Album reviews: Shania Twain | Margo Price | Robyn Hitchcock

Shania Twain: Little Miss Twain (Republic Records) ★★★

Margo Price: Days of Unrest (Loma Vista Recordings) ★★★★

Robyn Hitchcock: The Confuser (Tiny Ghost Records) ★★★★

Shania Twain is such a country pop colossus that it feels like her catalogue should be weightier, yet Little Miss Twain is only her seventh album, her third since bouncing back after years of voice problems caused by Lyme disease. She has made up for any lost time with world tours and Vegas residencies but now is the day for something a little less glossy and a touch more grassroots.

The roots, of course, are her own with many of the songs inspired by her formative years in snowy Ontario. She certainly has the raw material, having been dealt a tough hand at a young age, yet Little Miss Twain takes a leaf out of Dolly’s book and mythologises the happier memories, her sepia evocation soundtracked by classic country instrumentation.

She opens on a reflective note, deploying her now deeper, more rugged vocal tone on the skiffly Stranger Things against a backdrop of sonorous banjo and swooping strings before stretching to some testifying ad-libbing on the slicker Right Time.

The title track is where the real meat is found with Twain recalling her very early days paying her dues: “according to my mother, I’m the next Tanya Tucker… I’m still smaller than my guitar”. The very same country legend guests on the track but Twain also tips her hat to Janis Ian and, more indirectly, the melodies of Leonard Cohen and the pathos of Marianne Faithful.

Lyrically, the rootsy rocker Dirty Rosie is in her empowerment wheelhouse but the song feels some distance from her usual country hen party territory, being a snapshot of hardscrabble existence, hard-won kicks and escapist encounters.

Faded Blue Jeans is another portal to her past, with Josh Homme adding dusty desert rock guitar. Northern Town sounds more border town in its Hispanic style but is clearly autobiographical in its hankering after the characters, experiences, romances and day-to-day interactions of her adolescence.

Along the way, she makes it to the dancefloor for a couple of country waltzes, adds soulful influences and carefree whistling to That’s the Money and some twanging rockabilly sonics to Down the Middle. Arguably the album is too long but Twain holds her nerve and keeps it moody on Take It to the River, a luscious MOR pop ballad with a gospel coda. Little Miss Twain may not be the most fun you’ll have in her company but Twain deserves credit for digging deep rather than casting wide.

Margo Price is a credible rep for the next generation of country singers, so much so that she can release an album of protest covers at the drop of a Stetson. Days of Unrest is her ambivalent 250th birthday present to her homeland, featuring conscious classics by the likes of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, a guest appearance by Joan Baez and Price’s own evocative Tex Mex trilogy.

Long Haired Country Girl is a weed-fuelled slacker ode to freedom of expression, while Can’t Stand Still is her own paean to following an alternative path. Blaze Foley’s Oval Room was originally directed at the Reagan administration, but there are no prizes for guessing who Price is targeting on this characterful country strut.

Veteran indie minstrel Robyn Hitchcock has been Nashville-based for some time but his London roots are still showing on the Wire-meets-Syd Barrett stylings of I Am This Thing, the flurry of rhyming couplets and retro guitaring which opens his latest album The Confuser. Step right up for Hitchcock’s gonzo take on the circle of life and other philosophical topics dressed in psych, pop and punk robes with a sprinkling of Bo Diddley rockabilly rumble.

CLASSICAL

Thème varié: Elena Urioste & Tom Poster (Chandos) ★★★★

While the album title, Thème varié, refers literally to two works performed here by seasoned partnership Elena Urioste (violin) and Tom Poster (piano), there are more subliminal relevances at work. One “theme”, for instance, is the unsung voice of César Franck, absent as regards his actual music, but present through his influence in shaping that of many who are featured, either directly or passed on generationally. Thus the exquisite longing underpinning the Thème varié of Charlotte Sohy, her progressive colourings reflective of her own teacher, Franck-protege Mel Bonis. Three delicious pieces by Bonis highlight the lineage. Guillaume Lekeu’s monumental Sonate bears the same arresting expansiveness as his mentor Franck’s more famous Sonata, which this svelte duo imbue with heated devotion. They broaden the French connection with Saint-Saëns’ two evocative Élégies and Messiaen’s luminescent Thème et variations Simeon 1/10, ending with the dreamy brushstrokes of Elsa Barraine’s Nocturne. Ken Walton

JAZZ

Joe Lovano: Paramount Quartet (ECM Records) ★★★★

There’s a gentle solo guitar prologue to this album from Julian Lage before Joe Lovano’s sax sings ever so sweetly, bringing in a beautifully elegant rendition of Charlie Haden’s First Song - one of just two covers on an engrossing disc by a stellar quartet, Lovano and Lage joined by double bassist Asante Santi Debriano and drummer Will Calhoun. The album is something of a showcase for Lovano’s artistry across the stylistic spectrum, ranging from the tender to the edgy improvisations of his own Amsterdam, with interludes from Lage and Santi, or the eerie soprano sax deliberations of The Call, mirrored stealthily by guitar. There’s a return to balladic opulence in Wayne Shorter’s Lady Day; Congregation is an ebullient loose-limbed stroll, while it’s intriguing to find out where exactly Lovano’s querulously questing sax and Lage’s similarly exploratory guitar are taking us in The Great Outdoors, escorted by Calhoun’s busy drum flurries. Jim Gilchrist

The Scotsman’s arts newsletter is now sent twice a week - subscribe today

Enjoying the Arts & Culture journalism on scotsman.com? Make it easier to find by selecting us as a preferred Google source

Want the latest Scottish headlines sent directly to your phone? Sign up to our new WhatsApp channel here