EAGLES ~ "LIVE FROM THE FORUM MMXVIII"

NEAL MORSE ~ "SOLA GRATIA"

Original released on LP InsideOut 19439785111 (+ bonus CD)

(GERMANY 2020, September 11)

KHATIA BUNIATISHVILI: "Labyrinth"

Original released on CD Sony Classical 19439795772

(EU 2020, October 9)

Pianist Khatia Buniatishvili specialized mostly in virtuoso repertory in the early years of her tenure with the Sony Classical label, but she goes in a different direction with "Labyrinth", a collection of mostly slow, reflective pieces from various periods and in various styles. The labyrinth involved might be a winding path through musical styles or through an individual soul. The program is of the sort that one shouldn't try to hard to pin down; Buniatishvili posted on social media (October 9, 2020) that "the voice you hear is the voice of a human being - my voice, your voice," but it's quite evocative. Buniatishvili makes turns through Bach, jazz, Romantic music, contemporary pieces, including a large Philip Glass excerpt, and more. Yet for the most part, she maintains the sense of a thread connecting the pieces, although some may feel that the four-hands arrangement of the "Badinerie from the Bach Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor", where she teams with her sister, Gvantsa Buniatishvili, adds material that breaks the mood. The meditative quality reaches its peak, in a sense, with the inclusion of John Cage's "4'33"" - four minutes and 33 seconds of silence, wherein listeners are invited to contemplate their sonic environments as the time elapses. It's an unorthodox choice, especially on recordings, but its placement here is apt. Did she sit at the keyboard for the requisite time? Who can know? Sony's sound, from the Pierre Boulez Room in the Paris Philharmonie, is ideal. Fans of the fiery Buniatishvili will be intrigued by this new path from the pianist. (James Manheim in AllMusic)

NICK CAVE: "Idiot Prayer"

Original released on Double CD Bad Seed BS019

(EU, June 2020)

Nick Cave has left it awfully late in his career to record his masterpiece, but with "Idiot Prayer" he removes any argument about which is his best album. The cover promises 'Nick Cave alone at Alexandra Palace' - just a man and a piano. Alone with his astonishing cast of gods, ghosts, lovers, murderers and victims, all brought to visceral life by Cave's emotive, spare reading of his best songs over 40 years. How on earth he finds new life in Mercy Seat defies the myriad covers - Cash included - of this dark hymn, but find new nuance he does. Put this album on continuous play for a day - seriously, it works just as well as 'background music' as it does on close examination - and be drawn into Cave's dark world. Darkness has never felt as beautiful as this: Cave has stared pandemic irrelevance in the face and delivered it a massive smite. Five stars hardly seems enough for an album that transcends masterpieces such as "The Boatman's Call", "No More Shall We Part" and the underrated "Push The Sky Away". Incredible, simply incredible. (Owen Davies in AllMusic)

PAUL McCARTNEY: "McCartney III"

Original released on CD Capitol 602435136561

(EU 2020, December 18)

Paul McCartney faced the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020 like he faced so many other unexpected challenges in his life: he set out to make music on his own. The title of "McCartney III" positions it as a direct sequel to 1970's "McCartney" and 1980's "McCartney II", albums he made in the wake of the respective dissolutions of the Beatles and Wings, a sentiment that rings true in some ways but not in others. Certainly, the one-man-band approach unites all three albums, as does their arrival at the dawn of a new decade, yet "McCartney III" doesn't contain a clear undercurrent of Paul processing change in the wake of loss. He doesn't spend the record trying to "Find My Way," as he puts it on the album's second song, but rather simply existing, drawing evident pleasure from the process of writing and recording new music. This also means "McCartney III" doesn't quite have the shock of the new the way that the homespun "McCartney" and synth-laden "McCartney II" do; he's not attempting new forms or ideas, instead returning to themes that have served him well over the years, whether they're plucked acoustic ditties, plaintive piano ballads, or stomping rockers. Execution makes a big difference, though. Where 2018's "Egypt Station" was designed with the charts specifically in mind - Paul went so far as to hire producers Greg Kurstin and Ryan Tedder for the record, hoping they'd give him a modern sheen - "McCartney III" is constructed at a modest scale, the arrangements so uncluttered that it's easy to hear the years on McCartney's voice. Maybe he can't hit the high notes he way he used to, maybe he sounds a bit weathered, but the change in his singing has a profoundly humanizing effect, especially when heard in conjunction with his distinctive drumming and fuzzed-out guitars. Within these contours, it's possible to trace the distance between the three "McCartney" albums. Despite these signs of age, "McCartney III" isn't an album about mortality, it's about finding sustenance in rough times. McCartney nods to sadness and loneliness on "Deep Deep Feeling" and conjures a fleeting sense of wistfulness on "Pretty Boys," then balances these moments of sadness with the sweet "The Kiss of Venus," the sugar-coated rallying call "Seize the Day," and the vulgar jabs of "Lavatory Lil." Individually, these moments may not seem particularly eccentric, yet when they're collected as an album, they add up to a charmingly off-kilter record, an album that benefits from its modest origins and McCartney's willingness to not polish too many of his rough edges. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

FIONA APPLE: "Fetch The Bolt Cutters"

Original released on CD Epic 19439774432

(US 2020, April 20)

About a minute into "I Want You to Love Me," the opening cut on her fifth album "Fetch the Bolt Cutters", Fiona Apple holds a note a few seconds longer than you'd expect, then a few seconds more. It's the first time Apple veers away from the expected course on "Fetch the Bolt Cutters" and it's hardly the last, but it's telling that the shift occurs within a song, not in a transition between tracks. Apple spent the years after the 2012 release of "The Idler Wheel" sculpting the songs and sounds of "Fetch the Bolt Cutters", working at her home studio with a band featuring drummer Amy Aileen Wood, bassist Sebastian Steinberg, and multi-instrumentalist David Garza, using their interactions and interplay as a suggestion of where the finished track should head. Everything on "Fetch the Bolt Cutters" seems restless: overdubbed harmonies don't quite jibe, rhythms are cluttered, narratives turn inside out, and Apple treats her own voice as a rubber instrument, stretching it beyond comfort. As pure sound, it's exhilarating. It's rare to listen to a pop album and have no idea what comes next, and "Fetch the Bolt Cutters" delivers surprises that delight and bruise at a rapid pace. The density is dizzying but melodies and certain lyrics make an immediate impression, such as the jolting denouement of "For Her." Apple wrote "For Her" in the wake of the contentious Brett Kavanaugh hearings and while its fury is palpable and by no means an anomaly on "Fetch the Bolt Cutters", the album isn't defined by anger. Rage sits alongside heartache and humor, the shifts in mood occurring with a dramatic flair and a disarming playfulness. The unpredictable nature feels complex and profoundly human, resulting in an album that's nourishing and joyfully cathartic. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

«Gosto imenso de juntar palavras, mas apenas quando isso me é fácil, quando esse processo parece desenvolver-se por si mesmo. Nunca apago nada e praticamente nunca escrevo. Uma canção tem de estar completa na minha cabeça antes de eu a escrever. E só a escrevo se, de alguma forma, me servir, se me aperceber que, para me sentir melhor, não posso evitar escrevê-la. Se não tenho coisa alguma a transbordar, nada tenho para dar. Preciso de manter a antena sintonizada e, quando me dou conta de que já estou ‘cheia’, então, sento-me e escrevo. Se não tenho vontade de escrever canções, nunca me forço a fazê-lo», conta Fiona Apple numa videomontagem do YouTube na qual conversa com Quentin Tarantino. E, quando este lhe diz que começou a analisar as canções dela e se apercebeu de que as melhores são aquelas que recorrem a imagens violentas (“Metafóricas, sim, mas, simultaneamente, autênticas. Naquele instante, pensavas mesmo em matá-lo!”), Fiona recorda como a mãe lhe descrevia as suas birras infantis: «Quando, por algum motivo, me irritava, ouviam-se sempre três sons: batia furiosamente com os pés no chão, fechava as portas com estrondo e corria a martelar o piano. Pela sua natureza percussiva, o piano atraía-me muito, tal como muita gente que toca bateria como forma de libertar a raiva.» Tudo isso está intensamente presente em “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” e, muito em particular, nas três canções desse álbum — "I Want You To Love Me", "Shameika" e "Fetch the Bolt Cutters"— que, em Outubro passado, interpretou num vídeo para o New Yorker Festival (online): as mãos como aranhas sobre o teclado, a voz, à beira do sufoco, que gorgoleja à maneira do John Cale do tempo em que lhe corria lava nas veias, o quase rap alucinado e vertiginoso de "Shameika" cuspido sobre um microfone em risco de ser avidamente devorado. Aí apenas com a implacável e austera cumplicidade live do contrabaixista Sebastian Steinberg, da baterista Amy Aileen Wood, e do guitarrista/teclista Davíd Garza, mas despida da formidável atmosfera waitsiana de primitivismo sonoro presente no disco, cozinhada nas nada canónicas jam sessions (baldes, pedaços de metal, mesas, paredes, utensílios de cozinha, ossadas de cães, arquejos, gritos, latidos) da casa-estúdio de Venice Beach, na Califórnia, lugar de encarceramento voluntário onde Fiona, desde há muito, se asilara. A intolerável existência do (ainda) inquilino da Casa Branca já lhe inspirara o loop de agitprop "Tiny Hands" (“We don’t want your tiny hands, anywhere near our underpants”) e o nojo perante a nomeação de Brett Kavanaugh para o Supremo Tribunal de Justiça (“Good mornin’, good mornin’, you raped me in the same bed your daughter was born in”) fá-la-ia transbordar no labiríntico desenho rítmico do coral "For Her". Penúltima canção a ser escrita, "Fetch the Bolt Cutters" deveria ser o sinal para «o culminar de tudo o que tinha sido a minha vida até aí», o momento em que diria: «É a altura de enfrentar o mundo e sair daqui para fora.» E, justamente no instante em que estava disposta a usar o alicate para me desencarcerar, aconteceu o lockdown. Fiona continuou em casa, mas o álbum seria publicado a 17 de Abril, «contribuindo para que as pessoas possam sentir-se vivas, criativas e consigam exprimir a sua ira. E isso é o melhor com que eu poderia sonhar.» (João Lisboa in Expresso)

SÉRGIO GODINHO Ao Vivo No São Luiz, Com a Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa

Edição original em CD Digipak Universal 3539584

(PORTUGAL 2020, Novembro 20)

JAKKO M JAKSZYK: "Secrets & Lies"

Original released on CD InsideOut IOMLTDCD 564

(EU 2020, October 23)

THIBAUT GARCIA: "Aranjuez"

Original released on CD Erato 190295235710

(EU, September 2020)

Joaquín Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" is arguably the most popular work in the entire guitar repertory, and one might reasonably ask whether the world needs one more recording. No one, however, who hears this reading by guitarist Thibaut Garcia and the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, is going to ask again: it is exceptional. Garcia's performance has a remarkable quality of grace, and grace in reserve, with an uncannily smooth guitar tone. Is it a French, rather than a Spanish, "Concierto de Aranjuez"? Maybe, but Rodrigo was a student of Dukas, and the liveliness of the dialogues between the guitar and the various instruments of the orchestra, often lost in heavily Spanish-regional performances, are wonderful. Part of the credit, of course, goes to the orchestra and conductor Ben Glassberg. Three more works, as uncommon as the "Concierto de Aranjuez" is common, fill out the program. There are four short works by Regino Sainz de la Maza, a contemporary of Rodrigo (and the dedicatee and first performer of the "Concierto de Aranjuez") who wrote music in a similar vein. The only glimmer of a complaint one might raise against this release is that its "Aranjuez" title (Aranjuez is an iconic Spanish town near Madrid) refers only to the first two works on the program; after Sainz de la Maza, the music is not just from France but quintessentially French. The "Musique de Cour" d'après Robert de Visée of composer Alexandre Tansman, for guitar and orchestra, is a late piece of French neoclassicism, composed in 1960. It is not a transcription of music by lutenist-composer de Visée but a set of short lyrical fantasies on dances by de Visée, and it has a gorgeous dark quality captured expertly by Garcia. His transcriptions of de Visée close out a superb program, strengthened by ideally clear engineering of the guitar. A landmark recording. (James Manheim in AllMusic)

MATT BERRY: "Phantom Birds"

Original released on CD Acid Jazz AJXCD536

(UK 2020, September 18)

It's clear from his music that Matt Berry is a dedicated record collector, the kind who gets deep into a given style and tries to track down everything possible that's worth hearing. Each album he's made sounds like the work of someone deep in the throes of a particular obsession: "Kill the Wolf" was British folk-rock, "Music for Insomniacs" was new age synthesizer music, "Television Themes" is pretty self-explanatory. His 2016 album 2The Small Hours" did a fine job synthesizing his various influences into a gently psychedelic sound that touched on classic singer/songwriter and soft rock elements as well. 2020's "Phantom Birds" adds a healthy dose of Nashville Skyline-influenced country-rock to the mix, mostly replacing the vintage synths and trippy arrangements with pedal steel guitar and low-key strumming. Berry sounds right at home in these new surroundings; his drawling vocals fit the genre well and he mostly uses the style as a spice that folds into his musical stew without a problem. Tracks like "Moonlight Flit" and "That Yellow Bird," with their swooping pedal steels, vibraphone fills, and expansive arrangements, fall into the cosmic Americana category, mixing the traditional with the offbeat in ways that Gram Parsons would have surely appreciated. Berry definitely makes the most of the backing lyrically by telling some tall tales, lending wisdom, and generally projecting a sense of calm serenity over the proceedings. It's a little slicker and more straightforward overall than some of his earlier work. It might be the gliding pedal steel or the acoustic guitars that underpin most of the record, but Berry has rarely sounded this relaxed or at ease on record. The easy melodies and subtle singing of the title track is something new and very welcome; much of the rest of the album hits this same note of familiarity and growth, and it makes for a very satisfying listen. If Berry continues to progress and impress at this level, he might soon be known as a musician who does some acting instead of the other way around. (Tim Sendra in AllMusic)

EMMA SWIFT: "Blonde On The Tracks"

Original released on Digipak CD Continental CSCCD 1178

(NETHERLANDS 2020, August 14)

'New Age' - nah. No way. This is an album by the Australian singer/songwriter currently residing in Nashville USA; it covers selected Bob Dylan tracks. She works with British musician Robyn Hitchcock and American producer and Wilco musician Pat Sansone. The result is a beautifully constructed interpretation of Dylan's songs delivered by a very gifted singer who is accompanied by superb musicians. I was hooked from the first track "Queen Jane Approximately" - and I am a music lover who is of the opinion that Bob is at his best when somebody (anybody) else sings his terrific songs. (Peter Wilson in AllMusic)

JAMES TAYLOR: "American Standard"

Original released on CD Fantasy FAN 00619

(EU 2020, February 28)

For pop artists of a certain generation, taking on the Great American Songbook has become somewhat of a rite of passage, occasionally bordering on cliché. Some, like Linda Ronstadt and Carly Simon, got to it early in their careers, while legacy boomers like Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney offered up their reinterpretations of jazz standards as late-career curiosities, or in the case of Rod Stewart - five volumes and counting - reinvented themselves with them. James Taylor is no stranger to cover songs; everything from early rock to Motown and cowboy songs have popped up in his catalog, not to mention a pair Christmas albums and an entire 2008 set called "Covers". As one of the most revered American singer/songwriters of the mid- to late 20th century, it seems almost inevitable that he would eventually take his turn to honor the generation of pop tunesmiths that preceded him. On "American Standard", Taylor applies his gentle magic to classics like "My Blue Heaven" and "The Nearness of You," refashioning their well-worn melodies into the friendly and inviting mode that is his signature. Wisely eschewing the orchestral big-band approach, he stays on familiar ground, recording on a smaller scale at his barn studio in Western Massachusetts and working with his regular stable of players. He also downplays the role of the piano, opting instead to base the material around the nimble intertwining of his own acoustic guitar and that of jazz guitar wiz John Pizzarelli. The result is a relaxed musical conversation that perfectly underscores Taylor's tender vocals, especially on his sweet rendition of "Moon River," a song so well-suited to him it seems like it should have already existed before now. This sense of pleasant familiarity more or less guides the entire album as he turns "Teach Me Tonight" and "It's Only a Paper Moon" into James Taylor songs written by other artists. Horns and lush backing vocals do appear here and there, as does a slightly misguided dip into a borderline cartoonish vocal baritone on the otherwise strong "Ol' Man River," but the best parts of "American Standard" occur in the intimate moments that constitute Taylor's wheelhouse and of which there are more than enough to satisfy. (Timothy Monger in AllMusic)

The Letter From Bruce Has Arrived!

Original released on CD Columbia 19439811582

(US 2020, October 23)

"Letter to You" comes quickly on the heels of "Western Stars", a long-gestating 2019 immersion into the lush, progressive country vistas of the early 1970s, but in a sense, it's a true sequel to Bruce Springsteen's 2016 memoir "Born to Run" and its 2017 stage companion "Springsteen on Broadway". It's an album where Springsteen reckons with the weight of the past, how its ghosts are still readily apparent in the present, an album where the veteran singer/songwriter is keenly aware he has more road in his rearview mirror than he does on the highway ahead of him. Springsteen does find himself drawn to the good old days, reviving three unrecorded songs from the days separating the split of his first band the Castiles and his contract with CBS, adding them to a clutch of new songs where Bruce ponders what it means to be the "Last Man Standing," surrounded by the spirits of old friends who may no longer be alive but are still a palpable psychic presence. To help him navigate the distance separating then and now, Springsteen brings the E Street Band into the studio for the first time since 2009's "Working on a Dream", but the difference with "Letter to You" is that the group cut the album live in the studio. It may seem like a subtle distinction, but having the E Street Band offer empathic, effortless support lends a dose of magic to the proceedings, offering unspoken connections between those wordy, windy early works, the cascading thunder of "Darkness on the Edge of Town", and the naked sentiment of the aging songwriter. "Letter to You" often does sound like vintage E Street Band but there are notable differences in terms of attack: They're playing not out of a sense of hunger, but communion. This shared warmth carries "Letter to You" through the moments where the younger Bruce is perhaps a bit too precious and the older Springsteen is a bit too clear, turning a record that's a meditation on mortality into a celebration of what it means to be alive in the moment. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)