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Kapustin: Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 72, Concerto for 2 Pianos & Percussion, Op. 104 & Sinfonietta for Piano 4-Hands, Op. 49
Frank Dupree
Classical - Released February 3, 2023 | CapriccioNR
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Nikolai Kapustin, who lived until 2020, remained in obscurity for much of his life (not that he minded), but his music is seeing signs of a revival. Marc-André Hamelin has played his highly virtuosic music, and 2021 brought all-Kapustin recordings from pianist Yeol Eum Son and from the present pianist, Frank Dupree, who seems to be emerging as Kapustin's champion. Kapustin offers a unique classical-jazz fusion. The usual way of accomplishing this, beginning with the Modern Jazz Quartet, is to add improvisation to basically classical structures. Kapustin is different. He has said that he does not improvise and is thus not a true jazz musician, but he fills classical forms like the sonata and concerto with jazz rhythms. Kapustin has sometimes been called the Russian Gershwin, and there is certainly a surface resemblance to Gershwin in the likes of the single-movement Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 72. However, Kapustin builds more on the works of 20th century classical composers who incorporated jazz into their music. One of these was Shostakovich, and Dupree captures his influence. Dupree has played jazz himself, and he provides lively forward momentum in the Sinfonietta for piano four-hands, Op. 49, probably the strongest of the three works here. Sample the fluent and high-spirited finale. The Concerto for two pianos and percussion, Op. 104, has the strongest jazz rhythmic element; despite the common ensemble, it shows little influence from Bartók's Sonata for two pianos and percussion. Kapustin seems a composer whose place in the repertory is likely to grow, and concert and radio programmers, as well as fans of fusion music, should pay attention to this Capriccio release, which hit classical best-seller charts in early 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Sweet Memories: The Music Of Ray Price & The Cherokee Cowboys
Vince Gill
Country - Released August 4, 2023 | MCA Nashville
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Repeating their treatment of California country music icons Merle Haggard and Buck Owens on 2013's Bakersfield, singer and guitarist Vince Gill and pedal steel player Paul Franklin now pay eloquent tribute to Ray Price. Born in Texas with a passionate baritone voice, Price was a huge presence in country music by the early 1970s. Along the way he roomed with Hank Williams and led a band, The Cherokee Cowboys, that became a launching pad for talents like Willie Nelson, Johnny Paycheck and Roger Miller. On Sweet Memories: The Music Of Ray Price & The Cherokee Cowboys, Gill decided to avoid Price's best-known hits like "City Lights," "Crazy Arms," and "For the Good Times" in favor of deeper tracks. Bereft country weepers were a Price specialty, and the opener "One More Time," sets the tone as the narrator inevitably tries and fails to do right: "And I make a vow each time you leave that this will draw the line/ Then you come back and just like now I'm falling one more time." At the heart of Sweet Memories is the always amazing instrument that is Vince Gill's voice. Debuting with Pure Prairie League in 1979, Gill spent time with Rodney Crowell's Cherry Bombs and Emmylou Harris's Hot Band before going solo. A triple threat who besides his pure high tenor voice is also a virtuoso guitar player and an accomplished songwriter, Gill has won 21 Grammy Awards and over the last several decades has become one of the most respected elders in the genre. With a band that includes Stuart Duncan on fiddle, John Jarvis on piano and Andrea Zonn on harmony vocals, Gill shows off his lesser-heard lower range on "You Wouldn't Know Love" as Frankin's pedal steel weeps behind them. While a rendition of "Danny Boy"—the Irish lament that became one of Price's signature hits in 1967—predictably becomes a Gill vocal showpiece, it's the title track that provides this set's most moving moments. Written by fellow Texan Mickey Newbury and recorded by Price in 1971, this version soars with Gill singing his own harmonies and includes low-key but imaginative solos by both principals. Another high-class look back from a current country hero with a welcome passion for the music's glorious past. © Robert Baird/Qobuz
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Sonny Rollins With The Modern Jazz Quartet
Sonny Rollins
Jazz - Released January 1, 1956 | Prestige
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Welcome To The Real World
Mr. Mister
Pop - Released June 1, 1985 | RCA Records Label
Here are the major pop hits "Broken Wings," "Kyrie, " and "Is It Love" from this band of session musicians and songwriters.© Kenneth M. Cassidy /TiVo
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Nu King
Jason DeRulo
Pop - Released February 16, 2024 | Atlantic Records
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It's hard to believe that almost a decade passed in between studio albums for someone as ubiquitous as Jason Derulo. Between 2015's Everything Is 4 and 2024's Nu King, the pop star released a slew of well-received singles and collaborations that kept him busy on the charts and social media, but teased full-lengths with titles like 777 and 2Sides never appeared, as it was revealed that he had left his label. So when Nu King arrived, there was clearly a lot of ground to cover, resulting in over two dozen tracks that more than make up for lost time. Reaching back as far as 2017, Derulo was sure to include his biggest hits from the almost-decade: platinum smashes such as "Swalla" with Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign, "Tip Toe" with French Montana, "Savage Love" with Jawsh 685, "Take You Dancing," "Love Not War" with Nuka, "Acapulco," and "Jalebi Baby" with Tesher are all here, giving his 2016 Platinum Hits set a run for its money. The guest list balloons with Michael Buble, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Gucci Mane, Quavo, Adam Levine, Dido, David Guetta, Meghan Trainor, and more, lending an already eye-popping collection even more punch. Of the songs that weren't released in the years prior, the best of the bunch sound like sleek, synth-funk variations on the Weeknd's contemporary output; on the other hand, the more forgettable fare -- it's hard to stand out when surrounded by so much competition! -- reminds listeners of much-better R&B-flavored 2020s K-pop. Overall, it's understandable that Derulo had to play catch-up by putting so much onto one release, but Nu King might have packed a more direct punch with some editing and artistic focus. Regardless, he's a master of the dancefloor and can keep a party going, which is likely enough for longtime fans.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo
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Flicker
Niall Horan
Pop - Released October 20, 2017 | Capitol Records (US1A)
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More than a year after his group, One Direction, went on hiatus, Irish singer/songwriter Niall Horan became the third 1D member to release a solo studio full-length. Whereas Zayn Malik took his R&B talents into the bedroom and Harry Styles modeled himself after iconic rock frontmen of old, Horan went in a decidedly safer, center-lane direction on the yearning Flicker. Paying homage to classic rock influences like Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, and Dire Straits, Horan contemporized those bands' sounds with pop flair, resulting in an immensely soothing and enjoyable record that fits nicely alongside those of Ed Sheeran and Shawn Mendes. Featuring production by Greg Kurstin (Adele, Sia), Julian Bunetta, and Mike Needle and Jamie Scott (One Direction), the mostly wholesome and wide-eyed Flicker bounces between youthful love songs -- including the surprisingly naughty single "Slow Hands" -- and relatable heartbreak laments. With simple, straightforward lyrics, the concise set of ten tracks is effective and hits the proper emotional notes. On "Too Much to Ask," a sad Horan reflects "My shadow's dancing without you for the first time," while on the standout title track, he repeats "Please don't leave" to a departed love. These tracks are emotional, surely, but against the backdrop of such delicate production, they are spared from becoming too self-indulgent and depressing. Elsewhere, the bass thrum and guitar work of Fleetwood Mac enliven Flicker, like on the "Dreams"-esque opener "On the Loose," the comforting "You and Me," and the lush "Since We're Alone," which also benefits from a faint "Sultans of Swing" influence. Without a weak song in the batch, Flicker is consistently full of highlights, including "Seeing Blind," a rousing duet with American country singer Maren Morris. One Directioners will no doubt relish every moment of Flicker, but for casual fans potentially wary of the boy band stigma, they can rest assured knowing that Horan has taken a big first step into musical maturity, with his own voice and deep well of emotion.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo
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Pride and Prejudice - OST
Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Film Soundtracks - Released September 19, 2005 | Decca (UMO)
One reason why it is better to be a music critic than a film critic is illustrated by this album. The poor film critic may be left to ponder why filmmakers have chosen to do so many screen adaptations of Jane Austen's 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice for both theatrical release and television broadcast, especially in recent years, and to weigh the competing talents of, say, Laurence Olivier, Colin Firth, and, now, Matthew MacFadyen in portraying the character of Mr. Darcy. But the music critic isn't really called upon to compare Herbert Stothart's score for the 1940 film with Carl Davis' music for the 1995 TV mini-series, and, now, Dario Marianelli's. They are entirely different entities and can be treated separately. As stated in a producers' note, the intention of the creators of the 2005 theatrical film Pride & Prejudice was to have Marianelli compose music that conceivably could have been heard at the time the story is set, in the late 18th century. Thus, he has come up with a couple of dance cues ("Meryton Townhall," "Another Dance") that actually recall the dance music of the period, as well as a march ("The Militia Marches In") that a military band actually might have been expected to play at the time. But the main scoring, calling upon Beethoven's sonatas for its inspiration, finds Marianelli providing music for pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, sometimes accompanied by the English Chamber Orchestra, that has a strong Romantic flavor to accompany the familiar romantic plot. No doubt Stothart and Davis (among others) also did their homework in preparing their scores, but they may not have been as concerned as Marianelli with essentially impersonating an 18th century composer.© TiVo
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The Lamb's Journey. A Choral Narrative from Gibbons to Barber
Ensemble Altera
Classical - Released March 22, 2024 | Alpha Classics
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Director Christopher Lowrey announces the aim of this new chamber choir "to form the beating heart of professional choral music in the United States," and while the jury is still out on that, the blend and clarity of Lowrey's 23 handpicked singers announce a major new presence on the choral scene. Lowrey's concept for this, the group's debut album, is similarly ambitious. The Lamb of the title is Jesus Christ, but Lowrey's notes also propose a subtext from Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey (although Lowrey concedes that he has "not a little trepidation at the anticipated blowback from the theologically minded"). Listeners can decide for themselves how well this all works, but in the meantime, there is a fairly novel program that, as promised, weaves together music from Orlando Gibbons to Samuel Barber and even beyond; there are several contemporary works, and Joanna Marsh's Worthy Is the Lamb is a world premiere. Also novel is the presence of a pair of Agnus Dei mass movements by Bruckner and Poulenc, along with a rather placid arrangement of the spiritual Were You There. The result is a kaleidoscopic mixture of styles and materials, held together not only by the theme but also by Lowrey's control over the sound. The Alpha label finds an excellent sound environment at St. Paul's Parish Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on a release that stands out from other similar releases. The album made classical best-seller charts in the spring of 2024.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Acoustic at The Ryman
Band of Horses
Alternative & Indie - Released February 11, 2014 | Brown Records
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Constant Hitmaker
Kurt Vile
Alternative & Indie - Released March 4, 2008 | Gulcher
He's no R. Stevie Moore -- yet -- but Philadelphia homebody Kurt Vile is definitely as much of an acolyte to the home-recording mastermind as Ariel Pink: prior to Constant Hitmaker, his first "proper" album, Vile self-released a steady stream of homemade CD-Rs and the occasional 7" single, many consisting of solo acoustic songs, often instrumentals heavily indebted to John Fahey and his acolytes. There's a little of that on Constant Hitmaker, but overall, this 13-track set features the singer/songwriter's lo-fi pop side. The "lo-fi" part of that sentence should likely take precedence over the "pop": not since pre-Bee Thousand Guided by Voices has there been an artist so philosophically devoted to the concept of muddy sound, echoing vocals, bad mixing, and tape hiss as a deliberate musical element. What makes Constant Hitmaker a compelling listen even for those not attuned to such deliberately primitive acoustics is that for every bit of self-indulgent experimental noise like "American Folded" or "Intro in Z," there are three immediately arresting pop gems like "Don't Get Cute," "Freeway," and "Trumpets in Summer." Playful and experimental without getting too pretentious about it, Kurt Vile has the goods to be more than a tiny cult figure for the home recording underground.© Stewart Mason /TiVo
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Rounds
Four Tet
Electronic - Released March 5, 2003 | Domino Recording Co
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The Qobuz Ideal Discography -
Pitchfork: Best New Reissue
25 years old, his third solo album and first masterpiece. In Spring 2003, Four Tet secured himself as one of the United Kingdom’s unmissable electronic producers with Rounds, an entirely instrumental album in which some 300 samples are used! The most famous, that of Winter by Tori Amos on Unspoken, has since been dropped due to rights issues – the track has now been reworked. For the rest, Kieran Hebden rummaged deeply though the record trays, to places where others wouldn’t dare venture. This pays off with the surprising and tenacious sample from French 70s folk group, Malicorne, where the scarcely retouched loop from Le Bouvier features on the remarkable As Serious As Your Life, and would go on to be the object of an equally splendid remix by Jay Dee with Guilty Simpson that same year. Known for laying the foundations for the folktronica genre, Rounds is, from end to end, a muddle of drums, percussion, brass, bells and strings. It’s a truly industrious work that gives a rarely equalled sense of unity, from the nursery-rhyme-like My Angel Rocks Back and Forth to the hip-hop Unspoken. A masterpiece that’ll make your ears curl like no other. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz
Cranekiss
Tamaryn
Alternative & Indie - Released August 28, 2015 | Mexican Summer
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By the mid-2010s, the revivals of shoegaze and synth pop had been around for quite a while -- several times longer than the styles' original heydays, in fact -- and sometimes felt overly familiar. However, Tamaryn enlivens both by combining them on Cranekiss, resulting in some of her most arresting music yet. It's quite the departure from the distortion-laden bliss of Waves and Tender New Signs, echoing changes such as her move to New York and the addition of Weekend's Shaun Durkan to her band. Another key collaborator is producer Jorge Elbrecht (also of Violens and Lansing-Dreiden), whose finesse with samples and keyboards lends a retro-futuristic sound, most audaciously on "Softcore," where found sounds from porn websites and excerpts from the film Paris, Texas commingle with winding guitars to make shoegaze's eroticism explicit in more ways than one. Interestingly, Cranekiss' less showy juxtapositions of softness and structure are even more striking, with the album's first three tracks capturing the sensual thrill of the best dream pop and Top 40 singles of the late '80s and early '90s. Sweeping and swooning, "Cranekiss" lives up to its name; "Hands All Over Me" blends caressing synths and pointed funk; and "Last" rivals other widescreen pop auteurs like M83 and White Sea. Meanwhile, the album's more traditionally ethereal second side strengthens Tamaryn's kinship with the Cocteau Twins and contemporaries like Pure Bathing Culture, with songs like "Sugarfix" and "Fade Away Slow" reinvigorating vintage dream pop's glassy lucidity and fondness for gauzy imagery. In all, Cranekiss is a beautiful pop fantasia that finds Tamaryn expressing her music's passion and sensuality in exciting new ways.© Heather Phares /TiVo
By the mid-2010s, the revivals of shoegaze and synth pop had been around for quite a while -- several times longer than the styles' original heydays, in fact -- and sometimes felt overly familiar. However, Tamaryn enlivens both by combining them on Cranekiss, resulting in some of her most arresting music yet. It's quite the departure from the distortion-laden bliss of Waves and Tender New Signs, echoing changes such as her move to New York and the addition of Weekend's Shaun Durkan to her band. Another key collaborator is producer Jorge Elbrecht (also of Violens and Lansing-Dreiden), whose finesse with samples and keyboards lends a retro-futuristic sound, most audaciously on "Softcore," where found sounds from porn websites and excerpts from the film Paris, Texas commingle with winding guitars to make shoegaze's eroticism explicit in more ways than one. Interestingly, Cranekiss' less showy juxtapositions of softness and structure are even more striking, with the album's first three tracks capturing the sensual thrill of the best dream pop and Top 40 singles of the late '80s and early '90s. Sweeping and swooning, "Cranekiss" lives up to its name; "Hands All Over Me" blends caressing synths and pointed funk; and "Last" rivals other widescreen pop auteurs like M83 and White Sea. Meanwhile, the album's more traditionally ethereal second side strengthens Tamaryn's kinship with the Cocteau Twins and contemporaries like Pure Bathing Culture, with songs like "Sugarfix" and "Fade Away Slow" reinvigorating vintage dream pop's glassy lucidity and fondness for gauzy imagery. In all, Cranekiss is a beautiful pop fantasia that finds Tamaryn expressing her music's passion and sensuality in exciting new ways.© Heather Phares /TiVo
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The Soft Bulletin Companion
The Flaming Lips
Alternative & Indie - Released July 16, 2021 | Warner Records
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Sensorimotor
Lusine
Electronic - Released March 3, 2017 | Ghostly International
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After a pair of albums that leaned more heavily on pop melodicism, Seattle-based electronic auteur Lusine edges gently back toward the cloudy fringe with Sensorimotor, his fourth full-length for Ghostly International. Jeff McIlwain's output as Lusine has been difficult to pigeonhole over the course of nearly two decades, veering from tuneful yet fractured electropop to shadowy textural experimentations and building his own little ecosystems along the way. Inspired in part by the title's literal meaning, Sensorimotor takes a binary approach, pairing the lushness of the senses with the functional actions of movement. In a sense, this has been a recurring theme for McIlwain's music over the years in the way that he toys with sensory aesthetics over an often minimalistic framework of rhythm. The album opens with "Canopy," a slow-building manipulation of chimes that dances celestially across the stereo field before devolving into a disorienting three-chord rhythmic pulse. Having introduced the tone, he switches gear to a more familiar style with "Ticking Hands," a pensive musing on apartness featuring vocals from his wife and frequent collaborator, Sarah McIlwain. This song, like the other guest-assisted vocal tracks, more resembles the fragmented EDM pop singles of latter-day Lusine releases like A Certain Distance and Waiting Room. While not McIlwain's most immediately accessible piece, the Benoît Pioulard-sung "Witness" deftly shape-shifts two-thirds of the way through, delivering a magnificently unnatural vocal arpeggiation whose artifice literally leaves you breathless. Of the instrumental tracks, the percolating synths of "The Level" are augmented by misty field recordings while the brief but entrancing "Chatter" feels like broken field recordings augmented by occasional synths. The growling ambient "Tropopause" feels like a sister track to the more gentle opener while the epic seven-minute closer, "The Lift," wields the most raw power and density of the bunch. With Sensorimotor, Lusine takes another evolutionary step forward, seeming strangely natural in his skin of manipulation.
© Timothy Monger /TiVo
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