ADRIAN THRILLS: CORR! Sharon shows she’s second fiddle no more

SHARON CORR: The Fool & The Scorpion (EastWest) 

Rating:

Verdict: Stinging solo record

NATALIE IMBRUGLIA: Firebird (BMG) 

Rating:

Verdict: Soars periodically

As violinist and backing vocalist, Sharon Corr rarely took centre stage in the band she formed in 1990 with sisters Andrea and Caroline and brother Jim.

It was lead singer Andrea, all gothic glamour, who was the focal point as The Corrs sold 45 million albums and filled arenas with their Irish folk and pop.

But Sharon, who also plays piano, was the band’s instrumental powerhouse so it’s no surprise that she has gone on to enjoy the most productive solo career.

New album The Fool & The Scorpion is her third individual effort in 11 years — her solo journey was put on hold in 2015 for a Corrs reunion — and it’s easily her most accomplished.

A lot of current pop, from Ed Sheeran to Lorde, has an acoustic hue, and it would have been easy for Corr, 51, to fall back on the folk legacy of The Corrs.

To her credit, she does nothing of the sort, turning to veteran producer Larry Klein to oversee an album of swirling rock and jazz-tinged piano ballads.

The most striking thing is how low-key her violin sounds, even though she still plays her trademark instrument throughout. When she released her first solo record, Dream Of You, in 2010, the violin loomed large. There was even a fiddle-and-guitar duet with Jeff Beck. With the ten songs here penned largely on piano, there’s a distinct change of gear.

There is also a rawness that’s a world away from the carefree lilt of Corrs hits such as Breathless and Runaway. Sharon’s 14-year marriage to Belfast lawyer Gavin Bonnar broke down in 2019, and it sounds as if her wounds have yet to fully heal.

Like most divorce LPs, the focus is on moving on . . . but there’s a fair amount of anger, too.

The title track deals with betrayal (‘You’ll get your just deserts, served cold on the grave of my tenderness,’ Sharon sings). The track was written on a bumpy flight from Madrid, where she now lives, to Switzerland, an uncomfortable experience which clearly added to the sense of turmoil.

She isn’t feeling much better on the surging rocker Freefall (‘I’m so messed up’), or the lovely piano ballad Lend Me Your Shoulder (where she’s ‘falling on hard ice again’). But, as we reach the waltz-time pop of A Thousand Lives, she is finally more philosophical about life’s hard-won lessons: ‘I was young, too young to know / The fairy tale was just a show.’ The decision to record with Klein, famous for his work with Joni Mitchell, is inspired.

The album was made with a team of crack session musicians at The Village, the LA studio where the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac cut fabled LPs, and the influence of the classic 1970s Laurel Canyon singer-songwriters is palpable without becoming overbearing.

Sharon also sings it like she means it. On Lend Me Your Shoulder she adopts a tearful whisper that recalls Norah Jones.

On Only You, co-written with her sister Andrea, the tone is sweet and understated. There are moments of levity, too, notably on Running On Rooftops, a playful salute to life on the road . . . and the ensuing hangovers.

With its songs drawn from a period the singer calls ‘the biggest storm of my life’, this expressive record is Corr’s coming of age as a solo artist. She’s back on stage, too, having completed a residency in a Madrid jazz club. Let’s hope that UK shows follow.

Natalie Imbruglia’s first new album in six years — and her first set of original songs since 2009 — feels scattergun, with the Australian singer struggling to impose a consistent artistic identity across 14 new tracks.

With a cluster of high-profile collabor-ators on board, she swerves between pop, electronica and country. Firebird would fly higher with a sharper focus.

The former soap star conquered the charts in 1997 with Torn, a single that sold four million copies and set a shimmering, guitar-pop blueprint that is enjoying a marked revival. 

Lorde, who recently covered Torn, cites Imbruglia, 46, as an inspiration. Anglo-Japanese singer Rina Sawayama is another whose music looks to millennium-era pop.

Firebird starts well by playing to traditional strengths. Build It Better supplies an uplifting opening with multi-tracked vocals and breezy piano.

What It Feels Like is all shuffling 1990s rhythms and elegant synths.

The radio-friendly On My Way merges empowering lyrics with hook-heavy pop-funk — but there are times when the singer’s collaborators get the better of her.

Maybe It’s Great, co-written and produced by The Strokes’ Albert Hammond Jr, sounds too much like a song by the guitarist’s own band, although Imbruglia fares better on the Torn-like Nothing Missing, an energetic collaboration with KT Tunstall.

The second half of the album is dominated by hit-and- miss ballads.

The vulnerable When You Love Too Much, made in Nashville, suggests Natalie could have explored her country leanings more, and the tenderly sung title track — written with Romeo Stodart of The Magic Numbers — adds a potent finale to a comeback that simmers without fully coming to the boil. 

Here’s The Thing: it’s Sufjan’s salute to film

Having used lockdown to release a new solo album plus a largely instrumental LP (the latter with his stepfather Lowell Brams), Sufjan Stevens enjoyed a prolific 2020.

With restrictions easing, his productivity continues apace on this intimate suite of Hollywood-related songs written and recorded with fellow singer-songwriter Angelo De Augustine.

The 14 tracks are all based on popular films, from Bette Davis’s 1950s classic All About Eve to 2004’s cheerleader rom-com Bring it On Again.

Rather than slavishly follow the action on the screen, the pair use their chosen movies as cues, taking liberties to explore wider themes of love andloss. Rarified in places, it works atreat in others.

Among the highlights are the Simon & Garfunkel-like Reach Out, inspired by Wim Wenders’ Wings Of Desire, and the atmospheric (This Is) The Thing, a song about paranoia triggered by John Carpenter’s The Thing. Stevens has previously written film scores (he earned an Oscar nod for Call Me By Your Name), and his soundtrack experience routinely comes into play.

De Augustine’s presence has also prompted him to keep the songs concise. It’s Your Own Body And Mind, based on Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It, is a two-minute gem. And Cimmerian Shade, inspired by The Silence Of The Lambs (pictured), candidly addresses the film’s director: ‘Fix it all, Jonathan Demme.’

With effervescent harmonies to the fore, they turn old celluloid into vibrant new music.