album reviews

JARVIS COCKER & CHILLY GONZALES – ROOM 29

THANKS to the hugely successful reunion of Pulp in 2011 and his BBC Radio 6 Music show, Jarvis Cocker is rightly regarded as a national treasure.

But his career as a singer-songwriter has been neglected for some time. It is in fact eight years since his last album, Further Complications, was released, and Cocker took time off from 6 Music to try and work out whether he still had it in him to come up with new music.

Thankfully, the muse is still with him and he has worked with pianist and producer Chilly Gonzales over several years to create this concept album about the goings-on in an infamous Hollywood hotel.

Over sparse instrumentation, mostly just excellent piano work from Gonzales and occasionally orchestration from the Kaiser Quartett, the seedy, melancholic subject matter fits Cocker perfectly.

It’s great to have him back, and doing something different, but longtime fans won’t find any of the old ‘Britpop’ here.

CRAIG FINN – WE ALL WANT THE SAME THINGS

THE Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn releases his third solo LP and its 10 tracks span the length and breadth of America, painting various characters into rock ’n’ roll stories about the modern world.

The title of the album is taken from a line in God In Chicago, a semi spoken-word track that sits in the middle of the record, and seems to act as an interlude.

Tangletown has echoes of 1980’s Springsteen, musically, lyrically and, surprisingly, vocally. Finn and the musicians that contribute alongside him on this album combine genuinely interesting stories with a high degree of rock ‘n’ roll nous, delivering a compelling record that drags you in deeper with each listen.

DEPECHE MODE – SPIRIT

IT has been almost four decades since the boys from Basildon released their debut record Speak And Spell and, while they have enjoyed huge success in the intervening years, their penchant for politically infused dark-synth-pop remains intact with album number 14, Spirit.

Lead single Where’s the Revolution showcases Dave Gahan’s now increasingly gravelly vocals, and owes a considerable amount to Achtung Baby-era U2.

There’s nothing much to challenge a die-hard fan’s almighty devotion, but they won’t be disappointed as songs like So Much Love and Cover Me offer a Depeche Mode-by -numbers approach in their sound.

The record is brimming with sexy, bellowing anthems laced with lyrics referencing the current political climate in DM’s adopted homeland America.

In these uncertain times, I suppose we can take comfort in the knowledge that Depeche Mode never change.