Album reviews: Squeeze | The Black Crowes | Gnarls Barkley | Sarah Jane Morris
Penned by a teenaged Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook in the 1970s, Trixies is a gas, writes Fiona Shepherd
Squeeze: Trixies (BMG) ★★★★
The Black Crowes: A Pound of Feathers (Silver Arrow Records) ★★★
Gnarls Barkley: Atlanta (10k Projects/Atlantic) ★★★★
Sarah Jane Morris: The Sisterhood 2 (Fallen Angel Records) ★★★
The new/old album by Squeeze confirms that the creative chemistry of Chris Difford (lyrics) and Glenn Tilbrook (music) was there from the start. Trixies is a song cycle written in the mid-70s when they were in their late teens but never properly recorded as they lacked the requisite musical chops. Returning to their first songwriting efforts now, they summon a half-century of musicality to bring the project to life.
Trixies was originally inspired by a Damon Runyon story relating the exploits of the characters in a Prohibition-era New York nightclub. Difford and Tilbrook’s Trixies is more of a 70s rock opera set in 60s Soho. We meet singer Lucy Bourbon, house band The Jaguars and a host of gangster undesirables, all brought to life with easy melody, from the wistful blues-tinged folk storytelling of You Get the Feeling to last orders lament It’s Over.
There is no denying the gauche ambition of the duo who wrote the songs, fired up by their pre-punk peers to create theatrical pop music. The glam rock drama of The Place We Call Mars is shot through with Bowie influence, Don’t Go Out In the Dark is garlanded with fuzz guitar riffs and doomy organ chords and Trixies (Part 2) is haunted by light, lyrical saxophone. This is an album they wouldn’t have written now but one they could not have delivered then. In their anachronistic words, “Trixies is a gas”.
Brothers Chris and Rich Robinson produced the new Black Crowes album in a no-messing ten day recording session in Nashville. A Pound of Feathers leaps out of the traps with the traditional rootsy soul of Profane Prophecy, the hurts-so-good rocking R&B of Cruel Streak (“you need a cruel streak if you wanna play nice with me”) and ragged recovery of Pharmacy Chronicles.
Once again, they are unapologetic in their retro roots raid. Do the Parasite! looks to The Stooges for its snotty punk energy, they draw on gothic imagery and country and bluegrass influences on High and Lonesome and swing seamlessly from the short and bittersweet balladry of Queen of the B-Sides to the aggressive party vibes of You Call This A Good Time.
Yet another winning songwriting partnership returns after an 18-year absence. Atlanta is the third and final collaboration between singer CeeLo Green and producer Danger Mouse aka Gnarls Barkley. Since they last came together, Green has embarked on a solo career and reunion of his hip-hop group Goodie Mob, while Danger Mouse continues to rack up the inventive production credits.
The duo easily pick up where they left off with the usual erudite sprinkling of soulsonic magic, veering from the cheerleader funk of Line Dance straight into the happy-clappy soul pop of Turn Your Hearts Back On, from the finger popping Be Be King to the legato ache of Sorry. Green accesses his lower range on the gospel croon of Let Me Be while Danger Mouse borrows the rhythm of I Heard It Through the Grapevine for the cool electro backing of rap track Cyberbully. Global hit Crazy remains their sublime legacy but Atlanta is a fine epitaph.
Onetime Communards vocalist Sarah Jane Morris found she could not stop at her 2024 celebration of notable female singer/songwriters. The Sisterhood 2 celebrates 11 more sisters in song, warrior women who are/were courageous in their art and life, from the overcooked Crazy Angel for Patti Smith to the gentle Celtic mythologizing of Oh Mother My Mother for Sinead O’Connor. In general, the songs could be snappier, but the mellow southern soul of I Can Hear Jesus Weeping wouldn’t be out of place in Tracy Chapman’s own catalogue while Morris captures the cadences of Joan Armatrading on Let Only Love Remain.
CLASSICAL
Harnoncourt: Mendelssohn | Wagner | Schumann (Sony) ★★★★
A decade on from the death of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sony has issued a fascinating live recording from the 1999 Styriarte Festival in Graz in which he conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in music by Schumann, Wagner and Mendelssohn. Typical of Harnoncourt’s questioning singularity are interpretations that still challenge the ordinary. Particularly refreshing are the Wagner performances - the Overture and Bacchanale from Tannhäuser is uncommonly svelte, deliriously brisk and extraordinarily detailed, while in the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde he summons expansive, heartrending tearfulness without recourse to over-egged density. Mezzo-soprano Violetta Urmana is truly sublime in the Liebestod, her projection unforced yet expressively all-consuming. Schumann’s brief Requiem für Mignon is something of a revelation, brimming with colourful, dynamic appeal. As an opener, Mendelssohn’s overture Die Schöne Melusine summons picture book images. Harnoncourt’s spoken preambles are interspersed for good measure - fine if your German is up to it. Ken Walton
FOLK
Paul Connolly: A Moment in Time (Brechin All Records) ★★★★
Concertina player Paul Connolly seizes his moment with a highly engaging selection of Scots repertoire, much of it gleaned from years living in Lochaber and reflecting the area’s pipe and fiddle traditions. In the company of guests including his son Paul Macintyre Connolly on fiddle, guitarist John Carnie and Cathal McConnell on whistle, he ranges from sensitively treated airs such as A’ Mhairead Og and Chi Min a Mor-Bheanna to Ian Gourlay’s jaunty theme tune for the original Para Handy TV series, gaining added buzz from Allan Macdonald’s jaw harp. Lesser-heard material includes Hamish Moore’s eerie Callanish, leading on to two other appealing contemporary pipe melodies, while elsewhere there’s stirring treatment for the retreat marches Cullen Bay and Lochanside. It’s a credit to Connolly that he can bring fresh life and palpable regard to numbers as commonplace as The Campbells Are Coming. Jim Gilchrist
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