On record

ANNA MEREDITH
Varmints
Moshi Moshi
Describing her first full-length excursion away from her day job as a contemporary classical composer, Anna Meredith commented: “I love writing a build... the feeling of ‘Get on board, we’re building up now’.” She proves as good as her word: Varmints positively bristles with the things. Nautilus sets the scene, its mad syncopating brass hurling the track forwards. The punk thrash of Taken (softened by massed, butter-wouldn’t-melt harmonies) is similarly propulsive. But there are more reflective moments, too: the chamber-pop of Dowager, the mournful, violin-led Blackfriars. Meredith should do this more often. DC

DE MONTEVERT
De Montevert
No Method
Ellinor Nilsson’s British debut deals in lethal restraint: spare lo-fi soundscapes (early PJ Harvey-like guitar, bare-bones arrangements), vocals that are often no more than a murmured aside, and lyrics whose seeming mundaneness contains unexpected shards (the despairing inversion of “You’ve been holding me hostage with my own love” being just one example). Classically trained, the Swede has an innate understanding of texture and dynamics: the way that the electric guitar solo, at once menacing and defiant, enters on Hostage is chilling. Ditto the ghostly organ that underpins October 11th. What an amazing album. DC

NADA SURF
You Know Who You Are
City Slang
If you’re someone who has appreciated Nada Surf’s sparky power-pop across two decades, you’ll be delighted to learn that their new album finds the band on top form. If you think of Nada Surf as one-hit wonders — 1996’s Popular — then you may not care. However, if you’re also someone who has to give PowerPoint presentations, you’re strongly advised to check out the video to the lead track Cold to See Clear, which includes some interesting new presentation tips. While there, you’ll notice that Cold to See Clear oozes the same Weezerish catchiness that Popular did and may decide to check out the rest of the album. This would be a sensible decision. ME

THAO & THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN
A Man Alive
Ribbon Music
Thao Nguyen has brought in Merrill Garbus (tUnE-yArDs) to produce her new album, giving it a more beats-and-bass-driven sound. What matters, though, is the emotional focus. If you can cope with Guts — with Thao quizzing the father who walked out on her — without crying, well done; but you’re not going to emerge from Millionaire similarly unscathed: “Shatter what you will not carry/ Smash what you won’t bear/Oh daddy, I broke in a million pieces/That makes you a millionaire.” Recover with the quirky Beckisms of Meticulous Bird or the St Vincentish riffing of Astonished Man. ME

KELLY OLIVER
Bedlam
Folkstock FSR25
A singer-guitarist who straddles folk and pop, Oliver showed no end of promise on her debut. But the follow-up is a radical leap forward. She and her collaborators seem incapable of coming up with a dull melody, and her team of producers has wrapped the lyrics — a canny mix of the traditional and contemporary — in sleek but spirited arrangements that rarely risk smothering the sense of spontaneity. (The upbeat, airplay-friendly Rio is the only track that strikes a false note.) Oliver’s voice grows in confidence and range, too. CD

WUSSY
Forever Sounds
Damnably
If Michael Stipe co-wrote songs with Morrissey, wrote some more with the pop-songwriter-for-hire Eg White (he of Chasing Pavements), then hired Neil Young, Crazy Horse and Cowboy Junkies to play them, and asked My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields to mix them, the results would be — I swear — a bit like Forever Sounds. That may put you right off the idea of Wussy, or it might make you wonder if the American critic Robert Christgau is right to declare that they are “the best band in America”. The truth, as so often, lies somewhere in between. ME

EARL HINES
Piano Genius at Work
Storyville 1088615 (7 CDs plus DVD)
While there’s showmanship aplenty (too much, if you’re not a confirmed fan), this collection, kicking off in the late 1920s, illustrates how the man they called Fatha pioneered modern jazz piano. Louis Armstrong’s All Stars roll into Chicago on a 1948 radio broadcast, but Hines has more of a chance to cut loose on the other dates, including barnstorming 1950s sets with the trombonist Dicky Wells. Boogie Woogie on St Louis Blues splashes adrenaline all over the place. Shame the DVD, a solo recital from 1970, is so brief and so, so grainy. CD

Reviews by Dan Cairns, Mark Edwards, Lisa Verrico and Clive Davis

Classical

CLASSICAL ALBUM OF THE WEEK
DONIZETTI
Le Duc d’Albe
Cast, Opera Rara Chorus, Hallé, cond Mark Elder
Opera Rara ORC54
Donizetti’s French grand opera is one of the genre’s great might-have-beens. He began work on it as a successor to his French adaptation of Poliuto as Les Martyrs, but, for reasons probably of censorship, he left the opera in fragmentary state. With the help of Elder’s assistant conductor, Martin Fitzpatrick, it has been possible to perform the first two acts, most of which Donizetti had composed, and it remains a magnificent torso: an opera on an epic scale challenging Meyerbeer’s spectaculars of the 1840s and looking forward to Verdi’s Les Vepres Siciliennes (1855), which uses Scribe’s libretto, and even Don Carlos (whose theme of liberty for the subjugated Netherlands Le Duc d’Albe shares). Certainly, this recording is worth hearing, above all for the thrilling male leads. Is there a better tenor today than Michael Spyres? He makes Henri’s fiendish music sound easy. Laurent Naouri as the Duke and Gianluca Buratto as the Flemish leader, Brauer, are superb, too. Only Angela Meade in the “Joan of Arc” role, Hélène, disappoints. Her soprano is stylish, but strident under pressure. HC

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, ELGAR
The Lark Ascending, etc;
Serenade for Strings, etc
Pinchas Zukerman (violin & cond), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Decca 4789386
Zukerman has a soft spot for English music, and this album collects four of Vaughan Williams’s and Elgar’s most beloved orchestral works, interspersing Elgar’s Serenade for Strings and Introduction and Allegro with pop pieces such as Salut d’Amour and the two Chansons, de Matin and de Nuit. It’s 40 years since he tackled VW’s The Lark Ascending, and if the bird sounds a bit wiry today, Zukerman still phrases the music with affection. HC

MOZART
Keyboard Music, vols 8 and 9
Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano)
Harmonia Mundi HMU907532/33 (2 CDs)
These discs maintain the brilliant standards of previous issues. One of the South African Bezuidenhout’s great qualities is the naturalness of his ornamentation. It springs from the music, as opposed to being added on because it’s the thing to do. As well as sonatas (K279, 280, 545, 576), the recording includes fascinating rarities such as the late G minor sonata fragment, K312 (completed by Robert Levin), and — for me — discoveries such as the ravishing, Bach-like Allemande from the baroque suite K399. A treat. DC

PETER MAXWELL DAVIES
Music for Brass
The Wallace Collection
Nimbus NI5936
This sequence of Davies compositions for brass (a timbre often lent special depth in his music) sets five short, relatively slight items against a final opus — the 35-minute Brass Quintet (1981) — of enormous expressive weight. The Pole Star March and Four Tallis Voluntaries for quintet, the trumpet duo of Fanfare for Lowry and solos for trumpet (Litany for a Ruined Chapel) and horn (Sea Eagle) are appealing, but the end piece is on another plane. Devised as authentic chamber music for instruments essentially outside that tradition, the Brass Quintet, especially in its immensely measured central adagio, has a searching introspective quality hardly to be found elsewhere. PD

JOHN POTTER ET AL
Conductus Vol 3 — Music & Poetry from 13th-century france
With Christopher O’Gorman and Rogers Covey-Crump (tenors)
Hyperion CDA68115
In this final volume of Hyperion’s Arts and Humanities Council-sponsored project, Potter and his fellow tenors give alone or together, and with polished control, 11 examples of the apparently infinitely flexible medieval song form. When most pieces consist of only a single musical line, refinement and intimacy are the bywords of this set. SP

Reviews by Hugh Canning, David Cairns, Paul Driver and Stephen Pettitt

Must-have reissue

NICK GARRIE
THE NIGHTMARE OF JB STANISLAS
(Nick’s Club)
The phrase “classic lost album” might have been coined for this 1969 release. Recorded with full orchestra in Paris, its lush orchestration, bizarre lyrics and category-defying individualism are very much of their times, but it is far more than a curio, and merits inclusion on playlists containing the Zombies, Badfinger and pre-glam Marc Bolan. The album’s release was bedevilled by problems, and Garrie later put down his guitar and took up skiing. He mixes the two now, and this reissue is a chance to discover him in his original guise. Dan Cairns

Hottest Tracks

Charli XCX featuring Hannah Diamond: Paradise
From the EP that launches her own label, Charlotte Aitchison bosses this Pinky-and-Perky-go-EDM banger.

MIA: Boom ADD
MIA updates a 2012 skit and in the process flips the bird at the NFL all over again.

Parquet Courts: Berlin Got Blurry
Melding lacerating lyrics, tinny organ and spaghetti-western guitar.

Dan Cairns

Breaking act

Ben Abraham

Who is he?
An Australian-Indonesian singer, Abraham is the son of Indonesian pop stars, but has followed a different musical course, as his beautiful debut album, Sirens, attests. There are echoes of the plaintive singing style and lilting melodies of Guy Garvey and Cherry Ghost on his new single, You and Me. Abraham creates a lovelorn lament that flickers and shimmers like a faded Super 8.

When’s the music available?
You and Me is out now on Secretly Canadian; the album follows in June; soundcloud/benabraham.
Dan Cairns