Andy Battaglia on Phoenix

"Phoenix has always been less a great rock band and more some sly, sensitive, clever-but-not-coy enthusiast's idea of a great rock band. Part of that owes to their being French and thus born slightly outside the rock margins, but more of it owes to their uncanny command of the form—their soft touch with everything. … Everything on Phoenix's fourth album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, is highly mannered, to be sure. But none of it is ever forced or fussy—or, worse, less than geekily thrilled to be so carefully arranged. The single '1901' bursts with brightness from the start with a weave of ringing pop guitars and the candy-licked voice of Thomas Mars singing 'fold it, fold it, fold it' as if the act of folding something (maybe a relationship) could be a carnival ride. 'Fences' follows in more mellow fashion, with a slow-spinning disco lean that moves into the even mellower Air/Tangerine Dream-influenced 'Love Like A Sunset.' That range marks the borders of the album as a whole, and laced throughout all of it are generous, wide-eyed melodies of a kind that makes for swooning sighs and curious feelings of instant nostalgia" ("Music," A.V. Club, 5/28-6/3/09).

Vivien Schweitzer on Sandrine Piau

"At Weill Recital Hall on Friday evening the superb French soprano Sandrine Piau explored the 'mysteries and dimensions of womanhood': a bountiful topic that has kept male poets busy for centuries and provided texts for innumerable songs. Most of the works she performed are also featured on 'Évocation' (Naïve), her new disc of 19th- and 20th-century French and German songs. …Known primarily as a Baroque and Classical specialist, Ms. Piau sang with a clear and deeply expressive voice, nuanced phrasing and immaculate control. … Ms. Piau sang Chausson’s melancholy 'Hébé' — to a text by Louise Victorine-Ackermann, the only female poet in the program — with delicate yearning, and offered an achingly lovely interpretation of 'Le Colibri.' Debussy was represented by selections including 'Nuits d’Étoiles,' with arpeggiated piano chords evoking a harp. Ms. Piau demonstrated her facility with German repertory in a flavorful rendition of Strauss’s 'Mädchenblumen' (Op. 22), four songs in which women are compared to clinging vines and flowers. She also sang four songs by Zemlinsky, including 'Frühlingslied,' a setting of a Heine poem" ("Music Review," New York Times, 10/12/09).

Third Eye Blind: Ursa Major

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Contents: Can You Take Me (Stephan Jenkins/Tony Fredianelli), Don't Believe a Word (Jenkins/Fredianelli), Bonfire (Jenkins/Fredianelli), Sharp Knife (Jenkins/Fredianelli), One in Ten (Jenkins), About to Break (Jenkins/Ari Ingber), Summer Town (Jenkins), Why Can't You Be (Jenkins), Water Landing (Jenkins), Dao of St. Paul (Jenkins), Monotov's Private Opera (Jenkins), Carnival Barker (instrumental; Jenkins/Fredianelli).
Personnel: Stephan Jenkins, vocals, guitars, keyboards, percussion, drums (Why Can't You Be); Brad Hargreaves, drums, percussion, piano; Tony Fredianelli, guitars, backing vocals, keyboards. Also: Jon Evans, bass; Herve Salters, keys (Why Can't You Be); Robyn Croomer, backing vocals; Cynthia Taylor, backing vocals; Minna Choi, backing vocals; Ben Stokes, drum programming (Water Landing), synth (Can You Take Me); Mauri Skinfil, backing vocals (Dao of St. Paul); Arion Salazar, bass (Bonfire).
Artist website: http://www.3eb.com/

John Adamian on Steve Lehman

"He plays jazz, yes — he was a Charlie Parker fanatic at 10, and studied with Connecticut saxophone giants Anthony Braxton and the late Jackie McLean — but he also works extensively in what’s called 'spectrum music,' which is an approach that pays special attention to the physical properties of sound. … Lehman went to Wesleyan, where he studied and performed with Braxton. Meanwhile, he attended McLean’s sax seminars at Hartt. Braxton and McLean urged students to 'find a personal music,' says Lehman. … Listening to Lehman’s music, particularly to his exciting new record, Travail, Transformation, and Flow, the analogies from visual arts come to mind. The microtonal harmonies and unusual paired timbres (vibes and tuba, for instance) can make one think of the paintings of Josef Albers, who explored the ways that our perception of colors changed in different contexts and settings. Lehman’s compositions often achieve a kind of beguiling surface calm, with pensive monochromatic dabs of sound serving as a backdrop for more detailed pointillistic soloing. … 'I feel like I’ve gotten better at being genuine with my intentions as I’ve gotten older'" ("Music," New Haven Advocate, 10/8/09, p. 41).

Ben Greenman on Cheap Trick

"Cheap Trick’s latest album is one of its trickiest yet, from the winking title ('The Latest') on down. The first single, 'When the Lights Are Out,' is a cover of an old Slade song—an old cover of an old Slade song, actually, recorded in 1976 and rescued from the Cheap Trick vaults—that fits the original over the galloping drumbeat of the band’s early hit 'ELO Kiddies.' Throughout, in fact, the group (still composed of the guitarist Rick Nielsen, the singer Robin Zander, the bassist Tom Petersson, and the drummer Bun E. Carlos) plays fast and loose with its own history. The sparkling 'Miss Tomorrow' is a leftover from Zander’s early-nineties solo career. … Elsewhere, the group continues to do what it has always done, balancing delicate balladry ('Miracle,' which has another highly Lennon-like vocal) with skewed popcraft. … Sometimes, they do both in the same song: 'Closer, the Ballad of Burt and Linda' is a soaring love song about Burton Pugach, the New York lawyer who spent fourteen years in prison for hiring thugs to throw lye in the face of his girlfriend and future wife, Linda Riss. … Moving confidently into the future while remaining convincingly rooted in the past? Now that’s a neat trick" ("Pop Notes," New Yorker, 7/27/09).

The Best Is Yet to Come: The Songs of Cy Coleman

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Contents: The best is yet to come (performed by Patty Griffin) — I've got your number (performed by Jill Sobule) — Why try to change me now (performed by Fiona Apple) — I live my love (performed by Madeleine Peyroux) — Then was then and now is now (performed by Ambrosia Parsley) — I'm gonna laugh you right out of my life (performed by Julianna Raye) — You fascinate me so (performed by Sam Phillips) — Hey look me over (performed by Perla Batalla) — Too many tomorrows (performed by Sara Watkins) — I walk a little faster (performed by Fiona Apple) — Where am I going? (performed by Sarabeth Tucek) — The rules of the road (performed by Nikka Costa) — (I'm) in love again (performed by Missy Higgins). Produced and arranged by Dave Palmer, who also plays keyboards on all tracks.
"The new tribute album, 'The Best Is Yet to Come: The Songs of Cy Coleman,' features top female vocalists interpreting the works of the great songwriter" ("On the Horizon," New Yorker, 10/19/09, p. 25).

Steve Smith on Stile Antico

"Stile Antico, a bright, young early-music vocal ensemble from England, made its New York debut as part of the Music Before 1800 series at Corpus Christi Church on Sunday afternoon. … Listen to Stile Antico’s most recent CD, 'Song of Songs,' and you are confronted with an ensemble of breathtaking freshness, vitality and balance. It was no fluke of marketing that made the disc a best seller and earned it a Gramophone Award (though the group’s profile was probably boosted by having worked with Sting). Nevertheless, Stile Antico’s extra effort paid dividends during a concert that nearly duplicated the contents of the album, a collection of 16th-century European settings of passages from the biblical Song of Solomon. … Working without a conductor, the singers kept a keen eye on one another, giving their pitch-perfect sound a finely honed precision in the rippling sequences of Clemens non Papa’s 'Ego flos campi' and the ricocheting counterpoint of Sebastián de Vivanco’s 'Veni, dilecte mi.' Rich harmonies in selections by Nicolas Gombert and Jean Lhéritier had a luminous glow. … You could almost smell the perfume wafting through a ravishing account of Victoria’s 'Vidi speciosam'" ("Music Review," New York Times, 10/27/09).