Album review overview: Bernie Taupin, Joan Osborne and more

Dozens of new albums arrive at Maxazine’s editorial staff every week. There are way too many to listen to them all, let alone review them. It ensures that too many albums are left behind. And that’s a shame. That is why today we post an overview of albums that arrive at the editors in short reviews.

Brothers Osborne – Watertown

Brothers Osborne return to Deale in Maryland on “Watertown”, the coastal town where TJ and John Osborne grew up. It is their fifth studio album, once again produced by Jay Joyce, and it contains eleven tracks. “Born and Raised Hell” featuring Cody Johnson opens with nostalgia, while “Tough Kid” featuring Stephen Wilson Jr. examines the pain beneath a tough exterior. These are the duo’s first guest contributions on a full-length album. The music swings between Southern rock and country, with riffs that bite. John Osborne’s “Family Business” combines humour with uncomfortable truths, and “Ain’t Killed Me Yet” leans towards outlaw country. “Doors” revolves around a clever metaphor that continues to make sense. “Stubborn” and “Bottle It Up” were written by others, showing that the brothers know which songs suit them. In the closing track “Watertown”, TJ sings reverently about the dot on the map that raised him. The personal material reaches beyond a single American town without glorifying the past. Those familiar with their earlier work will hear an album that presents itself as raw, honest and well-aimed. (Norman van den Wildenberg) (8/10) (MCA / Snakefarm)

Clinic – Wild in the Streets

Even after almost thirty years, Clinic refuse to be tamed. “Wild In The Streets” is their tenth album and contains twelve short tracks that take the temperature of the United Kingdom. Ade Blackburn and Jonathan Hartley have known each other since school, and that comes through in a rhythm section that sounds crooked yet compelling. Fuzzy guitars, dub and exotica in the tradition of Martin Denny and Les Baxter collide. “Model Citizen” and the title track blast past in no time, while “Hypnotised” and “Back To Nature” make things simmer. Singles such as “You And I” show that Clinic would rather cut a verse than milk an idea. Everything sounds compact, venomous and slightly otherworldly. The wordplay is surreal, and the humour lies in the details. It is a ragged album that never sits still for a second and grabs you by the throat. Anyone looking for guitar music with a twist will find plenty to enjoy here, even if it is idiosyncratic and sometimes almost comical. Clinic sound inspired, sharp and enjoyably contrary once again, without wasting a single note. (Anton Dupont) (8/10) (Domino)

Caroline Rose – Gentling the Horse at the Walt Whitman Mall

With “Gentling The Horse At The Walt Whitman Mall”, Caroline Rose has founded her own label and shaken off every expectation. The seventh album is released on SUCK Records and produced by John Congleton, who deliberately keeps the production stripped back. “Yip Yip Yow” kicks off the album with the energy of a live show. “RIDE (!!!)” scrapes along like noise rock and psychobilly, “Cement Head” relies on sharp riffs, and “Hello Again, Jim” runs on a drum machine. “Notes to Teenage Self” provides an acoustic breather, and “Everything In Its Right Place” brings things to a wonderfully tender close. The lyrics sketch an American dream full of shopping malls and fast food, with a sharp tone and plenty of humour. The shifts from punk to synth-pop and acoustic music provide plenty of variety, but the album does not immediately grab you and is deliberately strange at times. As a result, it is not an album likely to win over a large audience. Those who appreciate Rose’s earlier records, however, get an artist operating at full throttle. Repeated listening pays off, because beneath the jokes lies a prickly view of everyday life. (William Brown) (8/10) (SUCK Records)

Joan Osborne – Relish Reimagined

In 1996, Joan Osborne scored a worldwide hit with “One of Us”, in which she wondered what it would be like if God were simply one of us: a flesh-and-blood human being. The song, written by Eric Bazilian of The Hooters, earned her fifteen minutes of worldwide fame. However, the success proved difficult to repeat and turned Osborne into a one-hit wonder. Now, at the age of 64, she is breathing new life into her best-known album, “Relish”, thirty years after its release, this time with renowned jazz musicians. For Osborne, it is above all a look back at a defining chapter in her career. The reinterpretation sounds fresh, with polished production and a pleasantly warm sound. Her voice has, however, lost some of its power. Nevertheless, Osborne manages to hold the album together, helped by musicians who know their craft.

The jazzy rendition gains extra depth from the piano, swinging rhythms and flowing guitar work. Even in this form, the material remains convincing. The cover of Bob Dylan’s “Man in the Long Black Coat” is less successful and exposes the signs of age in her voice more clearly. All in all, “Relish Reimagined” is a respectable reinterpretation in which Osborne demonstrates her musical development. (Bart van de Sande) (7/10) (Brother Mister Productions/Mack Avenue Music Group)

Bernie Taupin – The Sea Has No Mercy

Bernie Taupin has been writing lyrics for others for almost sixty years, but on “The Sea Has No Mercy” he takes the helm himself. It is his first solo album in almost forty years and the first for which he wrote everything himself. Producer Frank Liddell kept the Nashville recordings understated, with the Tennessee Stone Cutters serving as the house band. “Fisherman” opens in an almost biblical manner, while “Joker” creaks along with a heavy tread and a voice reminiscent of Tom Waits. In the title track, Taupin admits that he is terrified of the waves, with a dry humour that brings Loudon Wainwright to mind. Brandi Carlile appears on “Come On California”, and his daughter Georgey sings alongside him on “One Hundred Ways”. Taupin’s baritone is weathered, but he carries the stories with authority. He sings about a life between Lincolnshire and California, about regret and about his own mortality. The arrangements remain restrained and leave room for every word. There is no chasing effects or polished choruses here, which suits a seventy-six-year-old man. It is an album that listens like a late confession, tightly constructed and without unnecessary words. (Cian Murphy) (8/10) (Vertigo Records / MCA Nashville)