Albums of the week: three new releases
The singer, songwriter and multiinstrumentalist S.G. Lewis is “one of the most influential British musicians of his generation”, said Kathleen Johnston in The Daily Telegraph. He has worked his “behind-the-scenes wizardry” as a producer for the likes of Dua Lipa, Mabel and Dave, and on his own debut album, Times, he proved himself a “pied piper capable of enticing everyone to the dancefloor with his slick, retro-tinged future-disco”. This terrific follow-up makes you think he could soon be selling out stadiums. Stand-out tracks include the “sublime” Holding On, the “deliciously infectious” Missing You and the “trippy, near-nine minute” Epiphany.
The album marks a “sonic evolution” for Lewis, said Ben Jolley on NME – the range of genres and influences wider than before. Infatuation, for example, takes in rockleaning guitar riffs and psychedelic flourishes. Oh Laura strips things back to crashing drums. “The kaleidoscopic synths, disco tinges and singalong dance-pop choruses of his uplifting first record remain, but with extra layers to elevate everything.”
This triumphant self-released debut album from Raye – aka 25-year-old Londoner Rachel Keen – is a “powerhouse collection of vulnerable, witty, provocative songs that refract vintage R’n’B through the poppy prism of digital hip-hop”, said Neil McCormick in The Daily Telegraph. It’s a “dazzling” record with an “astonishing” backstory: Raye has been around for years, but parted company with her major label last year, claiming that they didn’t want her to release an album, only singles. More fool them. Raye has a “voice as soulful as Amy Winehouse’s and an attitude as bold as Beyoncé’s” – and has made the “first great album of 2023”.
My 21st Century Blues arrives on the back of Escapism, Raye’s superbly catchy No. 1 single, said Alexis Petridis in The Guardian. And it “roars into life, hitting you with one fantastic song after another”. Admittedly, there is not “quite enough killer material” here to fill the entire 40-minute album: some of the pop-focused second half is a bit “boilerplate”. Yet there is plenty here to suggest that Raye has a rosy future.
The Moldovan-born, Swiss-based violin virtuoso Patricia Kopatchinskaja is known for her “enquiring mind” and sometimes “controversial” interpretations, said Richard Fairman in the FT. On her latest recording, in collaboration with pianist Fazıl Say, I found her approach to Brahms’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor somewhat too delicate. By contrast, the “fleeting emotions” of Janácek’s Violin Sonata might have been made for her “lightning responses” and startling intensity. And in Bartók’s Violin Sonata No. 1, Kopatchinskaja “plays with nerve endings on edge”; the almost ferocious folk-like realism of her performance “provides a compelling climax” to the collection.
They take some liberties in the Janácek (for example on tempi), said Andrew FarachColton in Gramophone. But the duo uncover “so much marvellous detail, and evoke such powerful emotion” that I was ultimately won over. The interpretations of the Brahms and Bartók sonatas are “similarly searching and intense” – and complete a recital that is destined to be among “2023’s best”.
Stars reflect the overall quality of reviews and our own independent assessment (5 stars=don’t miss; 1 star=don’t bother)