Jack Savoretti Singing To Strangers BMG, out Fri
When in doubt, the music business is apt to send in the clones. In the Sixties it was beat groups, in the Eighties synth duos, in the Noughties pop divas. Today it’s solo artists, male or female, who are not quite singer-songwriters, as they seldom write alone.
Mostly they emote over acoustic guitars, sticking to a formula that hasn’t changed in 50 years. The men, especially, can be indistinguishable: Tom Walker’s debut album is selling well, but would you be able to pick him out in a police line-up?
Jack Savoretti tends to be mistaken for Paolo Nutini, who is also part Italian and prone to rasp. The album that made Savoretti’s name, Written In Scars, from 2015, could have been recorded by Nutini, or a few others.
Jack Savoretti tends to be mistaken for Paolo Nutini, who is also part Italian and prone to rasp. Savoretti’s album, Written In Scars, could have been recorded by Nutini, or a few others
But now, at 35, he is taking more of a risk.
Singing To Strangers, his sixth album, is steeped in his Italian heritage. ‘I wanted to take my touring band to Rome,’ he said at a showcase in London, ‘and make a record that sounds like it came from a Fellini movie.’
Savoretti still sings in English but his music is now speaking Italian, all lush strings, flirty bass lines and elegant melodrama. His band go native and purvey raffish jazz-pop – the unmistakable sound of men wearing hats at jaunty angles.
Singing To Strangers, his sixth album, is steeped in his Italian heritage. He still sings in English but his music is now speaking Italian, all lush strings, flirty bass lines and elegant melodrama
The tunes are big and snappy, built to ring out at Wembley Arena, where Savoretti performs in May. The words, at times earnestly introspective, redeem themselves with sudden simplicity: ‘You just wanna talk/I don’t wanna know.’
In case it all gets too Italian, there’s a track with lyrics by Bob Dylan (not at his best) and a duet with Kylie Minogue, which works better. Overall, though, the album will stand or fall on two things: whether you love Italy, and how you feel about Savoretti’s voice.
Sometimes he’s so throaty that you just want to offer him a dose of Benylin. But when he goes high, as these songs often demand, his voice glows with tenderness. His gamble has paid off.
THIS WEEK’S CD RELEASES
By Adam Woods
Karen O and Danger Mouse Lux Prima Out Fri
Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O teams up with U2/Gorillaz producer Brian ‘Danger Mouse’ Burton to explore her sophisticated pop side. The result takes cues from Ennio Morricone, deep Seventies soul and the trip-hop tension of Massive Attack and drips with style and mystery. An excellent departure for all involved
Sophie Ellis-Bextor The Song Diaries Out Fri
Sophie Ellis-Bextor has carved out a slightly overlooked career by not doing the obvious thing. Now she’s made orchestral versions of most of her singles – a classy move that demonstrates just how many good ones there are, from Groovejet to Mixed Up World to Young Blood. But dip in and out to avoid symphonic fatigue
Solange When I Get Home Out now
The success of 2016’s A Seat At The Table established Beyoncé’s younger sister as a star in her own right, meditating on the black struggle over soulful grooves. When I Get Home is a slightly lesser successor on similar lines, its message less distinct, its songs a little less memorable, but a pristinely beautiful production
Stephen Malkmus Groove Denied Out Fri
Blur were once acolytes of Stephen Malkmus’s former band, indie rockers Pavement. On this atypical album of home-made synth-pop, he sounds like he’s recalling that band’s weirder Nineties diversions, woozy and raucous, built from synths and drum machines. A welcome new angle from the ever-melodic artist