TAKE THAT: This Life (EMI)
Verdict: Late career renaissance
HII MADNESS: Theater Of The Absurd presents C’Est La Vie (BMG)
Verdict: Organize a comeback
MÅNESKIN: Hurry! (Are you coming?) (Columbia)
Verdict: Fast progress
As former pin-ups – now in their 50s – Take That are in uncharted territory for a British boy band.
They weathered the years of teenage fan hysteria, survived a divorce and enjoyed the subsequent lucrative reunion tour. Now a slimmed-down trio, with just Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald remaining, they are looking for a fresh start.
This Life is their first batch of new songs since 2017’s Wonderland, a tired and predictable affair, and the trio call it the third chapter of a career that stretches back to 1990, when they formed as a quintet modeled on America’s New Kids . On the block.
Their first album, Take That & Party, was a dizzying mix of bubblegum pop and disco. Owen describes their latest incarnation as ‘a scruffy version of The Three Tenors’, although This Life’s delicate harmonies and strummed, soft-rock guitars place them closer to a down-home version of the Eagles, or folk-rock supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash. They could have given themselves a new name: Barlow, Owen & Donald.
Now a slimmed-down trio – with just Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald remaining – they’re looking for a fresh start
The twelve new songs lack the deceptive element that court jester Robbie Williams could possibly have brought to the table. (Robbie left Take That in 2014 – for the second time – with Jason Orange.)
But the survivors have regrouped well. There’s nothing too challenging here, but Gary, Mark and Howard have subtly pushed the dial without losing their love for a memorable chorus.
A sense of renewal is emphasized by two new employees. Nashville native Dave Cobb, who co-produced the 2018 soundtrack to A Star Is Born and collaborated with rock singer-songwriter Jason Isbell, pushes the band toward rustic Americana.
Another American producer, Jennifer Decilveo, adds synths and a drum machine, picking up where she left off on Owen’s 2022 solo album, Land Of Dreams.
A mature mood is evident from the start. Windows talks about emerging into the light after “a year of madness.” Brand New Sun finds Owen praising the importance of patience in keeping a long-term relationship alive.
Keep Your Head Up consists of sad strings and plaintive piano, and Mind Full Of Madness opens with a driving sixteenth-note guitar riff reminiscent of Stevie Nicks’ Edge Of Seventeen.
The songs sometimes fall into vague platitudes, but they address universal emotions with warmth and frankness.
A mature mood is evident from the start. Windows talks about emerging into the light after “a year of madness.” Brand New Sun finds Owen praising the importance of patience in keeping a long-term relationship alive
Barlow wrote the title track, an upbeat piano piece with the feel of a middle-of-the-road 1970s pop single, after his son’s college graduation.
In One More Word Donald sings about raising his daughter. “You are the story of my life,” he concludes. It’s schmaltzy, but kind of sweet. Two of the best songs arrive late.
Time And Time Again contains harmony vocals that are comparable to Rule The World from 2007. Where We Are is an optimistic assessment of ‘the road ahead’.
Take That, once Britain’s biggest pop act, is slowly getting old.
What Take That was to the 1990s, Madness was to the 1980s: a great singles band.
There are traces of the group’s crazy boy tribe on their thirteenth album, but fans expecting repeats of ska-pop hits in the vein of Baggy Pants and House Of Fun should be wary. Theater Of The Absurd… is a concept LP about the dire state of the post-pandemic world.
Seen as a Music Hall production in three acts – with a prologue, epilogue and spoken word interludes by actor Martin Freeman – it highlights the darker tenor that has always lurked beneath that crazy facade.
Haunting images of London’s West End in lockdown dominate the Eleanor Rigby-esque Theater Of The Absurd, where singer Suggs promises to stage ‘the last and only performance of the cruellest cabaret’.
Singer Graham McPherson, known by his stage name Suggs, performs all the hits with his Band Madness at Tramlines Festival in Sheffield
Things are equally bleak on the other title track, C’Est La Vie, which conjures apocalyptic visions of a “tyrannical heaven.”
There is wry lockdown skepticism on Set Me Free (Let Me Be) and a warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence on Run For Your Life.
The latter combines fatalistic lyrics with a shrill, funky tune in vintage Madness fashion. The feeling of fear is tempered by the belief that the show must go on.
If I Go Mad is a love letter from Suggs to his wife, singer Bette Bright. A sister song to 1982’s Our House, In My Street is a throwback to the days when a Madness song could cheer up the nation.
With this release looking to become their first-ever chart-topping studio album, they remain national treasures.
“We’re not punk, we’re not pop, we’re just music freaks,” Italian rockers Maneskin sang ten months ago on their third album, Rush!
As surprise winners of the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, the quartet has developed into an arena-filling live act with energy to burn.
An expanded version of Rush!, with five new songs, underlines their progress.
Two of the new songs, all sung in English, are ballads. Trastevere is set in Rome, the band’s birthplace.
Valentine is ridiculously over the top. “I cover myself with tattoos of us, and dream of the day we hug and burn,” Damiano David sings.
The other additions are cheerful, ranging from thunderous heavy metal to artistic, danceable indie pop.
Take That will launch a UK tour at the Utilita Arena, Sheffield, on April 13, 2024 (gigsandtours.com). Madness begin their tour next Thursday at P&J Live, Aberdeen (ticketmaster.co.uk). Maneskin plays at the AO Arena, Manchester on December 19 (livenation.co.uk).
JONATHAN TETELMAN: The Great Puccini (DG 486 4683)
Jonathan Tetelman, born in Chile but raised in New Jersey, is a tenor to watch, with a beautiful, cultured voice.
A year after his acclaimed first DG recital with arias recorded in Gran Canaria, he went to Prague to record this freshly sung album with Giacomo Puccini’s most famous tenor scenes.
Jonathan Tetelman, born in Chile but raised in New Jersey, is a tenor to watch, with a beautiful, cultured voice
It’s a bit early for the centenary of the composer’s death, but very welcome, as Tetelman is in better spirits than some of his great rivals and has a feel for Puccini’s phrasing.
The expected hit songs – ‘Che gelida manina’, ‘Nessun dorma’, ‘E lucevan le stelle’ – are here, but some selections are a bit unusual, like the scene from Madama Butterfly Act 3.
La Boheme gets three fragments, including the love duet with the excellent Federica Lombardi and the farewell quartet from Act 3; and in total Tetelman is supported by six other singers.
Music by Le Villi, Manon Lescaut and Il Tabarro is included; Carlo Rizzi conducts the Prague Philharmonia in an idiomatic manner, but the climax of ‘Nessun dorma’ sounds a bit strange.
ENJOY, GAUDETE! Choral music for Christmas (Naxos 8.574575)
The Christmas music on this CD is beautifully sung, but you may have already come across it, because it was released in 2011 on another label.
David Hill, one of our top choir leaders, conducts just 16 professional singers in the IKON ensemble convened for special projects.
The Christmas music on this CD is beautifully sung, but you may have already come across it, because it was released in 2011 on another label
The 2009 recordings of St John the Evangelist, Upper Norwood still sound good and my only reservation is that many of the arrangements are very awkward and unnecessarily complicated.
The simplicity of the Coventry Carol all but disappears under the weight of the harmonies Richard Allain piles on it, and some modern composers are guilty of this.
I do enjoy Kenneth Leighton’s GK Chestertoon setting and there are classics by Whitacre, Holst, Warlock, Joubert and Howells; the title track by Adrian Peacock was new in 2009.
TULLIE POTTER
