkeys' 'Only Ones Who Know' and the Human League's 'Louise'.
To be fair, the latter almost works, but ultimately this is the man who 'Did What He Did For Maria' down the 'Avenues And Alleyways'.
Richard Hawley does a great job of producing the record and the illusion that Tony is an overlooked 'heritage' artist. With the best will in the world this is simply not the case. The Proclaimers could do a better job with Sydney Devine.
Download this: Only Ones Who Know, Louise
COLIN SOMERVILLECLASSICAL
ANNA NETREBKO, ROLANDO VILLAZÓN
La Bohème ****
Deutsche Grammophon 4777949, £14.99Films of opera stand or fall by verisimilitude: it's harder to take seriously an obviously healthy woman dying from consumption when she's 20ft tall on a screen than it is at a distance onstage. But even judging by this soundtrack to Robert Dornhelm's film of Puccini's opera, these artists seem comfortably off rather than starving in a garret.
If the singing is over-strong, the Italian pronunciation is fitful. Rolando Villazón's Rodolfo is lyrically strong and highly emotional. Bertrand de Billy's tempo is wayward, but the overall ensemble makes this work.
Download this: O Soave Fanciulla
HERMINE HASELBÖCK, WOLFGANG HOLZMAIR
Songs Of Franz Schreker ****
Bridge 9259, £12.99Best known for his operas, and Der Ferne Klang in particular, Franz Schreker's compositional antennae picked up on all the artistic buzzwords of the day, and incorporated many of them into music which solidly reflects the Austria and Germany of his time – the closing years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Weimar Republic (when he was the most popular composer after Richard Strauss) and the early days of Nazi domination. Half-Jewish, he died as the Nazis came to power, having seen his work barracked and been sacked from his music teaching post.
There's much of the early 20th century about these songs: less decadent than highly pressured; an intense, over-perfumed hothouse atmosphere dwelling on thoughts of death. Ably performed by Hermine Haselböck and Wolfgang Holzmair, this is highly enjoyable songwriting, deserving of a wider audience.
Download this: Heute Nacht, Als Ich So Bange
ALEXANDER BRYCEJAZZ
THE WARREN VACHE-JOHN ALLRED QUINTET
Jubilation ****
Arbors Records ARCD 19369, £14.99Anyone wishing to relive some of the magic moments of last month's Lockerbie Jazz Festival will find inspiration in this live recording featuring two of its American stars: cornettist Warren Vache and trombonist John Allred. This is a first-rate set which highlights the quintet's tightness and the great rapport between the two leaders especially. Among the highlights are a pair of funkily executed Horace Silver numbers, and Vache's exquisite and poignant reading of the already gorgeous ballad 'My One And Only Love'.
Download this: Song For My Father, My One And Only Love
FOLK
RED HOT CHILLI PIPERS
Blast Live ***
Red Hot RECD562, £10.99Also on DVD, this is the Scots bagrockers in full flight in Glasgow's Old Fruitmarket. The purists may wince, but this combination of informal kilted Highland pipers fronting a rock-band line-up has caught the international public's imagination. With top piper Stuart Cassells leading the chanters, a punchy horn section, strong percussion, reworkings of Deep Purple, AC/DC, Queen and Coldplay amid the more traditional tunes, they make a unique, celebratory sound you can't ignore. Two bonus tracks include Massive Attack's 'Teardrop', and their hope for a Christmas hit with 'The Little Drummer Boy'.
Download this: Crooked Bridge
FRASER FIFIELD BAND
Traces Of Thrace ****
Tanar TANCD003, £11.99Scottish musician Fifield went east for inspiration for this fascinating album – arranged for his low whistles, soprano sax and bellows pipes with the kaval (the ancient Balkan end-blown shepherd's flute) of virtuosos Nedyalko Nedyalkov and Georgi Petrov on the fiddle-like Bulgarian gadulka, plus percussion and jazz guitar. Expressively played, full of subtle interplay between all the musicians, and alive with fluent rhythms and surprising harmony, this is a truly successful melding of traditions and innovation.
Download this: Sofia Rakia
NORMAN CHALMERSJAZZ
BOBBY WELLINS
Snapshot ***
Trio Records TR580, £13.99Glasgow-born Bobby Wellins may be 72, but he still plays a mean – make that melancholy – tenor sax, as this new collection of tracks culled from recent concerts demonstrates. Accompanied by his regular trio, he serves up characteristically unfussy interpretations of the ballads 'Old Folks' and 'My Funny Valentine' – the latter notable too for the elegant bass work of Andrew Cleyndert – as well as more energetic takes on 'Caravan' and 'Dizzy's Blues'. As is often the case with live material, though, one senses that something was lost in the translation from concert to disc.
Download this: My Funny Valentine, Favela (O Morro Nao Tem Vez)
ALISON KERR
