SOUND JUDGEMENT

The latest album releases reviewed

MONTERO – LIL NAS X HHHHI

Montero is a sweeping piece of work, exploring identity, sexuality and community though the lens of Lil Nas X’s idiosyncratic mix of flamenco, country, trap and pop.

Before the success of Old Town Road, Lil Nas X was a college dropout sleeping on his sister’s sofa – and that journey to pop superstar and queer icon (he came out as gay while Old Town Road sat atop the Hot 100 chart in the US) is central to Montero.

Sir Elton John, Megan Thee Stallion and Miley Cyrus feature among the guest artists, but Lil Nas X is always the star.

An affecting, uplifting album that proves Lil Nas X will be an enduring performer.

PROTEST SONGS 1924-2012

THE SPECIALS HHHII

Singer Terry Hall describes this new album, conceived during lockdown, as an “interim project” – a collection of covers of other people’s protest songs. The 12 tracks include reggae, folk and civil rights anthems from the likes of Leonard Cohen and the Staple Singers.

This is The Specials as you have never heard them before, rocking out on the psychedeliadrenched Trouble Every Day by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, or bringing introspection to a beautiful acoustic interpretation of Bob Marley’s Get Up, Stand Up.

Some covers feel undeveloped but each show The Specials reshaping themselves to a different era or genre. Most of all, it is reassuring The Specials remain as radical as ever.

FIREBIRD NATALIE IMBRUGLIA HHHII

This is Natalie

Imbruglia’s sixth studio album and the first featuring new music in a decade. It features songs co-written with KT Tunstall, the Strokes’ Albert Hammond Jr and the Magic Numbers’ Romeo Stodart, but too often settles into schmaltzy lost-love territory.

The album is best on those occasions when it finds its bite, with Nothing Missing and Maybe It’s Great the best of the early running while River and the title track provide a strong finish.