On record

John Newman
Revolve
Island
You can’t blame Newman for wanting hits, but the relentless HERE COMES THE HOOK chorus explosions of Revolve get rather tiring over a whole album. Is it anachronistic to suggest that a man with such a soulful voice might try to make an actual album — a collection of songs that take you on a journey — rather than a cavalcade of one-dimensional tracks all auditioning to be the single? Perhaps it is. In which case, judged on its own terms, Revolve delivers on the funky Lights Down, the party soul of Come and Get It, and the cunningly structured We All Get Lonely. Elsewhere, however — Tiring Game, Give You My Love, Killing Me — the standard drops. ME

Laurie Anderson
Heart of a dog
Nonesuch
This is the soundtrack to a new movie by Laurie Anderson about the recent death of a loved one. The first line is: “Hello, little bonehead. I’ll love you forever.” This turns out to be her pet name not for her husband, Lou Reed, who died in 2013, but for her dog, Lolabelle, who died in 2012, and who sparks a wider meditation on life and death. The track From the Air, for example, recalls a moment when a hawk swooped on Lolabelle, and the dog became aware that danger “could come from the air” — Anderson jumps from here to post-9/11 Manhattan. Full of deft juxtapositions, Heart of a Dog is thought-provoking, moving and strangely calming. ME

Jean-Michel Jarre
Electronica Part 1: The Time Machine
Columbia
The intriguing thing about these collaborations between the electronic-music pioneer and 15 other artists isn’t the technology, but his decision to eschew so much of it. In an age when sound files are routinely emailed round the world, Jarre chose to visit each musician in their studio. The result is that no one here is “phoning in” their contribution; instead, what we get are genuine collaborations, including Little Boots and Jarre concocting sweet synth-pop on If..!, Massive Attack’s 3D and Jarre slipping and sliding through the fractured Watching You, and Air and Jarre oozing Gallic cool on Close Your Eyes. ME

Selena Gomez
Revival
Polydor
Pre-Bieber, Selena Gomez made clever teen pop that showed she was more than a Disney actress with a sideline in singing. Post-Bieber, she opted for undistinguished EDM that suggested the opposite. Revival wisely returns her versatile voice to the fore on sultry, groove-based R&B ballads that tread Janet Jackson territory, minimalist electro-pop and quality club fodder. The hypnotic Good for You was her biggest hit to date; the Charli XCX co-penned Same Old Love has the potential to top it. LV

Codes
Aaltars
Self-released
A band who fell off the radar after their 2009 debut Trees Dream in Algebra, Codes have returned with this fan-funded second album but left their synthy alt-rock past behind them. However, the Dubliners’ sound remains in thrall to their presumed influences, most notably the epic space-rock of Muse and shifting rhythms and quirky vocals of the Mars Volta. Despite some dubious lyrics, this is a braver and bolshier album, though its frantic pace could do with tempering. An acquired taste, perhaps, but an unrelenting whirlwind all the same. LM

DEBUT OF THE WEEK
Borns
Dopamine
Polydor
One of the most arresting debuts of 2015, Dopamine posits this treehouse-dwelling, LA-based singer as the helium-voiced product of a genetic experiment involving Sam Cooke, the Beach Boys, the Osmonds, glam-era Bowie, the Bee Gees and Scritti Politti. Tracks such as Dug My Heart, Past Lives and Electric Love are the antithesis of the formulaic, corporate dance and soul music now dominating the charts. The way Garrett Borns takes each song right to the edge of commerciality, manipulating his voice so its sinuous seductiveness becomes almost asexual, is audacious and unnerving. This is pop, but not as we know it. Breathtaking. DC

The Hot 8 Brass Band
Vicennial: 20 Years of the...
Tru Thoughts TRUCD318
Traditionalists will be reassured to see Royal Garden Blues on the list. Far from being a museum piece, though, the New Orleans outfit have always been visceral and funky. Having survived tough times — four members have been lost to violence or illness — the band are in celebratory mood as they prepare to launch a UK tour this month. Two Temptations covers — Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone and Just My Imagination — are suitably streetwise. There’s a splash of old-time gospel, too, while Rasta Funk teeters on the right side of cheesiness. CD

CLASSICAL
Album of the week
Vaughan Williams
A Sea Symphony
Katherine Broderick (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), Hallé Orchestra and Choir, cond Mark Elder Hallé Live CDHLL7542
The late Michael Kennedy, a friend of the composer’s, was the annotator of all of Mark Elder’s superlative series of VW symphony recordings. Heard only a fortnight after Elder conducted at Kennedy’s memorial concert, this recording is another reminder of the critic’s contribution to Vaughan Williams scholarship, and of his evangelism on behalf of music that is still too rarely performed. Elder’s Hallé forces launch excitingly into the fanfares that precede the choirs’ clarion Behold, the Sea — the texts are by Walt Whitman, one of the composer’s favourite poets — and he is especially lucky with Williams, his baritone soloist, whose clarity of diction and rhythmic sense in the jaunty opening “Today a rude brief recitative” are immaculate. Broderick’s soprano vehemence at “Flaunt out, O Sea, Your Separate Flags of Nations” is imposing, but her words are consistently less clear. The recording catches her voice somewhat fiercely, but the choral and orchestral sound are splendid throughout. This is a treasurable memento of a thrilling live performance. HC

Hif Von Biber
Rosary Sonatas
Rachel Podger (violin) and others Channel Classics CCSSA37315
Not for nothing is Podger regarded today as queen of the baroque violin. Biber’s cycle of 15 Mystery of Rosary Sonatas — essentially an instrumental “description” of the religiously important events in the lives of Christ and Mary, from the Annunciation to the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin — is perhaps the most important body of work for the baroque violin before Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas. Podger makes light of the virtuosic demands of this profound music, while never losing sight of its religious significance. HC

Mozart
Piano Sonatas, K309, K331, K533/494, K576
Christian Blackshaw WHLive 0078 (2 CDs)
This issue completes Blackshaw’s account of Mozart’s piano sonatas, given at four Wigmore Hall concerts. Donald Tovey described the sonatas as “written with his left hand” while the composer was occupied with greater things. Yet so searching and satisfying is Blackshaw’s playing, so felicitous his touch, we have no sense of inferior works, least of all the two on the second disc, the sparkling K576 and the irresistible K533, with its richly decorated, Bach-inspired slow movement. DC

Morton Feldman
For Bunita Marcus
Ivan Ilic (piano) Paraty 135305
The second last of Feldman’s piano pieces is beautifully presented here by Ilic, who offers an appreciative booklet essay. In this account, For Bunita Marcus — a friend of Feldman’s in latter years — takes 66 minutes, laid out in 22 continuous tracks. It is among his profoundest slow rituals, tiny changes occurring over long spans, as if to reward patience. Each constructional advent has its own track, so one could whisk through the substance of the piece, and perceive a cross section of it, in a minute. One doesn’t want to do that, though. The ending is as abrupt as that of The Art of Fugue. PD

Bach
Harpsichord Concertos
Andreas Staier, Frieburger Barockorchester Harmonia Mundi HMC902181.829 (2 CDs)
From the dark masculinity and drive of the D minor Concerto, BWV 1052, to the suave, concise lyricism of the F minor work, BWV 1056, a world of variety and originality is contained in Bach’s seven extant harpsichord concertos. Staier possesses both the wisdom of experience and an enduringly youthful sense of delight in discovery to make these accounts the more deeply compelling; the phrasing is fresh, but never mannered. SP

Must-have reissue
Peter Gabriel: Peter Gabriel (Real World)
The third of four self-titled albums, this 1980 release sailed into the charts on the back of the hit single Games Without Frontiers, and gave the former Genesis singer his first No 1 album as a solo artist. His erstwhile bandmate Phil Collins’s famed gated drum sound makes several appearances; other collaborators include Paul Weller and Kate Bush. Highlights such as Biko, No Self Control and Intruder still ambush you, 35 years on; and the German-language version, included here, only adds to the sense of fearless experimentalism. DC

The hottest tracks
Jack Garratt: Breathe Life Set for stardom next year, the hirsute dubstep-soul singer releases another glitch-pop beauty.

Cash+David featuring Rome Fortune: Pains 4 U The Londoners limber up for their debut album with this dreamy slow-house lament.

Petite Meller: Barbaric Baby Love was addictive enough. The Parisian’s irresistible follow-up single delivers the coup de grâce. DC

Breaking act
Who are they?
One of the best new bands in Britain, Beach Baby have two brilliant double-A singles — No Mind No Money/UR and Bruise/Ladybird — under their belt, and now drop the sublime Limousine. On the surface, they tick lots of lovely, if well rummaged-in, close-harmony, jingle-jangle boxes (the Beatles, the Beach Boys, XTC et al), but, unlike so many guitar-pop wannabes, they add distinctive twists. Watch this lot.

When’s the music available?
Now, on Chess Club; soundcloud.com/beachbabymusic. DC

Reviews by
POP, ROCK, JAZZ Dan Cairns, Mark Edwards, Lauren Murphy, Lisa Verrico and Clive Davis
CLASSICAL Hugh Canning, David Cairns, Paul Driver and Stephen Pettitt

HEAR AND NOW
Listen to chief pop critic Dan Cairns’s new-music playlist at spoti.fi/dancairns