We have six of the very best to recommend this week.
Plunge carries a supernatural charge from beginning to end. Fever Ray’s voice and chiming parallel fifths are enough to make the hairs on your arms stand on end, as though you had been visited by a ghost. Karin Dreijer’s vivid sonics and imagistic lyrics tend to conjure entire worlds: hit ‘play’ and be instantly transported to a world of heavy skies, visiting magpies, velvet mites.
The Wants List 4 has been compiled in response to heavy customer demand, ten years after Wants List 3. It features some great in-demand tracks from the ’70s that were rediscovered and cherished by the UK’s rare groove and modern soul scenes from the mid-’80s onwards. Several of the tracks are appearing on a compilation for the first time and some are being reissued for the first time ever.
Tony Banks’s name is synonymous with talent, stellar musicianship and an impressive, eclectic catalogue of music. His new album, 5, is therefore just what you would expect from him: stunning, evocative, beautifully-orchestrated, and timeless. 5 is a shining gem of sonic beauty that truly deserves your attention and a round of emphatic applause.
On 29 November 2002, the first anniversary of the passing of George Harrison, Olivia Harrison and Eric Clapton organised the performance tribute Concert For George. Held at the Royal Albert Hall, the momentous evening featured George’s songs, and music he loved, performed by a line-up including Clapton, Jools Holland, Jeff Lynne, Paul McCartney, Monty Python, Tom Petty, Billy Preston, Ravi and Anoushka Shankar, Ringo Starr, Dhani Harrison and more.
Following the success of two highly praised albums with Iamthemorning, Russian virtuoso pianist Gleb Kolyadin affirms his musical authority with his self-titled debut album. Gleb Kolyadin is an emotive exploration of self-identity; a story of two parts with interweaving leitmotifs. The album’s central concept weaves through an elaborate tonal and thematic structure, built around the extraordinary rhythm section of Gavin Harrison and Nick Beggs, and is accented at its focal points by guest appearances from Steve Hogarth, Jordan Rudess, Mick Moss and Theo Travis.
Our album of the week may be familiar. We featured Alela Diane’s latest, Cusp, a couple of weeks ago, but production delays mean the physical release will now happen on 23 February. One happy result of this delay is that it’s had repeated listens. This album was recorded when Diane was alone for the first time since becoming a mother. A broken thumbnail resulted in her signature finger-plucking being replaced by songwriting on a grand piano, resulting in the most piano driven album of her career, fuelled by that energy that only comes with facing and falling in love with something new.
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