Surrender to Hurts
Synth pop aficionados Hurts
return with a third studio album,
Surrender, on 9 October.
The duo have a fine ear for
classic pop melodies but this
time they have expanded their
sound, citing Fleetwood Mac,
Steely Dan, and even Motown
as influences.
“We decided to see how
things would turn out if we
enjoyed ourselves!” singer
Theo Hutchcraft explains. “It
was quite a dark time making
the last record, and the content
was quite refl ective of our state,
but once we’d finished it and
exorcised the demons our mood
shifted quite a lot.”
The duo joined forces with
Madonna’s Grammy Awardwinning
producer Stuart Price
and Ariel Rechtshaid (Haim,
Vampire Weekend) to sculpt
the new opus, and a first
taster, Some Kind of Heaven, is
available on iTunes now.
Aero Flynn - Aero Flynn Album Review
Worthwhile addition to
the burgeoning ‘Bon Iver
and related’ section
An old pal of Justin
Vernon’s from the
University Of Wisconsin –
Eau Claire, Josh Scott was highly regarded
by his peers but turned his back on music
for 10 years while suffering from kidney disease
and depression. Coaxed back into the studio by
Vernon, this is Scott’s debut solo album.
Understandably there is a tense, troubled
air to many of these songs, the combination of
tightly coiled guitar or piano figures, glitchy
rhythms and Scott’s high, keening vocals
inviting comparisons with Alt-J and various
Thom Yorke projects. But the likes of “Plates2”
and “Moonbeams” mirror the story of the
album by unfurling gloriously into expansive
soft-rock vistas.
Classic Pop: Boy George - Everything I Own Album
Written by singer
David Gates as a
tribute to his father
after attending his
funeral, Gates’ band
Bread took Everything I Own to No. 5 in the
US in 1972. Two years later, prolific reggae
singer Ken Boothe took it to No. 1 in the
UK and it was his version that Boy George
echoed in his first single following Culture
Club’s split. Seven months after his arrest for
heroin, it appeared to mark calmer times
for George as he launched his Sold album.
“I’m still trying to fi nd out why I got on
drugs in the first place,” he said at the time.
“When I have the answer, I’ll be able to tell
people ‘Look, don’t do it.’” Other covers
of Everything I Own have included Shirley
Bassey, *NSYNC and Rod Stewart.
JOSS STONE - WATER FOR YOUR SOUL Album Review
Despite having one of the fattest address
books in contemporary pop, Joss Stone
disappeared in a camper van to travel
Europe anonymously – perhaps motivated
by 2011’s bizarre plot to behead her –
returning with songs infl uenced by her
adventures. These the barefoot soul contessa
added to reggae-fuelled tracks inspired by
weed-fuelled sessions with Damian Marley
and Dennis Bovell to deliver Water For Your
Soul, a jubilant journey into (the) Stone(r)’s
self-confessed hippie psyche. It’s a colourful
departure but her fruity voice perfectly
matches the Caribbean-vibed Love Me and
Harry’s Symphony, while the vintage soul of
Sensimilla and This Ain’t Love give Alicia Keys
a run for her money. Stone free!
Rating: 80/100
PAUL WELLER - GOING MY WAY Single Review
An outstanding song with great melody and
lyrics, but the mix is all wrong. Paul’s vocals
have developed wonderfully over the years,
but you wouldn’t guess from this. The vocals
aren’t loud enough, they’re double-tracked
in the wrong place, there’s too much reverb.
Top marks for Weller, but a kick up the arse
for the mixer. I’d be telling him: “I can’t
hear my own vocals!”
DURAN TO RUN AND RUN
With new album Paper Gods arriving on
11 September, Simon Le Bon is sounding
committed. “The big thing is to keep
Duran Duran going. I want to make a
really serious body of work. That’s my big
ambition.” The band will tour the UK this
winter, kicking off at Manchester Arena
on 27 November. Pick up the next issue of
Classic Pop for an exclusive feature!
5 BEST BB KING ALBUMS (Top BB King Records)
SINGIN’ THE
BLUES
(1957)
King’s debut
compiled some of
his most successful
singles to date, including four R&B No 1s: “3 O’Clock
Blues”, “You Know I Love You”, “Please
Love Me” and “You Upset Me Baby”. It
may say “Singin’” on the sleeve, but
guitar playing is really what’s going on
as this strong primer for King’s early
work amply illustrates.
Marilyn’s Sweet Dreams
For his second Under-g cover story, Marilyn Manson met writer Chris Heath at a Wolfgang Puck
restaurant in Hollywood and saw the Christina Ricci movie The Opposite of Sex.
Jason Isbell’s New Morning
Jason isbell felt a rush of
familiarity when he watched the
final episode of Mad Men on his
tour bus.As he saw Don Draper
go AWOL from his advertising job and
embark on an aimless cross-country road
trip, Isbell recalled his own life around
2008, after his first marriage had fallen
apart and he’d been fired from the
Drive-By Truckers due largely to his heavy
drinking. Isbell bought a motorcycle and
took off from his home in Alabama. “I
drove down to Florida, back up through
Georgia and visited some of the girls I had
met on the road,” he says in a husky Alabama
drawl. “It’s a wonder I didn’t kill myself.
I got home feeling and looking worse
than when I’d left, just completely lost.”
Isbell eventually went to rehab and
turned his dark past into some of the best
music to come out of Nashville this decade.
On 2013’s Southeastern, he reflected
on cocaine nights at Super 8’s, mistreating
vulnerable women, and starting over. “I
was behaving in a way that was deplorable
on a lot of levels,” Isbell says, drinking Red
Bull and smoking cigarettes on his tour
bus, outside the Capitol Theatre in Portchester,
New York, one recent afternoon.
Keith Richards “Trouble”
Spin this salty jam for
the first time, and you
just might think you’ve
stumbled across a
most excellent outtake
from Nellcôte in the
Seventies. Nope – it’s
a promising preview of
Keith’s upcoming solo
album, Crosseyed
Heart, due this fall.