Audiophile Vinyl

This month we review: Mose Allison, Ornette Coleman, Electric Light Orchestra and Madness.

This month we review: Jennifer Warnes, Lightnin' Hopkins, Stacey Kent and Curtis Mayfield.

This month we review: Blood, Sweat & Tears, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Fleetwood Mac and Bobby Womack.

This month we review: Paul Simon, Gaillard, Jazzbeaux, Mantilla & Allen, Pleasure and Johnny Winter.

This month we review: Sibelius, Elgar, Mendelssohn and R Strauss.

For those in need of some distaff R&B amidst the incredible male performers captured live by Chad Kassem & Co, Texan songstress Greenleaf and her band Blue Mercy exhibit precisely the kind of fire and grit that exemplifies the great blues and (southern) soul belters of the 1960s and 1970s. Greenleaf acknowledges gospel inspiration and cites Koko Taylor and Aretha Franklin amongst her muses, so you can expect and do receive earthy, powerful interpretations of five tracks that suffer no sonic restraint. If the modernity of the recording’s crystal clarity jars with what is a genre of elderly vintage, think of this as you would a b/w movie filmed in high-def. This is shake your booty stuff.

There’s a strong case for regarding this as EC’s best album – if not of his entire career, which is too varied and complex, then surely of his early years. The magic ingredient was the arrival of the band that would accompany him through his strongest period, his most sympathetic backing of all: the butt-kicking Attractions, who injected enough adrenalin into these Nick Lowe-produced sessions to yield an embarrassment of riches – ‘Pump It Up’, ‘Radio Radio’, ‘Lipstick Vogue’ and eight more acidic tracks. It’s ignoble to suggest that Costello was maturing: he arrived fully formed and in no need of assistance. It was like giving a great F1 driver a faster car.