CDS of the week: three new releases
Bach: Cantatas 54, 82 and 170 – Iestyn Davies, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen Hyperion £13 The harpsichordist and conductor Jonathan Cohen and his first-rate period ensemble Arcangelo have shaped this engrossing disc, of three Bach cantatas and two instrumental sinfonias, around the British countertenor Iestyn Davies. And although it is early in the year, says Fiona Maddocks in The Observer, it will surely prove a contender for one of the records of 2017. Davies’ “singular gifts of open-hearted expression, reined in to perfection and with no excess or indulgence, are expertly balanced” by Arcangelo’s soloists.
It is an “ideal and rewarding” programme for Davies’ beautifully vivid countertenor, said Hugh Canning in The Sunday Times. If his German is “not entirely idiomatic, his words are invariably clear, and he relishes the interplay” with the soloists; oboe in the “ravishing opening” aria of BWV 170, and organ in Wer Sünde tut, der ist vom Teufel in BWV 54. “Best of all is the rapt singing” of Schlummert ein (Go to sleep), in the well-known BWV 82 ( Ich habe genug). “A lovely disc.”
Eliza Carthy & The Wayward Band: Big Machine Topic £9.99
The “last exhalation” of contemporary folk collective Bellowhead in 2016 has left a gap in the market for a “full-on Brit-folk big band”, said David Honigmann in the FT. And it seems Eliza Carthy is the woman to fill it. Big Machine is Carthy’s “best in years – a varied whirl of Manchester ballads”, swaying funky compositions, such as Hug You Like A Mountain with Teddy Thompson, and “Weimar oompah”, as on The Fitter’s Song and Great Grey Back.
This is the kind of folk album that will “appeal to people who think they don’t like folk”, said Clive Davis in The Sunday Times. There’s a hint of Bellowhead about the “kaleidoscopic mini big-band arrangements”, but Carthy’s commanding voice, and her embrace of everything from the “relatively decorous” rapping of MC Dizraeli (on You Know Me), to “raucous folk-rock and subtle Moorish rhythms”, give this “captivating” record “a rambunctious character all of its own. Past and present, innovation and tradition, are woven into a glorious tapestry”.
The xx: I See You Young Turks £11
From the first moments of the opening track
Dangerous – a “blast of dancehallesque synthesised horns” over a thudding bass beat – the Mercury prize-winning group’s third album manages “to sound both exactly like The xx and unlike anything they have done before”, said Alexis Petridis in The Guardian. Sure, the lyrical mood remains “yearning and fragile”. But the band’s sound has become broader and richer, more adventurous and danceinfluenced, and the results are thrilling.
It feels like the Londoners have “relaxed” into their success, said Greg Cochrane on Nme.com. This is a new, tactile, selfconfident version of The xx, and much of the music is warm, joyful even. Say Something Loving is lush and glowing. And the lead single, On Hold, which samples the 1980s hitmakers Hall and Oates, is going to “sound huge in the festival fields” come summer. It all feels like “the moment where The xx stop glancing shyly at their reflection and confront themselves in the mirror. What they discover is infectious”.