Albums of the week: Eat the Elephant, The Shires and Sting and Shaggy

The week's biggest new releases, reviewed by our experts
New album: Eat the Elephant

A Perfect Circle

Eat the Elephant

(BMG)

****

Eat The Elephant: A Perfect Circle

Revered US rock band A Perfect Circle have kept us waiting 14 years for their comeback, a delay partly explained by frontman Maynard James Keenan’s sideline as a winemaker. Recording Eat the Elephant — a typically abstruse title — had to be scheduled around the grape harvest in Arizona. Yet there’s no sign that Keenan’s rock star hobby has weakened his partnership with guitarist Billy Howerdel. Their belated album opens with a delicate vocal and groaning piano, and ends with beguiling trip-hop. It’s not the heavy-metal assault you might expect based on the sleeve art. Nevertheless, the dark lyrics reflect troubled times. During Talk Talk, Keenan exudes menace as he snarls “Get the f* out of my way”. On The Doomed, their rampaging rock briefly reasserts itself. Disillusioned feels timely amid the Facebook data scandal. “Addicts of the immediate keep us obedient and unaware,” sings a weary Keenan. While their agenda makes for a largely downbeat hour, the record does include their most uplifting pop moment: So Long and Thanks For All the Fish. Inspired by Douglas Adams’s comic sci-fi novel, it’s proof that these rockers also have a sense of humour.

Andre Paine

Accidentally on

Purpose

(Decca)

**

The Shires: Accidentally On Purpose

Following their debut in 2015 The Shires quickly became the UK’s most successful country act, earning two gold albums and a prestigious Country Music Award. Their latest doesn’t veer much from the style of their last two albums: inoffensive, radio-friendly country-pop that does little to inspire or challenge. Bland ballads with simplistic, grimace-inducing lyrics lsuch as “Your heart is like an ocean, I want to dive into you” on the Ed Sheeranpenned Stay the Night are abundant, as are forgettable country-pop jaunts like Echo and Guilty. While the more upbeat songs lack individuality, they do at least provide some relief from the balladry. At a time when artists like Kacey Musgraves are showing what can be done to develop the genre, Accidentally on Purpose feels like a missed opportunity.

Elizabeth Aubrey

44/876

(Polydor)

**

Sting & Shaggy: 44/876

Is it an April fool? When’s Comic Relief? Perhaps, given the motorbikes on the cover, it’s a midlife crisis? Having been immersed in folk music in recent years, Sting is lightening up — and you don’t get much lighter than a reggae duets album with Mr Boombastic. The pair got together to make one song, the tuneful single Don’t Make Me Wait, and enjoyed the process so much that they kept going. It’s all sunny and hummable enough. Dreaming in the USA is a bright pop-rock number in the style of The Police. The problem is that Shaggy’s dreadful quacking makes everything sound like comedy even when it’s not. Sad Trombone is a low point and an appropriate summary of the whole bizarre endeavour.

David Smyth

Alexis Taylor

Beautiful Thing

(Domino)

***

Alexis Taylor: Beautiful Thing

Alexis Taylor has never made much conceptual distinction between body, head and heart. He can drop a schizoid festival banger with his main band, Hot Chip; he can indulge in the pseudiest side-projects; and he can floor you with his rich creampuff of a voice. And, sometimes, try your patience a little bit. “I’m dreaming another life,” he sings on the opening track of his latest solo project. “It’s one I can’t hold inside.” Produced by Tim Goldsworthy, it’s an introspective, even bashful album whose ballads, such as I Feel You and Out of Time veer close to pastiche. The title track finds a better balance, and there’s one outrageously fun pop tune here: Oh Baby, produced by Hot Chip bandmate Joe Goddard.

Richard Godwin

Martin Speake

Intention

(Ubuntu)

****

Martin Speake: Intention 

This latest album from the British saxophone elder Martin Speake balances pretty lyricism and jagged improvisation with a sort of deliberate calm. Speake wields his alto in ways thoughtful and surprising, aided by a clutch of fellow veterans including bassist Fred Thomas, drummer James Maddren and former Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson, whose free, sprightly playing adds liveliness to tracks including opening ballad Becky, and Broadway tune Dancing in the Dark. Nine of the record’s 11 compositions are Speake’s, some new, some revisited, veering from bop to groove to less-is-more understatement. Quality stuff.

Speake plays Pizza Express Jazz Club, W1, on April 24 and 25.

Jane Cornwell

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