CD reviews: Johnny Borrell & Zazou, Underworld, Plague Vendor and Jeff Buckley
Borrell’s sounding the most comfortable and authentic he has in years, Underworld and Plague Vendor will knock your socks off, and Jeff Buckley’s many fans will welcome an album of demos
The Atlantic Culture
Atlantic Culture Records
3/5 stars
From self-styled skinny-jeaned rock god to laughably pretentious gypsy misfit, it’s been quite a ride for the former Razorlight frontman, Johnny Borrell. It all started out so promisingly for one of “The Dalston Set”, but the almost-Libertine hit rock bottom in 2013 when his weirdly colourful album Borrell 1, recorded with his new carnival roots band Zazou, sold less than 600 copies in its first week. Borrell’s star certainly burnt as fast as it did bright and the vultures gleefully stuck their beaks in. The Atlantic Culture is Borrell and Zazou’s second go-around and the follow-up to 2014’s The Artificial Night EP, whose four tracks all appear here. The album also includes a re-recorded version of We Cannot Overthrow and 60 Thompson, a track written about the 35-year-old’s ex, Kirsten Dunst, and taken from Razorlight’s arena-friendly Slipway Fires. Here though it’s given a blues jazz makeover and clearly demonstrates, along with opener Swim Like a Star, just how much Borrell has changed, the singer sounding the most comfortable and authentic he has in years.
