The latest CD releases reviewed
ADELE 19 XL ****
Already looking ahead to the Best Albums of 2008 lists, this debut from Londoner Adele Adkins is a shoo-in; if you're looking for a replacement for Kate Nash, however, cast your gaze elsewhere, for Adele is nothing of the sort.
Her musical game plan is casual yet sophisticated soul. In crude terms it's the kind of music you wished Amy Winehouse was making - less of the sordid and more of the svelte, if you don't mind. Adele, though, is in a league of her own.
The songs range from sweet'n'sour (Hometown Glory, Cold Shoulder, First Love) to genuinely moving (a surging Chasing Pavements, and a surprisingly deft cover of Bob Dylan's Make You Feel My Love).
What's in between isn't filler - Adele has the songs as much as the delivery. A true find. - TONY CLAYTON-LEA
Download tracks: Chasing Pavements, Make You Feel My Love, Home town Glory
THESE NEW PURITANS Beat Pyramid Domino ****
What's so exciting about this band from Southend is that you have no idea where their debut album will take you.
The Puritans' post-punk rattle is as angular as you can get from such astute students of art-school rock's pitch and poise.
But what will really marks them apart are the songs, which are overloaded with always intriguing (if sometimes bewildering) lyrical notions about terrorists, numerology and occultism.
Frontman Jack Barnett has previously fessed up to an obsession with the Wu-Tang Clan, and that hip-hop crew's fascination with the ephemera of conspiracy theorists is clearly noted here.
But just when it seems as if the whole overloaded applecart is about to collapse, TNP constantly pull all these disparate elements together.
Beat Pyramid is loud, messy and gloriously discordant, yet its rumbles and ruses are never boring. www.myspace.com/thesenewpuritans - JIM CARROLL
Download tracks: Swords of Truth, Colours
JOHN POWER Stormbreaker Tanuki Tanuki ***
The former La's bassist and leading light of the Britpop movement has been ploughing a particularly organic furrow since the demise of his band Cast.
There's always been the whiff of wacky baccy off Power's music, particularly on solo work such as Willow She Weeps, but Stormbreaker is saved by the man's keen folk-blues instinct.
Now sporting a scraggly beard and an old-fashioned national steel guitar, Power delivers 10 sprightly tunes in a hippy blues style, backed by The Stands' Steve Pilgrim on clattery drums and fellow La's Jay Lewis, whose Hofner violin bass sounds like a great big elastic band plucking loudly in the background.
To Powers's credit, the lyrics of Ain't No Woman, American Dream and Come the Morning aren't too toe-curling, and such tracks as Tombstone and Fire in My Heart are mercifully short on peace'n' love platitudes. www.johnpower.uk.com - KEVIN COURTNEY
Download tracks: Stormbreaker, Tombstone
AARON JEROME Time to Rearrange BBE **
Aaron Jerome is not the first producer to abandon the mixing desk and attempt a record of his own.
The Londoner has worked with a spectrum of musicians and picked up sound souvenirs along the way. His recording ability and experience can't be doubted, but there´s far too much happening on this overkill record.
Instead of condensing his musical experience, Jerome shoehorns in as many styles as possible - and it's a mess.
The album lurches awkwardly from two-step to nu-jazz and world music, often presenting an overbearing hybrid of styles.
This genre-flitting has been done before, without sounding as dated, by much more interesting folk (4-Hero, Matthew Herbert, Nitin Sawhney).
Time to Rearrange can't seem to shake off the cobwebs of dated trip-hop, and wheeling on a busload of guest vocalists can't save it from unoriginality. www.bbemusic.com- SINÉAD GLEESON
Download track: Angel Lady(featuring Andreya Triana)
FREDDIE WHITE Stormy Lullaby Little Don Records ****
This is a superb return to form that poses the question raised by White in his debut (Do You Do), way back in 1981: why isn't Freddie White headlining the same circuits as his near contemporaries (Tom Waits, John Hiatt), whose songs he hijacks with such impeccable precision?
Those trademark sharp-toothed guitar licks are here in abundance, on the spare, dry-boned Bad News from Home and I Think It's Going to Rain Today, both Randy Newman borrowings. Bluegrass and blues cosy up alongside one another like lifelong soulmates, as White's smoky, languid voice unveils Tia, co-written with Jim Barrett, and his own Material Mile, a razor- sharp tale of alienation and road- weary experience.
There's still nobody to match White when he's at his best. Freddie's back - with a vengeance. www.freddiewhite.com - SIOBHÁN LONG
Download tracks: Unoriginal Sin, Huggin' and Chalkin'
