Hjalte Ross
Embody
(Wouldn’t Waste Records)
★★★★

“I WAS feeling quite alone at the time I started writing the songs for this album,” 21-year-old Danish singer-songwriter Hjalte Ross says about his mesmerising, melancholic debut.

Produced by the legendary John Wood, his previous work with the great and the good of the British folk scene acts as signpost to the record’s key influences.

Like much of the music here, the astonishing Falling bears a strong resemblance to Nick Drake’s jazzy folk on the sublime Bryter Layter album. The lyrics are often difficult to discern – no bad thing when the music is this good and you know you’ll be listening for a long time to come.

Ross’s acoustic guitar playing, complemented by strings and piano, also brings to mind John Martyn and Badly Drawn Boy — check out the cello on instrumental Company of a Camel — and Elliott Smith.

Stunning.

Bruce Springsteen
Springsteen on Broadway
(Columbia)
★★★★★

A RECORD of Bruce Springsteen’s solo residency at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York City, this two-disc album is a moving personal journey through his life and career.

With each song introduced by a lengthy monologue, often lifted from his 2016 autobiography, The Boss moves between stand-up comedy to tearful stories about his family and a denunciation of Trump’s America.

The songs are stripped back to their bare essentials, with The Promised Land transformed into a Woody Guthrie-sounding folk tune, while the rocking E Street Band-saluting Tenth Avenue Freeze Out is performed on piano.

Preceded by an account of meeting Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic and some intense slide guitar, there is no mistaking Born In The USA’s defiant anger, delivered almost a cappella.

Romantic and inspiring, it’s a huge artistic statement from one of America’s greatest songwriters.

Rosali
Trouble Anyway
(Scissor Tail Records/Spinster Sounds)
★★★

FOR her second solo album Philadelphia-based musician Rosali Middleman has recruited an impressive array of supporting musicians, including Charlie Hall (War on Drugs), Paul Sukeena (Angel Olsen), the hugely talented Nathan Bowles and harpist Mary Lattimore.

Together they’ve created an atmospheric set of mid-tempo indie rock songs with heartache at their centre which at times is reminiscent of the soft rock of Fleetwood Mac.

There’s an intimate and ruminative feel to the lyrics, with Middleman’s warm and loose vocals a real pleasure on tracks like single I Wanna Know and the slightly harder-edged Lie To Me. Elsewhere, the stripped back Silver Eyes and the harp-assisted If I Was Your Heat are two more highlights.

Elusive but with a noteworthy consistency of mood, file Trouble Anyway alongside the work of fellow US singer-songwriters Eleanor Friedberger and Aimee Mann.