Some high quality albums from British artists this week, with Pet Shop Boys and Mercury Prize winners PJ Harvey and Gomez all putting out great new material.
Yes by Pet Shop Boys: The elder statesmen of English electropop prove why they were given a Brit award for Outstanding Contribution To Music last month with this, their 10th studio album.
Sharing producers with Girls Aloud (Xenomania) could have made messrs Tennant and Lowe look a little like dodgy uncles at a wedding, but for the most part Yes proves they still have it.
It starts strongly – opening track Love etc and the following All Over The World and Beautiful People are brilliant – but the album loses its way somewhere around track seven or eight. The ultimate tune, Legacy, is just embarrassing. Loyal fans will love it, but it remains to be seen whether a new generation will embrace Yes.
A Woman A Man Walked By by PJ Harvey and John Parish: The latest album from Mercury Prize winner Polly Harvey sees some-time collaborator and producer John Parish promoted to co-star. It's clearly a partnership made in heaven, as A Woman A Man Walked By – from the gritty guitar opening of Black Hearted Love to the dying keyboard tones on finale Cracks In The Canvas – is a breathtaking album.
With Parish taking care of the music, it was left for Harvey to concentrate on the lyrics; all twisted tales of love gone wrong, ambiguous menace and the constant feeling she's either about to rip someone to shreds or burst into tears. It might have been announced as something of a side project by the artist herself, but it really doesn't matter – it's one of the best albums of the year, and indeed Harvey's career so far.
A New Tide by Gomez: Giving an album a name like A New Tide can create unfair expectations. You could, for example, approach the 1998 Mercury Music Prize winners' latest effort in the anticipation of a thrillingly fresh direction – shoegazing instead of navel-gazing perhaps, or a Coralesque grab for the mainstream. Instead, this is Gomez as you will remember them.
Shuffling percussion, bold, earthy vocals and an amusingly perverse refusal to chase a commercial hook abound. While unlikely to earn them any more awards, this sixth LP confirms the five-piece as the finest delta-blues band this side of Southport.
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