The Jayhawks 
Sanctuary Park
(Thirty Tigers)
⭑⭑⭑⭑☆

WHILE their era-defining ’90s altcountry albums were arguably their best, The Jayhawks, celebrating their 40th year in the business, have been one of the most consistent US roots rock groups of their generation.

Hailing from Minneapolis, soulful leadsinger and songwriter Gary Louris now lives in Canada, with his Canadian wife — the title of their new album refers to an area of Dundas, Ontario.

Unusually for the band there are a couple of overtly political songs on the record. Mr Lincoln is sung from the point of view of an eyewitness to the assassination of the 16th president of the United States, while American Midnight, with a line about “the smell of sulphur in the air,” presumably concerns the current occupant of the White House.

There’s nothing too adventurous — just well-crafted poppy songs with gorgeous harmonies. What’s not to like?

On tour in the UK September 15-18; see: jayhawksofficial.com 

Primal Scream
The Bunker Trilogy 
(CMG)
⭑⭑⭑⭑☆

OVER the next few months British rock veterans Primal Scream are rereleasing expanded editions of Vanishing Point (1997), XTRMNTR (2000) and Evil Heat (2002) — presented here as the Bunker Trilogy.

The records were “the complete antithesis of everything that was going on in UK music,” lead singer and songwriter Bobby Gillespie says.

Their own imagined soundtrack to the 1971 movie of the same name, the band throw lots into the dark and experimental Vanishing Point, including electronica and dub, with inspiration coming from the Black Panthers and US underground culture. The intense and unrelenting Kowalski is cool as f**k, and feels like a precursor to the nascent anti-imperialism of their uncompromising XTRMNTR – check out the incredibly exciting electro punk rock of Swastika Eyes.

Musical markers laid at the tail end of Britpop, these albums still sound like the future.

On tour in the UK August 28-September 15; see: primalscream.net 

Max Subar
Anything Could Be
(Merge)
⭑⭑⭑☆☆

THE guitar player in Chicago lo-fi Americana outfit Case Oats, Anything Could Be is Max Subar’s solo debut longplayer.

Recorded in solitude on a mobile recording rig in a house overlooking a lake in Wisconsin, there are shades of Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago in the album’s origin story. And while the acoustic guitar is also central to his sound, Subar’s influences feel quite different to those of Justin Vernon — namely the melodic and accessible songwriting of the great Paul Simon. This is best heard on the lovely See Saw, with the affecting couplet “Caught a smile from a stranger the other day / It let me know there’ll be better days.”

Indeed the promising set is imbued with a welcome sense of renewal (“I’m not myself anymore / Perhaps that’s a good thing”) and quiet positivity.