| Duang Album 4 ***** |
Duang's fourth album is a well-balanced collection which demonstrates why she is one of the most exciting mor lam artists recording today (quite apart from being an excellent singer of luk tung). The disc continues her shift towards a more modern style, with Rock Salaeng an obvious major influence. |  | Rock Salaeng Tao Hua-nguu ***** |
Tao Hua-nguu is classic Rock Salaeng: it combines pop, tung and lam influences in a way which makes them easily the best Isan group around. The album is bookended by its two weakest offerings, but at its heart are five or six memorable songs with hooky instrumentals and choruses the size of Australia... |  |
| Honey 16 Hit Songs ***** |
Honey Sri Isan's re-released recordings are the only material from the early 1990s currently widely available, and they offer a fascinating look at how mor lam has changed in that short period... |  |
| Jop and Joy Nang 12 Tawn Prarot Meri ***** |
Jop and Joy's lam rueang taw glawn performances are a very welcome change from their more superficial Mor lam Panlai series. This is a westerner's idea of lam as it should be... |  |
| Gulap Luam Yawt Kap Lam ***** |
Luam Yawt Kap Lam is an excellent idiot's guide to lam in Laos. Most of the main styles are represented: two examples each of Xiang Khuang, Phu-thai, Si Pan Dawn, Khon Sawan and Luang Prabang... |  |
| Jop and Joy Mor lam Pan Lai 7 ***** |
Jop and Joy's seventh Mor Lam Panlai album is rather variable in quality, containing some of the best and worst, in artistic terms, of contemporary mor lam. The highs alone, though, are enough to make it an essential buy for any lover of the genre. |  |
| Mi Huajai Wai Rak Tue ***** |
Mi Huajai Wai Rak Tue is an excellent album, in which Mike successfully adds an epic dimension to the standard luk tung sentimentality. The individually attractive songs combine to make a varied and satisfying album as a whole. |  |
| Sawng Khaen Su Taen Mae ***** |
Ek Nakhon is a singer from the south of Thailand, who has worked for several years with Siripon Ampaipong; Sawng Khaen Su Taen Mae reveals him as a very impressive singer in his own right. |  |
| Mor Lam Sa On 13 ***** |
Mor Lam Sa On 13 contains some much more engaging material than Jintara's last couple of albums, although all of the best songs are covers of earlier works recorded by Honey, Jintara or both. Despite the lack of originality, the album as a whole is an enjoyable look back at an earlier age which is too often overlooked in the frenetic pace of new releases. |  |
| Duang Collected Hits 123 ***** |
Duang Moragot's Collected Hits 123 is a great introduction to her work for those who missed her first three albums. The tracks are not all gems, but several are, and the collection as a whole shows an impressively broad range. |  |
| Tai Album 3 ***** |
Tai calls this her "chut Isan", and while the difference is in touches rather than a wholesale makeover, album 3 is a great improvement on 1 and 2... |  |
| Jeab Ganokpon Khopkhun Mor Chit ***** |
Jeab Ganokpon certainly knows when she's onto a good thing: Khopkhun Mor Chit gets two airings on this album, appearing first and (instrumentally) last. It's an irresistably likable piece of up-tempo luk tung froth, perfectly suited to her perky style... |  |
| Jop and Joy Mor lam Pan Lai 5+1 ***** |
Pla Daek Laek Sataw (Mor lam Panlai 5+1) is fantastic entertainment. Jop and Joy have everything: well-written songs with memorable tunes; voices which contrast but also blend; duets and solos; lam and tung; a fat one and a skinny one; they can dance; and they can grab you even they are singing about fish... |  |
| Jintara Mor lam Sa On 8 ***** |
The first track, Ruplaw Lai Mia, sets the tone for the whole album: this is lam at its most light-hearted and Jintara in full faux-naif mode, all side-long glances and awkward wiggles... |  |
| Bunta Jam Wai Na ***** |
Jam Wai Na — Bunta's first album — is very similar to those of Jop and Joy. It's full of catchy, well-written songs; the videos have good costumes and choreography; and there's not an ounce of feeling in it... |  |
| Dokfa Album 8 ***** |
Dokfa is one of the best, and one of the least cute, mor lam and luk tung artists currently recording. It's a measure of the relative importance attached to these qualities that she has such a low profile... |  |
| Tai Album 4 ***** |
Tai's albums usually open with a big tune, drenched with pathos, which ensures the disc starts with a bang. Song jai ma glai chit is the closest we get here. It's a typical Tai ballad of a poor working girl and her family trying to get by, but which lacks some of the impact of her other big songs and has nothing that marks it out as really special. |  |
| Bunta Khon Di Ti Ai Baw Hak ***** |
Following a detour with the unwise Galamae volume 1, Bunta Mueangmai makes a very welcome return to solo performance with Khon di ti ai baw hak. It sits between the two earlier albums in terms of musical quality: far more engaging than Galamae, but never quite rising to the heights of Jam wai na | |
| Jintara Mor lam sa on 12 ***** |
Jintara has spent the last three years steadily sliding into mediocrity. Mor lam sa on 12 is no dramatic return to form, but there are enough flashes of her talent here to give some hope for future releases. |  |
| Nok Siang Jaak Sao Lao ***** |
How successful one finds this album will depend on what one thinks of Nok's voice. It's certainly distinctive, but one one gets beyond the nasal timbre, there's a basic lack of subtlety and character — we're left with superficial sobs in the tung ballads and overly-strident open notes in the lam pieces... |  |
| Banyen Isan Lam Plern ***** |
In recent years, Banyen has been faced with something of a dilemma. From being a mor lam plern specialist, she has branched out into luk tung and even some decidedly odd Latin recordings, but this has also moved her ever further away from what she does best... |  |
| Nong Ja Pleum Puanjai ***** |
Nong Ja is different from Thailand's other child singers: she has a good, distinctive voice, and she's older — 15 — and so is developing the ability to give some of her songs real emotional weight. Her growing up is reflected in the two versions of her first album... |  |
| Tai Yuu Nai Jai Samue ***** |
Yuu Nai Jai Samue is Tai at her best and worst. The stand-out track is the second: Wan Ti Baw Me Ai. This is as good as luk tung gets: it has a surging chorus at its centre, well-balanced by a steady treading rhythm in the verses... |  |
| Ponsak Mi Mia Dek ***** |
Mi Mia Dek is infuriating. There is much to admire here - in Ponsak's voice, in the playing and in some of the writing - but ultimately the poor production and some uninspired songs make the album rather unsatisfying... |  |
| Jintara Sao Tung Dawkjaan ***** |
Sao Tung Dawkjaan is for the most part disappointing, most of the tracks being uninspired and undistinctive. However while none of the songs are essential listening, there are a few which partially redeem the album. |  |
| Jintara Luk Tung Sa On 11 ***** |
Luk Tung Sa On 11 is on the whole disappointing, with more similarities to the pop-influenced luk tung of some of Jintara's first series albums than to her more recent work... |  |
| Rock Salaeng Ka Rock Kaw Rawng ***** |
Ka Rock Kaw Rawng is a strange piece of work. The title promises a classic Salaeng-Toy style Isan rock album, but most of the tracks are very subdued, with none of the energy or invention of Rock Salaeng's previous work...... |  |
| Galamae Galamae 1 ***** |
Bunta Mueangmai is a strange one. Her first album wisely skirted around the limits of her abilities and compensated for them with good songwriting and well-produced videos; as half of Galamae she has followed it with one which hopelessly exposes her, is unoriginal and is amateurishly produced... |  |