Album reviews: Olly Murs | De La Soul | Aerosmith & Yungblud

Olly Murs; Knees Up (BMG) ★★★

De La Soul: Cabin in the Sky (Mass Appeal) ★★★★

Aerosmith & Yungblud: One More Time (Capitol Records) ★★★

Who would have put money on Olly Murs as the TV talent show contestant to outlast his peers? There doesn’t seem to be any complicated formula for his longevity, just a combination of relatable personality, willingness to graft and a steadily growing catalogue of thoroughly middle of the road music.

Over the last 15 years, he has carved out a comfortable niche as the cheeky chappie for those who find Robbie Williams a bit too spicy. The title of his eighth album plays into that persona and the majority of tracks return him to the ska pop with which he launched his career off the back of The X Factor.

The title track weighs in with more stridency than usual. Murs is in rough ringmaster mode, whipping up the audience over skittery brass and a perky ska rhythm, before everything else moves to the centre. Save Me features Murs coming home with his tail between his legs to the tune of twanging guitar. Guilty breezes along hastily in case anyone notices how cliched the lyrics are. Just convict this man of love and get it over with.

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Bonkers presents as typical I’m-mad-me blokey drollery but, like his heroes Madness, Murs uses the aggressive cheeriness of the music to cloak darker themes, in this case concerning the stigma around mental health issues. Soon enough he returns to geezer territory on Run This Town, written way back with Preston from The Ordinary Boys, recounting the invincible feeling on a big night out.

Having squeezed as much mileage out of the ska pop sound as is desirable, Murs tries on a few different musical styles on the remaining tracks, including the high-kicking cabaret of Cut to the Chase, the stomping pop soul of Love Hurts Without You and the one man boy band succour of Chin Up. No envelopes were pushed in the making of this album.

Veteran hip-hop outfit De La Soul reunite with producer Prince Paul for their first album since the death of founding member Dave Jolicoeur, ask Trugoy the Dove in 2023. “The magic will always remain three” pledge his bandmates Maseo and Posdnuos on YUHDONTSTOP over strings which reference the Funkadelic sample from their 1989 hit Me, Myself and I.

They’ve earned the right to wallow in nostalgia but Cabin in the Sky is more a celebration of their signature sound - mellow to mid-paced rapping over old school soul and funk beats for which they are joined by a host of guest testifiers including rap royalty Nas, Black Thought and Q-Tip. They flip hip-hop standard The Message with a dreamy plaintive tune and beatific harp runs, offer thoughtful spirituality on Palm of His Hands and address their loss and gives thanks on the easy funk swing of the title track.

Aerosmith’s first new music in over a decade is an EP collaboration with English likely lad Dominic Harrison aka Yungblud, who sang his heart out supporting Black Sabbath at their final gig. Now he gets to compare six-packs with leathery veterans Steve Tyler and Joe Perry while co-writing four songs and reviving an oldie. Harrison cannot help but sound like the baby of the crew but he still lets rip on the stadium-sized Problems as Perry is given latitude to riff with abandon and Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum brings it home.

Elsewhere, they tick the relevant Aerosmith boxes. My Only Angel is pleasant pop rock fitted with raspy vocals, A Thousand Days is the hoary ballad and Wild Woman represents their rootsy side, even if it comes off as even more manicured than Bon Jovi’s Wanted Dead or Alive. Nothing quite matches Back in the Saddle, originally recorded in 1976 and now fitted with an urgent new mix.

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CLASSICAL

Walton: Cello Concerto | Symphony No 1 | Scapino (Chandos) ★★★★★

John Wilson knows his strengths, and as an interpreter of English music he has swiftly built a formidable reputation. His focus is currently on William Walton, and in this latest album - one that feeds through the pugnacious rigour of the early First Symphony, via the virtuosic sparkle of the 1940s comedy overture Scapino (in its 1950 revision) to the aching lustre of the later Cello Concerto - he hints at a narrative that is a progressive reflection of the man himself. Wilson’s Sinfonia of London are in terrific form, ripping into the Symphony with blistering grit and delivering a rip-roaring Finale. Norwegian cellist Jonathan Aasgaard brings a golden intensity to the Cello Concerto, scorchingly lyrical, exhaustively expressive and effortlessly virtuosic. Scapino, one of Walton’s classy American commissions, provides a seat-of-the-pants opener to a disc that never once fails to stir the senses. Ken Walton

FOLK

Martyn Joseph: Troubled Horses (Pipe Records) ★★★★

The gruff eloquence of long-standing Welsh singer-songwriter and activist Martyn Joseph’s delivery is accompanied here solely by his own guitar and Dylan-esque harmonica. His adopting this starkly uncluttered approach is inevitably reminiscent of Springsteen Nevada territory but it lets lyrics speak clearly for themselves, often reverberant with humanity. The title track is a compassionate rejoinder to current ructions over immigration, reminding protagonists “They were babies once, as different as the same” and that, way back, didn’t we all come from elsewhere? Also lamenting troubled times, Last Night I Heard America, co-written with Stewart Henderson, deftly namechecks classic songwriters from Simon to Parsons. Elsewhere, Joseph breaks periodically into haunting falsetto in I Wonder I Do, Mary’s Tears manifests as a striking take on the tale of Mary Magdalene washing Christ’s feet while In a World that Breaks Your Heart comes straight from his own, bursting with humane outrage. Jim Gilchrist

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