Album reviews: Luke Combs | Kim Gordon | Alexis Taylor | wor_kspace

Luke Combs: The Way I Am (Sony Music Nashville) ★★

Kim Gordon: Play Me (Matador) ★★★

Alexis Taylor: Paris in the Spring (Night Time Stories) ★★★★

wor_kspace:Collapsing the Wave Function (Glass Modern) ★★★★

This summer, record-breaking country artist Luke Combs follows household names Taylor Swift, Oasis and AC/DC in headlining Murrayfield - for two nights, no less. Over the last decade, Combs has become such an established crossover success that even tribute acts to this North Carolina native can sell out large venues. But why Combs and not another of the many mainstream country artists who speak the same cliched lingo of trucks and beers and family roots?

You won’t find the answers in his sixth album - a bumper collection of slick, professional, serviceable country fare which lacks that special sauce. Redneck party tune My Kind of Saturday Night will play well at Murrayfield with its zippy line dance pace. Some brief, intense twang and a western swing solo aside, there is no time to waste on embroidery with so much beer to drink and 20 more songs to get through, circling round standard country themes and sounds with just the occasional diversion into, say, rootsy funk rock on Rethink Some Things.

Gurning country ballad Days Like These takes stock in the most mundane way (“when the sky is blue and the grass is green, how much better can it be?”). There are some slight twists on a theme - Giving Her Away is a wedding song for father-in-laws, 15 Minutes is a phone call to mama from prison, Alcohol of Fame is his droll response to his woman walking out on him and he is haunted by an ex on Seeing Someone. Wish Upon a Whiskey, however, is overblown self-flagellation, while the MOR title track sounds like a country Westlife.

Combs co-writes with many of his jobbing peers, from Brent Cobb to Lori McKenna, but there is just one feature spot on the album. Ever Mind, with backing vocals by Alison Krauss, is a head-and-shoulders highlight for its bluegrass balladry and simple poetic anti-war lyrics but arguably too subtle for this newly promoted stadium artist.

Former Sonic Youth bass ace Kim Gordon continues to carve a distinctive solo path with another odd, fidgety beast of a record. Play Me is compelling enough as a short suite of lo-fi industrial beats-driven sketches. The title track combines Gordon’s breathy drawl with a sunny brass fanfare and steady art rock hip-hop beat. In contrast, there is a pained urgency to her semi-spoken vocals on Girl With a Look. The minimal, tensile Dirty Tech addresses the rise of AI in serious-not-serious style (“I like it when you talk dirty tech to me”) while Dave Grohl has a blast drumming over pitch-shifted Gordon vocal samples on Busy Bee, but the more accessible alt.pop of recent single Not Today comes as something of a relief.

Hot Chip frontman Alexis Taylor possesses one of the most appealing and underrated voices in pop music, capable of investing anything with light, aching emotion. His latest album is a communal affair with guest contributions from the likes of Air’s Nicolas Godin and sonic wizards The Avalanches, who produce the crystalline synth pop paean I Can Feel Your Love. A tremulous electro cover of The Rolling Stones’ Wild Horses is slightly sullied by a dub-tinged rhythm but collaborations with Lola Kirke on the dancefloor rhapsody Out of Phase and Scritti Politti’s Green Gartside on the joyful 80s pop of On a Whim are just the ticket.

wor_kspace is the lockdown project of BMX Bandits/Teenage Fanclub wingman Finlay Macdonald who emerges from his bedroom studio to deliver a second album, Collapsing the Wave Function, which hits a sweet analogue spot between math rock and psych pop, pastoral electronica and beguiling melody, twanging guitar and motorik rhythms.

READ MORE: Keith Urban, Glasgow review: 'blandly charming'

CLASSICAL

Edmund Rubbra: Crucifixus pro Nobis - Choral Music (Delphian) ★★★★

Edmund Rubbra (1901-86) wrote 11 symphonies. They’re rarely played nowadays, which is both understandable and a little unfair. He was a skilled craftsman with a steady religious mind, creating a musical signature of both conservative distinction and mild-mannered curiosity. That’s certainly the impression given by Benjamin Nicholas’ Choir of Merton College, joined variously in this album of mainly religious choral music by the Britten Sinfonia, tenor Benjamin Hulett and organists François Cloete and Owen Chan. Short and appealing, The Virgin’s Cradle Hymn finds Rubbra inspired by tradition as a student, whereas such later works as the steady-handed Missa in Honorem Sancti Dominici (intriguing hints of Eastern musical influence) and Cantata di Camera: Crucifixus pro Nobis (exquisite colourings from the intimate instrumental ensemble) demonstrate his imagination. Two of the voluptuous Five Motets Op 37 leave you thirsting for the other three. The organ works are mixed in quality. Ken Walton

JAZZ

Marius Neset & Bergen Bigband: Time to Live (ACT Music) ★★★★

Expansively textured, frequently lyrical and full of surprises, this album consolidates the Norwegian saxophonist’s status as both a superb player and a composer and orchestrator to be reckoned with. Accompanied here by frequent collaborator Anton Eger on drums plus first-rate big band, the introductory Opener does indeed blow the album open with initial sax mutterings, crisp brass responses and woodwind calls, going on to develop mightily with shades of American minimalism, Neset’s soprano sax singing and squalling alongside the big band’s reeds. Elsewhere, flamenco-like palmas herald the carnivalesque And Time to Live, soprano sax piping and Dag Arnesen’s piano breaking out brightly as things dance to a jubilant close. Stately, hymn-like brass opens Life Can Be Bright, while Coming Out features Neset’s beefy tenor sax alongside chattering reeds, steely guitar, funky brass and warbling synths (echoes of Weather Report recur at times). Jim Gilchrist

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

Want the latest Scottish headlines sent directly to your phone? Sign up to our new WhatsApp channel here