KATE RUSBY: Hand Me Down (Pure)
Verdict: Stunning covers collection
Folk singer Kate Rusby, 46, seen her touring plans thrown into disarray this year
Like many musicians, Kate Rusby has seen her touring plans thrown into disarray this year. Dates she should have played in the spring have been rescheduled for 2021, and festival appearances have either bitten the dust or been moved to online-only events.
But lockdown has also thrown up an opportunity for the Barnsley folk singer. Forced into isolation at home with musician husband Damien O’Kane and their two young daughters, she has combined home schooling with impromptu recording to produce a stunning new covers album.
The idea for Hand Me Down came initially from the acoustic sessions Kate performed on Jo Whiley’s Radio 2 show.
Her first visit yielded a version of Oasis’s Don’t Go Away, her second a reflective take on The Cure’s Friday I’m In Love. The Oasis ballad popped up on her last studio album. Her Cure cover is one of the 12 tracks here.
‘The pandemic has been emotional,’ says Rusby, 46. ‘At times, I’ve likened it to riding a speeding shark while wearing a bikini.
‘I always intended to make an album this year but the lockdown has made it more intimate. As a folk singer, I usually re-interpret older songs — but it’s not just the old songs that are handed down through the generations.’
British folk royalty since the 1990s, Rusby’s respect for tradition has never stopped her venturing into other areas.
She has made five Christmas albums and had a Top 10 single with Ronan Keating, but the beautifully sung Hand Me Down is her most audacious effort yet. The album isn’t just a case of stripped-down strumming.
As producer, O’Kane wraps his wife’s warm, soulful vocals in rich arrangements. He plays guitar and drums, too, with a cast of remotely recorded guests adding extra electronics, banjo and percussion.
Recorded in isolation at home with musician husband Damien O’Kane and their two young daughters, she has combined home schooling with impromptu recording to produce a stunning new covers album
On Manic Monday — written by Prince for The Bangles and a hit for the latter in 1986 — Rusby taps into the song’s underlying melancholy. She’s joined on vocals by her daughters Daisy, ten, and Phoebe, eight. As a responsible mum, she also tweaks the lyrics slightly by omitting some of the song’s more lustful lines.
Coldplay’s Everglow also lends itself well to Rusby’s tender treatment, though the real tour de force is a banjo-led interpretation of Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off.
Kate describes Taylor as ‘a brilliant role model for daughters everywhere’ and her lively take does full justice to a great pop song.
Elsewhere, there are tracks more in keeping with her folk roots. James Taylor’s Carolina On My Mind, a song about homesickness, takes on fresh meaning in light of the pandemic, and Texan country singer Lyle Lovett’s If I Had A Boat is resonant and shimmering.
Only Cyndi Lauper’s True Colours — which feels too obvious a choice — fails to hit the spot on a rewarding detour.
BRUCE HORNSBY: Non-Secure Connection (Thirty Tigers)
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Verdict: Adventurous piano pop
BRUCE HORNSBY’S bright, rolling piano was the essence of FM Radio rock back in the days of shoulder pads and mullet hairstyles. His 1986 single The Way It Is, made with The Range, topped the U.S. charts and was a hit in the UK — but its maker has always been more restless than those triumphs might suggest.
His career since the 1980s has been unpredictable. He has been a member of The Grateful Dead, written film scores for Spike Lee and become an unlikely mentor to American indie-rock’s coolest customers, working with The Killers’ Brandon Flowers and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon.
His solo work, too, has grown more esoteric, with jazz and classical influences, and fans of his 1980s hits might find elements of Non-Secure Connection challenging.
Bruce Hornsby’s complex record takes in orchestral sweeps, abstract twists and auto-tuned vocals
Made partly in his home town of Williamsburg, Virginia, it’s a complex record that takes in orchestral sweeps, abstract twists and auto-tuned vocals.
But Hornsby, 65, hasn’t forgotten how to pen a decent tune. He talks about his new album’s ‘chromaticism and dissonance quotient’ but his satirical songs — which take in topics as diverse as sales techniques in shopping malls and the rise of internet pornography — retain the bluesy drive that made his early work so addictive. There are cameos from his alternative rock pals. James Mercer of The Shins sings on catchy single My Resolve and Bon Iver’s Vernon appears several times, notably on Bright Star Cast, a sinuous funk number that addresses racism, harking back thematically to The Way It Is.
Hornsby isn’t scared to play the bad guy, either. The title track profiles a bored, low-level online hacker. But there are upbeat moments. Anything Can Happen is built around an old demo made with the late pianist Leon Russell, and No Limits is a song about appreciating the good times, even those that don’t last.
GLORIA ESTEFAN: Brazil305 (Sony)
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Verdict: Vibrant samba sounds
Latin star Gloria Estefan has also been active in lockdown, re-recording her 1989 single Get On Your Feet as Put On Your Mask and putting the finishing touches to a new album, her first in seven years, which she hopes will provide some positivity.
Brazil305 celebrates the links between Estefan’s Cuban birthplace and Brazil, while the 305 in the title is a reference to the dialling code for her adopted home town of Miami.
Gloria Estefan has also been active in lockdown putting the finishing touches to a new album, her first in seven years
A mix of new songs and older material rearranged with Brazilian musicians, it is vibrant and gregarious. Of Gloria’s new tunes, Only Together is an English adaptation of a bossa nova song written by composer Gonzaguinha and revived in 2007 by São Paulo singer Maria Rita. Magalenha is a fiery duet with the funk singer Carlinhos Brown.
Estefan, 62, has clearly looked after her supple voice, and the remakes of older songs stand up well. Solo hit Don’t Wanna Lose You is transformed from a 1980s power ballad into a jazz number.
Rhythm Is Gonna Get You — from her Miami Sound Machine days — is updated with samba drums and carnival horns.
Best of Barnsley: Rusby on stage and with husband Damien and daughters Phoebe and Daisy
Bon Iver gets back-up from The Boss
Bon Iver dueted with Taylor Swift on her latest album, Folklore
Fresh from duetting with Taylor Swift on the chart-topping Folklore — and appearing on Bruce Hornsby’s new album (above) — Justin Vernon, of Bon Iver, hooks up with another big name on his band’s rousing new single AUATC, with Bruce Springsteen prominent on backing vocals.
The single, which also features Jenny Lewis and synth player Danger Mouse, is an Americana-flavoured number about corporate greed, its unusual title an acronym for Ate Up All Their Cake. Vernon, who made his debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, in a Wisconsin log cabin and was once the epitome of the backwoods hipster, now appears determined to create a fresh chapter in classic American rock. He has also hinted that a fifth Bon Iver album is imminent.
His British protégées The Staves are also releasing a new single. The three Staveley-Taylor sisters from Watford, who have toured and recorded with Vernon, cut the lilting Nazareth in the open air, but the song is still characterised by crystal-clear vocal harmonies.
And London soul singer Gabrielle has dug into the archives to put together a three-track digital EP, Rise Revisited, that contains an acoustic take on Out Of Reach (her contribution to the Bridget Jones’s Diary soundtrack) and lost versions of two songs from her 1999 LP Rise, including an epic seven-minute adaptation of the title track.