This week's CD reviews, including Pet Shop Boys

We take a look at the best of the new music releases in pop and classical.
CD reviews, which includes Pet Shop Boys with Super.CD reviews, which includes Pet Shop Boys with Super.
CD reviews, which includes Pet Shop Boys with Super.

Pet Shop Boys – Super: Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have been releasing music for over 30 years, achieving global success. An enduring partnership and a loyal fan base has seen them survive while former contemporaries have become nostalgia acts. The core of Pet Shop Boys is the strength of the songwriting and their knack for being current, yet still classic PSB. Some songs here tell a story, the Nineties dance of The Pop Kids tells of two people bonded by their love of music, a sentiment fans will relate to. Tracks like Pazzo!, Burn and Undertow are straightforward get-on-the-dance-floor. There are shades of melancholy, Happiness revolves around desperate reassurances that things will improve. Calling an album Super is a bold statement to make, but this delivers. Lisa Allen

Teleman –Brilliant Sanity: Teleman’s second album is a light-hearted splash of indie pop fun. The album is littered with memorable riff driven numbers that showcase the band’s ability to write and sing very catchy melodies. Lead singer Thomas Sanders has a unique voice, singing in an unmistakeably English accent that is emphasised by the often double-tracked vocals; an effect that makes it sound like closely knitted harmonies rather than a single singer. Highlights include the piano driven opener Dusseldorf, the mood lifting Glory Hallelujah, while Tangerine is a particularly great number that showcases their potential. The jovial nature of the album is showcased 
by the length of the songs, with only one – Drop Out – breaking the four minute barrier. Alexander Majewski

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Misty Miller –The Whole Family Is Worried: It’s no surprise her family is worried. Five years ago, a 16-year-old Misty Miller garnered much critical acclaim for her self-titled debut album of gentle folk songs. It’s not clear what has happened in the interim, but gone are the distinctly waif-like trappings of long blonde hair and ukulele; in their place are now a sharp-looking jet-black bob, tattoos and raucous indie guitars. If this new rebellious image
 is a little contrived, the songs themselves are not short of substance. The lyrics are witty, the hooks maddeningly memorable and, on the best tracks, Miller’s voice workis a dead ringer for Pretenders-era Chrissie Hynde. James Robinson

The Dandy Warhols – Distortland: The Dandy Warhols’ ninth studio album comes four years after the indifferent This Machine and, sadly, it doesn’t really surpass that effort. The problem with Distortland is that it flatters to deceive, with huge production sounds and Courtney Taylor-Taylor’s strong vocals, but on the whole, the songs just aren’t there. It starts as it means to go on, with the monotonous Search Party, sounding like the Stone Roses in the 21st century, passing almost imperceptibly into the rest of the album. It’s nowhere near 2000’s excellent Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia – so many tracks here are linear and you just want something spectacular to break out. There are a couple of highlights however – in Catcher In The Rye and particularly the single, You Are Killing Me. Steve Crancher

Schumann – Violin Concerto/First Symphony/Phantasy: Though technically demanding for the soloist, Schumann’s Violin Concerto offers little in the way of audience pleasing virtuosity. Yet place it in the hands of Thomas Zehetmair, and its mix of lyric beauty and zestful brilliance becomes irresistable, his silvery tone delighting in the mercurial finale. Having spent twelve years as Principal Conductor of the Royal Northern Sinfonia, he here takes up the baton to direct the Orchestre de chambre de Paris in a wonderfully fresh reading of Schumann’s ‘Spring’ Symphony, his sensitivity to inner detail and clarity of texture unveiling so many subtle nuances. As an ‘encore’ he returns to the violin in a very pleasing and lighthearted Phantasy. The downside is a slightly boxy sound quality (ECM New Series 481 1369). David Denton