By Tim Byron, Barry Divola, John Shand, Andrew Stafford, Bronwyn Thompson and Annie Toller
BAROQUE The Marais Project
SPINNING FORTH (Move)
Jennifer Eriksson's viola da gamba imbues all with a stately grace.
★★★★½
Only two pieces on this enthralling album are genuinely "baroque", but the Marais Project's central instrument, Jennifer Eriksson's viola da gamba, is a machine for imbuing all it touches with that stately grace of the music of 300 years ago. Sumptuously recorded, its bass notes are as sonorous as the voice of a great baritone; the high ones diaphanous. The baroque component consists of Erkisson's arrangement of Marais' desolately sad Tombeau pour Marias le Cadet and a suite by Marais' pupil Louis de Caix d'Hervelois that defines elegance. Tommie Andersson (theorbo, guitar) has arranged a plangent tune by the Swedish folk fiddler Hjort Anders Olsson, featuring Mikaela Oberg's baroque flute. Paul Cutlan's quixotic title track is a suite for viola da gamba and harpsichord (Raymond Harvey) that improbably manages to carry echoes of Bach while also being overtly modernist in the two instruments' capricious interaction. Finally, Lew and Mara Kiek playfully fuse the English folk tune The Cheshire Rounds with a Bulgarian 11/8 rhythm as a prelude to the bush ballad The Streets of Forbes (sung by tenor Koen van Stade), proving that Eriksson's instrument can glide through space as well as time. JOHN SHAND
SINGER-SONGWRITER Sarah Blasko
DEPTH OF FIELD (EMI/Universal)
★★★★½
An anguish permeates much of Depth Of Field. "I was naive to put my trust in you," she sings on the single A Shot, "I took a shot right to the heart". Elsewhere, Blasko sings of how the male of the species is so often Making It Up – "you're a woman, just lie back and take it, it's nothing personal when I'm on the road and I have my needs" – and how actions speak louder than the beliefs that people profess (Heaven Sent). Much of the album is dominated by electro bass, drums and Blasko's warm vocals, so it is often reminiscent of the icy glam stomp rhythms of UK duo Goldfrapp. The colours of the final stretch of the album brighten, however, and the storm clears. Warm strings and synth-pads replace icy electro as the most noticeable sonic flavour, and the songs are now in major keys. Read My Mind, for example, advises her young child that "the time is short, to make the most of everything, see beauty in it all". As a whole, Depth Of Field features some of Blasko's most direct, immediate songs to date, without sacrificing any of her musical or emotional depth. TIM BYRON
FOLK POP Vance Joy
NATION OF TWO (Liberation)
★★★½☆
On face value Vance Joy's achievements in a few short years have been remarkable. Specialising in patiently plucked folk ballads and acoustic pop that err on the gentle side, Joy (aka James Keogh) has become a main-stage festival favourite across the globe, his seemingly unassuming tunes resonating farther and wider than those of his many peers. Now, four years on from his breakthrough debut Dream Your Life Away, Keogh shows just how far he's come – with plenty of miles yet to travel – on a much more streamlined, determined and subtly assured set. Hard-to-fault production puts the Melbourne songwriter's voice much more front and centre throughout, even on the more embellished tracks, like the horn-punctuated Lay It On Me and Saturday Son, which are just waiting to soundtrack an emotive TV moment. Writing an album heavy on folk songs about a romantic relationship is nothing groundbreaking, and Keogh still has room to grow with his lyrics, but the more understated songs, like the uplifting love balladry of Take Your Time, show just why he has captured the hearts of millions. Expect him to grab hold of plenty more here. BRONWYN THOMPSON
DREAM POP Totally Mild
HER (Chapter Music)
★★★★☆
Her, the velvety new record from Melbourne four-piece Totally Mild, affects a noirish glamour, with languorous melodies matched by a nonchalant rhythm section and glimmering tremolo guitar. This gauzy front belies the restlessness of frontwoman Liz Mitchell's songwriting, which wavers between ambition, anxiety and ennui. "Cream has got to rise," she insists on opening track Sky, admitting only later, at the album's climactic midpoint, "Today I got it right for the first time in a while / Saw some friends and went outside". Even the romantic numbers – from the moody Sky to earnest piano ballad Lucky Stars, an album highlight – reveal a struggle for self-sufficiency against the tranquillising effects of domestic life. Mitchell's candid outlook gets a chirpy gloss from the band, whose sound evokes the pristine aesthetic of bubblegum and twee pop: neat as a fresh bowl-cut, pivoting around agile hooks. There's no attempt to obscure the choirgirl prettiness of Mitchell's voice, its precipitous dives cushioned by swathes of reverb and well-placed choral arrangements. Her lyrical barbs, though, lend a refreshing ambiguity to the record's hypnotic sheen. ANNIE TOLLER
ROCK Marlon Williams
MAKE WAY FOR LOVE (Caroline Australia)
★★★★☆
Expatriate New Zealander Marlon Williams and his Melbourne-based band the Yarra Benders emerged earlier this decade playing a mix of country and bluegrass, often gathered around a single mic, singing close harmonies and dressed up in string ties and Stetsons. For his second album Williams has dropped those obvious affectations and has found his own, true voice. On a breakup album comparable to Beck's Sea Change in both quality and atmosphere – special mention to Noah Georgeson for a wonderfully ambient production – Williams sifts through the ashes of his relationship with fellow Kiwi Aldous Harding in 11 songs shot through with longing, heartbreak, jealousy and hope. The galloping Party Boy still leans towards country, but most of these songs are slow torch-bearers, none better than Can I Call You, which checks in on his old lover with questions that are innocent ("What are you drinking?") and slightly menacing ("Who's there with you?"). Williams was always a good storyteller, but his lyrics here are stunningly unguarded, the arrangements clean and uncluttered, and his singing, which recalls the greats of the '50s and early '60s – Elvis, Orbison, Cash – is breathtaking. He's a star. ANDREW STAFFORD
LO-FI POP Insecure Men
INSECURE MEN (Fat Possum/Inertia)
★★★☆☆
There's a certain type of vocalist that can effectively sing in an unadorned, conversational, very English way: think Damon Albarn or Robyn Hitchcock. Add Saul Adamczewski to that list. The former guitarist in confrontational firebrands Fat White Family turns down the volume with Insecure Men, but keeps the decidedly skewed world view. Much of his new project's debut album sounds like it was made on dinky '80s keyboards or even kids' instruments – check out the squeaky "Are you ready? Let's jam!" announcement on the Squeeze-like Teenage Toy. Although tinkling vibraphone, sighing lap-steel and parping sax add an easy-listening patina, his penchant for shock tactics remains. Mekong Glitter uses a lo-fi glam stomp to pick at the scab of Garry Glitter's disgraced career. Whitney Houston & I is purportedly an examination of the mirrored lives and deaths of the famous singer and her daughter. But a line like "Whitney Houston and I both like a hot bath" is pretty tacky. Gerry Adams and Cliff Richard pop up elsewhere in the lysergic lyrical stew. More affecting is Buried in the Bleak, which is as melancholy as the title suggests, and sung with what sounds like genuine emotion. BARRY DIVOLA