New Music

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The Rolling Stones, from left to right: Charlie Watts, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, and Ron Wood. The Stones' Some Girls has been re-released as a remaster double CD. (MARK SELIGER / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES)

THE ROLLING STONES

Some Girls (UNIVERSAL)

ORIGINALLY appearing five years after their hailed-as-a-classic Exile On Main Street, Some Girls is England hit-makers the Rolling Stones' attempt at staying relevant during the musical onslaught of punk rock. This remastered two-disc version sounds excellent and the various and sundry musical tidbits that jump out of the mix become much clearer on this 22-track set.

It does smack of needy desperation in spots and if you were attuned to the punk and the rock of the era the album sounded as behind the times and obvious as could be. The bonus tracks here outnumber the original album set at a dozen sides. They are middling at best and illustrate what the Stones must have known at the time: they were losing ground to younger, more urgent bands and being massacred at their own game.

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There are the requisite Stonesy blues workouts (When You're Gone); a Carib shuffle (Don't Be A Stranger); some work-up rockers (I Love You sounds like When The Whip Comes Down in early form);, weak attempts at straight country music (You Win Again, No Spare Parts); and a typically gormless Keith Richards heroin ballad (We Had It All). Any collector worth his or her salt in 1977 was already gobbling up anything from any number of tight combos from San Francisco, New York and London -- it was just more interesting, vital and challenging to hear. With multi-disc reissues from classic rock acts coming from the left, right and centre it seems more and more like a simple cash grab for dinosaur rockers and their record companies. For fans a must have, one would suppose, but digging deeper into other music from the same era will yield a treasure trove of important, undiscovered artists. Four stars

-- Jeff Monk

ADELE

Live at the Royal Albert Hall (XL Recordings)

IT has been the year of Adele, so why shouldn't she finish 2011 with the best selling DVD to go alongside her multi-platinum album, 21, which has sold more than 13 million copies worldwide and is up for six Grammy Awards.

This 100-minute live set was recorded at London's legendary Royal Albert Hall in September and includes highlights from her first two albums (Rumour Has It, Chasing Pavements, Someone Like You, Rolling in the Deep) and covers by Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt and the SteelDrivers. Between songs she is chatty, funny and earns cheers whenever she swears (which she does often). She sometimes sounds like a Cockney pub waitress until she unleashes her powerful soulful pipes that could probably fill the hall without a microphone.

The set includes a CD of the show and a nine-minute documentary, which features Adele with her guard down looking totally unglamorous with curlers in her hair. Call her the anti-diva. Four stars

-- Rob Williams

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SCOTT HINKSON

One Beside Two (Independent)

WITH his third solo outing, singer-songwriter Scott Hinkson again delivers a genuine set of tracks with a distinctly introspective tone as the Winnipegger wanders through his thoughts, moods and relationships.

Opening track Simpleton sets the table for a series of songs that range from fairly urgent and dense pop to tart Nils Lofgren-esque charm (They Know It's Near). Hinkson plays almost every note on here as well as self-producing, recording, mixing and mastering, and while obviously adept at what he does, there seems to be an underlying complexity to some tracks that detracts from their ultimate sonic success. Perhaps an outside producer next time around would prevent his busy hands from adding yet another bell or whistle to a track.

Hinkson's high tenor vocals work in their own earnest way here but a rougher-edged throat would suit edgier songs like Killjoy like a tight glove. Three stars

-- JM

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JERRY SEREDA

Turn the Country On (MDM/EMI)

WINNIPEG-BASED Jerry Sereda has already tasted country radio success with I Ain't Learned Nothin' Yet and Morning After the Night Before (both included here) but there's more where those came from on his sophomore release.

Armed with a pleasing baritone and a bevy of Winnipeg's finest musicians, Sereda explores the same territory as Eric Church, Paul Brandt and Doc Walker (whose Chris Thorsteinson and Murray Pulver co-wrote Getaway Car with Deric Ruttan while Pulver guests on the album, displaying his string bending skills). Sereda doesn't write the songs, other than a pretty ballad called The Promise, but he sure can pick 'em. My Hearts Got a Memory and That'll Get You Drinkin' are both radio ready.

There is one thing that bugs me: Why do so many home-grown tunesmiths use American cities instead of Canadian ones? Take Memphis and Me for example -- why couldn't that be Moose Jaw and Me? Wait. Never mind. Three and a half stars

-- Bruce Leperre

MAYOR MATT ALLEN AND THE LITTLE BUDDIES

Sisters and Brothers (Dollartone)

MATT Allen often gets labelled as a roots artist, but on his latest album he shows off some of his soulful side.

The emotionally-charged title track is a call for unification that finds the Winnipegger digging deep both lyrically and with his voice, which has evolved from a throaty growl into something smoother, bolder and adventurous as he covers the spectrum ranging from a hushed whisper to a wild man's howl. He shows off his dusty C&W side on the dark ballads Corn and Beans and Come Life Shaker Life; revs thing up on the gritty rock blast of Main Street Shuffle and ramshackle Stones Roll; evokes Tom Waits on the smoldering Mercury's Rising; taps into some gospel-soul on Brighter Days; and finishes things off with the experimental seven-minute roots-punk ride of El Cordobez.

Joining Allen as the Little Buddies are a handful of local music scene veterans, including members of the D. Rangers, Absent Sound, the Corb Lund Band and Boats who join together as a talented group of sisters and brothers. Four stars

-- RW

CLASSICAL

SERGIO AZZOLINI, L'AURA SOAVE CREMONA

Vivaldi: Bassoon Concertos 2 (Naïve)

THIS is another instalment in Naïve's Vivaldi Edition, a massive venture to record 450 of Vivaldi's autographed scores preserved at the National University Library in Turin, many of them completely unknown to the public. This set includes seven of the composer's 39 bassoon concertos and mature works written during the last 21 years of his life showing, as with his cello concertos, a special affinity for the more melancholy deeper instruments, yet leaving nothing wanting in dramatic thrust.

Sergio Azzolini could easily be the Cecilia Bartoli of the bassoon. Like the famed mezzo's stunning Vivaldi album, Azzolini's playing is octane personified as he pushes the limits of his baroque bassoon to make the music come alive not just in primary colours, but every possible shade in between. His orchestra is yet another of those brilliant hair-trigger period ensembles that seem to dot every corner of Europe these days. Quite the discovery. Four stars

-- James Manishen

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JAZZ

SOPHIE MILMAN

In The Moonlight (eOne)

TORONTO singer Sophie Milman teams up with some of New York's jazz elite on her fourth recording, an outing that showcases her intimate vocal style on standards such as Moonlight, Prelude To A Kiss, Speak Low, Till There Was You and a very good No More Blues.

Some tunes have a decidedly European feel thanks to the harmonica of Grégoire Maret, and Milman must have found it a dream to have her vocals enhanced by A-listers like pianists Gerald Clayton and Kevin Hays, guitarists Julian Lage and Romero Lubambo, bassist Larry Grenadier, drummer Lewis Nash and guest soloists Randy Brecker (flugelhorn) and Chris Potter (tenor saxophone).

The Juno Award winner favours classic jazz tunes but uses her smoky, stylish voice to raise them out of the chestnut realm. Three and a half stars

-- Chris Smith

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COMEDY

PATTON OSWALT

Finest Hour (Comedy Central Records)

PATTON Oswalt is gaining increasing attention for his acting abilities -- especially following the release of the movie Young Adult in which he shares the screen with Charlize Theron -- but he is a standup comic first and foremost.

His newest comedy disc is a mixture of anecdotes, observations, offbeat word play and oddball fantasies that aren't as angry as his previous albums -- he's a father now -- but still provide plenty of insights and laughs as he touches on the wonder of sweatpants, debates the merits of Jesus's super powers (and whether he would make a good member of the X-Men), vows to be the first non-ironic visitor to the Spam Museum, figures out how Disney breaks enough children's spirits to ensure a future workforce and imagines pitching the circus as an entertainment destination today.

Longtime fans will enjoy catching up on the fallout from his most famous comedy bit about KFC's Famous Bowls, a.k.a. "a failure pile in a sadness bowl," and his take on the Double Down sandwich, a name which implies you are gambling with your health. "I'm going to let it ride in my colon," he says. Four stars

-- RW

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 17, 2011 G4