SOUND NT JUDGEME

THE LATEST ALBUM RELEASES RATED AND REVIEWED

MELANIE C – MELANIE C

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AFTER last year’s successful Spice Girls reunion, Melanie C, now 46, says one of the positives about getting older is that she cares less about what others think.

Her celebratory eighth solo album tells the world she now accepts – even likes – herself for who she is.

It’s an upbeat listen with singles Who I Am, Blame It On Me and In And Out Of Love as stand-out tracks to get people dancing.

The atmospheric Fearless wouldn’t sound out of place on a Spice Girls album, with rapper Nadia Rose adding power, while Here I Am is a singalong anthem about finding inner strength. Despite the upbeat music, Melanie C pulls no punches in discussing the darker side of life addressing panic attacks in Nowhere To Run and toxic relationships in Good Enough.

THE ASCENSION – SUFJAN STEVENS

HHHH H SUFJAN STEVENS was on a voyage of space discovery until the death of his mother stopped him in his tracks and led to his heartbreaking magnum opus Carrie And Lowell.

It was a return to the sort of stripped-back modern folk that first earned him his legion of fans. Five years on though, the interstellar adventure is recommencing in the form of this 80-minute epic.

This latest record fuses Stevens’ knack for piercing-yet-folksy melody with his more recent penchant for sci-fi-infused electronica. But grief and an obsession with the big questions are all still in plentiful supply. Fans of this more esoteric Sufjan will be drawn to the album’s climax, with the stunning title track Ascension followed by the overtly political America.

SHORE – FLEET FOXES HHH

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FROM the first seconds of Wading In Waist-high Water, it could only be Fleet

Foxes – acoustic guitars, wheezing keyboards, a children’s choir, over almost before it has begun.

Can I Believe You, like all classic Fleet Foxes, sounds like it could have been crafted during sessions for Neil Young’s 1972 Harvest.

At once tinged with melancholy yet life-affirming, Shore may not be a radical departure for Fleet Foxes, but it’s good to have them back.