Reviewed this week are albums by Mick Harvey, Mark Lanegan and Duke Garwood, and City and Colour.
3 stars (out of 5)
This sixth solo album from Nick Cave's one-time right-hand man Mick Harvey is a three-part song cycle on the theme of romantic love, its thrills and its trials, centred on four reimagined covers and fleshed out with Harvey originals.
The sparse arrangements and grey-blue tonal colours lend even the more positively framed numbers a world-weary tone, but while Harvey is no great singer, there is a stately elegance to much of it.
Best of the covers is a nuanced version of previously unreleased PJ Harvey song Glorious; worst is a limp reading of the Saints' The Story of Love.
Single download: God Made The Hammer
For those who like: Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen
- Jeff Harford
4 stars (out of 5)
Duke Garwood is hardly a household name. The British multi-instrumentalist, who caught Mark Lanegan's ear while sharing a bill, is actually a revelation.
Lanegan's strength in dark discourse and reverberating croak has really found a perfect foil in Garwood. His gradual layering of finger-picked guitars, random piano voicing and hypnotic drones still leave plenty of space for Lanegan to play the dishevelled heir to Tom Waits.
Bleaker than a never-ending hoar frost, Black Pudding makes the perfect accompaniment to a roaring fire and a hearty glass of red.
Single download: Cold Molly
For those who like: Tortoise, Soulsavers, Tom Waits
- Mark Orton
3 stars (out of 5)
Former Alexisonfire singer and guitarist Dallas Green's latest solo effort is a departure from his earlier works.
Where once he delighted in space, mainly framing his songs in acoustic guitar and/or piano, for The Hurry & The Harm he brings in strings, drums, slide guitar and keyboards and conjures a sound that harks back to 1970s American folk-rock.
Clearly, Green is not attempting to rewrite any genres here; as he notes in the acerbic Commentators, he's more interested in finding sweet melodies than being revolutionary. Even in darker tracks, such as Two Coins, it is clear he has succeeded in this aim.
Single download: Take Care
For those who like: Travis, The Acorn
- Shane Gilchrist
