Albums of the week: Pink, The Cranberries and Catfish and the Bottlemen

Andrew Macpherson Macfly Corp

Pink - Hurts 2B Human

(RCA)

***

It was hard to imagine that Pink’s middling debut would lead to her Outstanding Contribution BRIT award earlier this year, but via a pop-punk tornado that confronted difficult issues she became much more of an influence than many gave her credit for.

Perhaps it’s because her most powerful messages are too often lost amid predictable songs. The opening of her latest album certainly illustrates this: Hustle and Walk Me Home follow the same identikit, arena-friendly pop-punk that has characterised so much of her past seven albums.

The latter half takes a more intriguing turn via a series of savvy collaborations with artists as diverse as Khalid, Chris Stapleton, Beck and Sia.

Happy is a good example of Pink’s empathetic lyricism: “Since I was 17, I’ve always hated my body… can somebody find me a pill to make me feel unafraid of me”. As is Circle Game, which candidly explores the fears and joys of motherhood.

The gorgeous guitar and piano acoustic of Love Me Anyway and The Last Song of Your Life showcase Pink’s soaring balladry well, while 90 Days is perhaps the album’s most varied song structurally and sonically.

Pink can afford to take risks: when she does, there’s plenty to enjoy. It’s just a shame there’s still a little too much safety.

by Elizabeth Aubrey

The Cranberries - In the End

(BMG)

****

The first line of the last Cranberries album hits hard: “Do you remember, remember the night?/At a hotel in London, they started to fight,” sings Dolores O’Riordan. In January last year the 46-year-old frontwoman drowned accidentally in the bath at the Park Lane Hilton after drinking heavily. In the months that followed, her three bandmates and regular producer Stephen Street constructed these 11 songs from vocals she left behind. O’Riordan’s soft, angelic vocals were haunting already, so every word here has huge import, especially on the title track, an acoustic ballad that closes the album with a sorrowful sigh. Most importantly, nothing here sounds like a demo or barrel-scraping. Summer Song in particular is a powerful, beautiful anthem that stands tall in a too-small catalogue.

by Andre Paine

Catfish and the Bottlemen​ - The Balance

(Island)

***

At a time when blokey guitar bands have largely disappeared from the charts, Catfish and the Bottlemen feel like a blast from the past. The Welshmen have prospered by doubling down on their no-nonsense Brit-rock. Fans who flock to the group’s arena and festival shows will be happy to discover that this concise third album is more of the same. Frontman Van McCann’s songs all feature one-word titles, crunching guitars and a vaguely stroppy attitude. There are big Oasis-style choruses on the sweary Sidetrack, the snarling Fluctuate and the ragged, riff-heavy Mission. Anyone looking for evolution or innovation will be left wanting. But if you crank up the volume it hardly seems to matter.

Aldous Harding - Designer

(4AD)

****

“Better to live with melody and have an honest time / Isn’t that right?” sings Aldous Harding at the outset of her third album. Only it doesn’t seem an entirely settled issue for the New Zealand singer-songwriter. Designer is full of gorgeous melodies in a lo-fi folkie mode that frequently recalls the late Elliott Smith. The arrangements are delicate and detailed, and it’s all in sharper focus than on her last album, The Party. But she sings in such an unsettling way. Harding’s voice has the Germanic sincerity of Sibylle Baier combined with the dreamy archness of Broadcast’s Trish Keenan, plus something of Kate Bush’s theatricality. It’s an album of slow-burn intrigue — “Purple and fur / All love is fleece that leaves a cold lamb laughing in the breeze,” she coos on Zoo Eyes — but watch the deeply peculiar video to The Barrel and you sense an artistic spirit that won’t be contained for much longer.

by Richard Godwin

Mdou Moctar - Ilana (The Creator)

(Sahel Sounds)

****

Kick-started by Mali’s Touareg rockers Tinariwen, Desert Blues has now become a genre in its own right, and singer and guitarist Mdou Moctar from Niger is its new hero. He came to fame on a well-titled compilation called Music from Saharan Cellphones. This is his studio debut, recorded in Detroit with a small band of rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums. With lots of reverb and some magic Touareg wedding dust sprinkled on, there are some thrilling tracks, notably Anna and Takamba at the album’s heart. When they had all the studio facilities, what’s disappointing are the vocals: far too low in the mix, even on the rocked-out title track. So it’s the guitar and spacey Saharan vibe that makes it.

by Simon Broughton

Ezra Collective - You Can’t Steal My Joy

(Enter the Jungle)

****

South London’s Ezra Collective is one of the best live acts in the UK. That this mighty debut not only manages to bottle their fiery ebullience but turn it into a force for youthful rebellion is testament to their musicianship and boundaries-down synergy. Led by Femi Koleoso on drums, the five-strong crew draw from Afrobeat, grime, hip hop and ska in ways that bust old notions of jazz wide open, laying down their cards with an opening cover of Space Is the Place by Afro-futurist guru, Sun Ra. Rapper Loyle Carner and songbird Jorja Smith make cameos but it’s instrumental bangers like Quest For Coin and Why You Mad? that give the album its peculiarly uplifting sucker punch. They tour the UK in November.

by Jane Cornwell

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