Reviews

Sonny Rollins, Barbican Hall, London

He blew like the legend he is – so why am I blubbing?

Inside Reviews

Gary Numan, Dome, Brighton
Paloma Faith, Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth

Sunday, 22 November 2009

Once alienated from much of the music scene by his Asperger's syndrome, Gary Numan is bringing himself back in from the cold

Album: Tom Waits, Glitter & Doom Live, (Anti-) (Rated 3/ 5 )

Friday, 20 November 2009

In his earlier years, all Tom Waits needed to animate a live show was a piano and a standard lamp, the latter casting a suitably sepulchral gloom over his rough-hewn crooning. In those days, he was most renowned as a lyricist who had helped reconnect a sagging singer-songwriter tradition with its beat-poetry roots, so the accompaniment was kept sparse enough not to get in the way of the words.

Album: Them Crooked Vultures, Them Crooked Vultures (RCA) (Rated 4/ 5 )

Friday, 20 November 2009

At a time when it's widely assumed that Jack White and a handful of unknown indie chums merits the accolade, Them Crooked Vultures is a supergroup worthy of the term, in the classic rock tradition of Blind Faith and ELP.

Album: The Real Tuesday Weld, The End Of The World (Six Degrees) (Rated 3/ 5 )

Friday, 20 November 2009

The End of the World is also ostensibly a live album, recorded "on the eve of Valentine's Day at The End of the World club in London 2012".

Album: Norah Jones, The Fall (Blue Note) (Rated 3/ 5 )

Friday, 20 November 2009

Parts of Norah Jones's 2007 album Not Too Late sounded rather like a scrubbed-up, housetrained Tom Waits, so it's no surprise that for this follow-up, she enlisted the services of producer Jacquire King in an attempt to obtain the "balance between beautiful and rough" that he secured for Waits's Mule Variations.

Album: Chip Taylor, Yonkers NY (Train Wreck) (Rated 3/ 5 )

Friday, 20 November 2009

Best known for writing a bouquet of diversely distinctive 1960s hits – "I Can't Let Go", "Angel of the Morning" and "Wild Thing" – Chip Taylor has led the kind of life that usually only happens in Hollywood films, including a stint as a professional gambler ultimately banned from Las Vegas casinos.

Album: Alesha Dixon, The Alesha Show – Encore (Asylum) (Rated 3/ 5 )

Friday, 20 November 2009

Doubtless figuring that Alesha is a more bankable prospect following her adoption as judge on Strictly Come Dancing than she was a year ago, when the original version of The Alesha Show was released, Asylum have chosen to reissue it with a handful of extra tracks to tempt the undecided.

Arctic Monkeys, Wembley Arena, London (Rated 3/ 5 )

Thursday, 19 November 2009

Northern soul with a heavy heart

Rachid Taha, Royal Festival Hall, London (Rated 4/ 5 )

Thursday, 19 November 2009

You can only imagine Rachid Taha's reaction if he were to know that his early career as a DJ mixing Western and Eastern records in a Parisian nightclub in the 70s would lead him eventually to the throbbing makeshift dancefloor of the Royal Festival Hall's first two rows three decades later. It would probably be a cause of some jubilation for a man who's prided himself on his ability to cross geographical and stylistic boundaries.