Albums of the Week: Mac Miller, Deaf Havana and James

Album: Mac Miller

Mac Miller - Swimming

(Parlophone)

****

While hip hop beefs are wearily familiar, Mac Miller has somehow managed to engineer a feud with the irascible commander-in-chief.

“Take over the world when I’m on my Donald Trump s***,” crowed Miller on a prophetic if minor US hit from 2011 named after the then reality TV star, whose bling trappings and boastful brand were fair game for a rising rapper.

It’s no surprise that Miller emerged from the ensuing row over the next few years with more dignity than Trump, whose truculent tweets culminated in a video message demanding 25 per cent of the royalties.

While you might expect his first album since the US election to have exploited the feud, Miller was perhaps distracted by his recent break-up from Ariana Grande.

“My regrets look just like texts I shouldn’t send,” he warbles on the bruised opener Come Back to Earth.

Self Care is another timely dispatch that addresses his arrest on suspicion of drunk-driving in May (“That Mercedes drove me crazy, I was speeding”). Whatever Miller’s personal issues, though, the Pittsburgh rapper has delivered an impressively eclectic record on which he’s not afraid to experiment.

The more radio-friendly tunes include the languid funk of Ladders and What’s the Use?, which channels the rolling rhythmic gait of special guest Snoop Dogg.

Miller isn’t quite in that top flight of US rappers, yet he has an unerring ability to match his confessional rhymes with the perfect beat. It’s a comeback of cathartic hip hop that feels like a leap forward.

by Andre Paine

Amanda Shires - To the Sunset

(Thirty Tigers)

****

Amanda Shires has worked her way to acclaim steadily over the years, both as a member of 400 Unit and The Texas Playboys, until she emerged very much as an artist in her own right.

All her hard work as a songwriter over the past few years has clearly paid off as this new album is her most accomplished to date. Bittersweet, raw southern rock is given the distortion treatment to create an altogether heavier sound, such as on Eve’s Daughter.

Themes of hope are prevalent throughout the album, mostly through the way in which Shires has ordinary, everyday characters heroically overcoming personal struggles. As well as distorting the traditional southern rock genre, Shires also experiments with occasional electro, as on the wistful Mirror Mirror.

Yet it’s the heavier, rockier moments that impress the most and it’s here where the most interesting and innovative songs are to be found.

by Elizabeth Aubrey

Deaf Havana - Rituals

(SO)

**

Having sent their past two albums into the UK Top 10 and booked their biggest gig at Brixton Academy in December, Norfolk quintet Deaf Havana must count as a mainstream band by now. They certainly sound it on album number five, which has its origins in computer music rather than guitars, and is miles away from the harder sound of their early days.

Songs such as Sinner, with its choir and handclaps, and Fear, with its punchy electronic drums and synth washes, are pure boyband. James Veck-Gilodi’s vocals are sweet and emotional on Pure, which gets the dynamics of a rock song right but is missing teeth. When the choir returns for the keyboard ballad Saint, the band are unrecognisable.

by David Smyth

James - Living in Extraordinary Times

(Infectious)

***

There is something undeniably impressive about James’ durability. Formed in Manchester 36 years ago, they toured with The Smiths, signed to Factory, kept pace with Madchester and Britpop and still sound more with it than bands half their age.

Their 15th album follows the surprise success of the Brian Eno-produced Girl at the End of the World (2016) and is uncharacteristically, if understandably political. Coming Home (part 2) is a sort of sequel to the classic 1989 single Come Home, only sung to a son, lamenting missed birthdays. If Coldplay released this, it would be no disgrace.

by Richard Godwin

Anandi Bhattacharya​ - Joys Abound

(Riverboat Records)

****

Anandi Bhattacharya is a young singer in her early 20s based in Kolkata. The fact that she is so accomplished on this debut album is less of a surprise when you discover her father is the acclaimed slide guitarist Debashish Bhattacharya, who appears on various slide guitars.

Her uncle Subhasis Bhattacharjee also appears on tabla, but it’s the way she expands her palette with the sultry clarinet of Carola Ortiz on Maya’s Dream and the piano of Avik Ganguly on What My Heart Desires that impresses. What we have here is a debut packed with potential but absolutely beautiful in its own right.

by Simon Broughton

Bansangu Orchestra - Bansangu Orchestra

(Pathway Records)

****

Bansangu Orchestra are a London-based big band adding colour to the traditional jazz template thanks to their versatile players and compositions whose musical influences span Brazil, Cuba, India, West Africa and the Middle East. This disc shows off their party-loving spirit and punchy arrangements. Opener Cross Channel, by musical director Paul Booth, is a rhythm-fest of fierce percussion, and pianist Alex Wilson creates Afro-Cuban grooves. They play Margate Jazz Festival on September 21.

by Jane Cornwell

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