Tough Baby (Vinyl LP) Jazz

Tough Baby (Vinyl LP) JazzCrack Cloud's new album Tough Baby is both a clarion call and a life manual for the listener. Unsurprisingly, it is a record with purpose and resolve. Nothing is wasted. Sometimes the music feels deliberately compressed, the essences extracted and bottled into an overpowering cordial, as on '115 At Night', which sounds like an '80s Van Halen track being squeezed into another shape. And it's difficult to see how a track like 'Virtuous Industry' can

Augmented by piano and more frequently accordion

the artists channel a newly intimate musical scope that's illustrated most dramatically when the spacy sensuality of the minimalistic 'Chocolate Hills' leads into the stark spirituality addressed on 'Father Father'

makes this an essential purchase for any Charlatans fan

affectionately known as Car

overseen by Florent Mazzoleni and David Hill for Albarika Store

It's a distinct and remarkable combination

had been augmented by third guitarist Danny Kirwan

Turkish psych and surf guitars

the quartet continued to explore the acid-rock frivolity of 1960's california

while Sun Ra and Al Kooper take over organ duties (a Hammond B-3) and members of Ra's Arkestra play sax

the fiery new country star with a punk-rock heart

and it's a theme that turns up throughout his music