A RASH of post-September 11 songs was to be expected, but even so, Neil Young''s Let''s Roll - which speaks of "goin'' after Satan on the wings of a dove" - comes as a surprise, setting gung-ho sentiment to a rather ponderous slice of rock. Odd coming from the man who chose to sing Lennon''s peace anthem Imagine at the fundraising gig so soon after September 11. Otherwise, the business of Are You Passionate? is life and love re-examined by the maverick rocker, with mellow music to match an oft mellow mood, courtesy of Booker T Jones''s Hammond organ and Donald "Duck" Dunn''s bass. It''s a pity they did not draft in Booker T''s other old mate Steve Cropper, as Young''s dolorous guitar playing gets no easier on the ear with the passing years. It''s only a half-good album - reasonably spirited when it gets up and rocks, but with too many dirges in between.
A New Day Has Come - Celine Dion (Epic)
DESPITE her gushing "I was born to sing" stagecraft and the cringeworthy melodrama of some of her most successful songs, Celine Dion does possess one of the most phenomenal voices ever to wrestle a tune into submission. The problem has always been that some of her song selections are cheesier than a four-cheese pizza with extra cheese. Motherhood and a two year lay-off have plainly mellowed her, though. A New Day Has Come is, by her standards, a more intimate affair than we dared hope for, featuring deftly-dispatched ballads such as Have You Ever Been In Love?, Goodbye''s (The Saddest Word), The Greatest Reward and, of course, that title track. Unexpected fare includes Ten Days, which could almost be a Sheryl Crow cast-off. It is a mark of Dion''s ability that she can so easily take a big standard and make it her own.
Plastic Fang - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (Mute)
A BIT of a departure for this maestro of rasping ramshackle rock...you can actually hear the lyrics. But don''t worry, while this may be slick by their standards, JS and Co have not gone soft. It is pretty much the same swampy, gnarly, bluesy confection of primeval guitar licks played through amps which sound to be on the verge of exploding. A bit like the Stones and Neil Young jamming with Lou Reed in a pub rock band.
Handcream For A Generation - Cornershop (Wiiija)
JUST as Oasis prepare to release the psychedelic-sounding single Hindu Times, Noel Gallagher pops up, full of eastern promise, noodling away on Cornershop''s 14-minute slice of mysticism, Spectral Mornings. In fact, the song is about ten minutes too long and is the kind of self-indulgence barely tolerated even in the seventies. Far snappier is the song which features Oasis''s erstwhile bass player Guigsy - Lessons Learned From Rocky I to Rocky III, which has a lazy, loping beat and typically quirky lyrics, demonstrating that it is strange words, as much as all that cross-cultural chicanery, which feed Cornershop''s appeal. What on earth does the title Staging The Plaguing Of The Raised Platform mean? What does the album title mean, for that matter. Not just mystical, but mystifying too, then.
Original soundtrack from About A Boy - Badly Drawn Boy (Twisted Nerve)
YOU have got to figure that the prolific Damon Gough may be saving his best stuff for the follow-up proper to Hour of the Bewilderbeast, yet he still spares a few gems for this movie soundtrack. It is wry, atmospheric stuff - perfect soundtrack material, in fact - of which the best moments are instrumental fragments such as I Love NYE and Dead Duck.
Paul Taylor
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