Rocking harder than ever
There is also new music from Kehlani, Jason Aldean and Kelly Lee Owens
JASON ALDEAN — MACON, GEORGIA
JASON Aldean has rounded off his double album with the release of Georgia after previously debuting Macon last November.
The latest 15 tracks from the American country singer offer 10 new tunes and five unheard live takes to complete the ambitious 30-song project.
From the opening track Whiskey Me Away, his deep voice and classic brooding style exploring heartbreak takes centre stage accompanied by powerful guitar solos.
The album maintains its chilled, mid-tempo sound throughout, with the live tracks providing a welcomed, rawer variation.
Discussing the project, Aldean said: “After nine albums and 16 years of recording, I hope people can tell I wanted to make this tenth album fun and different from anything we’ve done before.”
He doesn’t offer anything drastically different this time around but his collective of loyal fans will most likely appreciate a selection of new songs to add to their repertoire. 6.5/10 (Review by Naomi Clarke)
KEHLANI — BLUE WATER ROAD
SULTRY R&B icon Kehlani has done it again with this steadily sensual record which opens with a stripped back and engaging opening track Little Story and then takes us through emotional movements and exciting collaborations. Her meeting of minds in the form of Up at Night with Justin Bieber is refreshing and has an engaging hook, which of course, both artists have previous for, however the 2017-esque bass feels a little tacky for such a great record. One thing is for sure with this album — Kehlani is here, and is continuing to carve her place in the R&B hall of fame with slow and sexy songs and earworm melodies.
8/10
(Review by Imy BrightyPotts)
KELLY LEE OWENS — LP8
WELSH electronic musician/producer Kelly Lee Owens is back with a third album, LP8.
Following her 2017 self-titled debut and 2020’s critically acclaimed Inner Song, which won Owens the Welsh Music Prize in 2021, LP8 is dripping with the pulsating, hypnotic techno she’s become known for.
Still, Owens’ new record comes slightly out of left-field with a more ethereal techno slant brought by repetitive percussion, sedative melodies and wistful vocals, while keeping you grounded with grating distortion that sets your teeth on edge.
Where Inner Song was more about the party, LP8 is for introspection.
Tracks Anadlu and Olga are meditative, reminiscent of the small hours of the morning with the sun gently breaching the horizon, and Nana Piano is almost a lullaby, all twinkling keys and soothing melodies. Closing track Sonic 8 jolts you back with discordance and distortion, coming full circle from the abrasive opening track Release.
The more introspective mood is perhaps to be expected: LP8 was recorded in a matter of weeks during lockdown in Oslo. Despite its subdued tone, the record thankfully settles on the right side of boring, showcasing the breadth of Owens’ talent and just how much more she has in the tank.
6/10
(Review by Rachael Davis)
REEF — SHOOT ME YOUR ACE
THANKS to the 90s icon Chris Evans and TFI Friday, a whole generation had It’s Your Letters stuck in their heads on repeat.
That of course was a sting sung by Reef to their track Put Your Hands On which was a festival favourite and no doubt even now gets people of a certain age up on the dancefloor at weddings and BBQs alike.
Having expanded the band Gary Stringer, Jack Bessant, Jesse Wood and Luke Bullen are rocking harder than ever, and not hindered by Andy Taylor’s (yes that one) production.
Keeping funk vibes that made them a firm favourite during the mid-90s they’ve ramped up the bluesy rock and have a real AC/DC feel coming across.
Stringer’s vocal fry crackles like it’s a morning after the hard rocking night before, coming strong straight out of the gates with Shoot Me Your Ace.
Best of Me is a funkier summer vibe that reminds you of why they quickly rose to fame.
This is a powerful summer rock album.
9/10
(Review by Rachel Howdle)
AT AROUND 9.30am on April 30 1943, at the height of the Second World War, the body of Royal Marine officer Major William Martin was found floating off the coast of Spain by a local fisherman.
He appeared to have drowned following a plane crash and held a briefcase full of secret documents detailing Allied plans to invade mainland Europe from Greece and Sardinia.
The Germans must have thought they’d hit the jackpot when they got their hands on these documents: they moved their troops from Sicily — heavily defended in anticipation of attack — and placed them on the Greek islands and Sardinia to await the Allied forces. But they never came.
Instead, the Allies landed in Sicily — exactly where they said they wouldn’t be — liberating the island quickly and with fewer losses than anticipated. It was all a Royal Navy and MI5 ruse, codenamed Operation Mincemeat, to throw the enemy off the scent: Major William Martin didn’t exist, and the documents found on the corpse were all fake.
This incredible feat has inspired a new film from Shakespeare In Love director John Madden, entitled Operation Mincemeat, with a cast that includes Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald, Penelope Wilton, Jason Isaacs and Johnny Flynn.
The truth was that Allied forces had disguised the corpse of a homeless man as a Royal Marine and planted it in the sea off the coast of Spain, making it look like he had died in a plane crash while carrying Allied attack plans. They had forged the officer’s entire identity, from ID cards to photos of his girlfriend back home, and the enemy fell for it hook, line and sinker.
The film follows the top secret Twenty Committee of Naval Intelligence led by Ewen Montagu (Colin Firth) and Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew Macfadyen) who, working out of a dingy basement in central London, must put together this ludicrous plan without a hitch. If it had gone wrong, it would have been a total catastrophe that could have changed the course of history — making it all the more incredible that they pulled it off.
“I was always interested in magic, so I’ve always been interested in deceptions and cons as well,” reveals Harry Potter star Jason Isaacs, 58, who plays Director of Naval Intelligence John Godfrey.
“The film took me into the detailed twists and turns, the million ways that this could have gone wrong — and did g wrong, and then went right again. There’s a saying in the movie business that ‘a camel is a horse made by a committee’. It's rare that a bunch of people will come up with such a bold, visionary idea, and it normally gets homogenised.
“Even though this was the entire British war effort, the combined intelligence of so many people, this crazy idea carrying through with the full force of everything that the Allies had at
their disposal — it worked!”
The idea for the operation came from Ian Fleming, who would go on to write the James Bond novels but at the time was personal assistant to John Godfrey.
Fleming is played by 39year-old Johnny Flynn, known for Channel 4 sitcom Lovesick and 2020 film Emma, who says he really enjoyed creating some “Bond-y references” for keen fans to look out for. It’s often said that Fleming based James Bond’s boss, M, on Godfrey, for example.
Heading up the operation were strong male figures, yet the film takes care not to understate the influence of the women on the team, including Jean Leslie, played by Kelly Macdonald,
whose photo was used as the soldier’s fictitious lover in the plan, and Hester Leggett, portrayed by Penelope Wilton.
“A lot of women were working in intelligence, which you certainly see in this film,” says Downton Abbey’s Wilton, 75. “Jean and Hester, they both wanted to be there very much,” she adds.
“It was a very dark time, but I think it was quite exciting for women because they could untie their aprons, leave the kitchen and get involved in areas of work that they hadn’t been allowed to before,” says Line Of Duty star Macdonald, 46.
“When I read the script, I loved how vital Jean Leslie came across. She’s smart as a whip, she wanted it to be her photo
that was used in the ruse, and she wanted to be in that room.”
Many won’t have heard the full story of Operation Mincemeat before, some of the cast included, because the true details were kept classified for decades.
“I didn’t really know anything about this secret war, this spy war that was happening — I guess because it was secret,” says Flynn.
“We’re all aware of the landings in Normandy, and the troop movements, but actually all of that depended on a bunch of people in rooms making extraordinary decisions about deceptions,” Isaacs adds, “It’s invigorating to learn.”
The masterminds behind Mincemeat had to find a body that no family members would come looking for, invent a person who had never existed, create documents to prove their identity and false papers containing secret plans by the Allied military and, most importantly, make it all believable enough to dupe the enemy.
“The shape of the film is one which begins with the interesting intoxication of creating something out of nothing, creating a character that doesn’t exist, imbuing him with the experiences of the people who were creating him, for the purpose of making that character believable so that the papers that he was carrying would feel authentic,” director Madden, 73, says.
“But then they become lost in their own fiction, they cannot know whether what they’ve created will, in fact, be believed. The stakes are so overwhelming, they feel terrified about what they’ve done. Two thirds of the way through the film they lose control of it completely: the body, the papers, whether or not they’ve reached their target. Suddenly they’re in uncharted waters themselves, floating around with no sign of land.”
Operation Mincemeat has gone down in history as one of the most successful Allied deceptions carried out, a story that’s so outrageous it’s hard to believe that not only is it true, but it actually worked.
“They made sure that no stone was left unturned in terms of executing this plan and trying to imagine how the opposition was thinking, in order to undermine and deceive them,” Flynn admires.
“These people took real risks for our sake. At this point in history, we’re living with the benefit of what they did back then.”
❒ Operation Mincemeat is showing in UK cinemas now.