BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - WE SHALL OVERCOME, THE SEEGER SESSIONS - American Land Edition Columbia 88697009162

There were two huge treats for Springsteen fans last year. The first was the release of the 30th Anniversary edition of Born to Run (Columbia 82876755892). Released as a boxed set, this contained a re-mastered CD of Born to Run and two DVDs. The first one featuring a concert recorded at Hammersmith Odeon in 1975, this was Springsteen's first concert in the UK and features The Boss and the East Street Band turning in an extraordinary performance. The footage isn't of great visual quality but the sound is extraordinary. The band don't put a foot wrong throughout the two hours of concert and show just how tight constant touring and gigging can make a group. I mention this because what comes across in this concert is the sheer exuberance and delight Bruce Springsteen takes in performing, something that is sadly missing from most of his albums in recent years. The good news is boy is he enjoying himself on The Seeger Sessions. All the exuberance and the power that he is capable of comes flooding into your room when you put this CD on. Featuring traditional songs and Pete Seeger songs and a gloriously loose and very live sounding recording (the sleeve notes say that everything was recorded on three one day sessions). Right from the opening track, Old Dan Tucker, where Springsteen counts the band in with only the backing of a gloriously loose snare drum beat, you just know this album is going to swing. The band is enormous, with anything up to twenty people playing. There is a brass section mixing it with banjos and violins and all the while, Springsteen very obviously having the time of his life. Almost regardless of your taste in music you are likely to enjoy this. Very rarely does a recording really capture the pleasure musicians can take in making (his words) music. The recording quality is open, honest and has to be highly rated for capturing all this fun and pleasure.

BLANCHE - WHAT THIS TOWN NEEDS EP - Loose VJDC169

My first taste of Blanch was an album I found in a record shop in Marlborough called Sound Knowledge. Despite the size of the town (small market town in deep Wiltshire) and the size of the shop, Sound Knowledge has become a source of exciting, thrilling and above all new music. That album was called "If You Can't Trust The Doctors" and ever since then I've been waiting for the next one. "What This Town Needs" has 5 tracks, the first two of which are taken from the forthcoming album Little Amber Bottles. Blanch make deceptively simple sounding music but buried somewhere inside the twang and the pedal steel guitar of country music lurks the unholy spirit of The Velvet Underground. Lisa Jaybird Jannon has more than a touch of Maureen Tucker in her drumming and Tracee Miller who shares vocal duties with her husband? Dan has a slightly disturbing childlike voice. Rough garage stylee guitars mix it with simple pounding beats and swooping pedal steel. If these two tracks are anything to go by, the album will be a worthwhile purchase. It is worth pointing out that the second track is a cover of the Jagger/Richards song "Child of the Moon" done in a gentle country style, with the pedal steel supplying the melody. Throw in a demo version of "Never Again", a rough but vibrant live recording of "Someday" from the first album, add in a live video and this will be the best £5 you will have spent in a long time.

COUNTING CROWS - NEW AMSTERDAM - Live at Heineken Music Hall- Geffen INTW33103

It has been quite a while since Counting Crows have released an album, the last being the beautifully recorded and extremely wonderful Hard Candy, so it is nice to come across this recently released live album. That said, these songs were recorded in the early part of February 2003. Nonetheless, they contain satisfyingly different versions of a lot of the songs from Hard Candy plus favourites like "Catapult" and "Goodnight Elisabeth". Recording quality is great and very honest at the same time. This doesn't sound like one of those live albums that has been sneaked back into the studio for crafty overdubs. Adam Duritz is on good form. It is hard to pick stand-out songs, they all work well, but the crowd singing the chorus of "Goodnight Elisabeth" very obviously moves and inspires the band and pushes vocalist Adam into a stunning performance. A pounding version of "Hard Candy" follows on. This is a real being there live album with great ambience and exceptional dynamics and really well recorded instruments. Play it loud, close your eyes and if this album doesn't raise goose bumps I will be very surprised.

EDIE BRICKELL AND NEW BOHEMIANS - STRANGER THINGS - Fantasy Records 0888072300309

Many years ago I acquired an Edie Brickell album ("Shooting Rubber Bands at the Moon") at about the same time I got my first real turntable, a Roksan Xerxes. It was new, the album was new and consequently got played a lot. I can remember sitting entranced in front of the speakers. It was a great recording of rather simple yet sophisticated pop songs. Another album followed this and then Edie Brickell dropped off my radar so I am rather pleased that she is back with "Stranger Things". Not only that but despite the years, she is still writing the same great pop songs, making good recordings and playing with a great bunch of musicians. The whole album exudes mellowness and warmth and brightens up a grey January day and whilst nothing shouts for your attention, it is very easy to get drawn in to the deliciously understated hooks and melodies. This is a great album for doing nothing to. There is a good time feel about it and the more you play it, the better it gets and the more you realise just how well recorded and crafted these songs are. Right now the highlight for me is Track 12, "Spanish Style Guitar", an up-tempo and jolly little number about the theft of her guitar. Play this CD lots and you will find yourself singing snatches of the songs at the strangest moments.

DAVID GILMOUR - ON AN ISLAND - EMI Can't find a number for it

A beautifully packaged CD is this and just in case you didn't know, there is a sticker on the cellophane wrapping that reads "The voice and guitar of Pink Floyd". I'm not sure why really, stick it in the CD player and the ghost of "Wish you were here" hangs heavy over the opening track, an instrumental. The guitar sound is utterly unmistakeable. This is an impeccably recorded and beautifully produced album and David Gilmour, in combination with Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music) and Chris Thomas have taken an enormous amount of care over the production. When you are David Gilmour, getting guests to appear on your albums obviously isn't a problem. Track 2 "On an Island" features amongst others David Crosby and Graham Nash, supplying classic Crosby Stills Nash & Young style vocal harmonies. Among others, Jools Holland crops up, along with Georgie Fame, Robert Wyatt and the very wonderful B.J. Cole, the UK's leading pedal steel guitar player all appear at some point throughout the album. When I first saw this I remembered an interview with Andy Summers about recording. It went along the lines that you had to be really careful, otherwise you could spend a lot of time polishing a turd and at the end, what you had was beautiful and shiny but still a turd. However, despite the lavish production, despite the so very obvious Pink Floyd feel, there are some really good songs on this and it sounds great on a hi-fi system. Whether I will still love it when I have heard it coming out of a hundred hotel dem rooms remains to be seen.

NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE - LIVE AT THE FILLMORE EAST MARCH 6 & 7th 1970 - The Prize 9362-44499-2

There is a big sticker across the top of this proclaiming the debut release from the Neil Young Performance Series Archives. This is Neil with the original Crazy Horse line up including the late Danny Whitten. As well as the special edition CD there is also a DVD in high-resolution stereo audio (no concern film as such, just photos). Underneath this in bold black print it says "BECAUSE SOUND MATTERS". Someone has done a very, very good job on this. The analogue to digital transfers were done at Redwood Digital who were responsible for some really great digital sounds. This CD captures Neil Young and Crazy Horse in spectacular form. Electric throughout, there is an extraordinary version of "Down by the River" with Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina giving a master class in straightforward and utterly solid rhythm section construction while Neil Young and Danny Whitten trade guitar solos and generally get wild. This is 12 minutes of outstanding rock music. On top of that, there is a feisty version of "Come on baby let's go down town", followed up by a high-octane version of "Cowgirl in the Sand". If you are not a fan, this is unlikely to convert you but if you are, it is a real treat and there are obviously plans to release more. Cause for celebration.

JOLIE HOLLAND - IN SPRINGTIME CAN KILL YOU - Anti 6788-2

Jolie Holland, one of the founder members of the Be Good Tanyas (she left before they ever recorded anything) threw down a challenge to audiophiles everywhere with the release of her first album "Catalpa", an album full of great songs that sounded as though it had been recorded through a wall. This, her third release, is more conventionally recorded (slightly). There is something very old and new about Jolie Holland's songs and voice, she has really unusual phrasing that seems to sit slightly at odds with the music but give it time and you realise how well it works. There are so many elements and influences wrapped up in her songs and her singing, there is a jazz swing, the shade of Woody Guthrie and by her own admittance, Sid Barrett features high in her list of influences. If that wasn't enough, then there is enough oddity in the music construction of these songs to make a Tom Waites fan prick up their ears. This is a great recording but very much in its own way. If the first album was recorded through a wall, this one is more like a curtain. Don't let that put you off. Once you have lived with it for a while, it is easy to accept and the strange blend of forties swing, jazz, blues and folk will really work.

JOSH PIKE - FEEDING THE WOLVES - Island 8303383

Josh Pike is an Australian singer songwriter and for good measure, multi-instrumentalist. He seems to have played almost everything on this recording, the songs largely driven by acoustic guitar sound fresh, immediate and somehow familiar at the same time. Josh's voice is clear and melodious and he is obviously no stranger to multi track recording. He harmonises with himself to very good effect. Right now, singer guitar players are the really big thing and to some extent we have to give the credit for this to James Blunt. That said, there are some really good singers and songwriters coming to light. These are great songs, the words are clever and literate and the album is well recorded and produced. The vocals and harmony parts are spread between the speakers, the string section placed beautifully and the acoustic guitar recorded sympathetically. Somewhere in this are The Beatles and somewhere else The Moody Blues, not to mention Crowded House. Credit is given to the Australian Government and its Arts Funding and Advisory Body for assistance with the recording. The Canadian Government also help and assist many Canadian bands. This is a very fine thing. Tony Blair please take note.

GUILLEMOTS - THROUGH THE WINDOW PANE - Polydor 987782-4

Winner of a mercury music prize "Through the window pane" by the Guillemots is packed with well written and cleverly constructed songs. Most of these written by Fyfe Dangerfield, who also takes responsibility for overall production as well as string and horn arrangements. Simple and unpretentious pop said the friend who recommended this and he's right in a way. What he neglected to mention was just how much the Guillemots would stir old memories of Deacon Blue! The opening track "Little Bear" Begins with beautifully arranged "orchestra of strings" before being joined by piano and voice and despite playing it repeatedly all I can think of is "Born in a storm" by the above mentioned Deacon Blue. That's not meant to put anyone off, "Through the window pane" is an exceptionally well recorded and produced album and although the band is only a four piece every track is littered with guest musicians. Brass sections, string sections and backing vocalists all contribute. Of course good recording, great production and the throwing in of the musical kitchen sink count for nothing if the songs aren't good. They are, strip away the strings and the brass sections and what you find are simple unpretentious pop songs. If you liked Deacon Blue you'll love it and if you didn't give it a listen any way.

HELLWOOD - CHAINSAW OF LIFE - Munich Records MRCD 277

Hellwood isn't a band as such, it's the result of a recording project between Jim White and Johnny Dowd. Jim White I know lots about, over the past few years he has written and released several extraordinary albums. If there was a section in your local record shop headed "audiophile recordings country southern gothic" that's where you would find him. Johnny Dowd I've not come across before but lyrically they both plough the same furrow, and that happens to be one dark, deranged and damn strange furrow. A line in track eight " Thomas Dorsey" sums it up well " I sing songs of love and depravity, that's the only lyrics that come out of me" as befits any good practitioner of country god, Jesus and the devil crop up repeatedly. The music is hard, strange and stripped back to the point of brutality, check out the junkyard guitars on "Man in a Plaid Suit"
I am inclined to overuse the word dark, but this album is dark. It's dark and unrepentent, it's dark and drunken and it's dark and sacrilegious. This is music for drunks and sinners get out the Bourbon, stick "Chainsaw of life" in the CD player and frighten the family.

KARINE POLWART - SCRIBBLED IN CHALK - Shoeshine Records SPIT028

Karine Polwart sings like a gentle angel and writes songs that blend elements of folk and contemporary music seamlessly. This is an album of songs that you relax with like old friends, and rather like old friends harmonies, hooks and lyrics will lodge in your memory. Backed by an excellent band and aided by guest musicians, well recorded and produced with minimum of interference, the songs are allowed to speak for themselves. The band dabbles with rock and funk and folk without losing their overall identity and Karine's voice is simply placed, honest and rather beautiful. There isn't song on the album that doesn't work but in the same way there isn't a song that shouts for your attention either. I've just realised how hard it is to pick a favourite out, the songs kind of run together and create a whole that is greater than the sum. That said the countryish "Maybe There's A Road " cries out for a Nashville production and if someone big gets hold of her things could get really interesting, and not necessarily in a good way. Right now though these are quality songs sung by a great singer and played by a great band, nicely recorded and produced with a light touch. Get it while it while it's fresh and pure.

My name is Buddy is the history of a red cat named Buddy and his lifelong friend Lefty the mouse, not to mention the Reverend Tom Toad. The story starts in depression era America as the unions started to form. It is hard to review the music without looking at the accompanying storybook. This is full of really beautiful drawings, which like the music are simple, heart-warming and moving. The album is beautifully packaged and a genuine pleasure to read. It is also a genuine pleasure to listen to. The songs are very simply constructed and built from traditional song structures. Pete Seager is not only here in spirit but appears on a couple of tracks. With the exception of two traditional songs, the rest of the album is all new, but such is the traditional vibe you would be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Being Ry Cooder, you end up with some pretty impressive guest musicians helping out, including Van Dyke Parks playing some impressively recorded piano and Jim Keltner on drums. Given the era that this collection of songs covers it can't help but be political, and humour wise, J. Edgar Hoover makes an appearance as an extremely greedy pig whom nothing is safe from. For all its simplicity, the playing is wonderful and the whole album swings with a glorious groove. It is almost impossible not to tap a foot to. Recording wise, Green Dog with its laid back jazz feel is a stand out, featuring a wonderful vocal performance from Juliette Commagere as a green dog from a flying saucer (I know, but it makes sense if you have the album!). The vibes and marimba playing are fabulous. Three Chords and The Truth is also pretty special, with Ry taking the guitar and bass parts and Jim Keltner on drums and unusually playing a dirty, bluesy electric guitar. To highlight songs from this album however is really missing the point. The best bet is to sit down, put the CD on, read the story, check the lyrics and listen to it as a whole. Highly recommended and a real pleasure to have in your CD collection.

JAMES HUNTER - PEOPLE GONNA TALK - Rounder 11661-2187-2

There is a sticker on the front of this album with a quote from Van Morrison "James is one of the best voices and one of the best kept secrets in British R&B and soul. Check him out." He's not wrong. This is great collection of original songs that could easily be mistaken for some long lost 60s recording. The band is immaculate. Put this on and it is hard to walk across the room without your hips swinging. You could put this on at a party and just know that even the guys who hang out in the kitchen all night are going to be in and dancing to it. As for recording quality, it is stunning. This has been recorded at Toe Rag Studios, which is an all analogue affair, and it would sound good on a ghetto blaster. James Hunter sings and plays a Gibson electric guitar with such a great and tasteful tone that you want to stop what you are doing, go down to your local music shop and buy one. The horn section is wonderful, as is the rhythm section. Whether this is your sort of music or not, this is so well done you are going to enjoy listening, or even better, dancing to it. If it doesn't put a smile on your face, there is something wrong.

JAWBONE - HAULING (POST-LAST WAR, PRE-NEXT WAR BLUES) - Loose VJCD161

Jawbone is one man, a garage and some minimal recording equipment. This is rough, earthy and very direct blues, recorded in a rough and very direct manner. So much so that it has a real early recording vibe hanging over it. Electric guitars are overdriven, drums are basic and vocals are distorted, likewise harmonica. The only way this recording can be defined is lo-fi but it has real life and vitality to it. Contemporary blues can be a difficult thing to talk about. It is very easy to upset blues lovers and anyone who gets the "Low Dang Discount Jesus Teenage Blues" is going to irritate as many people as he pleases. That said, Jawbone has a real understanding and grasp of authentic blues rhythms and plays with real ability, switching between acoustic bottleneck and electric and not afraid to build a song round harmonica and tambourine. It is a struggle to talk about recording quality simply because rough as it may be, it suits the music extremely well. It is great to listen to so I guess I've got to say it is pretty well recorded. I really like this but accept it may well be something you need to try before you buy.

BERNARD FANNING - TEA & SYMPATHY - Lost Highway 9842755

Bernard Fanning is an Australian singer songwriter but the bulk of this album has been engineered and mixed at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in the UK. This is a collection of acoustic guitar driven rock songs with nods towards country and folk. This is a man who knows how to hang a song together and produce hook lines so good that you will find yourself joining in after the first chorus. Bernard has a great and expressive voice, a good way with the lyric but somewhere down the line you just can't help thinking about James Blunt. These are songs that don't really say a lot, there is nothing new here and it's a comfortable album because of this. I can't help but feel that James Blunt's enormous success means that it's a very good time to be a good looking singer songwriter (was there ever a bad time) with not that much to say. Moon June spoon etc.

THE LITTLE ONES - SING SONG - Heavenly HVNLP58CD

The Little Ones are an American band and you can pick this up for EP price. Seven songs and 28 minutes of cleverly constructed happy punky pop music, bursting with full flavour, reverb laden harmonies make it pretty good value. Recorded in California over the summer of 2005 and sounding warm and full of sun, it sits oddly with this grey cold March day. If an album ever needed summer to sound at its best then this is it. The music is built round a gloriously cheesy organ, chiming guitars and a simple but busy rhythm section. Influences are many and mixed, The Magic Numbers come to mind in places as do Blur, but these are only parts of a big Californian melting pot.
It's a well recorded album, instruments are easy to place and melodies simple to follow, although a lot of this is down to a really tight and well rehearsed band as much as recording technique. The songs' lyrics are clever but the final production means that if you want to find out you'll have to concentrate, and all the memorable hooks come from the music.
I'm going to put this away and save it till summer, then I'll have a party and if people don't jump up and down, get happy and dance I will be disappointed.

GRINDERMAN - Mute Records CDSTUM272

Sometimes you buy an album for just one song because that song is so good you have to have it. One minute and thirty nine seconds into track two on Grinderman begins the most demented, twisted and barking at the moon mad wah wah guitar solo ever, and fifty seconds later it's over. I can't recommend buying an album for a fifty second guitar solo can I? Damn it I can! Grinderman is Nick Cave's latest recording project and it's brilliant. Surrounded by three brilliant musicians, including long time collaborator Warren Ellis, (if you ever come across an album by The Dirty Three grab it), Nick Cave and the band have conjured up an album of rather good songs and some of the best guitar sounds around. Sticking a guitar through lots of effect pedals (see photo in album gatefold) will often yield interesting results but to then take that sound and weld it so successfully on to a song is a real achievement. For all its noise and bluster this is a stunning recording, the opening track "Get It On" is a perfect example. Opening with a distorted guitar and card box drums there is no hint of just how hard your system is going to have to work. Come the first chorus when a deep sinuous bass line and piano part appear, at this point you realise just how good and how dynamic this recording is. The above mentioned guitar solo on "No Pussy Blues" makes a case for the biggest, widest bandwidth speakers you can afford, along with an amplifier that will drive them. There should be a warning sticker on the front. This album will frighten your Hi-Fi and did I mention the swearing?

NOUVELLE VAGUE - LATE NIGHT TALES - Azuli

I doubt anyone finds growing old a delight and a pleasure and whilst I can sympathise with Nick Cave's plight (see "No Pussy Blues"), right now for me it is failing eyesight. Had I had my reading glasses with me I would have been able to see that rather than a new Nouvelle Vague album, "Late Night Tales" is a compilation of songs put together by Marc Colin. Nouvelle Vague are a French band who surprised and delighted a lot of people by releasing a self titled album of classic punk songs done in a bossa nova style. It is no surprise then to find this compilation has more than its fair share of bossa nova style tracks. Anyone familiar with Nouvelle Vague will know how much care is put into the recording and production of their albums and "Late Night Tales" is no exception. This is a cleverly assembled collection of songs that put together create a strange and not entirely comfortable ambience, but it does work.
One of the joys of a big album collection are those evenings when one track inspires another, and before you know it the room is littered with album covers and you're miles away from where you started but getting there made perfect sense. This album is one man's late night journey and it starts with The special AKA, passes through, among others, Charlie Rich, Glen Campbell and Peggy Lee via obscure Belgium electronica to arrive at David Shrigleys "What I ate" (and yes it is list of what he ate over the past week). I'd buy this just for the Peggy Lee with Sy Oliver and his Orchestra version of "|You're My Thrill", quite wonderful.

PO'GIRL - HOME TO YOU - Diesel Motor Records MOTORCD1029

Po'girl have grown. The first couple of albums centred around the duo of Trish Klein (part of The Be Good Tanyas) and Allison Russell. They have been joined by Diona Davies and Awna Teixira and this has not only broadened the range of material they play but has opened the door to some beautiful harmony singing. Right from the first, Po'girl have felt like they swung and this album builds on what has gone before. There's a great feel to everything they attempt on "Home to you"; whether it's the slow burn and build of the gospel driven "Till It's Gone" or the Spartan blues of the banjo driven "Angels of Grace". Primarily acoustic driven (electric instruments are few and far between), "Home to you" is well recorded, and if the mix puts the vocals firmly to the fore, well, given some of the really delicious harmony singing who's complaining. The real pleasure here is the simplicity and the swing of the whole album, but it would be wrong not to mention "9hrs to go", a great song with a slam poetry break that manages to squeeze more great lines into its brief moment in the spotlight than many bands manage across a whole album. A pleasure to own and to play.

WILLY MASON - IF THE OCEAN GETS ROUGH - Virgin 0094638390329

Willy Mason is a young man with a voice and a way with a lyric that makes him sound old beyond his years. Somewhere in this album lurks the ghost of Johnny Cash, it's got that sort of slightly sleazy rock and roll sneaking into an innocent country song thing going on. Look no further than "When the River Moves on" to hear just how well this works. Willy plays more instruments than is healthy for a young man and plays them well, and the other musicians helping out are no slouches themselves. "We Can Be Strong" is driven by a gloriously simple but perfect bass line that allows you to see right into the construction of the song. The first track is another fine example of this, with a simple if busy drumbeat running right through and allowing everything else space and room. It also happens to be one of those really good opening songs that makes you look forward to hearing the rest of the album. It's a good recording and good production for that matter. Every instrument and vocal part is given plenty of space and someone has worked hard to get everything sounding really good. There's enough adventure in the playing to reward lots of plays and enough variation to keep you busy playing spot the influence. I got to the end and put in on again.

THE BEES - OCTOPUS - Virgin CDV3024

I went to a tattoo and body piercing convention on the Isle of Wight and it wasn't nearly as groovy as The Bees new album is. This is a band that really knows how to pull a groove together and not only that, be it reggae or alt country or 60's style psyche, they do it with ease and style. Influences abound, one moment it's the Fun Boy Three, the next a rippling sinuous Blockheads beat, all done in the Bees own style.
"Love in the Harbour" has the essence of the Byrds running right through it and following hot on it's heels comes "Left Foot Stepdown", shot with its delightful ska cum dub groove complete with horn section. Recording quality is interesting; playing Octopus is rather like being lucky enough to witness a really good gig in a small venue with a stunning sound system. But if it's not the cleanest most dynamic recording around, it really does capture the groove and that will tell you an awful lot about how your hi-fi works. If you don't tap your feet there's a problem somewhere. I was happy to leave the body piercing convention (I saw things that day I still don't like to talk about). Octopus on the other hand keeps finding its way back into my CD player. A happy, happy album.

Enigmatic is a good word for Low and "Drums and Guns" is very definitely not the album that will move them towards the mainstream of popular culture. Low construct songs from minimal amounts of instrumentation, in this case drums, guitar, bass and the odd bit of electronic rhythm. The very emptiness of this gives the voices of Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk enormous amounts of space to work in; track 2 "Belarus" is the perfect place to experience this. From the simplest and most Spartan of backing tracks their two voices carry the structure of the song and even manage to find a hook line of sorts. Take away the singing from this album and you would be left with a fascinating ambient structure that hardly even hints at recognisable song structure.
Whilst on the subject of songs don't expect anything jolly. In fact it would be a good idea to skip the first track "Pretty People" for the first few plays, "Belarus" is a much better place to start. Don't expect a conventional mix either. Voices are pushed hard to one speaker, percussion to the other and bar the odd ambient guitar noise (and I do mean odd) the space between the speakers is occupied by skeletal bass lines and not much more. So this is an album of strange unhappy songs with barely there backing tracks, surprisingly though it draws the listener in and did I mention the moments of room filling utter beauty that grace this album.

RICHARD SHINDELL - SOUTH OF DELIARS 1809

I first came across Richard Shindell on a compilation album put together by Whispering Bob Harris. The song he sang was called "You Stay Here" and it was wonderful. When I managed to track down the album it came from "Somewhere Near Paterson" and it became one of those CDs that was played for months on end. Richard Shindell writes beautifully simple and perfectly constructed songs. He surrounds himself with really excellent musicians and takes enormous care with recording and production. With regard to musicians "South of Delia" is no exception; Richard Thompson, Larry Campbell and Eliza Gilkyson all make appearances. Largely driven by acoustic instruments, "South of Delia" is an excellent recording, the real departure is that this is an album of other people's songs. The sleeve notes begin "here are twelve songs that belong together" and they do. Songs from Robbie Robertson, Bruce Springsteen, Woody Guthrie and Dylan sit alongside others from Peter Gabriel and Josh Ritter. "Born in the USA" (a song so cruelly hi-jacked and misunderstood) becomes the protest song that it always was and its inherent anger comes through despite the seemingly gentle reading. Peter Gabriel's Mercy Street gains a simplicity and harmony that is hard to find in the original. This highlights the really wonderful thing about this album; the songs are treated in a way that is simple, direct and very beautiful. The twelve songs do connect with each other and the whole is a joy and delight to listen to.

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY - ALL OF A SUDDEN I MISS EVERY ONE - BELLACD 135

Explosions in the Sky are a 4-piece band who write and play entirely instrumental pieces using primarily guitar, bass and drums with the odd bit of piano. This is a band that has explored and understood the dynamic capabilities of their instruments and use this knowledge to great effect. There are six pieces of music on this CD and track 1 "The Birth and Death of the Day" is a fine place to begin. Opening noisily with a welter of distorted and echoed guitar this dies away and is replaced by delicately picked melodies and a quiet but steadying bass drum. This is allowed to build and fade before suddenly and briefly becoming a wall of noise only to ebb again. And so it goes, the whole albums rises and falls like the tide, one moment crashing into the room and the next flowing gently but always with real strength and purpose. Each piece is built like the last but retains its own identity and feel. This is a good recording; it captures nicely the sound of real instruments, finds real space in its quieter moments and as mentioned before there is a real and potentially challenging dynamic range to the sound that can catch you unawares. If you play any sort of instrument, "All of a Sudden I Miss Every One" will fascinate and entertain. Or if you like exploring new music it will give you lots to think about. If on the other hand you simply enjoy good, positive and life affirming tunes this is an album full of brilliant pieces and one that you can spend time getting to know.

THE NATIONAL - BOXER - BEGGARS BANQUET BBQCD 252

Lots of people I know have been waiting for this album. Like me they have almost worn out their copy of the previous album "Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers". It feels like it's been a long time coming but now it's here. "Boxer" carries on the fine song writing that made Sad Songs so special; lyrics are not just insightful but so clever with it. The music is just as good, track four "Squalor Victoria" runs a pounding, busy drum part against a string section and sparse piano to spectacular effect, Matt Berningers voice dark against the strings. Influences are hard to find but there is just a touch of Leonard Cohen in some of the wryly observational lyrics and it would be fair to say that if you are into The Willard Grant Conspiracy there is a good chance you'll enjoy "Boxer". If it has to fit a category it would live somewhere under the great big blanket that is Americana.
The whole album is beautifully constructed, arranged, recorded and produced so it is hard to pick a stand out moment. That said, I keep re-visiting track five, the delicate and graceful "Green Gloves". Track eleven "Ada" with the very wonderful Sufjan Stevens guesting on piano is not far short of wonderful either. "The National" are a very unrecognised band; "Boxer" should do a lot to change that. Buy this one you won't be sorry.

TINARIWEN +10:1 AMAN IMAN (WATER IS LIFE) - ISOM65CD

Go looking for this album and you'll probably find it in the world music section. Unless like me your local record shop has lumped Blues, Folk, Jazz, World and Country into one section and called it specialist (and we all know about specialist book shops, purveyors of high quality "jazz magazines"). Strangely enough though, if one album belonged in such a jumbled section and ticked all the boxes, it would be this. The musicians belong to the Touareg, a desert Tribe from Mali and if they share one thing in common, it is a love and understanding of the electric guitar. What is recorded here is a fascinating, intoxicating but above all extremely accessible collection of guitar riffs, simple drum patterns and chanting that coalesce to form an absolutely irresistible album of guitar laden grooves and rhythms. I would really like to emphasise again just how accessible this album is. Anyone into North American blues, or for that matter anyone with an interest in guitar music, is going to feel so at home right from the opening notes of the first track and on top of that, this album has a real freshness and vitality to it. A translation of the lyrics is provided and flicking through them there are some extremely profound moments. Look at "Matadjem Yinmixan" which translates as "Why this hate between you?". So this is protest music and rebel music but you really don't need the translations to know this. It was recorded last year in Mali and mixed and mastered in the UK. Producer Justin Adams has managed to craft an extraordinarily good CD but it has to be said having such amazing musicians to record in the first place was pretty crucial too. World music albums are all too often just too inaccessible for so many people. This really isn't the case with this. This is one of the best albums I have heard for a long time.

TILLY AND THE WALL - BOTTOMS OF BARRELS - MOSHICD14X

Tilly and The Wall is an unusual name for a band and calling your new album "Bottoms of Barrels" could be seen as slightly foolhardy. The cover is nice though, which is what made me pick it up and ask to listen to it. At this point it's worth getting a couple of things out of the way. Firstly, it's not the best recording in the world, and secondly, there are no moments of supreme musicianship. There is however an awful lot enthusiasm and an equal amount of percussion for that matter. What is that strange clicking thing? Well it's band member Jamie Williams who is credited with tap dancing and various percussion, in fact three members of the band have credits for various percussion. As for the music, well there are two female singers who lay on some really nice harmony (think Indigo Girls) and play percussion. There's a sprinkling of Flamenco and a touch of Phil Spector's "wall of sound", there's an adult theme to some of the lyrics and the odd word you might not wish to explain to your children. Just as you start to come to terms with this, it changes completely. Suddenly the wall of sound (mostly percussion) is gone and the guitarist Derek Pressnall sings a couple of simple, affecting and slightly odd love songs that are rather touching. This an album that belongs in the genre marked strange, it is however an awful lot of fun. Buy and bemuse your friends.

NEIL YOUNG - LIVE AT MASSEY HALL 1971 - REPRISE 9362-43327-2

Neil Young at a peak (he's had a lot) playing songs from "After the Gold Rush" and "Harvest". No band, just acoustic guitar and piano in what sounds like a perfect hall and a great recording too. It's a bit of a no brainer really and on top of that Neil Young really obsesses about sound quality, it's outstanding, good enough to hear the hall and sense the depth and size of the crowd. There's a glorious moment or two when the bottom string of his guitar overdrives the PA and produces a tone that is just wonderful. In short it's outstanding and there this review could stop.
However you can buy just the CD, or for a bit more you get a pack with the same concert also on DVD. Comparing the two discs is more than a little interesting and if you have a machine that will play DVD Audio, this makes for a really interesting comparison. I had access to a couple and in both cases the DVD audio version played in two channels left the CD for dead. The above-mentioned bass string thing becomes so rich and harmonically complex and whilst he's obviously playing a good guitar the DVD audio shows just how good a really great acoustic guitar sounds; the piano sound, as full and as magical as good piano should be. The improvements aren't just tonal either; the music's better where it really matters. The chance to compare two formats produced at the same time and each of them pretty much state of the art won't come along that often and did I mention the beautiful and affecting version of "Down by the River" performed as an encore?

HEARTWORN HIGHWAYS (Various Artists) - LOOSEVJCD167

This is a series of songs recorded during the making of Heartworn Highways, a documentary about the new American country movement from 30 years ago. Although this is music from the film, some of the versions on this CD never made it on to the finished article. These are very simple and very intimate recordings and Alan Silverman has taken an enormous amount of care over the restoration and remastering. To quote from his notes "It became imperative to transfer these tapes at the highest resolution to preserve their integrity and full dynamic range". As little has been touched as possible and mixing was done via "a legendary audio masterpiece, an analogue system designed by Rupert Neeve" and that's a name that anyone who has an interest in really good recordings knows well. He has done a truly fantastic job. This is very obvious from the very first guitar notes of the very first track, "LA Freeway" by Guy Clark. This is a simple guitar and voice recording and communicates so well that the hairs on the back of your neck tingle. What's more, the whole album carries on in the same vein. "Ohoopee River Bottomland" by Larry John Wilson is next up. Larry John is backed by a band and the take is exhilarating, with a big, tight blues groove backing. Fans of Guy Clark and Towns Van Zantd are going to be utterly delighted with this album but there are also tracks from John Hiatt and Steve Earl. There is also an absolutely hilarious and wonderful gem of an introduction and song by Gamble Rogers. All in all this is a wonderful compilation of songs. The sound is simply outstanding and everyone should have a copy.

RICHARD THOMPSON - SWEET WARRIOR - PROPERPRPCD032

It is hard to begin this any other way than saying another Richard Thompson album. I first came across Richard Thompson when he played in Fairport Convention and have loved, been amazed by and admired his guitar playing ever since. He surely is one of the best guitar players this country has ever produced. That said, his albums tend to reflect his prevailing mood. This one is positively buoyant in places and the ballads don't have the extreme bitterness that can make him quite hard going; "Mr. Stupid" is positively humorous. There are a couple of songs about Iraq as well, written from a soldier's perspective. The rocky "Dad's gonna kill me" works really well and the guitar playing on this is outstanding. In fact, his guitar playing amazingly seems to keep getting better. As usual he is surrounded by great musicians, and as a special treat the very great Danny Thompson plays double bass on several tracks. Richard Thompson has been about for so long that almost everyone has heard him at some point and probably made their mind up whether they like his very distinctive way of singing and writing (the quality of his guitar playing is beyond argument). That said, "Sweet Warrior" is an unusually accessible album and even if you think you don't get on with him it is worth giving this one a go.

ALBERTA CROSS - THE THIEF AND THE HEARTBREAKER - FICTION

Seven songs in twenty-nine minutes is not bad going and just because you get a lot more onto a CD doesn't mean you have to. There are a lot of bands that feel compelled to fill a CD right up, when truth be told they would have been better with thirty minutes of great songs. Alberta Cross have done well here to resist the temptation, there are seven really good songs which given a couple of plays will get right under your skin. Although Alberta Cross consists of only two members, with the help of others they come across as an Americana tinged guitar and piano driven rock band. There is a fair bit of Neil Young and Crazy Horse but there is also more than a hint of Ryan Adams to both the vocals and the song structures, and given the fact that the man hasn't produced a new album for a time this would be a good album for anyone who's an Adams fan. These are good, carefully structured and well-produced songs, and the twenty-seven minutes pass quickly. Give it a couple of plays and there are enough hooks in it to really stick. There is, it has to be said, a certain sameness to all the songs but if you get on with the opening song "The Thief and The Heartbreaker" you'll get on with the last.

ELLIOTT SMITH - NEW MOON - DOMINO WGCD198

Elliott Smith is one of those very sad examples of artists whose talent is only really recognised once they are dead. Elliott Smith died of self-inflicted wounds in 2003 and this double CD is a compilation of unreleased and demo/alternative versions that have featured on other albums. This is not however a ropey collection of home demos. These are well, if simply recorded songs and the largely acoustic structure of them allows his very obvious song writing talent to shine through. Fans of cleverly constructed (if somewhat morose) lyrics are going to thoroughly enjoy this album and there is enough wit and humour, albeit some of it dark, to make it an entertaining listen. What doesn't show through and it is hard, given the circumstances of his untimely death, to resist looking for it is whatever drove him to such a desperate solution. This is a man who could nail together a beautifully constructed pop song. Check out the cover version of Elliott Smith's song "Satellite" on the Petra Haden and Bill Frisell album (Rykodisc/Hannibal HNCD 1472) to see just how beautiful Smith's songs can be. It goes without saying that it is worth investigating the previously released albums for more examples.

LAURA VEIRS - SALTBREAKERS - NONESUCH 104316-2

I know I reviewed a Laura Veirs album in Issue 1 of HIFICRITIC but a new Laura Veirs album is always a treat. Given the title it's no surprise that Saltbreakers continues to treat the sea as inspiration for its songs and as ever Laura Veirs constructs rhythm and melody in her own way. That said, there is something about this collection of songs that makes them more accessible than previous albums. Guitars play more of a central role and if the structures of songs nod towards a more conventional approach, there are still plenty of tracks full of fascinating sound-scapes to explore. It's hard to isolate a track from what is essentially a whole, but track eight "To The Country" is worth the price admission on it's own. Built around piano, viola and upright bass "To the Country" also features The Cedar Hill Choir, beautifully recorded in Johnny Cash's old cabin. While this may be the most striking and instant song on the album the moment of real transcendent beauty (and there's one on every Laura Veirs album) happens on track twelve, "Wrecking". Fashioned around a simple but oh so moving acoustic guitar, "Wrecking" brings a moment of perfect calm and stillness.