SOUND JUDGEMENT

THE LATEST ALBUM RELEASES RATED AND REVIEWED

ADAM LAMBERT VELVET: SIDE A (EP) ★★★★★

VELVET: Side A drips with glitter, soul, pop, funk, R&B, dance and everything else former American Idol star Adam Lambert could possibly throw at it, but without the tracks becoming too overworked or clunky. He’s got a deft touch, has Lambert.

Across the short-but-sweet six-track release, he is genuinely defying you not to get up and groove.

Stranger Are You is a jazzy, heady, all-guns-blazing concoction, while Ready To Run is fronted with a scuzzy guitar sound over a funky beat – music that gets right into your veins.

After five full-throttle tracks, Lambert winds down with the epic finisher Closer To You, showing off the full range of his vocals.

BETH HART WAR IN MY MIND ★★★★★

WITH a back catalogue of eight studio albums and a career spanning a quarter of a century, Grammy nominated singer-songwriter Beth Hart bares her soul on latest release War In My Mind.

Bad Woman Blues is a punchy opener, firing warning signs as she sings, branding herself as the queen of pain, and poignant anthem Let It Grow explores Hart’s addiction-troubled years.

Sugar Shack picks up the tempo while Try A Little Harder brings back the swagger found in earlier tracks.

Strong tracks carry the album but it feels disjointed at times and lacks delivery as a complete project.

NOEL GALLAGHER’S HIGH FLYING BIRDS THIS IS THE PLACE (EP) ★★★★★

NAMED after Tony Walsh’s poem, written in the wake of the Manchester Arena terror attack, This Is The Place kicks things off with a Nineties electronic glow. It sounds very Manchester, but is more Happy Mondays and Chumbawamba than Cigarettes & Alcohol.

A Dream Is All I Need To Get By has more harmonies, with a retro Sixties vibe, while Evil Flower is a bevvy of rocky riffs you can dance to. Think Led Zeppelin, but not as good. A couple of remixes you’ll probably never play, round off the mini-album, available to buy on coloured vinyl (swoon).

Overall, the three main tracks are good quality, but they’re not going to set the world alight.