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JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN DAMNED REVOLUTION ***** _(Play it again Sam) Out on Friday_ Joan Wasser once said that her solo work sounds “like old Al Green records”. Six albums into her career
under the moniker Joan As Police Woman, she and her six-piece band still keep the Reverend Al’s simple, shuffl ing intensity at their heart but this is modern soul as it is rarely heard:
restless, conflicted, utterly hypnotic. Singing over minimal but always inventive accompaniment, Wasser spins out a clutch of stripped-down, groove-driven vignettes – Wonderful, Warning
Bell, Tell Me – sounding, on the latter track in particular, like a reborn Dusty Springfield. But it’s the central trio of tracks here, the title song, The Silence and Valid Jagger, where
her songwriting hits an absolute peak. The Silence, in particular, performed over the sound of chanting crowds at the Washington Women’s March, a humanist anthem of extraordinary, burning
intensity. A brilliant, beautiful record. SIMPLE MINDS WALK BETWEEN WORLDS **** _(BMG) Out now_ “Take off the headphones and let the world fl ow into you,” urges Jim Kerr on The Signal And
The Noise, one of a clutch of glorious tracks here that counters the screen-watching isolation of modern life with a surging optimism. This is Simple Minds absolutely at their best,
reiterating the power of their vast, cinematic sound on the opening Magic, channelling the vocal mannerisms of 1985 single Alive And Kicking into the brilliant In Dreams, but also more than
willing to experiment: check out the reverse, revving guitar that kick-starts Summer. Best of all is the slow-burning and quite beautiful Barrowland Star, a tribute to the famous (and
infamous) Glasgow ballroom, which will no doubt be the set piece of their concert there on February 13. GET CAPE, WEAR CAPE, FLY YOUNG ADULT **** _(Extra Mile) Out now_ The shift from youth
to adulthood has rarely seemed a more vexed subject, with full-time jobs, money and mortgages at a premium and gender identity under the microscope. This is the self-proclaimed territory of
Young Adult, quite brilliantly explored by singer-songwriter Sam Duckworth in a series of subtle but sharply written and often melodically stunning vignettes. SÉBASTIEN IZAMBARD WE CAME
HERE TO LOVE *** _(Entertainment One) Out now_ Horribly over-produced and, on the opening tracks at least, shackled to the usual template of soft verse and bombastic shouted chorus, Il Divo
singer Izambard’s solo debut does not immediately impress. But on the lighter, r’n’b-flavoured Up, haunting Ashes and pretty Love Again his tenor voice flickers into falsetto and the whole
record lifts into a different class.