The Jayhawks
XOXO
(Thirty Tigers)
★★★★

THOUGH they have never received as much attention as artists like Ryan Adams and Wilco, The Jayhawks are very much altcountry survivors, having released their debut album nearly 35 years ago.

On their 11th studio record, the Minneapolis band have made an impressive and rejuvenating shift away from their usual formula of frontman Gary Louris dominating the songwriting and singing duties.

A risky move perhaps but it works beautifully, with bassist Marc Perlman, drummer Tim O’Reagan and Karen Grotberg on keyboards stepping up with some very impressive results. O’Reagan’s Dogtown Days is a straight-ahead rocker, while Ruby finds Grotberg singing an aching country ballad.

The lovely sounding, yearning closer Looking Up Your Number — another O’Reagan cut — is a real highlight.

With this masterclass in songwriting, The Jayhawks clearly still have a lot of gas left in the tank.

Asian Dub Foundation
Access Denied
(X-Ray Productions)
★★★★

TWENTY years after their incendiary career-high Community Music record, Asian Dub Foundation return with their ninth studio album.

Like their previous work, Access Denied is a musically eclectic, take-no-prisoners assault on global elites, taking on the racism and nationalism underpinning much of the Brexit debate, immigration, the climate crisis and student protests in Chile, among other subjects.

The presumably Dario Fo-inspired opener Can’t Pay Won’t Pay is an intense call to arms against economic inequality, while the punky drum’n’bass of Stealing The Future turns Theresa May’s phrase “a citizen of nowhere” on its head.

Elsewhere, comedian Stewart Lee is sampled to great effect on Coming Over Here, as is Swedish activist Greta Thunberg on Youthquake Part 1, while Mindlock is a heavy-metal track from their rescoring of George Lucas’s 1971 film THX 1138.

Uncompromising and electrifying.

Mary Chapin Carpenter
The Dirt and the Stars
(Thirty Tigers)
★★★

ALONG with fellow US singer-songwriters Beth Nielsen Chapman and Gretchen Peters, 62-year old Mary Chapin Carpenter is top of the class of her particular strand of country-folk music.

This subgenre is full of soundtrack-ready, sincere story songs about the human condition — at least in the post-war, white US — that pull really hard on the heart strings.

Detractors might dismiss their work as mawkish or too MOR. But fans who know better will soak up The Dirt and the Stars, Carpenter’s 16th studio album.

Produced by Ethan Johns at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, the music acts as a vehicle for her award-winning songwriting skills.

Gone is the exuberance of her early-1990s hits like He Thinks He’ll Keep Her and Stones In The Road, replaced by songs of experience, and a beautiful, maturing voice full of wisdom and gravitas.