The next David Sylvian album, Blemish (due out in May), was written in one month, mixed in one month, and features himself, Derek Bailey, and Fennesz. All excellent news because his previous round of collaborators (Sakamoto, et al) have gone stale, judging by the not-very-interesting Dead Bees on a Cake. More Fennesz collaborations are apparently on the way, also good news, since I like his style but the lack of melody keeps me from getting immersed (for scattershot, digital-cut-ups, I prefer Howard Hello's album, which uses the same affect over acoustic guitar).

Review: Lisa Germano, "Lullaby for Liquid Pig"
Too many years have gone by without a Lisa Germano album to make me feel better about myself. Admirers of her mid-period albums Geek the Girl and Excerpts from a Love Circus will find themselves in familiar territory; these ten songs are thematically linked with a focus on alcohol abuse and shame and the production thankfully ditches the uncharacteristic sparse mix of Slide in favour of the surreal cloud that enveloped her earlier work. Textures by Neil Finn (who lured Lisa out of premature retirement), Johnny Marr, and Wendy and Lisa give each track a wonderful swaying, woozy wash. Lisa's voice is fairly thrashed at times, but she has rarely sounded as affecting and vulnerable as she does on "Pearls" with its "hate will grow into someone you know/into something like home" refrain, or on the title track, a hymn to resignation that affectively states the truth of need: "If I do stop or if I don't stop/ it doesn't matter, I probably won't stop/without you here, without your love/the world is just there, it doesn't move me."

Too-short tracks times are the only downside; I wanted most of the songs to go on for another few minutes, but by the end of each she sounds spent. This is a beautifully realised album and a hopeful sign that one of the more overlooked talents of the past ten years might still make some impact.

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