El Son Necesita de Ti/Son Needs You
Candido Fabre & Su Banda
(Tumi Records)
★★★★★

THE title song is Candido Fabre’s riveting tribute to the influential pianist and arranger Adalberto Alvarez, a native of Camaguey who died in 2021 aged 73. 

Alvarez was a National Assembly of People’s Power deputy and one who publicly acknowledged his practice of Afro-Cuban religion the Santeria. The song reaffirms the place of Son in Cuban contemporary musical landscape.

Fabre is known for his sharp verses, jocular sayings and husky style of delivery. The seamless interventions by vocalist Mirelia Martin and his son Fabre Martinez add tropical colour to the sound palette.

Martin’s quasi Bolero Dejalo Que Vuele/Let Him Fly  is a gem framed by Eddy Escobar’s astute violin. 

Jubilao Pero No Retirao/Retired But Not Gone, aided by Victor Torre, Juan Semanat and Mirley Espinoza’s harmonies, delights with its dispute of old age idleness. Terrific.
 

Good Habits 
Quarter-Life
(Own label)
★★★★★

GOOD HABITS — nomen est omen, are musically exactly that. The Mancunian duo’s vistas stun with compositional sophistication, clever arrangements and instrumental virtuosity. 

This breathtaking oeuvre is supplemented with the notable talent of like-minded collaborators Lunatraktors, Mishra, Vulva Voce, Alex Garden and Angeline Morrison. 

Bonnie Schwarz’s percussive cello and playful, versatile voice and Pete Shaw’s masterly accordion bewitch in 360°. “You want to wrap this band around you like an old blanket,” exalts, unsurprisingly, Dresden Dolls’ Amanda Palmer.

The riveting The Who’s Baba O’Reilly is an outstanding rock-inflected exemplar of these energising collaborations, full of devil-may-care contagious passion. They also reasure us that “no synthesisers were injured in the song’s recording.” Phew, that’s a relief.

The pulsating Sunday, featuring Mishra, is delivered via Kate Griffin and Schwartz splendid vocal harmonies and superb riffs from Griffin’s banjo and Shaw’s accordeon all kept in place by Ford Collier’s bodhran. Exquisite.

Regent
Beggars Belief
(Blue Odyssey Records)
★★★★★

THIS bunch of Sotonians haven’t learned their politics from the internet: “You tell me something, some big fat porky pies. You think that I’m stupid, I see right through those lies,” snarls Ben Rooke in your face, in the magnificent Beggars Belief.

“Corruption runs deep worldwide, not just in this country… I wanted to write a track that sums these times up,” he adds pointedly.

As they get purposefully into a Ford Mustang to deliver Liberation, the incorruptible San Francisco detective Frank Bullitt is brought to mind, as is his uncompromising search for the truth.

Their musical formula is the ancient “stick together” that has served all the best acts well. The result is a symbiosis of instrumental dexterity in which the rhythm section has both power and subtlety, while the overlaid guitars teem with invention and purpose that envelop Rooke’s melodic voice.

Courageous and principled, rock album of 2024.