This weeks big new releases (17-10-11)

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - S/T (Sour Mash)
Songwriters who listen to too many records can struggle to come up with fresh ideas for their own. They’re too cowed by their own taste, too aware of pantheons and precedence, and too easily influenced by old and dusty sonic blueprints.

It’s hard to say whether this is a greater problem for the artist or the listener. Certainly it would be easy to provide a list of reference points for Noel Gallagher’s pugnacious solo debut, some of which come from his old band – two songs reference Wonderwall. But that’s missing the point.

Which is: Noel’s got his confidence back. After years of watered-down Oasis albums, where anyone with a band membership and a silk scarf could throw an authentically scuffed tune into the pot, this is not a tentative recovery, nor does it bluster and huff. It rests on a bed of quiet authority, that sense of calm over turmoil, which comes from Noel’s mournfully bullish voice. Or to put it another way, this is the sound of a man who no longer has to give a stuff what the rest of the band thinks.

You can divide the songs into three categories: one, the jazzy shufflers – Dream On, The Death of You and Me, Soldier Boys and Jesus Freaks. Two, the Oasis throwbacks – If I Had a Gun, AKA… Broken Arrow, (Stranded On) The Wrong Beach. And three, the big rock anthems – Everybody’s on the Run, (I Wanna Live in a Dream in My) Record Machine, Stop the Clocks. The exception is AKA… What a Life, which takes Noel out of his traditional comfort zone and into a disco, albeit a very lean and spartan sort of disco. It suits him well, and he knows it.

Jazzy interludes aside, there’s nothing particularly new here, and certainly nothing that will change anyone’s mind about the music of Noel Gallagher: he’s listened to a lot of records and he knows what he likes. But, finally freed of the burden of his old band, their hot streak and their lead singer, he can concentrate on making enjoyable records for other people to enjoy. - BBC

Jane’s Addiction –Great Escape Artist (Parlophone)
CD Description:
Spun through a kaleidoscope of tightly wound riffs, hypnotic harmonies, booming beats, and an unmistakable howl, Great Escape Artist announces the beginning of the next chapter for the alternative rock torchbearers Jane's Addiction. Writing began in 2010 and by early 2011 the band entered a Los Angeles studio with producer Rich Costey, who introduced Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro and Stephen Perkins to TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek with the hopes of getting him involved somehow. After a couple of lab sessions, the chemistry was obvious. Sitek stepped into the role of songwriter and bass player for the album with Navarro, and touring bassist Chris Chaney, also sharing four-string duties.

From the Artist:
Nothing is what you would expect, and that's exactly what will bring you back to The Great Escape Artist. "The music that I listen to and love isn't necessarily rock-oriented anymore," Navarro explicated to Rolling Stone. "There is a beauty in simplicity that I'm really embracing. To me, that's evolution as an artist."

This is another level for Jane's Addiction, and they're opening doors for curious artists to follow just like they did nearly thirty years ago. Farrell concludes, "I love being able to escape my past even though my past was great. I just love the future even more."

Kimball Jamison – S/T (Cargo)
CD Description:
"Hold the Line", "White Sister", "English Eyes", "Goodbye Elenore", "Rosanna", "Is This Love", "Burning Heart", "The Search Is Over", "High on You", "I Can't Hold Back"... These songs from Toto and Survivor are true evergreens and are still played on radio stations everywhere in the world. They have sold millions and have created a Melodic Rock sound that has now become legendary and has ruled the airwaves for years now. The soaring vocals that kept these melodies in so many fan s memories come from two amazing singers: Bobby Kimball (of Toto) and Jimi Jamison (of Survivor). For the first time in their career, Bobby and Jimi have joined forces together in a duets album, which features their signature vocal style in a familiar musical environment created for them by such songwriters as Richard Page (Mr Mister), Jim Peterik (Survivor), Randy Goodrum (Steve Perry, Toto), John Waite, Erik Martensson (W.E.T.) and Robert Sall (Work of Art), among others, and directed by the expert hands of German producer Mat Sinner. While not exactly a super group, the Kimball Jamison alliance is not just a one off studio project, as the main motivation behind this album is the ongoing friendship between the two singers who have been singing live together with the Legends of Rock and the Voices of Classic Rock, who are ensembles featuring singers and musicians from very popular classic rock groups. Kimball Jamison is a labour of love & friendship and is set to become a true classic among the Melodic Rock fans. Lead & Background Vocals: Bobby Kimball & Jimi Jamison Guitars & Lead Guitar: Alex Beyrodt Bass Guitar: Mat Sinner Keyboards: Jimmy Kresic Drums & Percussion: Martin Schmidt. Produced by Mat Sinner, co-produced by Jimmy Kresic.

Real Estate – Days (Domino)
CD Description:
`Days' is the much-anticipated second album by New Jersey's Martin Courtney, Matt Mondanile and Alex Bleeker - known collectively as Real Estate.

A gorgeously melancholy, autumnal suite of understated pop songs bringing to mind the subtle majesty of fellow NJ outfit The Feelies, Felt and early REM, the group's first release for Domino is a perfect maturation of the promise suggested by their quietly adored eponymous debut in 2009.

Augmented exquisitely by bandmates Matt Mondanile and Alex Bleeker's intricate, gently psychedelic musicianship, singer Martin Courtney's economic yet vividly poetic imagery in exploring his obsessions (suburban youth, home, nature, loss) and yearning way with a hook establish `Days' as a great coming-of-age chronicle and himself as a truly important, distinctive voice in American songwriting today.

Loney Dear – Hall Music (Something In Construction)
Like the similarly underrated East River Pipe, Emil Svanängen aka Loney, Dear has been a predominantly ‘bedroom’ artist up until now, turning out immaculate, intimate but nonetheless expansive albums that address themes of sadness, insecurity and rejection with an understated articulacy. Perhaps it’s the unapologetically sentimental nature of his music that has prevented him from reaching a wider audience so far – there have surely been few more poignant lyrics this year than "In a land with a thousand seasides, I never really learned to swim at all". Or maybe it’s the awkward comma in his name – we’re a fussy nation, after all. But Hall Music is yet more proof that the melancholic Swede deserves to be heard.

Svanängen’s sixth album sees him develop his aesthetic with an extra emphasis on intricate details – the grand string and brass arrangement on Durmoll, for instance, or the distant bells on My Heart - but the key quality remains the same: a melancholy that is somehow oddly comforting, even at times joyful. The opening hymn-like I Want Your Name encapsulates this as well as anything, with a simple plea – "I want your name next to mine" – sung sweetly above a far-off organ, before keyboards shimmer forth and Svanängen breaks into a trademark falsetto. His starkly emotional statements are maybe too heart-on-sleeve for some, but the more honest will recognise in themselves such rare confessions as that of My Heart…, where he admits to "crying in his sleep", or Loney Blues, when he laments how "hair is falling off strange places on your head".

The overall atmosphere is undeniably downbeat, most obviously on Largo, which sounds like a funeral march produced by Phil Spector and finds Svanängen admitting he "used to talk quite a lot but now I'm quiet ‘cause I don’t know how to reply", or the sparse Young Hearts, which offers little more than vocals, an organ and a piano. But there’s a reassuring consolation in the aching Calm Down Emil – "Slow down, there’s nothing after you" – and D Major… describes a snowy but heart-warming night-time scene in which "behind turned up collars, everyone was smiling".

Best still are the album’s final two tracks, the atmospheric Dreamin’, which swells gently towards an almost ecstatic climax, and the frankly magnificent What Have I Become?, a resigned shrug of the shoulder in its conclusion: "I really don’t care no more / Things never go they way they should / It's not sad but it's not OK". The latter is matched by a melody that ABBA themselves could have written, and, while what sounds like Kate Bush wails in the background, its final cheeky nod to Massive Attack’s Unfinished Sympathy proves that it’s not all misery and self-pity here. - BBC

Merle Haggard – Working In Tennessee (Welk)
If you think a guy might sound a little jaded coming to his 49th studio album, Merle Haggard should set you straight. Working in Tennessee is a sheer tonic: a warm brew of the charm that has distinguished one of country’s great heroes for half a century.

Haggard is famous for his hits – 38 number ones between 1966 and 1987 – but also because of what he stands for. There probably isn’t anyone in music who is more completely the real deal. And if there’s a quaver in that 74-year-old baritone, it doesn’t dim its ringing authenticity.

This is a man who sings Okie from Muskogee with rare conviction: the son of Oklahoman immigrants to the Bakersfield oilfields, and somebody who lived in a box car, served time in San Quentin, dug ditches and drove trucks. When he sounds like Bob Wills, it’s not a coincidence: the great innovator of western swing left Haggard his fiddle when he died. And when he falls naturally into the rocky honky-tonk of the Bakersfield brand of country, it’s because – along with Buck Owens – Hag invented that whole fiery answer to the slick ‘countrypolitan’ of Nashville.

Not that there’s much nostalgic about this album. It’s packed with ornery opinions, opening with a sprightly title-track that manages to evoke the spirit of Wills while taking a series of cheerful swipes at Music Row ("Water came in, water came out / Saw the Hall of Fame, floating about"). What I Hate and Too Much Boogie Woogie tell it like it is, while there’s a wistful note on Sometimes I Dream and Under the Bridge.

But the mood is what’s irresistible. Sashaying through a bunch of tunes that showcase his craft, Haggard sounds laidback and happy. And the bounce spreads right through the band, with lovely fiddle and guitar work from Scott Joss and Reggie Young. There’s even a nod to the future on the singer’s famous Workin’ Man’s Blues, pairing Willie Nelson with Haggard’s 18-year-old son Ben for a cross-generational triumph on an album that is full of relaxed mastery. - BBC

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