Album reviews: Texas| Little Boots| Barrule

Pias, £13.99

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In the eight years since Texas last released an album, Sharleen Spiteri has made a couple of solo albums and guitarist Ally McErlainehas recovered spectacularly from a massive stroke but, boy, do they slip comfortably back into the slick hooks of The Conversation’s title track.

Nevertheless, their eighth album does break some new ground for the band. Seven of its 12 tracks have been produced by Richard Hawley and come swathed in his love of 1950s torch balladry and tremolo guitar. His influence is most lovingly felt on the old school romance of I Will Always and the sultry, melancholic Maybe I; elsewhere they strike a stylistic balance, affording Texas a more organic sound which doesn’t stifle the tunes with overly primped production.

Little Boots: Nocturnes

On Repeat Records, £13.99

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UNABLE to make good commercially on the exposure from her BBC Sound of 2009 title, Little Boots, aka electro pop singer/songwriter Victoria Hesketh, has spent the last few years DJing around the world and preparing the follow-up to her underwhelming debut Hands for release on her own label.

Nocturnes is no more likely to grab the imagination, comprising a tasteful, tuneful but ultimately insipid infusion of trance pop, thin Italo house and disco grooves. Kylie’s and Madonna’s careers have been littered with similarly functional fare but Hesketh doesn’t have the budget for the smoke and mirrors required to give the blank, robotic likes of Strangers a lift. Her pure and proper delivery is closer to Saint Etienne’s Sarah Cracknell without the bittersweet edge.

Delta Mainline: Oh! Enlightened

Rehab Sound Recordings, online only

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Edinburgh seven-piece Delta Mainline come out fighting with the bluesy garage attack of Misinformation but are not to be easily pigeonholed on a debut album which doesn’t care too much what you make of it.

The blend of rootsy melody and epic, distorted guitar backing to be heard on Dead Beat Blues and six-minute centrepiece The Church Is Up For Sale is pitched somewhere between Primal Scream and Glasvegas without being as image-conscious as either, while the pounding, gritty Florentine Regime sprints along like vintage Oasis before they bow out on their best number, the tremulous psych country ballad Self Inflicted Ills.

FIONA SHEPHERD

CLASSICAL

Schubert: Winterreise

Challenge Classics, £18.99

* * * *

Tenor Christoph Prégardien and pianist Michael Gees are a class pairing when it comes to the heart of German lieder. Not surprisingly then, this new recording of Winterreise is a welcome addition to the many other recordings that exist of Schubert’s autumnal song cycle. Prégardien’s ability to shade and mutate the delicate emotional inflections with almost imperceptible subtlety personalise this account, coupled with Gees’ strong but reflective playing.

KEN WALTON

FOLK