Metallica, Ann-Margret, Philippa Nihill: New album reviews

If this song on Metallica’s new album gives you a sense of deja vu, there’s a good reason PLUS Philippa Nihill and Ann-Margret.

Metallica | Picture: Tim Saccenti

This week’s album reviews from The Courier-Mail (ratings out of five stars):

METAL

Metallica, 72 Seasons

(Blackened/Universal) ***1/2

Amid the noise that is the latest Metallica album, there’s one track that will catch the attention of us casual fans. Sleepwalk My Life Away has echoes of megabit Enter Sandman, and is a brief respite from the aural onslaught. Indeed, James Hetfield declares “full speed or nothing” – a nod to early hit Kill ’Em All – on Lux Æterna, which chugs along at breakneck pace. There’s the duelling guitars of the opening title track, the insistent thud of Crown of Barbed Wire and the war drums of If Darkness Had a Son. 72 Seasons – a reference to our formative first 18 years of life – is as polished as you’d expect from an outfit with 40-plus years of world-beating metal-making under their belt: the power chords, pumping drum grooves and crunching guitar breaks are all slickly executed and produced. However it’s not instantly accessible, which suggests it might have staying power. Ten-minute multi-part epic Inamorate closes the set: “Misery she kills me… she fills me… but she’s not what I’m living for.”

POP

Philippa Nihill, Find Her Way

(Independent) ***

Better known as a member of long-running Melbourne synth-rockers Underground Lovers, Philippa Nihill finally drops her sophomore solo long-player after more than two decades. A much more middle-of-the-road, dreamlike effort than those of the band, it gives her vocals room to shine. And her soothing tones recall Seventies songstresses like Karen Carpenter, Carlie Simon or Helen Reddy, as on Getaway or Love Song For Sierra Nevada, which evokes a desert sunrise. Opening with the existential strains of Superseder, there’s the soaring chorus of the title track, the brooding harmonies of Endless which builds to a bittersweet crescendo, and the ethereal synth of Sunrise. Meanwhile on the meditative Still Morning Nihill coos: “My mind melts, my body floats.” Here’s hoping it’s not enough 20 years before her next solo outing.

ROCK

Ann-Margret, Born to Be Wild

(Cleopatra) **

Once billed as the female Elvis, the artist formerly known as Ann-Margret Olsson makes like a female William Shatner on her first album in 12 years, assembling an all-star line-up for renditions of old-time rock ’n’ roll classics. She’s joined by the likes of Pete Townshend, Joe Perry, Pat Boone, Steve Cropper, Linda Gail Lewis and Paul Shaffer, performing classics from Rock Around the Clock, Bye Bye Love and Son of a Preacher Man to Splish Splash, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree and, of course, the song that gives the album its name. While octogenarian Ann-Margret can still hold a tune, it’s a by-the-numbers effort that doesn’t really stretch the ample abilities of the roster.