Albums of the week: Camila Cabello, Shame, To Kill A King

The week's best new releases as reviewed by our experts
Syco/Epic

Camila - Camila
(Syco/Epic)

It seemed like bad form when Camila Cabello started releasing her own music while still a member of US girl group Fifth Harmony. The Cuban-born singer officially quit a year ago to go solo — but it was a bold move for a 19-year-old that’s already paid off, as she’s just spent five weeks at No 1. Cabello’s debut album doesn’t draw too heavily on the Latin flavour of smash hit Havana — a burst of Spanish on the tropical groove of She Loves Control is another nod to the homeland. Her sultry vocals are equally suited to big, breathy ballads like Consequences, as well as the languid pop of In the Dark and the high notes of teasing club tune Into It. Camila is a concise statement of intent that’s getting in early as the first potential blockbuster of 2018.

By Andre Paine

Black Rebel Motocycle Club – Wrong Creatures
(Abstract Dragon)

***

California’s Black Rebel Motorcycle Club benefited from the early 2000s indie rock boom that brought us The Strokes and The White Stripes and are now on their eighth album. Over the years their sound has expanded considerably, and here ranges from the slow-burning piano ballad All Rise to an unwise six minutes of queasy fairground music on Circus Bazooko. They still sound best when building a towering pile of guitar effects, as with the rumbling riffing of King of Bones and the squalling barrage of Little Thing Gone Wild. The fact that Peter Hayes generally sounds as if he’s hardly bothering to sing at all provides a contrast that remains very cool. Musical fashion may have moved on but this keeps the rock ’n’ roll fire burning nicely.

By David Smyth

Shame - Songs of Praise
(Dead Oceans)

****

Remember guitars? Strange to think it now, but for a brief moment, approximately 1953-2006, these analogue stringed instruments, amplified and distorted, were formidable weapons in the fight against adult stupidity. Shame, five sarcastic white schoolfriends from Brixton with a visceral reputation as a live act, have re-purposed them for the 21st century. “My nails ain’t manicured / My voice ain’t the best you’ve heard / And you can choose to hate my words / But do I give a f***?” sings frontman Charlie Steed by way of introduction on One Rizla, a song that finds rebellion in insecurity. Songs of Praise offers many more scabrous, squalid takes on British moeurs, from the cheap thrills of Donk to the truly nasty Gold Hole, about a middle-aged man seducing a teenager while his wife and kids aren’t home (“Sweat stains the wrinkles/ Tongue touches the hole”). Their outlook owes not a little to The Fall, or much more focused version of Fat White Family, but the snarls don’t entirely smother their melodic intent. There’s a brittle amphetamine rush to the duelling guitars of Eddie Green and Shaun Coyle-Smith, a desperate melancholy chime too, and on Friction, it comes together with enough force to decimate the January blues.

By Richard Godwin

To Kill a King - The Spiritual Dark of Age
(Big L)

****

In the frankly unlikely instance that The National and George Ezra have a lovechild, chances are it might sound a little like To Kill a King. The London five-piece, slownow on their third album, deal in literate, troubled anthems delivered in the rumbling tones of frontman Ralph Pelleymounter. He has described the album as “the last three years of my life painstakingly distilled into 40 minutes of music”. Occasionally, the sheer amount of ideas within each song is overwhelming: the musical equivalent of trying to squeeze three meals onto one plate. However, the title song is a thrilling blend of Mumfordsy rhythms and tonguetwisting lyrics. The Unspeakable Crimes of Peter Popoff is a caustic ode to the titular televangelist and Cherry Blossom Falls has a melody to lift anyone from even the deepest spiritual funk.

By Rick Pearson ​

Ashley Henry & The Re Ensemble – Easter Ep
(Sony)

****

It was only a matter of time before major labels started jumping on London’s fresh young jazz scene, and with his hip-hop aesthetic and Royal Academy-trained smarts, pianist Ashley Henry has the mainstream appeal of a Robert Glasper. Featuring fellow rising stars, bassist Daniel Casimir and drummer Eddie Hick, this six-track gem showcases Henry’s propulsive yet spacious piano style and knack for blending genres; there are Caribbean stylings in here, as well as R&B and punk. A reworking of The World is Yours by rap icon Nas skitters prettily, but it is Henry’s own compositions, notably the slow burning St Anne Remix and mighty seven-minute opener Easter, with the soaring sax of Jean Toussaint and stentorian declamations of Anthony Joseph, that linger.

By Jane Cornwell

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