New CD releases

It’s beautiful stuff, frankly. Big piano ballads once again dominate, Tillman’s rich and robust voice channelling early Elton John on the stunning Just Dumb Enough To Try.

But there’s room for humour, too, the singer reflecting on a hotel stay straight out of Patrick Melrose on the witty Mr Tillman and pondering what his partner might sing about him on The Songwriter: “Would you undress me in public/ To show how very noble and naked you can be.”

Fabulous.

Misshaped Pearls, Shivelight 4/5 (Misshapen Records – out now)

With impressive German mezzo-soprano Manuela Schuette on lead vocals, this sevenpiece London band bend the traditional palette of pastoral folk music into some extraordinarily melodic shapes.

Opener The Cuckoo builds from Schuette’s almost unaccompanied voice into a magnificent dance tune, shot through with keening fiddle.

Nature Waking and Fishes are equally startling, while Jesus’ Crooked Shadow has a near bhangra pulse, Schuette’s voice soaring above the ensemble with heart-stopping power.

Anyone with half an interest in where folk music is headed should lend an ear.

Luke Howard, Open Heart Story, 4/5, (Mercury KX)

Contemporary classical music does not get much better than this.

Howard is a Melbourneborn pianist and composer whose drifting, elegiac pieces, some solo, others with a 23-piece orchestra, have a heartbreakingly elegiac quality.

I Still Dream About You, Sometimes But Not Always is simply stunning.

Morcheeba, Blaze Away, 3/5, (Fly Algaric)

One of the 1990s more literate and indieleaning dance bands, Morcheeba’s first album in four years is a strong return to the infectious grooves and honeyed vocals that made their name.

Singer Skye Edwards is in startling form throughout but Blaze Away, which also features rapper Roots Manuva and the beautiful It’s Summertime, with lyrics co-written by Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner, are outstanding.

Richard Hawley & Ollie Trevers, Funny Cow, 3/5, (BMG)

Ollie Trevers is a decent enough rock singer but it is Hawley’s ballads, particularly the moving and nostalgic title track and the superb I Still Want You, a duet with Corinne Bailey Rae, which bring this soundtrack to the film about a 1970s female comedian to life.

Hawley also adds some jaunty between-scenes instrumentals.

All CDs released next Friday unless stated.