ALBUM OF THE WEEK
KESHA
Rainbow
RCA
In the five years since Kesha Sebert released an album, the singer has become as famous for misfortune as she ever was for berserk electro-pop hits such as Tik Tok and Blah Blah Blah. She sued her former producer and label boss, Dr Luke, for, among other things, sexual assault, gender violence and emotional abuse, and was in turn sued. Her suit was dismissed, while the latter rumbles on. Heavyweight peer support from artists such as Adele, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga spoke of a degree of identification with Kesha’s alleged experiences, and this comeback album, although wildly uneven, is a reassertion of free will, empowerment and independence that deserves similar support. The opening track, Bastards, may suggest an album of score-settling (Praying is equally unambiguous), but Kesha soon reminds us that it was her nous and sense of humour, as much as her shock value, that endeared her to fans. The sense of a talent that is uncontainable and uncategorisable is all over songs such as Boogie Feet (one of two featuring Eagles of Death Metal) and Hunt You Down. Dolly Parton pops up on the keening Old Flames (Can’t Hold a Candle to You); the potty-mouthed Woman and Let ’em Talk call out pussy-grabbers from the White House down; and the electro hoedown Boots is sectionable, and a hoot. You could forgive Kesha for making an album full of fury and bile. Instead, brilliantly, she’s gone for the higher ground. DC
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NICK HEYWARD
Woodland Echoes
Gladsome Hawk
Heyward’s strange solo career has included a spell on Creation Records during Britpop and a bigger hit in the US than Haircut One Hundred managed. The charming Woodland Echoes finds him in love and bewitched by the outdoors. Musically, he hops from the pastoral, McCartney-like Love Is the Key by the Sea to rootsy hoedowns, bluesy ballads, Byrdsy rock and, on Who?, brassy swing. What holds it together is a sense that, at 56, the former pin-up can do as he pleases. LV
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GIRL RAY
Earl Grey
Moshi Moshi
Girl Ray are three teens — Poppy Hankin, Iris McConnell and Sophie Moss — who met at school, formed a band whose name wittily references the surrealist Man Ray and have now released an album whose title wittily references their band name. If summer ever comes back, this is the perfect soundtrack: light, pretty and feelgood (though the lyrics are darker than the music). The bouncy guitar pop of Don’t Go Back at Ten and the dreamy love song Stupid Things should be on every playlist, regardless of the season. ME
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STEVE ADEY
Do Me a Kindness
Grand Harmonium
Adey’s third album is something of a happy accident. He originally planned an EP of cover versions before tackling his third album proper, but the cover versions ran away with him, so here are nine of them, plus a setting of a Hermann Hesse poem. If you heard Adey’s powerful cover of Shelter from the Storm on his debut, you’ll know he’s a master at reimagining a song. Here, Morrissey, Nick Cave, Portishead, Smog and PJ Harvey are among those treated to his slow, hymnlike interpretations. ME
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MONDO COZMO
Plastic Soul
Island
Formerly of the American indie trio Eastern Conference Champions, Joshua Ostrander last year morphed into Mondo Cozmo, channelling Dylan, the Stones, Springsteen, U2 and Beck on singles — Shine and the anthemic Hold on to Me — designed to lay waste to a packed festival field. Any reservations about how calculating this might all be are banished by immersion in the songs. Plastic Soul’s verve carries the day. Ostrander’s mantra is: “Will this work on the main stage at Coachella?” In a word: yes. DC
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VARIOUS
Lost West End Vintage
Stage Door
Sometimes you might wonder whether you’re listening to a Harry Enfield parody of a moon/June love song, but this survey spanning music from the late 1940s to the early 1960s is a beguiling time capsule. Surprises here include Jeremy Brett on finest matinee form in A Boy Called Johnny, and Frankie Howerd turning on the vaudeville charm with Song and Dance Man. Another era, another world. CD
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DAVID RAWLINGS
Poor David’s Almanack
Acony
The best Americana album of the summer? Rawlings is one of those earthy but sophisticated singer-guitarists who can turn out one distinguished recording after another without undue fuss. Gillian Welch joins him once again for a set that fuses romance, melancholy and droll humour. Yup takes us on a brisk visit to hell, to show how a strong woman can even conquer the demons down below. CD
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RETURN OF THE WEEK
BLACK GRAPE
Pop Voodoo
UMC
Twenty years after they vanished on a lacklustre second album, Black Grape return, with the producer Youth attempting to keep their naughty-schoolboy side in check. He mostly manages by swathing Shaun Ryder’s rants and Kermit’s raps in funky brass and good-time grooves, and backing the midtempo tunes with the sort of sticky, slo-mo beats that were the Happy Mondays’ trademark. Lots here will work well live — surely the point? — but some of the song ideas are stretched to breaking point. LV
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Reviews by Dan Cairns, Mark Edwards, Lisa Verrico and Clive Davis
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KEANE
Hopes and Fears
Island
It took them six years to get a record deal (and Tim Rice-Oxley flirted with the idea of joining Coldplay), but when Keane finally broke through, it was worth it. Arriving in Coldplay’s melodic-rock slipstream, Hopes and Fears (2004) showcased the intense, if fractious, chemistry between Rice-Oxley and Tom Chaplin, the former writing fraught but beautiful songs about the inability to express himself, the latter turning the screw with his angelic voice. The album sold almost 6m copies. That’s some chemistry. DC
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Breaking act
LOMELDA
Who is she? A Texan singer-songwriter, Hannah Read began recording as Lomelda at high school. She makes delicate, ornately textured lo-fi music that draws on the work of Joni Mitchell and solo Lennon and McCartney to locate an intriguing common thread. Her 2015 debut, Forever, introduced a writer with a gift for capturing nostalgia, regret and alienation in tiny but deeply evocative snapshots. Read’s second album, Thx, is similarly powerful — check out the tracks Out There and Interstate Vision. Americana at its most dust-blown, parched and haunting, Read’s music is at once intimate and expansive.
When’s the music out? Thx will be released on Double Double Whammy on September 8; soundcloud.com/lomelda. DC
Hottest tracks
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Nikhil D’Souza: Beautiful Mind Cut from the same cloth as Tom Chaplin and Jack Savoretti, the Mumbai singer-songwriter marks his card with a lilting lament.
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Dornik: God Knows The Croydon singer returns to stake his claim for song of the summer: this is a slinky, vibe-heavy beauty.
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Jessie Ware: Midnight Part Bennie and the Jets, part Shirley Bassey-like torch-song belter, a breathtaking return from the Londoner. What a voice.
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Dan Cairns
