Andrew Lloyd Webber
The Frank Burkitt Band US Girls
Unmasked: The Platinum Collection (Universal)
★★★★
It’s all too easy to forget, given the phenomenal popularity of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s West End and Broadway smashes Phantom Of The Opera and Cats, that he also had a profound influence on pop music with one of his first ‘‘rock operas’’, Jesus Christ Superstar and six years later with Evita. Many artists had explored the idea of a new kind of opera – most notably The Pretty Things with PS Sorrow and The Who with Tommy – but no-one did it as successfully as Lloyd Webber and his lyricist Tim Rice. Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Platinum Collection has been curated and overseen by Lloyd Webber and has been released to coincide with his 70th birthday. No matter where you stand on his legacy, it works well because unusual suspects such as Lana Del Rey, Gregory Port, Nicole Scherzinger, Beyonce and Donny Osmond breathe their own interpretations into old chestnuts. A worthy tribute to one of the greatest musical composers of the 20th century. – Mike Alexander
Raconteur (Self released)
★★★ 1⁄2 Raconteur is certainly a fitting title. Before Frank Burkitt turned up in New Zealand in 2014, he and partner Kara Filbey lived a life of late nights and loud music in Scottish pubs, crossing paths with all sorts of weird and wonderful characters. That rambling experience is apparent throughout. The album is filled with little vignettes, recounting tales of everything from bad haircuts to festival hippies. Burkitt has a lovely voice, and the band backs him up with aplomb on gentle, slow numbers, as well as the more rollicking country ones. Highlights include the tender title track and foottapper Paint the Town, and it’s solid throughout. – Jack Barlow
In A Poem Unlimited (4AD/The Label)
★★★ 1⁄2
American-Canadian Meghan Remy has found the alter to her alter-ego in InA Poem Unlimited, so to speak. There are obvious retro reference points on the 11 tracks, none more so than the gentle Gipsy Kings sway of Pearly Gates, where a quirky and seemingly out-of-place repetitive keyboard tune perfectly underlines a vividly dark storyline about a man trying to convince his partner to engage in unprotected sex. Then there is Poem, ostensibly the title track, with the opening sort of synthesiser beat you might expect from Vangelis or Jean Michel Jarre and some of the album’s finest lyrics, which allude to women grappling with issues of power and violence. That frustration and anger is best expressed musically in the discofuelled MAH (Mad As Hell) and the opening track Velvet 4 Sale. In A Poem Unlimited is US Girls’ most compelling album to date. – Mike Alexander