ALBUM OF THE WEEK
RYAN ADAMS
Ryan Adams
Columbia
As wayward a talent as rock has ever produced, Ryan Adams marks the 14 years since Heartbreaker with his first self-titled album, a fact that is usually a signifier of a definitive artistic statement. If the record doesn’t quite add up to that, it is emphatically a crucial addition to the Adams canon. As ever with the American, when his head is relatively clear, the focus entirely on music and the writing concise, rather than an unedited sprawl, he can knock his competitors out of the park. Every element that can make his writing so emotionally evocative and fraught — that keening voice and conversational delivery, those torn-from-the-heart lyrics, the killer chord progressions that seal the deal — is brought to bear on arguably his best album since Gold. The involvement of Tom Petty’s longtime keys man, Benmont Tench, is telling, because standouts here such as Am I Safe and Feels Like Fire share with TP the ability to forge from the base metals of rock’n’roll panoramic new vistas and heart-wrenching narratives. It’s good to have Adams back. DC
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ROBERT PLANT AND THE SENSATIONAL SPACE SHIFTERS
Lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar
Nonesuch
If there were a Mercury prize for the senior rock musician who had spent the least amount of time resting on their laurels, Robert Plant would win it every year. Despite having an especially large pile of particularly comfy laurels, the former Led Zep front man instead strides purposefully forwards. His last two albums — Raising Sand, with Alison Krauss, and Band of Joy – were magical, and now he makes it three from three. The country and blues influences of its predecessors are here, alongside African grooves, electronic beats and omnichord drones, a Leadbelly cover and some trance-inducing originals. Blissful. ME
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INTERPOL
El Pintor
Soft Limit
You may have been prompted by its recent reissue to listen to Interpol’s debut, Turn on the Bright Lights. Judging by El Pintor, the band themselves have also spent time listening to the old songs, thinking about the old sound and rehearsing the old attitude, because their fifth album sounds more like their first than anything else they’ve done. The dramatic and intense Ancient Ways begins with the line “Ah, f*** the ancient ways”, but they clearly don’t mean it. You’ll be convinced that either Ancient Ways or All the Rage Back Home is the most powerful song the band have come up with in a long time — until you hear Anywhere, which gives them both a run for their money. ME
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HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER
Lateness of Dancers
Merge
The wonderfully named Hiss Golden Messenger’s fifth album takes its title from the work of the equally wonderfully named writer Eudora Welty. The phrase beautifully captures a child’s envious glimpse of adult life — and provides a slim excuse to quote from Welty’s 1933 job application to The New Yorker: “Gentlemen, I suppose you’d be more interested in even a sleight-o’-hand trick than you’d be in an application for a position with your magazine, but as usual you can’t have the thing you want most.” That’s the sort of life lesson HGM’s MC Taylor learns on this journey of self-discovery, and relays to us in a sumptuous Americana blend of country-soul and folk. ME
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KAREN O
Crush Songs
Cult
Dating from 2006 and 2007, these 15 resolutely spare lo-fi recordings capture the tenderness and vulnerability that has often seemed to lurk beneath the surface of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer’s declamatory style. Blink-and-you’ll-miss-them, self-addressed snapshots they may be, but tracks such as Rapt and NYC Baby communicate a struggle with romance, rapture, loss and longing that will resonate with everyone. They suggest that Karen Orzolek is a born torch singer who should explore the genre further, and soon. DC
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BEBEL GILBERTO
Tudo
Portrait/Sony 88843066542
The Brazilian singer’s fans live in hope that she will recapture the magic of her all-conquering neo-bossa bestseller, Tanto Tempo. The good news is that Tudo comes close, its pastel shades incorporating a mellow cover of Neil Young’s Harvest Moon and decorous, synth-tinged chanson on Tout Est Bleu. Gilberto’s voice isn’t strong enough to lift all the original numbers, but the charismatic baritone Seu Jorge helps out on Novas Idéias. Traditionalists will enjoy a respectful take on Vivo Sonhando, a ballad indelibly associated with Stan Getz and her father, Joao Gilberto. CD
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SMOKEY ROBINSON
Smokey & Friends
Verve 3796387
The best of his songs are indestructible, so it wouldn’t have mattered if the Motown legend had invited Dame Edna Everage to take on The Way You Do (The Things You Do). CeeLo Green’s version, though, has to be the high point of a set that, as is the way with these things, wanders all over the quality dial. Elton John makes a respectable job of The Tracks of My Tears; Gary Barlow haters will be disappointed to hear he doesn’t crash and burn on Get Ready. James Taylor’s contribution on Ain’t That Peculiar, however, is oddly anonymous. CD
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DEBUT OF THE WEEK
BANKS
Goddess
Good Years
Hype being pernicious or overblown more often than it is an accurate guide to an artist’s significance and likely traction, it has to be refreshing that this debut from the blogosphere’s darling is just as original and engrossing as the LA singer’s more frenzied fans could have hoped. Working with producers such as Sohn, Shlomo and Lil Silva, Jillian Banks immerses her bracingly, unambiguously personal lyrics in alt-R&B and dubstep settings that may be almost scarily “now” — yet the sonics are in service to the songs, never masters of them. And, seriously, what songs. DC
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Must-have reissue
THE BEATLES
In Mono
Apple
Critics are already sniping about Apple’s latest overhaul of the Fabs’ back catalogue, which, it has to be said, does feel like the umpteenth attempt to part fans from their money. Yet this one is arguably the most crucial, for, bar the stereo-only Let It Be and Abbey Road, it presents, on vinyl, the albums as they were recorded, before the often crude and, as this box set reveals so compellingly, always inferior stereo separations. It is no exaggeration to say that In Mono reveals riches no amount of familiarity can make you deaf to. For true fans, it has to be a must-buy. DC
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Breaking act
BILLY THE KID
Who is she?
Billy Pettinger, a Vancouver singer-songwriter and an exemplar of how to sustain a career outside the major-label system — she has crowdfunded albums in the past, even going camping and rafting with fans. Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, Pettinger’s British debut release, was produced by a kindred folk-punk spirit, Frank Turner, and showcases sharply her way with a vivid narrative lyric and a lilting, country-tinged melody.
When’s the music available?
Tomorrow, on Xtra Mile; billythekidonline.com.
Dan Cairns
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Dan Cairns
Hear and now
Listen to chief pop critic Dan Cairns’s new-music playlist at spoti.fi/dancairns; if you are not on Spotify yet, go to thesundaytimes.co.uk/playlists