Vel

The fifth album from the British-Asian singer and 2001 Mercury Music prize nominee finds her digging deeper than ever before into her Indian roots, singing half in English and half in Tamil, and for the first time weaving Indian devotional music into her default Anglo-Asian pop/rock style. Before we get there, however, comes the anthemic pop opener, ‘Raise Up’. It’s a banging Bollywood-style tune with additional vocals from the rising young Indian singing star Kutle Khan, which sounds as if Raman has been heavily influenced by MIA’s contribution to the Bombay Dreams soundtrack. It’s hardly typical, however, and elsewhere she explores more traditional Tamil, Rajasthani and Bengali styles, although they are as always fused with Western elements. ‘Daga Daga’, for instance, is based upon a classical Indian taal rhythm, but embellished by some Hendrix-style pyrotechnics from her long¬time partner, producer and guitarist Sam Mills. ‘Paal’ swims on a soundbed of epic Karnatic violin and hypnotic tabla, over which Raman’s voice swoons seductively. ‘Magdalena’, ‘Fools’ and ‘Orfea’ are more conventional Western singer-songwriter fare, although delivered with a sensuality that is decidedly Asian in tone. On ‘Velundu’, Mills helps her craft an intriguing Tamil trip-hop fusion, while ‘Muthu Kumar’ is an earthy blues, pitched somewhere between the Mississippi and Bengali deltas.

After the strange excursions of her last album, 2007’s 33 1/3, on which she reinterpreted songs by Dylan, Lennon, Hendrix, the Velvet Underground and others. It’s a welcome return to form.