John Lee Hooker: "Don't Look Back" (Pointblack Records)
Dial-a-track code: 1641
Is Don't Look Back John Lee Hooker's Avalon Sunset? In a musical, spiritual, emotional sense, probably. It certainly bears the mark of its producer, Van Morrison, who also duets on four tracks, including the perfectly titled The Healing Game. That's what this album is all about, a balm in dissonant times, a soothing lotion for the soul, a septuagenarian singing his bluesy secular prayers in the best way he knows, in a mellow mood. Fans of Hooker's more primal screams, vocally and via guitar, may be disappointed in laid-back meditations like Ain't No Bib Thing and Don't Look Back but, to cull a title from another track, this is basically an album of Blues Before Sunrise. A sublime album.
INXS: "Elegantly Wasted" (Mercury)
Dial-a-track code: 1751
The tenth album from the unreconstructed Antipodean rockers is a strutting, empty, cliched collection of secondhand riffs and hoary old hooks, topped up with loads of testosterone and wrapped in ultra-glam, brand-conscious packaging - nice to see INXS are right back on form.
Michael Hutchence, cockiness intact, sings tunes about girls, girls and er, more girls while the other five INXS blokes pump out the turbo-pop backing with the ease of seasoned rock monsters. Songs like Don't Lose Your Head, Girl On Fire and Shake The Tree are elegant examples of the INXS alchemy at work, i.e., they're bang on formula. Others like Everything, Seaching and I'm Just A Man are mid-tempo rock `n' roll ballads, Hutch getting all sensitive but holding on firmly to his swagger.
Cast: "Mother Nature Calls" (Polydor)
Dial-a-track code: 1861
You're not a true Noel-rocker unless you can record your own (What's The Story?) Morning Glory, and John Power passes the test with flying colours, knocking off another 1960s supernova to keep the Brit-pop kids in clover until the next Oasis album comes along. Mother Nature Calls shares a double- entendre with Morning Glory, and it also shares an intuitive ear for a classic pop riff and a timeless melody, not to mention a good, well-worn turn of phrase. "I just wanna be thinking thoughts that I think Dreaming my dreams I'm drifting within," sings Power in the country-tempo ballad, Live The Dream, while The Sun Shines basks in a blindingly obvious blues progression. There's nothing as sharp or immediate as Alright and Fine Time on Cast's sophomore effort, although Guiding Star and Free Me do have a bit of spark.
