ALICE COOPER – DETROIT STORIES
AS FAR as tributes go, Alice Cooper's Detroit Stories is an impressive one. The 15-track album is an homage to his titular hometown, but listening to it, you get the sense that this is far more than simple nostalgia, wrapped up in Cooper's signature tones.
Tracks like Our Love Will Change The World and $1,000 High Heel Shoes certainly perk up the ears with an audible departure from the signature Alice Cooper sound. But then the entire album listens like a road trip through the journey that informed his own musical makings in the city, the birthplace of Motown.
Fans will love what is effectively a 15-track rollercoaster that leaves you wanting more, and you can almost hear fans chanting along to the track Detroit City 2021, hands in the air.
Hopefully, it also won't be too long before the album can be enjoyed live.
Rating: 9/10
Leigh Morrison
LUCY SPRAGGAN – CHOICES
ON HER sixth album, Lucy Spraggan again lays bare her feelings in a way which takes listeners through an often cathartic emotional rollercoaster.
Many will remember Spraggan from her funny and touching original songs on The X Factor in 2012, including the booze-soaked tales of Last Night (Beer Fear), but in the beautiful Sober she shares the shame which made her give up alcohol so she could learn to like herself more.
Heartbreak Suites tells of introspective hotel stays after the breakdown of her marriage while the sexy bass heavy Flowers shares the thrill of meeting someone new. Spraggan comes out fighting for the single Animal, which is sure to be a noisy crowd sing-along when touring begins again.
The album closes on an inspirational note with the gentle Choices (Don't Be Afraid) and the jaunty Why Don't We Start From Here – which is sure to be popular when Spraggan is finally back in front of her fans.
Rating: 9/10
Beverley Rouse
STORIES FROMTHE CITY, STORIES FROM THE SEA – PJ HARVEY
THOUGH it lacks the awesome rawness of early triumphs Dry and Rid Of Me, or the dizzying brilliance of her war opus, Let England Shake, Polly Harvey's Mercury Prize-winning fifth LP holds a unique place in her musical history.
Packed with an abundance of tunes, it's one of her most commercially successful releases to date – as well as one of her most pedestrian.
Twenty-one years on, SFTCSFTS has been reissued along with a string of demos – some of which, intriguingly, are a far cry from the more restrained versions that ended up in the final cut. The ear-bleeding Kamikaze and a pleasingly unhinged rendition of The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore offer the willing a little glimpse of what Stories… might have been had Harvey cut loose a little more.
Here's a better suggestion, though – just go and stick Rid Of Me on at full volume instead.
Rating: 7/10
Stephen Jones
WILLIE NELSON – THAT'S LIFE
MAKING your 72nd studio album a homage to your friend Frank Sinatra? Nice work if you can get it, and Willie Nelson can tell you how. The veteran country outlaw is no stranger to standards, and in 2018 recorded My Way, a collection of songs associated with Sinatra.
Recorded at Hollywood's Capitol Studios where Sinatra created many of his most loved albums, Nelson croons away backed by piano, vibrant brass arrangements and lush strings – although, as always, the maverick is doing it his way.
The 87-year-old glides through You Make Me Feel So Young, is joined by Diana Krall on I Won't Dance, and sounds jaunty on I Got You Under My Skin. The title track is the most country, with steel guitar and harmonica solo, while the heartbreaking A Cottage For Sale – written in 1929 – is a highlight.
That's Life reclaims the legacy of Ol' Blue Eyes from the swarms of recent mediocre Rat Pack tribute acts.
Rating: 7/10
Matthew George
