Five for Fighting: Two Lights

CML call number: CD/ROCK/Five
Personnel: John Ondrasik, vocals, piano, guitars, keyboards; Curt Schneider, bass, guitars; Andrew Williams, guitars; Joey Waronker, drums, percussion. Additional musicians: Michael Ward, Bruce Watson (guitars), Luis Conte (percussion), Rob Arthur, Dave Palmer (keyboards).
Contents: Freedom Never Cries, World, California Justice, The Riddle, Two Lights, '65 Mustang, I Just Love You, Policeman's Xmas Party, Road to Heaven, Johnny America; all with words and music by John Ondrasik.
From the artist's website: "John's Grammy-nominated song 'Superman (It's Not Easy),' from the America Town CD, was already a hit when 9/11 happened. Afterwards, the song became a spiritual national anthem, and John joined superstar headliners Mick Jagger, Elton John, Paul McCartney and others for the post-9/11 fund-raiser The Concert for New York. … In 2004 he recorded The Battle For Everything, which yielded the hit '100 Years,' once again proving Ondrasik's ability to craft inspirational songs with a social message. … Two Lights should yield no less. … "

New York Dolls: One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This

CML call number: CD/ROCK/New
Will Hermes wrote in the New York Times: "Its brashly classic sound points to the band's often-overlooked roots in blues and Brill Building pop. It is smartly written and well played … by [David] Johansen, [Sylvain] Mizrahi and a seasoned gang of New York-based rockers: the bassist Sami Yaffa … the guitarist Steve Conte, the keyboardist Brian Koonin, and the drummer Brian Delaney. Iggy Pop, a fellow punk forefather, adds backing vocals, as does R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, a longtime fan of the Dolls. But what's perhaps most striking about the new record is its tone. Alongside characteristic, happily debased romps like 'Fishnets and Cigarettes' and 'Rainbow Store' (in which the singer apparently gets swept off his feet by a tough girl at a lesbian boutique) is a wistfulness and a sort of wisdom, plus a quality you could almost call spiritual, a word that wouldn't have been used to describe the old Dolls except in reference to alcohol. … The new record's best song, 'Dance Like a Monkey,' is a rock 'n' roll answer to a timely theological question. Trying to woo a 'pretty creationist,' the singer invites her onto the dance floor. …" (7/23/06).

Toby Lightman: Bird on a Wire

CML call number: CD/ROCK/Lightman
Contents: Don't Wake Me, Don't Let Go, Better, Slippin', Round & Round, My Sweet Song, Alone, One Sure Thing, Overflowing, Weight of the World, Holding Me Down, I'd Be Lost, Good Find; all songs written or co-written by Lightman.
Artist website: http://www.tobylightman.com/
Chuck Arnold wrote in People: "On her 2004 debut disc Little Things, Toby Lightman demonstrated that she was no small talent. This rewarding follow-up continues to shine a light on the singer-songwriter's knack for making rich, soulful pop. Lightman remains hard to pigeonhole on Bird on a Wire: she smoothly glides from the gospel-tinged 'Don't Wake Me' to the bluesy stomper 'Don't Let Go' and the wistful, folk-inflected ballad 'I'd Be Lost.' First single 'Holding Me Down,' which showcases Lightman's guitar-playing skills and earthy, raspy vocals, brings to mind the rootsy, funky vibe of KT Tunstall's recent hit 'Black Horse & the Cherry Tree' [on Eye to the Telescope, CD/POPULAR/Tunstall]" ("Picks & Pans: Music," 8/7/06, p. 45).

Tom Petty: Highway Companion

CML call number: CD/ROCK/Petty
Jon Pareles wrote in the New York Times: "Always one of rock's pithiest lyricists, Mr. Petty sketches characters who may or may not be himself, and he has pared many of his verses down to cryptic images. … That approach to songwriting brings him closer than ever to Bob Dylan and especially Neil Young, and the music doesn't evade the resemblances. The songs are lean and deliberate, played by Mr. Petty (on drums as well as guitar) with Mike Campbell (the lead guitarist in Mr. Petty's band, the Heartbreakers) and Jeff Lynne. The arrangements are still rooted in the folk-rock and British invasion pop that have sustained Mr. Petty's music for 30 years. In the songs on 'Highway Companion,' most of the characters are in motion, with no exact destination. Some are headed toward homes they may never reach. 'It's hard to say who you are these days/ But you ron on anyway,' Mr. Petty observes in 'Saving Grace,' which has verses that ride on a John Lee Hooker-style boogie riff. 'Saving Grace' is the most upbeat track on a largely introspective album. … Mr. Petty's reticence opens the songs to a sense of mystery" ("Critics' Choice," 7/24/06).

Muse: Revelations and Black Holes

CML call number: CD/ROCK/Muse
Contents: Take a Bow, Starlight, Supermassive Black Hole, Map of the Problematique, Soldier's Poem, Invincible, Assassin, Exo-politics, City of Delusion, Hoodoo, Knights of Cydonia.
Personnel: Dominic Howard, Matthew Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme.
Kathryn Bessen-Johnson wrote in the New Haven Advocate: "They still remind everyone of Radiohead, but Black Holes and Revelations is Muse's most varied album. They've added more rock to their rolling synth tracks, piling guitars, drums, and voices onto an expanded range of synthetic sounds. Their classics-on-techno roots now encompass every influence from 1950s love ballads to Spanish guitar. The result is a collection of spiritual and spacy tracks with universally social themes" (7/13/06).

Joe Lovano Ensemble: Streams of Expression

CML call number: CD/JAZZ/Lovano
Ben Ratliff wrote in the New York Times: "At the core … are Gunther Schuller's rearrangements of some of the music from Miles Davis's 'Birth of the Cool' album, originally recorded in 1949 and 1950. For 'Birth of the Cool Suite,' commissioned by the Monterey Jazz Festival in 2001, Mr. Lovano asked Mr. Schuller to open up three of the Davis recordings — 'Moon Dreams' … 'Move' and 'Boplicity.' These are extraordinary miniatures with exotic harmony. … Mr. Schuller has added a little more harmony. … But the real action is in the trio pieces, 'Blue Sketches,' 'Enchantment' and 'Big Ben.' Here, with the bassist Dennis Irwin and the drummer Lewis Nash, Mr. Lovano is at his best, using a broad tone and a rolling rhythmic feel. On these pieces he plays, respectively, tenor saxophone, alto clarinet and Aulochrome, a recent creation of the instrument maker François Louis that combines two soprano saxophones so that they can be played in unison or strike any interval; with it, a saxophone can also layer different rhythms. It has its uses; you hear Mr. Lovano making it sound natural, casually exploring its challenges and finding some of its rewards" (7/31/06).

Paul Simon: Surprise

CML call number: CD/ROCK/Simon
Alan Light wrote in the New York Times: "[A]n ambitious and challenging work full of sonic experimentation and oblique lyrics. Its 11 songs elliptically convey the struggle to navigate an absurd, often tragic world where registering to vote makes you 'feel like a fool' and conscience is something 'sticking to the sole of my shoe' — even as the singer confesses that 'it's outrageous a man like me/ stand here and complain.' … As always, Mr. Simon's writing started with the drums; this time, he wanted to pursue more 'American-sounding rhythms' than the polyrhythmic grooves that have dominated his work since the South African stylings of 'Graceland,' the 1986 smash. … But in 2003, with just one song finished … and a few scattered ideas and fragments, he was introduced to the electronic music pioneer Brian Eno, a former member of the art-rock band Roxy Music and producer for artists like U2 and Talking Heads. … The final credits for 'Surprise' read 'Produced by Paul Simon, Sonic Landscape by Brian Eno.' … [W]hen Mr. Eno's atmospheric washes of sound elevate Mr. Simon's shimmering guitar … the effect is hypnotic" (5/7/06).

Burt Bacharach: At This Time

CML call number: CD/POPULAR/Bacharach
Burt Bacharach wrote this in the Huffington Post: "I've been writing songs all my life, never rocking the boat. … But starting with the 2000 election, things for me began to change. … I started working on an album with music different from any that I had ever written before. … The first song I wrote for the album was 'Please Explain,' … 'There was a song I remember said "What the World Needs Now" …/ Where is the love, where did it go/ Who broke our hearts 'cause we need to know/ Where are the dreams that we once knew? Please explain …' I put this over a Dr. Dre drum loop … and it felt right. … My work on 'At This Time' climaxed into a piece called 'Who Are These People?' that had a guest vocal by Elvis Costello. … 'Who are these people that keep telling us lies/ and how did these people get control of our lives/ and who'll stop the violence 'cause it's out of control?/ Make 'em stop.' And then when Elvis came in on the middle verse he sang, 'This stupid mess we're in just keeps getting worse,/ so many people dying needlessly/ looks like these liars may inherit the earth' … I'm very glad I did this album and that it won a Grammy this year."

The Brand New Heavies: Get Used To It

CML call number: CD/R&B/Brand
Personnel: N'Dea Davenport, lead vocals, backing vocals; Jan Kincaid, drums, percussion, keys, lead and backing vocals; Andrew Love Levy, bass, programming, backing vocals; Simon Bartholomew, all guitars, backing vocals.
Contents: We've Got, I Don't Know Why (I Love You), Get Used To It, Sex God, Let's Do It Again, We Won't Stop, Right On, Music, I Just Realized, All Fired Up, Love Is, I've Been Touched.
Chuck Arnold wrote in People: "Like Rufus without Chaka Khan, the Brand New Heavies were never the same without soulful singer N'Dea Davenport, who left the pioneering British acid-jazz outfit after two albums — and hits like 1991's still-smoking 'Never Stop' — to pursue a solo career. Now, with Davenport back in tow for the first time in 12 years, the Heavies have gotten their groove back. From their righteous cover of Stevie Wonder's 'I Don't Know Why (I Love You)' to the reggae-fied funk of the title track and the lush disco rush of 'Let's Do It Again,' their brand of retro-'70s R&B is awfully easy to get used to."

Eric Church: Sinners Like Me

CML call number: CD/COUNTRY/Church
Kelefa Sanneh wrote in the New York Times: "Mr. Church commands a stage as if there's nothing he would rather be doing. But maybe there is one thing. 'If you gave me a choice two years ago, I would've been a songwriter instead of a singer,' he said. 'I'm a craft guy.' That's clear from 'Sinners Like Me,' an extraordinarily well-written album for which Mr. Church composed all 12 songs. He collaborated with Nashville songwriters who are as obsessed with craft as he is. The songs they made are highly quotable, packed with wry observations and well-turned punch lines, and the tunes are as elegant as the words. But those words! In 'Before She Does' a big truth frames a smaller one: 'I believe that Jesus is comin' back/ Before she does.' In 'Can't Take It With You' he wistfully remembers the one who got away, and the things she took: 'Bet she's gaining fast on Memphis, with a trailer load in tow/ Who says you can't take it with you when you go.' The album's most startling song is 'Two Pink Lines,' written with Victoria Shaw, about a young couple sweating out a pregnancy scare. … The words deftly evoke drama, but the music suggests comedy."

The Genius of Pogorelich

CML call number: CD/CLASSICAL/Pogorelich
Anthony Tommasini wrote in the New York Times: "This spring Deutsche Grammophon released a two-disc compilation of [Ivo Pogorelich]'s early recordings. … The program includes solo works by Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Scarlatti and Ravel, as well as Chopin's Second and Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concertos, with Claudio Abbado conducting. The performances should introduce a new generation of listeners to the riveting yet confounding artistry of the young Mr. Pogorelich. … Mr. Pogorelich's playing is never less than mesmerizing, and his interpretive ideas, however curious, seem motivated by genuine instincts and intriguing perceptions. … Mr. Pogorelich emerges as master of … the ability to articulate uncannily details and inner voices in a piece. There is, for example, his arresting account of Schumann's Toccata (Op. 7). This daunting piece consists of some seven minutes of perpetual-motion chords and leaps, woven through with a murmuring melody and intricate inner voices. Most pianists cannot conceal the sheer struggle of playing it. Mr. Pogorelich dispatches the toccata with cool aplomb. …" ("A Moody Dionysus of the Piano," 7/1/06).

Scritti Politti: White Bread Black Beer

CML call number: CD/POPULAR/Scritti
Sasha Frere-Jones wrote in the New Yorker: "[Green] Gartside's career has been marked by unlikely turns. In 1985, at the height of his popularity, he looked like the other pretty blond boys on MTV, except that he cited Wittgenstein in magazine interviews. Seven years earlier, when he formed Scritti Politti, a musical collective of autodidacts who took their name from a book by the political theorist Antono Gramsci, he was living in a Camden Town squat without a bathroom. Now, twenty-one years after becoming an American pop star, Gartside has released 'White Bread, Black Beer,' Scritti Politti's fifth album, though Gartside made it entirely by himself, in his home in Hackney. The record bears little relation to the ramshackle singles that Scritti Politti released in 1978, or to the obsessively polished R. & B. that made its lead singer famous. Gartside, who is fifty-one, has created an astonishingly mellifluous and coherent album, which is indebted to the sixties pop he heard as a child on BBC Radio 1 in Wales, where he was born. … Even 'Dr. Abernathy,' a potentially cynical song, is sweet, in an oblique way" ("Lovestruck," 7/24/06).

Mendelssohn: Piano Trios Nos. 1 & 2

CML call number: CD/CLASSICAL/Mendelssohn
Allan Kozinn wrote in the New York Times: "The three superb musicians on this new recording, all in their 20's, face the hefty competition easily by playing with an irresistible spontaneity best heard in the scherzos, where — even in the more troubled C minor Trio (Op. 66) — they momentarily evoke the trim sprightliness of a much younger Mendelssohn. They approach these works as interior high dramas, contests between melancholy and ecstasy. And … they also play with an unassailable precision. Nor does this ensemble lack elegance. Julia Fischer's violin lines, though hard-driven in the outer movements, also convey warmth and shapeliness in the music's quietly intense passages: the almost prayerful slow movements, for example, or parts of the C minor Trio's finale. Daniel Müller-Schott's cello playing matches those extremes and adds an engaging lugubriousness when Mendelssohn seems to invite it, as in the opening bars of the D minor Trio. And Jonathan Gilad's piano, woven beautifully into the texture, has a bright sparkle of a sort that other recordings of these works don't quite match" ("Classical CD Reviews," 7/23/06).

Sonic Youth: Rather Ripped

CML call number: CD/ROCK/Sonic Youth
Ben Ratliff wrote in the New York Times: "Everyone has a different idea of what Sonic Youth's best record is because none are in any way perfect; they all contain various failures. But 'Rather Ripped' has a different level of authoritative power. It is a fully legitimate, clear and strong rock 'n' roll record in the band's own style. And it may really be the best one, though one fears that saying it out loud means the band's work is done" ("Critic's Choice: New CD's," 6/12/06).
Josh Tyrangiel wrote in Time: "For almost three decades, no one has exuded so much cool and produced so few melodies as Sonic Youth. It's not that these New Yorkers are incapable — they're just obstreperous, which makes the arrival of their first great rock album such a shock. … [O]n songs like Reena and the sublime Jams Runs Free, the noise takes a backseat to focused songcraft and real, live hummable riffs. To top it off, Kim Gordon has emerged from her decade-long Nico-soundalike contest and is enunciating again. Calling it a career best would only make them angry, so let's just say it's really good" ("6 Summer Albums to Play Nice and Loud," 7/3/06, p. 92).

Mozart: Sonatas for Piano & Violin

CML call number: CD/CLASSICAL/Mozart
Contents: Sonata for piano and violin in F major K377, Sonata for piano and violin in C major K303, Sonata for piano and violin in E minor K304, Sonata for piano and violin in A major K526.
Russell Platt wrote in the New Yorker: "[W]ith the composer's two-hundred-and-fiftieth birthday approaching, it's no wonder that new disks are filling the stores. … But the first crop of releases includes something of a surprise: three world-renowned musicians have recorded Mozart's violin sonatas. … One of the three — Mitsuko Uchida — is a pianist, which reminds us that these works have been traditionally known as 'Sonatas for Piano and Violin.' She has recorded four of them on Philips with Mark Steinberg, the first violinist of the Brentano String Quartet, and the cover photograph shows Steinberg standing several paces behind his famous colleague. But there is real dialogue here, and a shared sensibility. Since Uchida produces her glowing sounds on a modern Steinway, volume and accents are smoothed away from the extremes, leaving Steinberg to inject some vivid colors and risky phrasings" ("Classical Notes: Mozart for Christmas," 11/28/05).

Johnny Cash: American V: A Hundred Highways

CML call number: CD/COUNTRY/Cash
Jon Pareles wrote in the New York Times: "'American V: A Hundred Highways' … draws on the last sessions Cash recorded. He worked intermittently from 2002; through the death of his wife, June, in May 2003; until shortly before his own death on Sept. 12, 2003. … The bitterness that surfaced on 'American IV: The Man Comes Around' … has been replaced … by resignation and a sense of release. The album begins with a prayer, Larry Gatlin's 'Help Me,' and ends with 'I'm Free from the Chain Gang Now,' free presumably after death. At first Cash had intended to make a gospel album, but 'American V' mixes the reverent and the secular. There are love songs that also grieve, and there are songs about moving on, whether from a romance or an earthly existence. He makes a quiet masterpiece out of Bruce Springsteen's 'Further On (Up the Road),' turning it into a portent of resurrection. … The music isn't afraid to call for tears, but it does so through understatement. Cash's voice is always exposed, whether it's full-toned or faltering, and most of the tracks are folky and reverent, placing measured finger-picking above churchy chords."

Mozart: Piano Sonata in A minor, K. 310, and other works

CML call number: CD/CLASSICAL/Mozart
Performer: Richard Goode.
Contents: Sonata in A minor, K. 310; March in C major, K. 408; Courante in E-flat major, K. 399; Gigue in G major, K. 574; Rondo in A minor, K. 511; Sonata in F major, K. 533/494.
Marcia Davenport wrote in her biography Mozart (780.92/Mozart): "[H]ad [Mozart's beloved Aloysia Weber] not cast [the 22-year-old] Wolfgang aside? Thus the whole miserable round of speculation and indecision was begun again. Where should he go? To whom should he fly? He writhed at the thought of Salzburg. He was in fact emotionally tired. His mind was misty and uncertain — he had never been this way before and he did not understand it. Now already five weeks had gone by [since his mother's death] and he was still quartered with [his host in Paris, Baron] Grimm, waiting only to be paid for five piano sonatas, which were in the hands of the engraver, among them the heartrending, youthfully tragic A minor (K. 310)" (pp. 128-129).