![]() Her brand of Americana has expanded to include jangly indie rock alongside slower tales of romantic betrayal and infatuation. A fixture on the New York scene for some years, Allison has won plaudits for a clutch of albums dominated by country flavours. ![]() Not everyone will get past her quirkily nasal vocals - imagine Lisa from The Simpsons after singing lessons - but for those who treasure individuality and the craft of songwriting, here's a find. LHĪmy Allison Everything and NothingToo (Spit & Polish) £13.99 'Wiggle your tootsie,' he implores: if you can do that and care about world politics, you're on to a winner. Rising jazz saxophonist Soweto Kinch delivers a blinding rap against Third World debt on 'Aid Dealer', although Roots Manuva keeps the mood light on his feelgood 'True Skool'. You can't get on Top of the Pops these days with three minutes of burglar-alarm noises: you need stinging choruses, multisyllabic lyrics and guitars. LHĬoldcut Sound Mirrors (Ninja Tune) £12.99Ĭoldcut have entered their 20th year as a duo - an eternity in dance-music circles - by making an album that acknowledges the return of proper songs to the charts. Drum's Not Dead, true to its name, is an album-long hymn to rhythm: it bounces like a car with its stereo on full blast, using two complete drum kits to create a densely percussive, varied piece of work. Perhaps aware of the diminishing returns offered by this approach, they moved to Berlin, a creatively fecund city that, on past form, offers endless opportunities for making great records. Liars, a New York-based experimental trio led by Australian Angus Andrew, have until now specialised in being as annoying as possible: their last album, 2004's They Were Wrong, So We Drowned, was, in true Spinal Tap fashion, a concept record about witchcraft. The result is a wonderful collection of harsh'n'tender, wistful yet defiant love songs made for listening to very late at night. Campbell is a Scottish Nancy, as much in thrall to Celtic folk (fiddle player John McCusker plays on one song) as she is to the loucher side of country and rock. Lanegan sounds as though his day job is gargling glass shards. Isobel Campbell (once the cellist and sole female presence in Belle and Sebastian) and Mark Lanegan (of grungers-with-depth Screaming Trees) are a Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra for indie obsessives. Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan Ballad of the Broken Seas (V2) £13.99
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