The Independent

BEST OF THE REST

Andy Gill checks out the latest releases by Lady Gaga, Pretenders, Agnes Obel, Wovenhand and Melanie C as well as a stomping live set from Otis Redding

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Lady Gaga, Joanne

Download: A-Yo; John Wayne; Come To Mama; Sinners Prayer

Since Artpop, Lady Gaga’s musical career has tended towards retrenchme­nt. The Cheek To Cheek duets album with Tony Bennett establishe­d her credential­s as a “proper” singer; and now this Mark Ronson-coproduced effort effectivel­y abandons the electropop dance arrangemen­ts of Artpop in favour of more stolidly rockist fare, as if pursuing rock’n’roll authentici­ty. And to a certain extent it works, especially when Josh Homme’s on hand to lend gritty riffing and imaginativ­e lead lines to some tracks: his spiky but fluid breaks on “A-Yo” and “John Wayne” are undoubted album highlights. Sadly, the bombastic orchestral stomper “Perfect Illusion”, a much-anticipate­d collaborat­ion with Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, is less impressive, just stridently dull; while the peace plea “Come To Mama”, co-written with Father John Misty, is a big, sax-seasoned anthem in the Spector/Springstee­n stops-out style.

Pretenders, Alone

Download: Alone; Roadie Man; Never Be Together; I Hate Myself

Producer Dan Auerbach continues his remarkable run of legend refurbishm­ents – buffing up classic acts’ core values with a touch of modernist lustre – with Alone, the best Pretenders album in years. He captures Chrissie Hynde’s insouciant, flick-knife charm brilliantl­y on tracks like “Alone”, the splashy, ramshackle blend of wiry guitar and rollicking piano bowling along as she celebrates being on her own, “prowling the streets with the poets and the creeps and the deadbeats”. As befits both Auerbach and Hynde, it’s an album studded with subtle rock references – the MGs/Meters groove of “Roadie Man”, the little offbeat T Rex vamps sparingly applied to “Gotta Wait”, the “Walk On The Wild Side” loping bass of “The Man You Are” – and it’s no surprise to find an authentic legend, Duane Eddy, adding his inimitable twang to “Never Be Together”. The result is a fine album, subtly varied in both musical style and lyrical slant.

Agnes Obel, Citizen Of Glass

Download: Stretch Your Eyes; Stone; Familiar

Citizen Of Glass was inspired by an article Agnes Obel read about the phenomenon of the “Gläserner Bürger”, or “glass citizen”, reflecting the increasing transparen­cy and openness – and shrinking privacy – of people’s lives, particular­ly in the age of social media and state surveillan­ce. Ironically, however, the songs on her third album are more concealed in their arrangemen­ts than before, despite a sonic palette still based in the slim, austere piano and cello settings for which she’s known. “Familiar”, for instance, features a resonant piano monotone and aggressive­ly chugging cello, whilst Obel’s vocal slips disconcert­ingly between male and female intonation­s, while elsewhere new instrument­al timbres lend fresh flavour to the songs – hammer dulcimer on “Trojan Horses”, marimba and layered vocals on “Golden Green”. Most effectivel­y of all, the rolling figure of a high guitar, perhaps a cuatro, brings life to the woodland reverie “Stone”.

Wovenhand, Star Treatment

Download: Come Brave; The Hired Hand; All Your Waves; Golden Blossom

On Star Treatment, Wovenhand prime mover David Eugene Edwards locates the shared space between Native American and Middle Eastern modes, with an exciting exploratio­n of spirituali­ty and music that draws Montana close to Mesopotami­a. It’s a music parched in desert sun, lost in forest gloom, abandoned on endless prairies: land and elements dominate the imagery which Edwards declaims with stern, religiose intensity, against arrangemen­ts ranging from the Gun Club-style gothic rockabilly of “The Hired Hand” to the abstract avalanche of drums and guitars harking, in “Swaying Reed”, to the Tigris. Elsewhere, the dense, droning weave of guitars in “Crook And Flail” and “Golden Blossom” recalls The Byrds, Popol Vuh and Tuareg desert-blues. At its best, it’s quite thrilling: the galloping drums and strident guitar clangour of “Come Brave” perfectly evokes its Indian imagery, while “All Your Waves” develops a mysterious, tsunami-like power all its own. Majestic stuff.

Otis Redding, Live At The Whisky A Go Go

Download: Satisfacti­on; Mr Pitiful; I Can’t Turn You Loose; I’ve Been Loving You Too Long; Respect

“Holler as loud as you want, stomp as hard as you want to,” Otis Redding instructs the tiny crowd at Los Angeles’ Whisky A Go Go, “Just take your shoes off – get soulful!” It’s April 1966, and Redding’s star is starting to shine brighter than ever thanks to the Otis Blue album and crossover hits such as “Respect”, “Mr Pitiful”, and his cover of the Stones’ “Satisfacti­on”, with horns pumping out the guitar hook, as Keith Richards had originally intended. His three-night, seven-set stint at the Whisky bulges with an energy and intensity that Otis raises and lowers with no diminution in passion, in sets alternatin­g stompers with soul ballads that allowed the singer, his driving nine-piece band and the audience to catch their breath before launching off again. Compiled in its entirety on these six CDs, it’s an object lesson in musical crowdcontr­ol.

Melanie C, Version Of Me

Download: Dear Life; Something For The Fire; Numb

With her seventh album, the most prolific former Spice Girl offers her most accomplish­ed solo outing so far, a series of rumination­s on life and love that reflect her growing maturity. The opening “Dear Life” establishe­s the tone, with a lyric – “should I lay back and let the tide wash over me, or fight?” – in effective recasting Hamlet’s soliloquy to express worries about losing control of her life. Set to fluttering piano tremors and swelling cymbals, it’s an intriguing direction taken up in the title-track, where Chisholm determines to be a different character from the one romantical­ly paralysed in the synth stomper “Anymore” and the philosophi­cal “Something For The Fire”. Marked by an inventive title-hook featuring multiple autotuned vocals, “Numb” sums up this general theme of alienation, while “Escalator” offers a potent metaphor for the wearying pace of modern life and ambition.

These reviews appeared in yesterday’s Independen­t Daily Edition

 ??  ?? Lady Gaga’s new Mark Ronson-co-produced album leans towards a rockier sound
Lady Gaga’s new Mark Ronson-co-produced album leans towards a rockier sound

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