Album Reviews

It is four years since Corinne Bailey Rae's eponymous debut album of happy jazz tunes was released. In the intervening years, the Grammy-nominated 30-year-old has been to the dizzy heights of stardom,

and the depths of despair. Her second album, The Sea, clearly reflects her emotional journey and, while many lyrics touch on pain and death, it has a hopeful feel, with the elegant muse on spirituality I Would Like To Call It Beauty at the heart of it. KW

The Postmarks – Memoirs at the End of The World (B0029WGIRQ )(12.99)

Imagine being given a beautifully wrapped box of chocolates with a shiny ribbon around it. Now imagine putting one in your mouth and finding out it is just Rolo. Listening to The Postmarks' new album produces a similar sense of deflation. Everything about it is wonderfully put together: A suitably grandiose title, lovingly retro packaging and the crispest of production. Then there are the songs. There is no wit and little panache and the recurring orchestral rushes scream style over substance. RD

Strauss: Ein Heldenleben/Rosenkavalier Suite. Orfeo C803091A (12.99)

Andris Nelsons, who brings his City of Birmingham Symphony to Leeds Town Hall tomorrow night, here directs a highly-charged, precisely detailed and neatly packaged series of episodes in the life of Strauss's eponymous hero. Wide in dynamic range, the Birmingham orchestra are oozing with virtuosity, while the sound quality of this "live" recording is striking in its clarity. Nelsons' Rosenkavalier is for the concert hall, not the opera house, its high spirits loaded with orchestral opulence and flamboyant gestures. DD

Bernstein: Trouble in Tahiti/West Side Story. BR Klassik, 403571900300 (12.99)

A new label on the shelves with a treasure-chest of recordings awaiting release. This double Bernstein bill stars Kim Criswell and Rod Gilfrey in a one-act opera pointing to the breakdown of today's married couples in their ability to communicate with one another. Not a masterpiece but well worth hearing in such a fine performance. A symphonic suite from West Side Story that includes the juicy bits finds the Munich Radio Orchestra in fine form. Ulf Schirmer conducts and the sound engineering is outstanding. DD