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Albums
THE CHARLATANS
YOU CROSS MY PATH
***
Given away as a free download a couple of months ago, the Charlatans's 10th studio album is now given a 'proper' release on CD and vinyl.
After some indifferent diversions into rock and blue-eyed soul on their last few albums, it's a relief that they've returned – at least in part – to stomping, organ-driven grooves on Oh! Vanity and Missing Beats (of a Generation).
Elsewhere, strangely, they seem to have morphed into a New Order tribute act.
Bad Days, Mis-takes and The Misbegotten are certainly good facsimilies of Factory's finest, but you do find yourself wondering where the Charlies go from here.
COOKING VINYL
CUT COPY
In Ghost Colours
***
Where Hot Chip and the Klaxons lead, it seems others are destined to follow. Cut Copy take the idea of marrying indie pop with squiggly synths and processed beats and tweak it a little, with the help of DFA's Tim Goldsworthy.
Passages of gauzy, My Bloody Valentine-type guitar and burbling electronica give way to some snappy songs that are likely to appeal indie kids and clubbers alike. The rave-y Hearts on Fire is one standout, the hook-laden Out There on the Ice another. Worth exploring.
Modular
Dan Le Sac vS Scroobius Pip
Angles
**
If subtlety is the watchword for Bon Iver, the very opposite is true of the debut album by Essex duo Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip. Not for nothing is it called Angles – its grimy grooves and hectoring wordplay are a cross between Dizzee Rascal and veteran performance poet Attila the Stockbroker. Thou Shalt Always Kill vents its spleen on everything from street slang to musical idolatry ("Bloc Party? Just a band/The Arctic Monkeys? Just a band"), The Beat That My Heart Skipped declares "We ain't pushing the boundaries/We're blowing them up" while Tommy C has a pop at 'skin-deep' balladeers like James Blunt. It's well-meant but over a dozen tracks you may find yourself wilting under the weight of Dan Le Sac's crabby indignation.
Sunday Best
Gemma Hayes
The Hollow of Morning
**
Back in 2002 Irish singer Gemma Hayes was vying with Ms Dynamite for the Mercury Music Prize. Six years on it's hard to see the Mercury jury getting quite so excited about Hayes' third album.
Where at the turn of the decade she had the folky singer-songwriter field virtually to herself, today she faces a wealth of competition – and quite simply The Hollow of the Morning doesn't really measure up to recent releases by the likes of Laura Marling, Kathryn Williams or Rachel Unthank and the Winterset.
This is What You Do, Chasing Dragons and At Constant Speed are hopelessly bland and even when she does try to inject a sense of urgency with electric guitars on Out of Our Hands she blows it with lines as drippy as "Ah come on now, you and I both know this is so much more than just being bored".
Gemma Hayes Music
Emmanuel Jal
Warchild
***
"I believe I've survived for a reason/To tell my story, to touch lives," says Sudanese rapper Emmanuel Jal on the opening track of his new album – and his story is certainly a remarkable one. At the age of eight he was taken from his home and trained to be a child soldier, fighting for the Sudan People's Liberation Army. Five years later he and 400 others deserted their lines but only 16 made it to the safety of a refugee camp. In a conflict which has claimed more than two million lives, Jal is one of the lucky ones – and on the fifth anniversary of the atrocities in Darfur, he recounts his experiences of the genocide in vivid detail. With a light, Afrobeat backing, it's a world away from the gangsta posturing of much of today's hip-hop – and all the better for it.
sonic 360
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