Hard to imagine two more different stylists than Hedwig Mollestad and Lage, but both favour the keep ’em brief but keep ’em coming mode of record release schedule. Love Hurts is Lage’s third Mack Avenue outing in barely two years, alongside various collaborations with the likes of Dave Douglas and Nels Cline. But if his Mack debut Arclight illuminated his mastery of many styles, Love Hurts is a 40-minute song and dance through a curious gamut of American songs which stays tight within a similar tonality, clean and precise. He skitters through a twanglatacious take on Jarrett’s ‘The Wind Up’, while Ornette’s ‘Tomorrow Is the Question’, far from being a modernist classic, is irreverently re-pitched upbeat and downright whistleable, as though Johnny Smith had been hitting the helium. But though we are often in awe of his quick musical wits and fleet fretwork, Lage’s work rarely moves the heart. But ‘In Heaven’ is surprisingly blue and raw, while two pop warhorses, the title-track and the closing Roy Orbison’s ‘Crying’ may bring a tear to the eye. Roeder and King are perfectly present for Lage, restrained but not constrained, which may surprise some used to King clattering away with The Bad Plus.