Eleanor McEvoy
Naked Music
PERHAPS best known for her involvement with A Woman's Heart – she wrote the title track of what remains the best-selling Irish album of all time – Dublin singer-songwriter Eleanor McEvoy has a solo career, with 11 studio albums under her belt.
This career retrospective sees the 48-year-old – who was a member of Mary Black's band before 1992's hit album A Woman's Heart – reinterpret songs from her back catalogue which extends to the early 90s. With so many songs to choose from, this is a winning look back at her career.
Opener Wrong So Wrong sets the tone, excellent lyrics which perfectly suit McEvoy's rich, warm vocals. Whisper A Prayer and Isn't It A Little Late emphasise a master craftswoman at work, her songs as evocative as ever.
THREE STARS
Kim Mayo
Sarah Blasko
Eternal Return
ALTHOUGH she has made quite a name for herself in her native Australia, Sarah Blasko has only managed to attract a cult following in Ireland and Britain, which is a shame as her beautifully crafted songs deserve a global audience.
The 39-year-old singer-songwriter first made her name in the mid-90s with the band Acquiesce, before embarking on a solo career. Eternal Return is her fifth album and, like its predecessors, underlines Blasko's knack for melody and terrific lyrics.
Understated it may be, but songs as good as I Am Ready, Maybe This Time and the lovely Say What You Want, highlight her talent and makes this the best album of her career so far.
FOUR STARS
Kim Mayo
Bloc Party
Hymns
IT'S easy to forgive the band that produced Silent Alarm anything but in recent years Bloc Party has still been cause for concern. You could count on two or three tracks to wow on each of their subsequent three records but, overall, disappointment cancelled out those six or so minutes of brilliance.
Last year's line-up change didn't settle nerves either (founder members Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack are now joined by Justin Harris and Louise Bartle). And yet, Hymns is a triumph.
The Love Within is half tinny arcade game, half soaring, gleeful indie dance tune that makes you want to run and leap and dance around like a mad thing. Okereke comes over all lofty voiced choir boy in Fortress, Different Drugs draws on 80s synths, spiralling into a high keening bridge, while the restrained, muted Living Lux swallows you whole. What a return to form.
FOUR STARS
Ella Walker
Lion Babe
Begin
PERFORMANCE artist Jillian Hervey (who has the best hair – a proper mane) and musician Lucas Goodman, aka Lion Babe, have been working together since 2012 and so far have collaborated with Pharrell Williams, Disclosure and Childish Gambino.
This New York duo's experimental debut record, Begin, thrums with soul but has a jangly, experimental R&B edge to it. Stressed OUT! slurs from disco vibes into sharp minimalist vocals, while Impossible clatters and skips, and Satisfy My Love combines deep, sultry lyrics with hip and spine rolling beats.
Single Where Do We Go sounds like a dance off cut from the early 2000s (not in a good way), but the dreamy, hypnotic Jungle Lady and the rumbling, clap-strewn Treat Me Like Fire are certainly magnetic. Begin is not an instant classic, but the potential is palpable. You've got to start somewhere after all.
THREE STARS
Ella Walker
The Cult
Hidden City
FOR their 10th studio album, The Cult have left the experimentalism and art rock of the 90s and early 2000s behind and revived the soaring choruses and stadium-friendly riffs of their classic early albums.
They've teamed up again with producer Bob Rock, who was behind the controls on the band's biggest commercial success, Sonic Temple. It's unlikely Hidden City will match that album's sales but it reveals the 50-something rockers have not lost the swagger of old.
Opening tracks Dark Energy and No Love Lost set a blistering pace – the latter ushered in with a classic spectral refrain from guitarist Billy Duffy.
The album loses its way a little with ballads In Blood and Birds Of Paradise but things pick up with G O A T, Duffy's sinewy guitar writhing like a snake as the band rock out with a stripped-back sound that recalls their classic 1987 album, Electric.
THREE STARS
Mark Edwards
Laurence Fox
Holding Patterns
STAR of Lewis, part of the Fox acting dynasty and husband of singer-turned-actress Billie Piper, Laurence Fox is having a crack at the music industry with this debut album of extremely passable self-penned indie-influenced tunes.
His recognisable vocals strain on the storytelling Shelter's refrain and the sombre Gunfight, but after a couple of listens, the raspiness can grate. Much more enduring are the upbeat Rise Again and urgent, almost-dance track Headlong.
The title track is similarly heart-beat spiking, with an insistent drum thump great for running to. He's also on guitar on the stripped-back soft closer Before, so kudos there, but lyrically, he's not setting the world on fire with some slightly twee rhymes. Fox has not quit acting yet and says this album was something he had to do – as music's his 'passion' – and it's a fair start that will enthral his fans.
THREE STARS
Kate Whiting
