Brigitte Calls Me Baby 
The Future Is Our Way Out 
(ATO) 
★★★★

THERE’S a lot of buzz surrounding the first album from Chicago five-piece Brigitte Calls Me Baby.  

Taking from the best of popular music, they mix the early 2000s indie guitar rock of bands like The Strokes and The Walkmen with 1980s jangle pop and, further back, Elvis-style vocals.  

With frontman Wes Leavins sports a Morrissey-style quiff, I Wanna Die In The Suburbs is a dead ringer for The Smiths, from the narrator’s wish to meet death “in a four car garage” to the forlorn, romantic vocal delivery. On the wonderful Eddie My Love Leavins moves from sounding like the King of Rock ’n’ Roll to Roy Orbison and then to Johnny Cash within just a few lines.  

So, yes, Brigitte Calls Me Baby are certainly derivative. But they have also written a terrifically exciting debut chockful of great songs.  

Oasis 
Definitely Maybe (30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) 
(Big Brother Recordings) 
★★★★★

ONE of the best debut albums of my lifetime, Definitely Maybe’s swaggering guitar rock still sounds fresh and exciting 30 years later.  

Rock ’N’ Roll Star, Live Forever, Cigarettes & Alcohol, Supersonic and the love song Slide Away are all absolutely colossal. Full of youthful dreaming and singalong choruses, the Gallagher brothers’ working-class anthems were stadium ready, with the Manchester outfit playing to a quarter of a million people over two nights at Knebworth in August 1996.  

The extras include tracks from the discarded original recording sessions at Monnow Valley Studios, along with album outtakes, including a demo of the acoustic Sad Song with Liam on vocals. 

The last truly big British band before the internet took over our lives and stratified music listening and fandom, we may never see such a nationally important and culturally influential group ever again. 

Louis Armstrong 
Louis In London 
(Verve) 
★★★★

WHAT a discovery this is. 

In the twilight of his career — and, it turns out, his life — in July 1968 US jazz giant Louis Armstrong travelled to Britain with his All Stars band for a live date at the BBC, broadcast two months later on the Show Of The Week. 

Previously unreleased, Louis In London is the 13-track document of the concert. The sound quality is fantastic, as is Armstrong’s trumpet work and iconic singing. Apparently, when he received a copy of the recording he wrote “For The Fans” on the box, sending copies to friends and playing it whenever he received visitors. 

The set includes A Kiss To Build a Dream On, an energetic Hello, Dolly!, What A Wonderful Life and You’ll Never Walk Alone, which he dedicates to the mothers of US soldiers fighting in Vietnam.