Friday 17 June 2022 01:37 AM ADRIAN THRILLS: Jessie Buckley gets the blues with help from a Suede sidekick trends now
Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler: For All Our Days That Tear the Heart (EMI)
Verdict: Unlikely pair strike gold
Rating: 
There's really just one question to ask when one of Hollywood’s fastest-rising young stars releases an album: would it still be worth listening to, without its maker’s Tinseltown connections? In the case of Jessie Buckley, the Irish actress who this year received an Oscar nod for The Lost Daughter, the answer is a resounding yes.
The 32-year-old from County Kerry has sung in the West End — she won an Olivier Award for her work in last year’s revival of Cabaret — and played an aspiring country starlet in 2018’s Wild Rose. Her singing talent was abundantly apparent in that film.
On those occasions, she was a gifted actress taking on specific roles. Her new album with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler is different. Here, in an engrossing mixture of jazz, folk and blues, she delivers a performance — restrained yet deeply emotional — that goes well beyond stagecraft.
The album from Jessie Buckley, the Irish actress who this year received an Oscar nod for The Lost Daughter, and former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler is an engrossing mixture of jazz, folk and blues
Jessie and Bernard are an odd couple. Her background is in musical theatre, while Butler, 52, is one of the unsung heroes of Britpop. His brash guitar on the Suede singles Metal Mickey and So Young helped pave the way for Blur and Oasis, and he has since worked with Sophie Ellis-Bextor, David McAlmont and Duffy.
But the London musician also has Irish roots (his parents are from Dun Laoghaire), and Buckley’s manager put the pair in touch after sensing they might be kindred spirits.
Butler, on piano and guitar, provides a sympathetic backing for Jessie’s rich voice, but the real surprise is just how well their songwriting partnership works.
Rather than cover traditional folk tunes or jazz standards, they have co-written 12 new numbers that explore a range of moods. The folkish Eagle & The Dove echoes Joni Mitchell. Babylon Days is the kind of song that might have cropped up on Island Records alongside Nick Drake and Fairport Convention in the 1970s.
Jessie and Bernard (pictured) are an odd couple. Her background is in musical theatre, while Butler, 52, is one of the unsung heroes of Britpop. His brash guitar on the Suede singles Metal Mickey and So Young helped pave the way for Blur and Oasis
Those searching for instant pop gratification should look elsewhere — and the duo’s fondness for wordy song titles is slightly off-putting — but this is an album that rewards repeated play. There’s a windswept air to 20 Years A-Growing, based on the 1930s memoir of a man living on a remote Irish island. Seven Red Rose Tattoos is plaintive and jazzy.
Hints of Jessie the stage singer occasionally seep through, and the title track, built around strings, horns and double bass, is unabashedly melodramatic.
Butler’s skill as an arranger — rocky on We’ve Run The Distance: bluesy on Shallow The Water — is clear; and Buckley sings with an earthiness that stops these songs from sounding twee. Where she usually plays a role, she’s now playing it straight, and For All Our Days… is an unexpected triumph.
Foals : Life Is Yours (Warner)
Verdict: Post-lockdown tonic
Rating:
With a Saturday night headline slot at next month’s Latitude Festival and a bill-topping appearance on Glastonbury’s Other Stage a week today, Foals are set to cement their status as one of the country’s biggest bands. They were crowned Best British Group at the 2020 BRITs, so they have plenty to build on.
Foals are set to cement their status as one of the country’s biggest bands. They were crowned Best British Group at the 2020 BRITs, so they have plenty to build on
Their profile should be boosted further with the arrival of Life Is Yours, a bright, accessible pop record made to banish post-lockdown blues. The Oxford outfit haven’t always been so happy-go-lucky, but frontman Yannis Philippakis says they wanted to deliver something upbeat.
The band began this seventh LP in quarantine, writing songs that reflected their desire to escape. By the time they got to finish them, in a Bath studio, the world was opening up, and the album became a celebration. If 2019’s two-part Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost was overwrought, this is
