CD reviews: Isobel Campbell, Lily Allen, Backyard Tire Fire

CD reviews: Isobel Campbell, Lily Allen, Backyard Tire Fire

Oklahoman.com

Folk

Isobel Campbell "Milk White Sheets” (V2)

In the five years since Isobel Campbell left the Scottish twee-pop band Belle & Sebastian, the singer has steadily moved into challenging territory, surrounding her breathy vocals with the jazz motifs of 2003's "Amorino” and juxtaposing her sweet voice with Mark Lanegan's deep, dark rasp on last year's "Ballad of the Broken Seas.” For her new collection, "Milk White Sheets,” Campbell turns her attention to '60s British folk, exploring the styles popularized by forebears Anne Briggs and Shirley Collins.

While Campbell's voice is far more ethereal than either of those folk legends, she delves into the same haunting Celtic style. Campbell essays several lilting traditional songs such as "O Love is Teasin',” "Reynardine” and the Scottish favorite "Hori Horo,” but then her original compositions, including "Cachel Wood” and the gorgeously spare "Beggar, Wiseman or Thief,” stand shoulder-to-shoulder with these timeless traditionals.

Perhaps the most familiar of the covers is "Willow's Song,” the dramatic seduction song Britt Eklund sang au naturel in the 1973 cult classic "The Wicker Man.” While this song is frequently covered — Sneaker Pimps and Doves both did versions — Campbell's captures the beauty of the original best of all. "Milk White Sheets” is proof of Campbell's evolution as an artist and is a beautiful tribute to the pioneering women of modern Celtic folk.

— George Lang

Pop

Lily Allen "Alright, Still” (Capitol)

Lily Allen took her time bringing her wry, ska-inflected songs to the United States, letting stateside label Capitol dribble out a few tracks before "Alright, Still” finally hit these shores, but the 21-year-old singer's full-length debut was worth the wait and the piecemeal downloading sessions. This is pop for people who claim to hate pop, a collection of cheeky jabs and kiss-offs that deliver hooks and laughs in equal doses.

The first two singles, "Smile” and "LDN,” establish Allen's modus operandi — the singer seduces with sunny pop and then slams her subjects (an ex-boyfriend and London, respectively) with caustic, bilious humor. This is what "Jagged Little Pill” would have been if Alanis Morissette had the snide wit to match her anger. Allen clearly has the pop sensibility that can make all the bitterness go down like honey: "Not Big” and "Nan, You're a Window Shopper” are perfectly monstrous takedowns, but Allen juxtaposes her rancor with perfect-pop sweetness.

"Alright, Still” is not quite perfect — "Take What You Take” is a drab string of cliches set to a "Madchester” beat on a track that isn't even worthy of Natasha Bedingfield. But for the balance of the disc, Allen is top of the pops, especially "Alfie,” a bouncy ode to a lazy little brother that should be her next hit. With "Alright, Still,” Allen emerges as a pop princess of disaffected music fans' dreams.

— George Lang

Alternative

Backyard Tire Fire "Vagabonds and Hooligans” (O.I.E. Records)

Front man Ed Anderson already had me at the eerily wistful acoustic guitar and rusty violin intro to "Vagabonds and Hooligans,” but when he sang of "Instruments and cable ties and bottles on the floor / The voice of Wayne Coyne bringing back the dead,” I felt like I was kicking back in the den with an old friend.

References to Oklahoma City's fearless Flaming Lips leader aside, Anderson's Bloomington, Ill., three-piece makes mostly engaging, rootsy indie rock throughout its third full-length album, from the springy twang of "Undecided,” which sounds uncannily like Jeff Tweedy and Wilco in a rare sunny mood, to the ramshackle guitar chime of "Green Eyed Soul,” which reveals influences both vintage (early Neil Young and Crazy Horse) and modern (Jay Farrar/Son Volt).

"Apparitions” haunts with its ghostly slide guitar lines drifting above Anderson's mournful lyrical portrait of a lost young man "clinging to the asphalt stoned and scared,” the slow-burning, country-rocking, anti-war mantra "Get Wise” will set blood to boiling on the right and the left, and the spare piano, organ and muted feedback on "A Long Time” enhances a painfully beautiful observation on rock-bottom world-weariness. You're liable to pay frequent return visits to "Vagabonds and Hooligans” and always feel right at home.

— Gene Triplett