Two great Dolly packages for the country fans!
4/5
There can be absolutely no doubting the impact Dolly Parton, right, has had in country music.
Now, having just celebrated her 64th birthday, two great Dolly packages are released.
First up is Live From London, which features 15 classic Dolly tracks which she performed at two sold-out gigs at London's O2 Arena in July 2008.
Including the hits 9 To 5, Islands In The Stream and Jolene, the album comes complete with a DVD which features behind the scenes footage from the gigs.
For those with a bit more cash to spare, invest in Dolly, a four-disc box set that is the first career-spanning release and features 99 Dolly tracks.
The box set also includes seven previously unreleased tracks – a must for all Dolly enthusiasts!
Charlotte Gainsbourg – IRM
3/5
With its dramatic instrumentation, whispered lyrics and haunting electronic effects, the third album from Charlotte Gainsbourg offers up a healthy dose of moody Gallic magic.
Produced by the marvellous musical scavenger Beck, each number smacks of his stylised touch and the duet between Gainsbourg and Beck – Heaven Can Wait – is unmistakable Beck territory.
Yet none of the songs on IRM quite manage to deliver the promise of their introduction.
Le Chat Du Cafe Des Artistes, with its sliding strings and deep bass notes, begins with Bond-theme style impact, but doesn't get anywhere, while In The End, sung by Gainsbourg, has ethereal intentions but never manages to leave the earth.
On the whole, this album slides by without making much of an impact.
White Rabbits – It's Frightening
3/5
It's Frightening is the second album from New York-based six-piece White Rabbits, and picks up perfectly from where their excellent 2007 debut Fort Nightly left off.
Opener and current single Percussion Gun is typical of the album as a whole: frantic drums (living up to the song's title), thumping piano and guitars that could have been dragged from Radiohead's epic The Bends.
White Rabbits have two frontmen, Greg Roberts and Stephen Patterson, and it works a treat, their voices capable of gelling together and clashing when necessary.
Aside from the aforementioned track, Lionesse and Midnight And I are among the best on offer here.
The full-on gaze of the mainstream may be out of their reach, but another album of this quality – and one or two more singles – and that could all change.
Reviews by Polly Weeks, Sarah O'Meara and Andy Welch
Comment on this story