Album reviews: Madonna | Deep Purple | Gurry Wurry
Madonna’s first album of new material in 15 years is a triumph, filled with instant classics and reflective comedown tracks, writes Fiona Shepherd
Madonna: Confessions II, Warner Records ★★★★
Deep Purple: SPLAT!, earMUSIC ★★★
Gurry Wurry: Glue, Shabby Road ★★★★
Arriving on the heels of a succession of remix albums, Madonna’s 15th album of new material also pays tribute to her back catalogue with its very deliberate referencing of Confessions on a Dance Floor, her beloved 2005 disco mix of straight-up party music. Two decades on, following the recent deaths of her brother and step-mother, she is ready to dance away the heartache again with another club-friendly suite, re-recruiting original Confessions producer Stuart Price for some continuity, as well as re-uniting with her original record label Warners.
Madonna is taking no chances with her comeback. Confessions II blows in on a whirlwind of promotion which will culminate in her headlining the first ever half-time show at the World Cup final, trailed with a sleek short film introducing the theme of the dancefloor as a place of holy communion and shape-shifting escapism.
On this occasion, house and techno, rather than disco, are the sonic building blocks. Just as the original Confessions album rode in on the Abba-sampling Hung Up, so opening track I Feel So Free borrows its credentials by sampling Lil Louis’ pumping house classic French Kiss, while the Sabrina Carpenter-featuring Bring Your Love can hardly fail with its sample of Inner City’s solid gold Good Life.
She references her own roots on Danceteria, named after the legendary New York club, with namechecks for her peers Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat and, like any good DJ, keeps the dancefloor full with the lush rush of Good for the Soul and heady reverie of One Step Away. The seriously pumping Everything gives way to the disco house inflections of Love Sensation while Bizarre is a cheesier rave tune courtesy of guest DJ Martin Garrix.
Instead of going out on a sweaty high, Madonna also supplies the more reflective comedown on the last few tracks. Fragile is an ode to her late brother Christopher in recognition of their “fragile bond”, while daughter Lourdes “Lola” Leon collaborates on The Test. Latin jazz trumpet is woven around another brooding electro soundscape on Betrayal and she ends on a soft, bittersweet note with L.E.S. Girl.
Deep Purple also conceptualize on their new album, the latest in a fairly steady stream from the veteran hard rock outfit. SPLAT! is trailed as “music for the end of humanity (but not as grim as it may seem)” though there is little that is apocalyptic or earth-shaking here.
The hectic scurry of Arrogant Boy is more prog than classic rock, a song about popping your head above the parapet, featuring illiterate yet articulate protagonist Billy. The album does not go all in on rock opera but there are shades of The Who in the Orwell-inspired baroque boogie of The Lunatic.
Rootsy rock’n’roller Diablo details misadventure by bare knuckle fighting, with frontman Ian Gillan chuckling “I love that” at the end, while The Rider is a celebration of the more eccentric excesses of rock star demands and Jessica’s Bra - a Gillan misprint for “bar” – is a heroic ode to pub culture and its “flagons of tumbling ale”.
Elsewhere, Gillan draws on the Rob Roy legend and indulges in Celtic mysticism on Sacred Land, while My New Movie is an origins story about young musicians cutting loose with confidence, none of it especially vital but still attacked with spirit.
Leith-based musician Dave King releases “wonky nonsense” as Gurry Wurry. His latest album, already out on vinyl, CD, cassette and download but not on streaming platforms until the end of October, finds a self-comforting outlet in droll DIY creativity. King licks wounds, ponders nostalgia for happier times and, through the geeky prism of battle re-enactment, asks how you fight for something when you are a pacifist, all delivered with charming indie melodrama.
CLASSICAL
Brahms: Violin Sonatas, Seattle Chamber Music Society ★★★★★
It’s a partnership that stretches back 35 years. Little surprise then that these thoughtful, symbiotic performances of Brahms’ three violin sonatas by Canadian violinist James Ehnes and American pianist Andrew Armstrong are fully in step with works Brahms wrote at the very height of his creativity: the plaintive ease of the G major sonata; the expressive conversational dialogue of the A major; a D minor wrapped in luxuriant warmth but lit by fiery theatrics. Central to Ehnes’ delivery is his trademark precision, immaculate tone control and measured virtuosity, but also the shared vision he and Armstrong so convincingly convey. Whether in the leisurely poeticism of the G major, the folkish awakenings of the A major Andante, or the passionate stirrings of the D minor, there is relevance and beauty in every utterance. The Scherzo Brahms penned for the collaborative F-A E Sonata gifted to Joseph Joachim is simply the icing on the cake. Ken Walton
FOLK
Sam Carter Sings Nic Jones: Live At Celtic Connections, Captain Records ★★★★
This affectionate homage to the great Nic Jones, the singer whose career was tragicallycurtailed by a car accident in 1982, proves an unexpected triumph for Sam Carter, a BBC Folk Award winner who made a 2010 Sidmouth Festival appearance alongside Jones in the latter’s first appearance in 28 years. Recorded at Celtic Connections with the blessing of Jones’s family, Carter captures Nic’s vocal power and inflections as well as his percussive guitar style, underlying clear narration with fine snap in the likes of Barrack Street. He brings great gentleness to Annan Water and dignity to Jones’s own Ruins by the Shore. There are, of course, pickings from Jones’s venerated Penguin Eggs album, capturing the strangely melancholic measure of Courting Is a Pleasure, the cross-dressing sailor girl of Canadee-I-O, and the aching remembrance of Little Pot Stove. Jim Gilchrist
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