Album reviews: Chrissie Hynde & Pals | The Last Dinner Party | Rianne Downey | Merlyn Driver

The Last Dinner Party: From The Pyre (Island Records) ★★★★

Rianne Downey: The Consequence of Love (Run On Records) ★★★

Merlyn Driver: It Was Also Sometimes Daylight (self-released) ★★★★

Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde is often hailed for her charisma, attitude, style and influence but arguably less so for her truly stunning voice. She rarely goes in for theatrics and glory notes but her tone and expressive range are undimmed in her seventies and well suited to covering a variety of songs. Duets Special grew from a supposedly one-off collaboration with Rufus Wainwright to incorporate a host of fellow artists – “pals” in her straight-shooting parlance - singing a batch of elegant standards.

Hynde didn’t sweat the song choices and the results are suitably laidback and low-slung, opening with a smoochy Me & Mrs Jones featuring the equally sultry kd lang. Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan accesses his softer tones for Fred Neil’s Dolphins and Hynde tames the late Mark Lanegan, whose grizzled croon on I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You is affectingly fragile.

Wainwright, already crooner supreme, takes on another Elvis classic Always On My Mind, while Hynde stands to one side to admire Cat Power’s smoky tones on a low-key, almost hesitant take on Morrissey’s First of the Gang to Die. Killers’ frontman Brandon Flowers makes a lovely job of 10CC’s I’m Not In Love, while Ketty Lester’s Love Letters is a decided change of lane for Shirley Manson, who has made no secret of her admiration for Hynde.

Cult US band Low feature as both subjects and interpreters. Hynde tag teams with her illustrious peer Debbie Harry on Low’s Try to Sleep and the band’s frontman Alan Sparhawk stepped in to sublime effect on Cass McCombs’ County Line when his wife and bandmate Mimi Parker passed away.

According to Hynde, Carleen Anderson is “the best soul singer alive”. She is certainly all over Brenda Holloway’s Every Little Bit Hurts but, of all her duet partners, Lucinda Williams is arguably the only one who could really take Hynde in a sing-off, her gnarled tone as instantly recognizable on The Rolling Stones’ Sway.

London quintet The Last Dinner Party continue to boldly go where other bands might quail for fear of accusations of pretentiousness. Their second album is all the more impressive for being written while the band were touring their successful debut Prelude to Ecstasy. The momentum is clearly with them: From the Pyre is a similarly confident and audacious collection showcasing their vocal and instrumental chops, from the flamboyant flourish and guitar heroics of opener Agnus Dei via the barnstorming single This Is The Killer Speaking through to The Scythe, a powerhouse number which demonstrates that they can do scale and emotion without comprising either quality.

In a strong week for singers, Bellshill’s Rianne Downey can hold her own. She made stellar work as Paul Heaton’s vocal foil on tour but now returns to her own fragrant country-infused material on easy listening debut album The Consequence of Love. She opens with the rootsy Scotpop of Good in Goodbye and makes the connection between Celtic and Appalachian balladry on The Song of Old Glencoe but much of the album is airy fare. She delivers her prettiest vocal on Angel, a work of devotion, and expands on that contentment on Nothing Better, a retro indie shuffle with mild orchestration.

Orkney-bred singer/songwriter Merlyn Driver has just completed a tour including a number of RSPB centres, reflecting their partnership on album project Simmerdim: Curlew Sounds. Like his fellow Orcadian Erland Cooper, Driver is immersed in the island environment and offers further gentle elemental meditations on this solo debut, It Was Also Sometimes Daylight, with sonic support from fiddler Owen Spafford, double bassist Nathan Riki Thomson, cellist Francesca Ter-Berg and field recordings of dawn and frog choruses. To this he adds his soothing voice, timeless guitar playing and, on occasion, a touch of Tuareg-style desert blues to hypnotic effect.

CLASSICAL

Bliss: Miracle in the Gorbals | Metamorphic Variations (Chandos) ★★★★

I first encountered Arthur Bliss’ ballet score Miracle in the Gorbals while library browsing as a student, wondering how Glasgow’s infamous razor gang streets could have translated into acceptable 1940s’ repertory for London’s Royal Ballet with Moira Shearer among its illustrious cast. This rare full recording by the BBC Philharmonic under Michael Seal provides plentiful answers. Firstly, as a biblical allegory there’s a transcendental universality to the narrative - a mysterious Christ-like stranger entering a community, miraculously reviving a suicide victim, and whose own violent murder serves as an act of redemption over the fragile slum community. Then there’s Bliss’ music, studiously concise in its storytelling yet effusive in its expressive range, from affectionate dance styles and cinematic surges to the irreverent blast of a ship’s horn terrorising the final bars. A lusty BBC Phil do it ample credit before continuing with an uncommonly complete version of Bliss’ 1973 Metamorphic Variations. Ken Walton

FOLK

Damien O’Kane & Ron Block: Banjovial (Pure Records) ★★★★

Another counterblast to banjophobes from the Irish-American partnership of Damien O’Kane and Ron Block, both masters of their instruments – Block’s five-string bluegrass model and O’Kane’s Irish tenor, tightly accompanied by guitarist Steven Byrnes and Duncan Lyall on double bass and Moog. They can fairly sizzle, but there’s also much lightness and lyricism to their compositions, from the nimble delicacy of the opener, Anton’s Slide, to the snappy strut of Pepé and Speedy and the closing, stately drift of Alba, See You Soon. Song-wise, there’s Block’s affectingly candid tribute to his mother, Love Is Like That, while O’Kane celebrates the power of music itself in The Loudest Word. They’re joined on a fine jig pairing by the convivial strains of accordion star Sharon Shannon, while fiddler Aubrey Haynie adds bluegrass zest (not to mention high speed car effects) to the racy Mario Kart Rides Again. Jim Gilchrist

The Scotsman’s arts newsletter is now sent twice a week - subscribe today