SOUND JUDGEMENT

THE LATEST ALBUM RELEASES RATED AND REVIEWED

INNER WORLD

DALAI LAMA ★★★★★ TO say Inner World is probably the best debut album by an octogenarian you’ll hear this year underplays its quality.

Released to mark the Dalai Lama’s 85th birthday on July 6, this collection of mantras and chants goes beyond novelty.

Opener One Of My Favourite Prayers starts with a flute-like instrument, before the Dalai Lama introduces it in English, saying he daily repeats it up to 100 times.

The gruff spoken words contrast with the beauty of Junelle and Abraham Kunin’s music performed on more than 30 instruments with a cast of people from around the world, including renowned sitar player Anoushka Shankar.

All proceeds go to charity

FIRST ROSE OF SPRING

WILLIE NELSON ★★★★★ THE grizzled drawl, the yearning of a pedal steel, the boxy sound of an acoustic guitar: it must be Willie Nelson!

First Rose of Spring sees Shotgun Willie almost entirely in reflective mode, culminating in a lush version of the standard Yesterday When I Was Young.

The sole exception to this ballad-heavy album is the puckish The Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised, whose protagonist’s backstory is decidedly similar to our present singer’s.

He most successfully pulls at the heartstrings on the beautifully elegiac Stealing Home, but elsewhere his sentimentality becomes a little cloying.

HALF LIGHT

HENRY GREEN ★★★★★ LAST year, Henry Green left Bristol for a sleepy Wiltshire village and began work on his second album. The result is a dreamy, sensuous work that captures the earthy and natural, and deftly combines it with the synthetic and electronic.

While not widely known, Green has some high-profile fans: actress Jenna Dewan, who has performed to his songs, and producer Kygo.

If Green’s music strays towards the grandiose at times, with strings that soar a little too high, all can be forgiven – Half Light is a soothing listen that reveals layers on repeat listening.