ALBUM OF THE WEEK
LEE ANN WOMACK
The Lonely, The Lonesome & The Gone, 4/5 (ATO)
It is one of her own compositions, Hollywood, which steals all the plaudits though: the story of a luxurious life being turned upside down by mistrust and loneliness, it has a haunting arrangement straight out of a 1940s film noir.
MICHAEL BALL & ALFIE BOE
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Ball And Boe Back Together, 3/5 (Decca)
The combination of Ball’s wide-eyed croon and Boe’s operatic gusto should not really work.
But dollops of charm and some unpredictable song choices make this follow-up to their debut album something of a gem.
Ball was electrifying in the title role of Sweeney Todd a few years back and his version of one of its key songs, Not While I’m Around, is genuinely touching.
GREGORY PORTER
Nat King Cole & Me, 3/5 (Decca/Blue Note)
After two brilliant albums of original material Gregory Porter comes slightly unstuck on this rather pointless if entertaining collection of Nat “King” Cole covers.
Cole’s songs are not easy to perform and though Porter turns in breezy and rather beautiful versions of the faster, jazzier, parts of his repertoire, such as L.O.V.E and Pick Yourself Up, he struggles a bit on the slow vocal elongations of Mona Lisa and Smile.
SHERIDAN SMITH
Sheridan: The Album, 2/5 (East West Records)
Sheridan Smith is an excellent TV and stage performer but she can’t quite turn off the actress button in the studio.
The result is an album of cover versions that veers wildly between singing styles; less like interpretation than impersonation at times – particularly on Etta James’s Mad About The Boy and Cilla’s Anyone Who Had A Heart.
Her “own” voice seems to be the soft-edged croon she employs on a lovely version of Rufus Wainwright’s Dinner At Eight.
Subtle variations on that would have made a much better record.
REISSUE OF THE WEEK
DAVEY GRAHAM
Folk, Blues & Beyond, 4/5
Large As Life And Twice As Natural, 4/5 (Bread And Wine Records)
Leicestershire-born to a Guyanese mother and Scottish father Graham, who died in 2008, was a self-taught, free-wheeling singer, guitarist and songwriter whose open, honest voice and complex mix of folk, blues and jazz playing influenced everyone from Paul Simon and John Martyn to Jimmy Page.
The sheer inventive energy of these timely reissues, Folk Blues from 1964, Larger Than Life, 1968, is both breathtaking and hugely entertaining.