FOR MUM
Alicia
Keys: As I Am
At only 26, the New Yorker is very much the image of a “serious” mainstream
artist.
Linda
Thompson: Versatile Heart
The album makes it clear she is not just one of Britain’s truly great folk
singers, but one of our greatest singers full stop.
PJ
Harvey: White Chalk
A superb record that could probably bear the description “ethereal”.
Joni
Mitchell: Shine
Smart yet understated arrangements, sophisticated piano and a deep, dusty
voice – somehow both commanding and hypnotic – sound quite lovely.
Diana
Krall: The Very Best Of
After giving birth, the poster girl for interpreting classic tunes announces
she’s back.
FOR DAD
Bruce
Springsteen: Magic
The late flowering of the Boss’s career shows no sign of fading.
Rolling
Stones: Rolled Gold Plus
This compilation is the finest introduction to the Rolling Stones. It includes
some of the finest, rowdiest pop music made – all killer, no filler, and
occasionally in tune.
Robert
Plant & Alison Krauss: Raising Sand
Alison Krauss may have never sounded better than she does here; as for Plant,
though, it doesn’t make sense to say the same thing. He has quite simply
found a whole new voice. Who knew?
Neil
Young: Chrome Dreams
Neil Young puts a bunch of varied songs together and releases the best album
he has made in many years.
Nezet-Seguin:
Bruckner's Seventh
Thrillingly terraced climaxes, confident speed shifts and with the rosy sheen
of the Orchestre Metropolitain du Grand Montreal - Yannick Nezet-Seguin
motors his way through Bruckner's meaty Seventh Symphony with assurance.
FOR CHILDREN
Kylie
Minogue: X
This is an impeccably designed album, snipping off bits from the hipper
fringes of electronic music and restitching it into a pop context – the
musical equivalent of the couture item filtering down and becoming a
high-street knock-off.
Girls
Aloud: Tangled Up
Sticking rigidly to the template of a booming disco chorus tied to a quieter
verse, the fifth Girls album is packed with hits past and future.
Sugababes:
Change
The faces may change, the producers may change, but the ability to turn out
superior hits remains remarkably constant.
Leona
Lewis: Spirit
The critics may not have warmed to her, but children, having seen her on X
Factor, don’t seem to care. They are keeping the singer riding high in the
charts.
Shayne
Ward: Breathless
He’s fighting it out with the big budgets like Justin Timberlake’s in the
sweet voice stakes, and not doing badly.
FOR TEENAGERS
Scouting
for Girls: Scouting for Girls
Unfailingly perky piano pop, which boasts the sort of “ooh-eee-ooh” backing
vocals not heard since Supertramp.
Jack
Penate
The hipster’s warm-hearted record may not change the course of music, but it
is still a good place to be.
Orson:
Culture Vultures
If Orson were skinny-hipped Hollywood teen love gods, instead of late bloomers
of a certain age, they would top the American charts as well as our own.
Kayne
West: Graduation
Adored by critics for his musical smarts and witty mockery of rap’s populist
clichés, he is riding high.
Black
Lips: Good Bad Not Evil
The first garage band to be hyped in a while, and their fourth album, proves
that the buzz is justified
FOR GRANDPARENTS
Alison
Moyet: The Turn
Possessing enough self-awareness to choose a delightfully sardonic title,
Southend’s finest retains her vocal charisma.
Peter
Grant: Traditional
Is there room for another Jamie Cullum? Absolutely. There’s a gritty quality
to his singing and choice of material that grabs your attention.
Kate
Royal: Kate Royal
If her soprano voice were wine, it would be red, and full-bodied. This isn’t a
voice that hedges its bets, and her lyrical lustre knocks you away on her
very first disc.
Cecilia
Bartoli: Maria
Maria Malibran’s excitable coloratura repertoire, leaping over nearly three
octaves, is ideal for Cecilia Bartoli.
Paul
McCartney: Memory Almost Full
This album contains some of the former Beatle's best and most experimental
work in years.
FOR POP FANS
Britney
Spears: Blackout
The songs on this album tick almost every box in the checklist of great pop,
period.
Vanessa
Paradis
The mother of Johnny Depp’s children has fashioned an exquisite pop album that
oozes nouvelle vague.
Miracle
Mile: Limbo
Limbo is as good as anything Miracle Mile have done, which makes it very good
indeed: classic pop songwriting (in the Crowded House/Prefab Sprout area),
gorgeously realised.
Will.I.am:
Songs About Girls
Though written around a failed relationship, The Black Eyed Pea’s Songs About
Girls is upbeat, sexy dancefloor pop.
The
Go! Team
Ian Parton’s fantasy band offer up a strangely addictive set and remain
unmistakable.
FOR ROCK FANS
Led
Zeppelin: Mothership
Every one of these 24 tracks (save, perhaps, the lumpy reggae of D’Yer Mak’Er)
is a gilded monument to the power of rock.
The
Hives: The Black and White Album
You may have considered the Stooges to be one of the band’s primary
influences, but on Black and White they call to mind the New York Dolls. The
swagger in the band’s step is still fully justified.
Thurston
Moore: Trees Outside the Academy
Rock fans attached to Sonic Youth lamented the band’s swift retreat to its
avant-garde roots, but here Thurston Moore delivers the art-flecked
alterna-rock album Geffen Records probably expected his parent group to
condescend to make more often.
Wire:
Read & Burn 03
The latest from Wire reveals that the postpunk foursome are as engaged and
inventive as ever.
Foo
Fighters: Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
You can just imagine Dave Grohl chomping on a big cigar, smiling and
muttering: “I love it when a plan comes together.” Because that’s exactly
what has happened with this album.
FOR CLASSICAL MUSIC FANS
Les
Arts Florissants: Die Schöpfung (The Creation)
Few period-instrument versions of Haydn’s oratorio come up sounding as fresh
and new-minted as this one from William Christie and his elite French period
band.
Vivaldi:
Fabio Biondi
Being a jaded Vivaldi listener is impossible when this violinist leads his
group Europa Galante.
Steven
Isserlis: Bach Cello Suites
Isserlis is a passionate musician, but never thoughtless or frivolous, and the
delicacy of his responses on this wonderful set sometimes take the breath
away. If your soul fails to quiver in the quiet depths of the fifth suite's
sarabande, then you must be a robot in disguise.
Yevgeny
Sudbin: Scriabin
Playing Scriabin’s overheated piano music requires 100 per cent commitment.
Sudbin gives it 150.
Schumann,
Brahms: Piano Quintets
Chamber music-making doesn’t come much better than this.
FOR JAZZ FANS
Guy
Barker: The Amadeus Project
At heart he is a raise-the-roof traditionalist, but the music moves from swing
to R’n’B to, occasionally the more modern palette of a Colin Towns.
Manu
Katche: Playground
This is late-night music with the smoky atmospheres of Kind of Blue. This is
music that quietly beguiles.
Esbjorn
Svensson Trio: Live in Hamburg
This triumphant double album confirms is that beneath the pizzazz is a core of
great music.
Duke
Ellington: Meets Coleman Hawkins
If you’re an Ellington fan, you’ll already own this album. If you’re a novice
intimidated by the towering discography, it’s a fine place to start.
John
Scofield: This Meets That
The enduring US guitarman is usually neatly bracketed as mainstream jazz, but
here he roots around in country, funk and blues music.
FOR WORLD MUSIC FANS
Orchestra
Baobab: Made in Dakar
Made in Dakar might indeed have been made in Dakar, but for musical
provenance, you’d need a box of pins to represent these songs on a map.
Juanes:
La Vida Es Un Ratico
Packed with sass and suss, and showing off some serious guitar-paying skills,
today’s biggest Latin artist guarantees a good time.
Laxula:
In X-Ile
A glorious collage of Latino rock and the dramatic “duende” that pumps blood
through the best flamenco.
Moussa
Doumbia: Keleya
Culled from singles and LPs released on the Ivory Coast in 1973-79, this runs
Fela Kuti a close second in the race to be the heaviest African funk around.
Benjamin
Biolay: Trash Ye-Ye
Dark, paranoid and extreme, the Frenchman’s fourth album will wreak havoc with
your sanity. Is there anybody better in Europe right now?
