Album Review: Kris Kristofferson - The Cedar Creek Sessions

Back when Kris Kristofferson used to take the stage alongside his comrades in the Highwaymen, he was the relative young gun of the group, his stature overshadowed by the outlaw legends of Waylon and the Red Headed Stranger and the Man in Black. Sure, he’d written songs that each of them had recorded and performed, but he hadn’t yet put in the years, the hard time and bitter tears it took to become such a larger-than-life figure. Well, now he’s 80. And in listening to him sing a batch of his own classics on the newly released double-disc set, The Cedar Creek Sessions, it’s clear he belongs in their rarified company. 

Recorded over three days in June 2014 at the album’s namesake studio in Austin, Texas, these performances reflect Kristofferson’s craft and bone-dry conviction with the sort of integrity that can only be achieved when such a seasoned songwriter revisits his own history. 

His voice, grizzled with age and hard-won experience, imbues these songs new character and insight, his gruff inflections now revealing flashes of stoic resignation. He wrings more pathos from “For the Good Times” than have seemed possible in the classic’s countless other incarnations. He delivers “Sunday Morning Coming Down” like a dirge. And when he aches out the opening lines, “Busted flat in Baton Rouge…” in “Me and Bobby McGee,” the enduring image is of man down to his soul’s last ounce of will and resilience. Thankfully, Kristofferson’s maverick spirit still thrives. 

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Album Review: Nadia Kazmi - LAMB

Singer/songwriter Nadia Kazmi incites something fierce on her third release, LAMB, but truth be told she’s been brazen from the beginning.

On her 2010 debut, Arrival, Kazmi showcased a compelling sense of craft, her lyricism in particular bearing out the poetic language and rich cadences of formative influence Leonard Cohen. The very next year she devoted her follow-up, Strange Song, entirely to works by the legendary bard, taking strident liberties with rock-edged arrangements in ways that turned hallowed classics on their heads.

Which brings us back to LAMB, where Kazmi’s creative audacity manifests in striking moments of angst and often fuck-all defiance like “Kill The Monster” and the coiled-riffed “Father Knows Best,” the songs boasting punk’s brevity and swagger if not its most jarring sonic discord. Elsewhere in fact almost unsettling, tribal percussion simmers beneath verses that Kazmi delivers with the authority of a Patti Smith sermon, searing forth with unflinching grace and growl.

Further Reading: An Interview with Nadia Kazmi (2010)

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Album Review: Bill Wyman - Back to Basics

Although he officially retired from the Rolling Stones in 1993, founding bassist Bill Wyman hasn’t exactly led a quiet life of leisure in the meantime, having curated various pursuits in photography and prose while also leading a revolving cast of fellow trad-jazz and blues enthusiasts called the Rhythm Kings.

Apart from all that activity, however, Wyman’s solo efforts (beginning with 1974’s Monkey Grip) have been few and far between. Indeed his latest, Back to Basics, is his first in 33 years.

The album finds the 78-year-old rock legend embracing a stately, intimate mood throughout as if engaged in a confidential conversation or, in other moments, solitary reflection. Wyman’s singing voice, with its whispery resonance (which with age now sounds like a cross between Robbie Robertson and latter-day Nick Lowe), suits its twelve songs like a well-worn winter coat.

In light of Wyman’s primary instrument and in contrast to the strident pulses he once meted out on Stones classics like “Under My Thumb” and “Miss You,” it’s worth noting that the grooves he generates in the most rhythmic moments here are, while less-pronounced — such is the subtle thrust of “She’s Wonderful” and, especially, “Stuff (Can’t Get Enough)” — no less present. Overall, though, the emphasis is more on the stories these songs tell rather than on any particular displays of technical prowess or pageantry within them.  

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DVD/2CD Review: The Rolling Stones - From The Vault: L.A. Forum (Live in 1975)

As recording artists the Rolling Stones by 1975 were, depending on your perspective, either trudging through a provisional rut or growing accustomed to the status of a legacy act. Their magnum opus, Exile on Main Street, was ensconced three years in the past; their brazen resurgence (or anomalous triumph), Some Girls, lay three years ahead; and their weakest effort in the interim, It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll, was what they’d ostensibly mounted their much-hyped Tour of the Americas to promote.

Of course by this point the Stones didn’t need to release a spectacular album to sell concert tickets. Not only was their reputation as live performers arguably unsurpassed in this era but, as evidenced on L.A. Forum (Live in 1975) — recorded during a five-night stand at the Forum, bootlegged for years thereafter, refurbished and most recently released as a DVD/2CD set by Eagle Rock — utterly justified.  


With the ever gregarious lead guitarist Ronnie Wood now in tow after having replaced the often taciturn Mick Taylor, the band is especially rambunctious during the 24-song set, even by Stones standards — not unlike Wood’s old mates, The Faces, veritable connoisseurs of errant behavior both on and off the stage. Auxiliary musicians (including percussionist Ollie E. Brown, saxophonist Trevor Lawrence, and keyboardist Billy Preston) no doubt enrich the sound and each man has his moments, but ultimately it’s the Stones stalwarts (Ian Stewart, Bobby Keys) that prove indispensable.


Flamboyant to a fault, Mick Jagger unleashes a primal, savage growl throughout that gives even the ballsiest songs (“Rip This Joint,” “Star Star,” “Brown Sugar”) an added guttural thrust. On the rare ballad (most notably “Angie”) he summons a soul man’s urgent ache, his gruff vocal suggesting Otis Redding’s raw, Southern-bred inspiration. Yet it’s on a torrid, sixteen-minute romp through “Midnight Rambler” that Jagger is at his most intoxicating, at turns humping and writhing atop the stage floor, brandishing his glittered belt like a whip as if in a masochistic fit. It’s a steal-the-show moment in any other band’s show. But this is the Rolling Stones in their prime as live performers, and L.A. Forum (Live in 1975) thrills from start to finish. 

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EP Review: Beth Thornley - Septagon

Beth Thornley has a knack for composing deceptively simple, soulful pop songs that cut to the quick with heartrending command. Maybe it’s a skill she’s honed over the years, having written for both television and film where the music often needs to encapsulate a specific scene; maybe she’s just innately gifted. Either way, Thornley illustrates this proficiency throughout the four-track EP Septagon (Stiff Hips Music). 

As a follow-up of sorts to her eclectic 2010 LP Wash U Clean, which was at turns wistful and rambunctious, this latest effort is more subdued by comparison, with subtler melodies and rich, immersive synth-pop textures betraying an unshakable sense of gravity in some moments and, in others, regret. From start to finish, though, it packs quite an emotional punch. 

  

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Album Review: Priscilla Ahn - This is Where We Are

Priscilla Ahn sings with such gorgeous, unaffected grace that any extravagant or otherwise cluttered production would only undermine one of the loveliest voices to emerge in the past decade. That said, with her third and latest album, This is Where We Are (SQE Music), the winsome singer/songwriter builds upon the acoustic-rich distinctions of her prior LPs, A Good Day (2008) and When You Grow Up (2011), to incorporate judicious amounts of electronica. 

In moments like “Diana” and “In a Closet in the Middle of the Night,” for instance, Ahn conjures intoxicating, spectral soundscapes that actually reinforce her voice as well as her often contemplative lyrics. She doesn’t abandon her acoustic tendencies completely, as ballads “Remember When I Broke Your Heart” and “I Can't Fall Asleep” illustrate in enchanting, tender ways. Even on the most sonically progressive songs, the experimental embellishments are neither distracting nor obtrusive.

On the whole, Ahn has stepped forward as an artist with this work, forging rich new musical perspectives with her talent and imagination.

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Album Review: Paul McCartney - New

It makes sense that Paul McCartney has courted a decidedly youthful demographic in promoting his first album of original material in six years, New (Hear Music): by appearing on Hollywood Boulevard for a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live, on a big rig in Times Square, or at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, the 71-year-old icon has appealed to audiences most likely attuned to the album’s precocious, experimental spirit.

In a way New recalls McCartney’s 2008 LP with The Fireman, Electric Arguments, particularly in how its most rambunctious pop rockers (“Queenie Eye,” “Everybody Out There”) fuse acoustic-rich foundations with techno-drenched loops and other similarly kooky effects. Some songs are more progressive than others (“Road,” “Appreciate”), but even the most seemingly straightforward, organic ones (“Early Days,” “Looking At Her”) are complemented with at-least-discreet effects. The album boasts four different producers (Paul Epworth, Mark Ronson, Giles Martin, Ethan Johns), yielding a bit of a hodgepodge disposition overall. The diversity works, though, not least because of the ageless enthusiasm and imagination McCartney exudes throughout.

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Album Review: Katie Melua - Ketevan

Katie Melua possesses one of the most sublime, enchanting voices of her generation, like that a Disney princess come to life straight off of the silver screen. It’s a gift she’s both embraced and challenged in her now decade-long career, most recently exploring orchestral pop as she did on her last album, Secret Symphony, and techno-inspired terrain as she did on the one before that, The House. 

With her sixth and latest studio LP, Ketevan (Dramatico Records) — its title is the Georgian-born Melua's given first name — she recalls the demure grandeur of her debut, Call Off the Search, collaborating as she did then with longtime manager, singer/songwriter Mike Batt (formerly of the Wombles), on a ballad-rich song cycle tailor-made to her talent. Between moments of unguarded emotion (“Never Felt Less Like Dancing,” “I Never Fall”) and ones spiked with a little mettle and sass (“Love Is a Silent Thief,” “Idiot School”), Melua finesses each lyric, each syllable and breath, with utterly stunning command. In fact, everything that is exceptional about Melua’s artistry is reflected on this album. 

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Album Review: Sting - The Last Ship

Those who have the ability to forget that Sting was once a dynamic vocalist who wrote some ferociously good pop songs may enjoy his latest album, The Last Ship  (Cherrytree/Interscope). For everyone else, this effort, his first after a decade-long sabbatical in the classical ranks, should find it among the British legend’s most tiring and tedious. Ostensibly dealing with the decline of the shipbuilding trade during the 1980s’ in the city of Sting’s birth, Newcastle, England, The Last Ship finds Sting serving in the role of a minstrel. And in that capacity alone he does quite an admirable job, too, as he capably conjures moments of dramatic, eloquent storytelling, often enough in spoken-word passages. 

Besides, the problem with the album isn’t its script, so to speak, but rather its soundtrack. 

For the most part, Sting sings/speaks over some indiscriminate strumming—some brief orchestral flourishes also surface from time to time—the words coming across as far more considered than whatever sense of a tune carries them. Pop music (if that’s what you want to call this) may not be the right medium for telling these sorts of tales or, more to the point, Sting doesn't pull it off as he should. As demonstrated by even the most literate-intensive singer/songwriters, from Leonard Cohen to Joni Mitchell to Bob Dylan, the music must possess some engaging quality in and of itself, whether it’s a chord structure or a chorus or even just a hook. Otherwise, it’s just prose with some ambience. 

The album’s not a lost cause completely, as solipsistic love songs “The Night The Pugilist Learned How To Dance” and “I Love Her But She Loves Someone Else” evoke the sort of romantic longing that would’ve complemented The Soul Cages or Ten Summoner’s Tales. Overall, though, The Last Ship lacks the musical intrigue that could’ve made what may very well be an evocative tale into an album worth listening to.

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Album Review: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Fly By Wire

Even the band’s name suggests empathy: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, hailing from Springfield, Missouri, make a suitably merciful impression with their latest LP, Fly By Wire (Polyvinyl Records). Delicate echoes of early ‘80s synthpop (“Unearth,” “Cover All Sides,” “Ms. Dot”) complement moments spiked with a bit more shimmer and thrust (“Nightwater Girlfriend,” “Young Presidents”), making for a disarmingly intoxicating mix of indie pop. Incidentally, the Russian government apparently gave more consideration to the band’s moniker than the band did in picking it (go figure), and so it invited SSLYBY to participate last year in a cultural exchange mission. Now, there’s no hard evidence to suggest that SSLYBY’s performances for schoolchildren and the like in the former Soviet Union softened any administrative hearts and minds, but Syria wasn’t convinced to comply with a chemical-weapons accord all on its own—just saying. Maybe SSLYBY can get Pussy Riot out of prison, too. 

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Album Review: Escape the Pain of Life That You Know - Madonna Makes it Fun on 'MDNA World Tour/Live 2012'

Say what you will about whatever bizarre stunts or statements she makes in a seeming effort to shock. Madonna knows how to entertain.  After 30 years, her continued ability to put asses in arena and stadium seats is all but incomparable. And while her latest studio album, MDNA, didn’t sell like some of her past blockbusters it nevertheless inspired a massively successful concert tour. In fact, the 88-date trek netted the superstar $125 million, landing her on top of the Forbes 2013 list of top-earning celebrities. 

For those who attended and those who wished they had, MDNA World Tour/Live 2012 (Live Nation/Interscope Records), which is culled from back-to-back nights (November 19 and 20) at Miami’s American Airlines Arena, suitably justifies their love. 

Madonna is as much a video star as a music one—a DVD and Blu-ray of this title is also available—and her concerts are accordingly packed with multimedia extravagance. In the context of a live album, though, certain visual elements and interludes don’t translate all that well—some interlude segments get a bit tedious—but such is a negligible criticism for the sake of continuity, which is a primary concern for just about any live recording. 

For the most part, the album is a treat. Of the MDNA songs, “Turn Up the Radio” and “I’m a Sinner” are the obvious standouts, with fervent audience sing-alongs turning them into party anthems. Older ones like “Papa Don’t Preach” and “Open Your Heart” are radically reinvented to complement the show’s overall vibe with its nearly nonstop, techno-throbbing soundtrack. This is a meticulously constructed set from start to finish; Madonna doesn’t take requests like Springsteen or stop what she’s playing on a dime to play something else like Prince. Every second of this performance is rehearsed to regimented precision, but the unflinching vitality Madonna exudes throughout—and especially on warhorses like “Express Yourself,” “Vogue,” and “Like a Prayer”—makes listening to it a whole lot of fun. 

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Album Review: Guy Clark - My Favorite Picture of You

Guy Clark was a revered if not renowned figure long before he got his proper due. That didn’t come until 2011 with This One’s For Him: A Tribute To Guy Clark, for which the likes of Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris, and Kris Kristofferson sang his praises by singing his songs. Thanks to the diversity (not to mention the mainstream popularity) of many of its contributing artists, the double-disc set not only celebrated Clark’s distinctive artistry but also illustrated it in arguably more of a universal light.

However, it’d be difficult for anyone who knows little about the 71-year-old singer/songwriter’s life not to feel some underlying sense of loss or unspoken grief when listening to his latest LP, My Favorite Picture of You.  

The album cover alone is enough to put a lump in your throat. In a nod to the wistful title track, Clark holds a faded Polaroid of his wife of 40 years, Susanna, who passed away in June of last year following an extended illness. An esteemed and successful songwriter in her own right, she was an indispensable catalyst for her husband’s career, not to mention a muse for who-knows-how-many of his songs. 

That’s not to suggest Clark dwells in themes about loss here, but in moments where he sings most evocatively of human suffering, be it of the heart (“Hell Bent on a Heartache”) or of the mind (“Heroes”), his stalwart drawl seems a bit more solemn and maybe a bit more lonesome than it has before. But that’s life, and few artists bring its essence to bear like this Guy. 

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Album Review: Caitlin Rose - The Stand-In

There’s no denying her kinship with country music, but considering Caitlin Rose solely as a country singer neglects the breadth of her resourcefulness. On both her 2010 debut EP, Dead Flowers (which in the title track saw her covering the Rolling Stones) and her 2011 LP, Own Side Now, she’s demonstrated remarkable versatility, exploring variations of pop and folk and alt.country with equal conviction. Along the way, whether encouraged by her own musical tastes and curiosity or by the environment in which she was raised—the daughter of two industry vets, she’s lived in Nashville since she was a young child—Rose has developed a rich and varied appreciation for the craft of songwriting. In concert, in fact, she's been known to cover such venerable songsmiths as Jerry Jeff Walker, Randy Newman, and Nick Lowe—her version of “Lately I’ve Let Things Slide” was a highlight of last year’s tribute album, Lowe Country—and that appreciation has no doubt informed her own artistry.

With her sophomore LP, The Stand-In (ATO Records), the 25-year-old singer/songwriter is at her most ambitious yet, following her muse and embracing her influences with startling assurance. She most notably reveals her honky-tonk roots in the album’s two covers, “Dallas” (by the Felice Brothers) and “I Was Cruel” (by the Deep Vibration), and in more subtle ways throughout. Yet she achieves a sense of eclecticism with these songs—more sophisticated-pop ones like “Everywhere I Go” and “Pink Champagne,” for instance, recall Elvis Costello and the Attractions' Imperial Bedroom more than Emmylou Harris’ Elite Hotel—that gives this album its most rewarding character.  

There is no tentativeness plaguing this music, no rough edges to suggest that with but her second full-length Caitlin Rose remains well within the learning curve of her craft. Indeed far from sounding like an ingénue’s see-what-sticks experiment in discovering her creative voice, The Stand-In heralds an artist in full and fascinating grasp of her talent.

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Album Review: Fogerty and Friends Revisit Creedence, Solo Classics

John Fogerty is one of those indispensable figures in rock ‘n’ roll, having penned some of the most enduring and relevant songs in its history. The music he made with Creedence Clearwater Revival, particularly, struck such a crucial nerve in the era of Vietnam and Kent State and Watergate that’s it’s of little wonder why those songs have continued to matter to people in more recent years of rampant war and social and political unease. It’s also among the most distinctive music ever made, from John Fogerty’s countrified drawl to the thick-and-sturdy rhythm section of bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford to guitarist Tom Fogerty’s crunchy riffs. Covering such classics would be a tall order for anyone, but for the guy who wrote them to revisit them invites an altogether different kind of scrutiny.  

These songs were built to last, though, and with Wrote a Song for Everyone (Vanguard Records) Fogerty has found new ways for them to thrive. A slew of guests join him here, adding new energy and in some cases new perspectives to some of his most familiar CCR and solo recordings.  

It’s not hard to understand how country artists could feel an affinity for this music — old Creedence albums arguably sound more country than a lot of mainstream country does today — and contributions from Alan Jackson on “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” and Miranda Lambert on the title track, which also features Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, are among the album’s most compelling moments.

Other highlights emerge when the guest artists effectively make the songs their own. Bob Seger, for instance, sings “Who’ll Stop the Rain” like he’s been singing it for years already. Same thing with Dawes and My Morning Jacket, who yield fresh insights to “Someday Never Comes” and “Long As I Can See the Light,” respectively. And on “Proud Mary,” Jennifer Hudson recalls an Ike and Tina vibe to an otherwise Cajun-twisted arrangement courtesy of Allen Toussaint in grand, Southern-fried style. Fogerty is on hand throughout, of course — he sings two new tracks on his own, “Mystic Highway” and “Train of Fools,” which are as good as anything he’s written since his CCR days — but the songs are the real stars of this all-star album. 

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Album Review: Kris Kristofferson - Feeling Mortal

Kris Kristofferson is one of the rare songwriters who’ve expanded the vernacular, so to speak, having upped the ante on what a popular song can speak to or suggest. His finest musical moments over the years, from “Help Me Make It Through the Night” to “Sunday Morning Coming Down” to “Why Me,” have favored hard-won intimacy over whimsical romance, the most incriminating truths over the safest or most reassuring lies, all while exuding decidedly adult perspectives.

It’s fitting, then, that on Feeling Mortal (KK Records) he considers themes of death and earthly impermanence with much the same unvarnished veracity.

Kristofferson, 76, sings with resilience in the face of life’s ultimate inevitable, the age in his already stoic voice having only enriched his impact as a storyteller. From the title track which opens the album like a mission statement — “Wide awake and feeling mortal at this moment in the dream” — he inhabits each line as he seemingly makes sense of its greater and perhaps spiritual significance. In doing so, he sizes up a life in which he's reaped rewards and myriad versions of salvation (“Bread For the Body,” “The One You Chose”) despite his all-too-human weaknesses (“Stairway to the Bottom,” “Just Suppose”) and his conflicted struggles to resist them. This is serious stuff to write and sing about, but Kristofferson does so with humility and a bit of humor, culminating in a uniquely inspiring work with songs that will outlive us all.

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Album Review: Buddy Guy - Live at Legends

The first time I saw Buddy Guy in concert I thought, This is what Jimi Hendrix could’ve been like had he lived longer. It wasn’t so much because of the over-the-top showmanship Guy displayed on the electric guitar. Rather, it was because of his absolute command of the instrument. Guy could be in the middle of a ferocious blues rocker, then suddenly slip into playing a nursery rhyme only to then return to his original groove without missing a step. No fancy rhythm or drum beat could throw him off. His guitar worked for him, not the other way around.

That temerity and mind-boggling talent are palpable on the newly released Live at Legends, which highlights Guy’s 2010 residency at his renowned Chicago nightclub.

Instinctively shifting from traditional warhorses (“Mannish Boy,” “I Just Want to Make Love to You”) to his own latter-day favorites (“Best Damn Fool,” “Skin Deep”), Guy is inspired throughout. In particular, on a medley that has become a staple of his live shows, he summons John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom” and Cream’s “Strange Brew” with unbridled urgency and enthusiasm.

While this recording no doubt reflects the spirit and spontaneity of a Buddy Guy concert, at eight live tracks (seven if you discount Guy’s now-infamous introduction) it does not represent an unabridged performance. Three previously unreleased studio tracks culled from the sessions for 2010’s Skin Deep, most notably the raucous “Coming For You,” suitably round out the album. Still, it’s the in-the-moment magic of the primary material that makes Live at Legends such a treat.

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Album Review: Vonda Shepard - Solo

Fans of television’s Ally McBeal will remember Vonda Shepard as the vivacious blonde songstress in the piano bar, usually playing some timeless tearjerker (“I Only Want to Be With You,” “Vincent”) or a suitably poignant original (“Maryland,” “Baby, Don’t You Break My Heart Slow”) on occasion. Her smoky, soulful voice instilled in the hit show’s often-quirky storylines an empathetic perspective while essentially functioning as the musical conscience of Calista Flockhart’s romantically hopeful yet impressionable title character.

Shepard had achieved some prior success—in 1987 she reached the Top 10 with “Can’t We Try,” a duet with Canadian singer/songwriter Dan Hill—but the visibility afforded her week after week thanks to Ally was incalculable. And, in return, she flat-out made a great show even better.

Shepard likewise shines on Solo, which finds her (and her alone, hence the title) reprising some of her most familiar and compelling performances. A sprawling rendition of the Duprees classic, “You Belong to Me,” is an instant highlight. However, it’s on her own material—particularly “I Know Better” and “Soothe Me,” both achingly sensuous and intoxicating moments—where Shepard’s vocal depth and range are best revealed and ultimately most affecting.

Altogether, Solo is superb.

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Album Review: The Little Willies - For The Good Times

The Little Willies never set out to be a big deal. If anything they’ve aspired to maintain a low profile, perhaps as an antidote to the mainstream attention their most conspicuous member, Norah Jones, tends to attract with her solo releases. They reflected as much on their laid-back 2006 eponymous debut and, in its assortment of covers and well-suited originals, an earnest affinity for classic country music.

The group’s latest, For The Good Times (EMI/Milking Bull Records), is even more steeped in country, and it's all the better for it. Traditional honky-tonk along the lines of Lefty Frizzell (“If You’ve Got The Money, I’ve Got The Time”) and Hank Williams (“Lovesick Blues”) complement moments that are at turns sentimental (“Remember Me”) and contentious (“Wide Open Road,” “Fist City”) in respectful, refreshing performances.

A seasoned, playful chemistry exists among these musicians—Jones (vocals, piano), along with Jim Campilongo (guitar), Lee Alexander (bass), Richard Julian (guitar, vocals), and Dan Rieser (drums)—invigorating some of these old gems, especially the obscure ones. “Diesel Smoke, Dangerous Curves,” in particular, finds Julian behind the wheel singing lead as Jones accentuates its sensuous subtext, her voice an echo conjuring images not of some perilous highway but rather of far more risky, erogenous terrain.

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Album Review: James Morrison - The Awakening

From the 2007 release of his debut album, Undiscovered, British singer/songwriter James Morrison’s breakout hit “You Give Me Something” was a refreshing reminder that pop music could do with a little bit of unaffected soul among its more plastic-sounding concoctions. Singing at once raspy and rich, Morrison soon earned comparisons to a young Rod Stewart—in fact Morrison helped induct Rod the Mod into the now-defunct UK Music Hall of Fame in late 2006, singing “The First Cut is the Deepest” in his honor—which perhaps underscored what potential and emotive power lay in his voice. 

Morrison forged a comparable soul/pop sound on his 2009 follow-up, Songs For You, Truths For Me, but there were neither any indelible nor enduring standouts with anything near the conviction of his first single. 

However, a whole slew of highlights grace Morrison’s current LP, The Awakening (Universal Island Records), which is easily his strongest, most rewarding effort to date. Subtlety in this music is crucial—whether in the throwback R&B vibe of “6 Weeks” and “In My Dreams,” or in the solemn, gospel flavor of “Right By Your Side”—as the best moments are when the arrangements inspire Morrison’s vocal rather than define its course. “I Won’t Let You Go” is perhaps the prime example of this, as the song finds Morrison working for that proverbial supper, pushing and reaching not to hit a pitch-perfect note but rather some universal, gut-wrenching truth. 

The natural impulse of any ambitious artist is to take risks, to intentionally step out of their comfort zone. That Morrison challenges himself here, particularly with song structures and styles, is admirable even if some results don’t resonate as strong as others. Tracks like “Slave to the Music” and the reggae-styled “All Around the World,” for instance, are just too busy and distracting to the vocal altogether. 

Morrison is certainly not a complacent artist, though, and that not only serves him quite well on this latest album but should do so for ones to come. 

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Album Review: Live LP Makes Sinatra's Best Even Better

Very few artists could inspire a retrospective called Best of the Best that actually lives up to its title; that actually comprises the creamiest cream of the crop. Then again, very few artists compare to Frank Sinatra.

Marking the first time such a compilation includes material from both Sinatra’s years at Capitol Records and at his own Reprise Records, the primary disc offers a most-gratifying overview of what is arguably the legend’s most fruitful periods. Twenty-three songs, this has, and not a dud in the bunch.

What makes this deluxe edition the one to get, though, is its second disc, '57 In Concert. Originally released as a live album and long since out-of-print, it boasts a complete performance recorded on June 9, 1957, at the Seattle Civic Auditorium. With Nelson Riddle conducting the orchestra, Sinatra is exquisite, delivering one highlight after another—“It Happened in Monterey,” “One For My Baby,” and “The Tender Trap” are but a few outstanding moments—with supreme cool and command. To say the man could work a room is an understatement; and listening to him here, engaging the audience with off-the-cuff asides between songs (and sometimes during them), is a real treat. That the gig sounds so well-preserved and pristine now only makes it all the more essential.

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