Music reviews

Standing At The Skyrsquos Edge artist Richard Hawley LAbel EMI Price Rs 395 Rating A contemporary album that sounds as if it were recorded in the aftermath of Woodstock That was this criticrsquos first reaction a minute into the opening track She brings the sunlight Itrsquos what the song sounds like with its wash of guitars is there also a sitar lurking in the mix and gravellike voice that compels one to presume it was recorded in a bathroom Acting as a counterpoint to this Kulashakeresque opening are the lyrics mdash at times melancholic Donrsquot Stare At The Sun at other times bucolic Down in the Woods sometimes focusing on sad lives at the periphery Standing at the Skyrsquos Edge and at other times almost cathartic Leave Your Body Behind You What it leaves one with is a sense of wistfulness which may be part of Richard Hawleyrsquos master plan all along None of the tracks bar one are less than five minutes long This lets the musicians churn out pulsating jams that sometimes sound as if they belong to a Phish concert The star as always is Hawleyrsquos writing This is a man who 11 years ago had this to say on a track called The Nights Are Cold mdash lsquoThe fate of man is random so donrsquot look down the towns and the cities are all burning down your road is bitter like the whip off the wind you wanna get to the end but you donrsquot know how to beginrsquo He continues to channel that almost postapocalyptic view of the world into songs like Time Will Give You Winter Another winner titled Seek It sits pretty at the midway mark lsquoI had a dream and you were in itrsquo he sings lsquoWe got naked canrsquot remember what happened nextrsquo There really isnrsquot anyone writing songs like this at the moment Get it Travelling artist Roxette Label EMI Price Rs 395 rating After a surprisingly long hiatus from the charts and our television sets it seems as if Roxette feels the sudden urge to make up for lost time This explains the appearance of a new album a little over a year after last yearrsquos Charm School It also seems as if Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson want to try and recapture the spark that made their last work about life on the road mdash Tourism Songs from Studios Stages Hotel rooms amp Other Strange Places released two decades ago mdash so successful What they did back then is mix a bunch of new songs recorded while on tour with live versions of established hits As a result the lsquolive amp countryrsquo version of It Must Have Been Love rubbed shoulders with Silver Blue as well as other live versions of hits like Joyride Sadly this attempt at repeating the formula isnrsquot as satisfying For one it features yet another live version of It Must Have Been Love the only big blast from the past tacked on for some reason That it still sounds great for a song now a quarter of a century old is beside the point Then therersquos the new stuff Some of it is fairly good by Roxette standards For instance both versions of Itrsquos Possible lsquoDu du do do do do got to write a tiny note to you Du do do do do do therersquos something very difficult about yoursquo are admittedly catchy while Touched by the Hand of God is possibly their best single in years Then again a track like Angel Passing mdash lsquoshersquos an angel passing through the room Would you like to know herrsquo mdash simply ends up bordering on the cheesy Ultimately itrsquos the duorsquos obvious enthusiasm for what they do that saves the album u00a0