Album reviews: Mika | Jason Derulo | Buzzcocks | Amy Duncan

Mika: Hyperlove (Republic Records) ★★

Jason Derulo: The Last Dance (Part 1) (Create Music Group) ★★★

Buzzcocks: Attitude Adjustment (Cherry Red) ★★

Amy Duncan: Greetings From Gartnavel (Last Night From Glasgow) ★★★

For a time there it seemed like Mika had ditched the day job as a pop star for a succession of reality TV gigs which at least called on his musical expertise, from X Factor Italy to The Voice France to The Piano. He returns to writing and performing not with a bang but with a somewhat underwhelming electro pop album of his first English language songs since 2019.

Nick Littlemore of Empire of the Sun is his co-producer and cult film director John Waters provides spoken word interludes, but none of that implied pop culture genius has rubbed off in the creation of Hyperlove. The album title might suggest elevated emotions but this is a far more subdued Mika than the maximalist entertainer of Grace Kelly or Love Today.

Apart from one brief pumping disco interlude, the music falls mostly on the mellow side. The opening title track gives a measure of its meditative, minimalist and pretty unremarkable world. Modern Times is more of a banger, with its distorted vocals, grungey guitars, ravey breakdowns and martial drumming but Spinning Out is a disappointing dance mantra. The chilled seductive synth pop of Excuses For Love and Dreams and retro futuristic 80s references of Science Fiction Lover are marginally more appealing but can’t shake the sense that a musician of Mika’s talent is coasting along here.

R&B seducer Jason Derulo, on the other hand, is determined to have some fun with The Last Dance (Part 1). Always fond of namechecking himself in the third person, Derulo now appears to be hiring others to do it for him as the light party vibes commence. Sexy For Me features the cute manicured wiggle of klezmer woodwind, Complicated is an R&B interpolation of the Avril Lavigne hit and Justin Bieber’s Sorry, while he jumps on Justin Timberlake/Bruno Mars pop funk territory with Pineapple.

He is all superficial concern on Who Hurt You with a tinny reggaeton beat supporting his pitchshifted R&B overtures, while Dial Tones is the autotuned falsetto ballad of a ghosted man. None of this is particularly deep but most of it is catchy, playful and danceable enough to wish he would stay in this lane rather than move on to Part 2 which, according to Derulo, is set to mark a new phase of his career later this year.

READ MORE: Rhymes & Reels, Celtic Connections, Glasgow review: 'a heady evening of verbal and musical eloquence'

In punk’s 50th anniversary year, OG outfit Buzzcocks are still going - if not quite so strong - under the leadership of founder member Steve Diggle. Latest album Attitude Adjustment kicks off with a rootsy garage feel to tracks such as Seeing Daylight but gradually loses charm and momentum. Tears of a Golden Girl at least barrels along on a wave of melodic grunge guitars but recent single Poetic Machine Gun lacks oomph and the second half of the album chugs along through mediocre mod tracks and a low-key and uninspired Greatest of Them All, which feels light years away from the original hotwired spirit of punk.

Singer/songwriter Amy Duncan collaborates once again with lyricist David Paton following the requiem of Wake, on which Paton responded to the suicide of his twin brother Iain. Greetings From Gartnavel features similar dark matter, documenting Paton’s time spent in the titular hospital’s psychiatric ward. The likes of I Feel A Bit Lightheaded, I Hope That I Can Be Redeemed, Tomorrow Can’t Come Late Enough and the quietly devastating I Can’t tell their own diaristic story. Musically it’s not heavy weather, with plangent bassline and mellow strings on the fragrant, soaring I Am Ashamed, but Duncan keeps it bare and vulnerable for The Big Sadness’s admission that “I might not make it back”.

READ MORE: Album reviews: Callum Beattie | Van Morrison

CLASSICAL

Out Of Vienna: Berg | Webern | Schulhoff (Alpha Classics) ★★★★★

It’s no surprise to learn that the musical origins of the Berlin-based Leonkoro Quartet owe so much to the music of the Second Viennese School, not least Alban Berg whose juicily enigmatic Lyric Suite, played with dizzying iridescence and intuitive profundity, opens this remarkable disc. Out Of Vienna ends with Anton Webern: the lacerating iciness of his Five Movements for String Quartet, a work reduced to aching reflectiveness in the final movement; and the pre-modernist Langsamer Satz with its seductive leanings to Brahms and teasing, subliminal hints of Webern’s later reactionary path. Particularly intriguing, however, are the Five Pieces for String Quartet by Erwin Schulhoff, more a periodic adherent to the School’s mainliners than resident luminary, thus exuding an eclecticism that flits effortlessly between Stravinsky and Bartok, fits of Parisian jazz-infused absurdity (it’s dedicated to Milhaud) and bizarre theatricality, mostly dressed up as whimsical parody. Ken Walton

FOLK

Blazin’ Fiddles: Incendo (Blazin’ Records) ★★★★

More than 25 years on from their formation, this latest configuration of Blazin’ Fiddles continues to live up to the name. Founder Bruce McGregor may have stepped back, but fiddlers Kristan Harvey, Jenna Reid and Rua Macmillan and pianist Angus Lyon are now joined by the multi-instrumental Anna Massie on guitar, mandolin, banjo and, er, fiddle. Splicing traditional with contemporary, they bring a fine skip to Athole, a classic strathspey and reel set, while the following, Finnish-inspired Perhonjoki is a stately Angus Lyon composition, Massie’s mandolin bright against elegant bowing. The bluntly titled Fiddles does exactly what it says on the tin – an exhilarating string quartet sequence of reels – and MacMillan and Lyon duet breezily in a Canadian-inspired set. There are further fireworks as Reid takes the hoary old Kate Dalrymple on a merry dance, while things close with a haunting treatment of the Finnish tune Lähtö. Jim Gilchrist

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