TOM JONES
24 Hours
Parlophone
It's so easy to see Tom Jones as the stereotype - all chest fuzz, leather pants,
medallions and orange skin, honking ill-advised covers into the microphone,
accompanied by a gurning Jools Holland. Let's be fair, a lot of that is down
to him. But it's easy to forget that intermittently in his 40-plus year career,
he's allowed that voice of his to do the talking properly. Surprisingly, 24
Hours is a genuinely good album that pitches him back into powerful soul rock
territory. The barnstorming cover of Tommy James' I'm Alive sets the stall
out with its lithe guitar lines, parping brass, nah-nah-nah backing vocals
and multiple crescendos from TJ in full effect. There's a sense of drama here
that producers Future Cut have really nailed. The Road begins with a fake vinyl
crackle and a feel of Christmas fireside warmth like Tom's over-indulging on
mulled wine and plum duff. The Bono/Edge co-written Sugar Daddy is the opposite
- he's singing about 'sexual ambition' while getting older, all over a phunky
beat. But there's a personal, even introspective lyrical element to the tracks
in which he's had a hand. This has to rank as one of the surprises of 2008
and hats off to the tartrazine-hued grandad.
FEEDER
Silent Cry
Echo
One-third-Welsh indie pop stalwarts Feeder are on their sixth studio album and
while their career-jumping Buck Rogers was all fun pop hooks, they got mired
in a lot of that Coldplay/Keane/Snow Patrol hanky-snivelling downtempo stuff
soon after. Which was a shame, because they always had the capacity for more
crotch-grabbing rock. Thank goodness then, for a return to a more arena-shaking
type of stuff. The riffs are here, and when Itsumo blasts out, it’s like
Bloc Party on the heady, heavy stuff. It feels a lot like it’s taken five
years for Feeder to find their rock feet and a confidence to leave some of the
maudlin stuff behind. Thank goodness.
STEREOPHONICS
Decade In The Sun
V2
Cwmaman’s most famous residents have been treading a distressingly pedestrian
path for some years, and now it’s time for the best of. They’ve held
off until after their fifth album and their twelfth year in the business, allowing
a proper appraisal of their canon. Sensibly they’ve opted for a non-chronological
tracklisting, meaning that the early gems are interspersed with the plodding
dad rock that became their stock-in-trade from the third album on. Local Boy
In The Photograph remains their best work with a glorious melody and effervescent
optimism, More Life In A Tramp’s Vest is a cartoon stomp and A Thousand
Trees is still the indie club classic of 1997. They seemed to lose the optimism
that made them good, resulting in tracks like the execrable Mr Writer. Having
said that, Dakota is a good tune and the decision to end with Handbags And Gladrags
is a good one. In the end, little money and a large amount of humour seems to
be Stereophonics’ best recipe for success.
GUNS N’ ROSES
Chinese Democracy
Geffen
Okay, so this isn't an album but by god I'm not going to let this Musical Event
go by without a mention. Fifteen years after the last peep from Axl and his chums,
he finally feels that the new stuff is fit for human consumption. Sitting in
a studio eating Whoppers for well over a decade might have clouded his judgement...
let's see. If anything, this lead single from the album sounds less like classic
GN'R and more like his old mate Slash's Velvet Revolver, all groovy layers and
grungy fuzz. Axl's voice is lacking the piercing, cut glass quality of yesteryear
and there's little more than a fleeting glimpse of an actual tune. Having said
that, it does actually measure up okay. It fits flush into a world that bears
little resemblance to the one that hosted Poison/Motley Crue/Van Halen and their
clones all those years ago. It sounds modern. Come to Chinese Democracy with
an expectation of greatness and you'll be disappointed, but this is far from
the disaster that many fans were expecting.
THE SATURDAYS
Chasing Lights
Fascination
After so much white, male rock this month it’s on to a healthy dose of
girl pop. Judging by ex-S Club Junior Frankie Sandford’s appearance on
Nevermind The Buzzcocks a while back it’s to be hoped that they’ve
got some good writing talent to back them up. And blimey Charlie, lead single
If This Is Love is co-written by none other than Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet,
courtesy of a Yazoo sample. It’s mechanical, post-techno pop froth and
sets a theme that the team of writers maintain through the album. If the Sugababes
set the bar for dramatic, electronic girl pop, The Saturdays aren’t too
far behind. Chasing Lights has its moments (Up, Set Me Off) but it’s ultimately
pretty pointless. But that’s pop, isn’t it?
James McLaren thinks the new Tom Jones album is surprisingly good