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Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants
Stevie Wonder
Soul - Released October 30, 1979 | Motown
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Stevie Wonder broke a three-year silence, one that followed a series of six classic albums released within six years, with this double album, the score/soundtrack to a little-seen environmental documentary directed by Wild Bunch co-screenwriter Walon Green. From the release of Songs in the Key of Life through the release of Plants, Wonder had been active, actually, but only as a collaborator, working with Ramsey Lewis, the Pointer Sisters, Minnie Riperton, Syreeta, Ronnie Foster, and Michael Jackson. Even so, three years was a considerable lag between albums. Anticipation was so high that this release peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and R&B album charts. It quickly slipped to footnote status; when Wonder’s 1972-1980 albums were reissued in 2000, it was left out of the program. Plants is a sprawling, fascinating album. Though it is dominated by synthesizer-heavy instrumental pieces with evocative titles, there is a handful of full-blown songs. The gorgeous, mostly acoustic ballad “Send One Your Love” was a Top Ten R&B single, while the joyous “Outside My Window” registered in the Top 60. Beyond that, there’s the deep classic “Come Back as a Flower,” a gently lapping, piano-led ballad featuring Syreeta on vocals. Otherwise, there are playfully oddball tracks like “Venus’ Flytrap and the Bug,” where Wonder chirps “Please don’t eat me!” through robotizing effects, and “A Seed’s a Star,” which incorporates crowd noise, a robotized monologue, and a shrieking Tata Vega over a funkier and faster version of Yellow Magic Orchestra. The album is not for everyone, but it suited its purpose and allowed its maker an amount of creative wiggle room that few major-label artists experience.
© Andy Kellman /TiVo
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Surf's Up
The Beach Boys
Rock - Released January 1, 2009 | Capitol Records
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The Beach Boys' post-1966 catalog is littered with LPs that barely scraped the charts upon release but matured into solid fan favorites despite -- and occasionally, because of -- their many and varied eccentricities. Surf's Up could well be the definitive example, beginning with the cloying "Don't Go Near the Water" and ending a bare half-hour later with the baroque majesty of the title track (originally written in 1966). The album is a virtual laundry list of each uncommon intricacy that made the Beach Boys' forgotten decade such a bittersweet thrill -- the fluffy yet endearing pop (od)ditties of Brian Wilson, quasi-mystical white-boy soul from brother Carl, and the downright laughable songwriting on tracks charting Mike Love's devotion to Buddhism and Al Jardine's social/environmental concerns. Those songs are enjoyable enough, but the last three tracks are what make Surf's Up such a masterpiece. The first, "A Day in the Life of a Tree," is simultaneously one of Brian's most deeply touching and bizarre compositions; he is the narrator and object of the song (though not the vocalist; co-writer Jack Rieley lends a hand), lamenting his long life amid the pollution and grime of a city park while the somber tones of a pipe organ build atmosphere. The second, "'Til I Die," isn't the love song the title suggests; it's a haunting, fatalistic piece of pop surrealism that appeared to signal Brian's retirement from active life. The album closer, "Surf's Up," is a masterpiece of baroque psychedelia, probably the most compelling track from the SMiLE period. Carl gives a soulful performance despite the surreal wordplay, and Brian's coda is one of the most stirring moments in his catalog. Wrapped up in a mess of contradictions, Surf's Up defined the Beach Boys' tumultuous career better than any other album.© John Bush /TiVo
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Ugly is Beautiful: Shorter, Thicker & Uglier
Oliver Tree
Alternative & Indie - Released July 17, 2020 | Atlantic Records
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The major-label full-length debut from California's Oliver Tree, 2020's Ugly Is Beautiful proves another showcase for the ironic bowl-cut and JNCO jean-wearing singer's bombastically hooky brand of pop. The album arrives on the heels of several buzzed-about EPs and Ugly Is Beautiful builds nicely upon those albums, juxtaposing catchy, '90s-style pop arrangements with vocals that seem at once cheeky and sincere. Mixing blown-out keyboards with distorted guitars, heavy basslines, and pounding beats, Tree has crafted a distinctively zoomer aesthetic, mixing a hot stew of influences from Nirvana and the Strokes to Eminem, Pixies, and sundry SoundCloud rap touchstones. It's a style that remains remarkably consistent even as he shifts gears, from the driving post-punk of "Me Myself & I" and the Beck-esque acoustic grunge of "Cash Machine" to the moody, synth-heavy club jam "1993." As Tree sings on "Alien Boy," "I fell down to Earth from a hundred miles away/And somehow I still make it work."© Matt Collar /TiVo
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On the Sunday of Life (Remaster)
Porcupine Tree
Progressive Rock - Released July 5, 1991 | Kscope
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Alone In A Crowd
Oliver Tree
Pop - Released September 29, 2023 | Atlantic Records
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The third major-studio album by Oliver Tree, 2023's Alone in a Crowd, finds the California songwriter further balancing his high-concept pop style with songs that feel born out of his own pain and personal experience. A follow-up to 2022's Cowboy Tears, the album once again features a conceptual, meta-satirical structure as Tree takes on the persona of fashion designer Cornelius Cummings. Conceptual conceits aside, Tree has long utilized his character-driven approach to explore a mix of emotionally relatable themes, and Alone in a Crowd is no exception. The opening "Bounce" is a moody, tongue-in-cheeky anthem about the emptiness of hookup culture that hints at the darker themes at play on the album. Other equally yearning songs follow, as on the electro-hip-hop cut "Fairweather Friends" and the piano-driven "Ugly Side," both of which evoke the confessional style of contemporary acts like Mike Posner and Quinn XCII. Yet there are hooky moments in Tree's theatrical pop gloom, as on the pop punk-inspired "Star" and house-inflected collaboration with German DJ Robin Schulz, "Miss You."© Matt Collar /TiVo
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Symphonic Suite Castle in the Sky
Joe Hisaishi
Classical - Released August 1, 2018 | UNIVERSAL MUSIC LLC
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The Fountain OST
Clint Mansell
Film Soundtracks - Released November 10, 2006 | Nonesuch
The soundtrack for Darren Aronofsky's film, about a man's thousand-year quest to save the life of the woman he loves, runs the sonic gamut from ethereal evocations of 16th-century Spain to futuristic soundscapes, with the added extras of dramatic percussion flourishes and some spectacular choral arrangements.© TiVo
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The Tree of Life (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Alexandre Desplat
Soundtracks - Released May 23, 2011 | Lakeshore Records
Severance: Season 1 (Apple TV+ Original Series Soundtrack)
Theodore Shapiro
Film Soundtracks - Released February 18, 2022 | Endeavor Content
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Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Twilight of the Gods (Original Soundtrack)
Sarah Schachner
Film Soundtracks - Released January 29, 2021 | Lakeshore Records
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Planet Ocean (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Armand Amar
Film Soundtracks - Released April 17, 2013 | Long Distance
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Slow Lightning
The Bones of J.R. Jones
Rock - Released October 13, 2023 | Tone Tree Music - The Bones of J.R. Jones
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Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants
Stevie Wonder
Pop - Released October 30, 1979 | UNI - MOTOWN
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Stevie Wonder broke a three-year silence, one that followed a series of six classic albums released within six years, with this double album, the score/soundtrack to a little-seen environmental documentary directed by Wild Bunch co-screenwriter Walon Green. From the release of Songs in the Key of Life through the release of Plants, Wonder had been active, actually, but only as a collaborator, working with Ramsey Lewis, the Pointer Sisters, Minnie Riperton, Syreeta, Ronnie Foster, and Michael Jackson. Even so, three years was a considerable lag between albums. Anticipation was so high that this release peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and R&B album charts. It quickly slipped to footnote status; when Wonder’s 1972-1980 albums were reissued in 2000, it was left out of the program. Plants is a sprawling, fascinating album. Though it is dominated by synthesizer-heavy instrumental pieces with evocative titles, there is a handful of full-blown songs. The gorgeous, mostly acoustic ballad “Send One Your Love” was a Top Ten R&B single, while the joyous “Outside My Window” registered in the Top 60. Beyond that, there’s the deep classic “Come Back as a Flower,” a gently lapping, piano-led ballad featuring Syreeta on vocals. Otherwise, there are playfully oddball tracks like “Venus’ Flytrap and the Bug,” where Wonder chirps “Please don’t eat me!” through robotizing effects, and “A Seed’s a Star,” which incorporates crowd noise, a robotized monologue, and a shrieking Tata Vega over a funkier and faster version of Yellow Magic Orchestra. The album is not for everyone, but it suited its purpose and allowed its maker an amount of creative wiggle room that few major-label artists experience.© Andy Kellman /TiVo
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Love at Last
Lara Downes
Classical - Released April 21, 2023 | PentaTone
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A recent episode of the U.S. National Public Radio program This American Life on the theme of delight described itself as "radical counterprogramming," given the grim realities that impinge on everyday life nowadays. Something of the same is true of Lara Downes' Love at Last (the title and the general theme are furnished by a poem of writer Shaul Tchernichovsky), comprising pieces embodying in one way or another how love, at last, can address the various ills of the world. That is a big job, but there are some striking pieces here, especially effective if one reads the notes by Downes and some of the composers about them. Jaroslav Ježek's Dawn, one learns, was played on Prague radio during the Nazi occupation as a coded message of resistance, and when Downes played it at the Czech Embassy in Washington, she found her older listeners in tears. Many of the pieces are contemporary; a majority are world premieres, and they come from many countries and a great variety of sources, from traditional composition to popular song, jazz, and various national traditions. All of them have crossed Downes' personal path in some way, and the most remarkable thing here, to borrow a phrase from DJ culture, is the segues. Those who have heard Downes live know of her ability to weave the most diverse materials into a coherent statement, and that is just what she does here. Sample the natural way Sammy Fain's I'll Be Seeing You flows into Dobrinka Tabakova's Simple Prayer for Complex Times. This release marks Downes' debut on the PentaTone label, and one hopes that European distribution and publicity will bring her success similar to what she has experienced in the U.S.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Tree of Life
Audiomachine
Soundtracks - Released July 16, 2013 | Audiomachine
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Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Out of the North (Original Soundtrack)
Jesper Kyd
Film Soundtracks - Released July 17, 2020 | Lakeshore Records
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Some Nice Things I've Missed
Frank Sinatra
Jazz - Released July 1, 1974 | FRANK SINATRA DIGITAL REPRISE
After returning to the spotlight with Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back, Frank Sinatra continued his comeback with Some Nice Things I've Missed. As the title suggests, the bulk of the album consists of songs that became popular during Sinatra's brief retirement, including hits by Stevie Wonder, Neil Diamond, Jim Croce, and Bread. By and large, the material is adapted for big bands, with a couple of tracks featuring slight contemporary touches, like folky acoustic guitar. The majority of the album is arranged and produced by Don Costa, who must bear some of the blame for the failure of the record. Most of the songs he had to work with were too simple to withstand substantial orchestration and rearrangement, but Costa's charts are overwhelmingly trite and unimaginative, underscoring how unsuited the material is for Sinatra. The arrangements are forced and awkward, trying to inject swing where there isn't any in "Sweet Caroline" and "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown." Although they occasionally border on Muzak, the slower numbers are more effective, with "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?" leading the way among Costa's efforts. Sinatra doesn't make much of an effort to save the material either. Throughout the album, he sounds bored, even irritated, with the songs. There are a couple of exceptions to the rule -- Sinatra brings some life to "You Are the Sunshine of My Life," "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life," "The Summer Knows," and "You Turned My World Around," -- but he sounds disinterested in the project, as if he can't wait to leave the studio. And given the insipidness of "I'm Gonna Make It All the Way," "Satisfy Me One More Time," and "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree," who could blame him?
© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo
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