TV on the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain

CML call number: CD/ROCK/TV
Contents: I Was A Lover, Hours, Province, Playhouses, Wolf like Me, A Method, Let the Devil In, Dirtywhirl, Blues from Down Here, Tonight, Wash the Day.
Sean Cooper wrote in Wired: "'I’m obsessed with making anything audible into an instrument,' says David Andrew Sitek, producer and a member of TV on the Radio. On the Brooklyn group’s new album, Return to Cookie Mountain, he transformed everyday sounds into hip-thrusting ditties by running samples through an array of mikes and effects boxes, then bouncing the increasingly unrecognizable clips between tape reel and hard drive. And that was before the band signed a lucrative contract with Interscope. 'If we’d had the money earlier, we probably would have recorded under a waterfall with a live chimp orchestra,' Sitek says. A guy with such an eclectic track record – he’s also produced the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Liars, and even Massive Attack – must have a favorite piece of studio gear. 'My mouth,' he says. “I persuade people to try some pretty preposterous things'" ("High on Sound," 9/06, p. 48).

Cherish: Unappreciated

CML call number: CD/R&B/Cherish
Contents: That Boi, Do It To It (featuring Sean Paul of Youngbloodz, not to be confused with reggae artist Sean Paul), Chevy, Unappreciated, Taken, Stop Calling Me, Oooh, Chick Like Me (featuring Rasheeda), Whenever, Show and Tell, Fool 4 You, Moment in Time; plus videos: How to Snap ("from the Cherish DVD"), Do It To It. All songs written or co-written by some or all of the King sisters.
Ericka Sóuter wrote in People: "With Destiny's Child no more, the search is on for the next big R&B girl group. These four sisters — Farrah, Neosha, Felicia and Fallon King — boast the requisite sass, sex appeal and supple voices on an energetic debut. Highlights include 'Moment in Time,' on which their smooth harmonies bring to mind En Vogue, and the bumping hit 'Do It to It.'"
They undeniably have a catchy sound, and "Do It To It" really does bump.
The accomplished Jazze Pha is an executive producer of the album and producer of the tracks "That Boi," "Unappreciated," and "Stop Calling Me."

Haydn: Orlando Paladino

CML call number: CD/OPERA/Haydn
Bernard Holland wrote in the New York Times: "'Orlando Paladino' has wonderful music for an opera unknown to the great majority, as … a new Deutsche Harmonia Mundi recording from Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Concentus Musicus Wien re-emphasizes. … Haydn wrote for the voice as gracefully as anyone. Listen only to Angelica, the heroine of 'Orlando Paladino.' Character and mood are also movingly handled. Medoro, Angelica's beloved, wavers between courage in the face of danger and abject flight in a vivid set piece from Act I. Violence and shock are key ingredients here, and Haydn's orchestral interludes jump out at the listener. … 'Orlando Paladino' is a mixed salad of madness, mayhem and true love. Orlando, a figure taken from Ariosto's mammoth narrative of a century earlier, is mad (literally) for love of Angelica, much to the distress of Angelica and Medoro. Equally mad and violent is Rodomonte, spoiling for a fight with Orlando. … The sorceress Alcina orchestrates a magic cure for Orlando's erotic obsession. … The new recording is from a concert performance in Graz, Austria, last year" (7/30/06).

Nancy Wilson: Turned to Blue

CML call number: CD/JAZZ/Wilson
Contents: This Is All I Ask, Take Love Easy, Turned to Blue (featuring lyrics from the poem "My Life Has Turned to Blue" by Maya Angelou), Knitting Class, Be My Love (featuring Hubert Laws), Taking a Chance on Love, Just Once, These Golden Years, I Don't Remember Ever Growing Up, Old Folks, I'll Be Seeing You (featuring Billy Taylor).
V. R. Peterson wrote in People: "Wilson, 2004's Grammy winner for best jazz vocal album, takes her song lyrics personally, infusing them with fresh meaning while extracting ever-surprising emotions. That skill delights throughout this fine set, on which Wilson is surrounded by big-band arrangements, reflective sextets and guest soloists including flautist Hubert Laws. She cruises through Ellington's 'Take Love Easy' but flares dramatically on pop covers like 'Just Once.' The originals also impress: The title cut makes a Maya Angelou poem a percussive lament, and 'Knitting Class' needles with attitude: 'I'll be fine without you/ Life is not about you'" (8/28/06).

Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 3 and 14

CML call number: CD/CLASSICAL/Shostakovich
Anne Midgette wrote in the New York Times: "The pairing of the Symphonies Nos. 3 and 14 traces a biographical arc. … The Bavarian Radio Symphony is a deluxe ensemble for a tough assignment. In the Third, a pretty paean to the First of May, Shostakovich toed the Soviet party line in an intellectual exercise: writing a piece based on the finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony without repeating a phrase. Although it conveys a sense of both forward propulsion and superficiality, [conductor Mariss] Jansons and the fabulous Bavarian Radio Chorus find beauty and a kind of majesty in an idiom that Shostakovich, in his later works, more often shaded toward bluster. The Symphony No. 14, by contrast, is an emotional center of Shostakovich's output, a chamber orchestra setting of poems about death by Rilke, Apollinaire, Lorca and Küchelbecker. Larissa Gogolewskaja and Sergei Aleksashkin, stars of the Kirov Opera, bring a markedly Russian vocal thickness to deeply felt readings that are not always pleasing but well worthy of respect. And Mr. Jansons leads the rich strings of the orchestra to create vividness without pathos."

John Pizzarelli: Dear Mr. Sinatra

CML call number: CD/JAZZ/Pizzarelli
Contents: Ring-a-Ding-Ding; You Make Me Feel So Young; How About You?; If I Had You; Witchcraft; I've Got You Under My Skin; Nice 'n' Easy; Medley: I See Your Face Before Me / In the Wee Small Hours (of the Morning); Can't We Be Friends?; Yes Sir, That's My Baby; Last Dance.
According to his website: "Born on April 6, 1960, in Paterson, New Jersey, Pizzarelli has been playing guitar since age six, following in the tradition of his father, guitar legend Bucky Pizzarelli."
Christopher Porterfield wrote in Time: "Yet another Frank Sinatra tribute? Yes, but on this one, singer-guitarist Pizzarelli makes no attempt to evoke the master's sound or mannerisms. A good thing too, since his light, cool voice carries little of Sinatra's sensuality and swagger. Resourcefully backed by the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra (at times cut down to nifty combos), Pizzarelli is at his best in hip readings of the insouciant Yes Sir, That's My Baby, the wistful If I Had You and even the trademark Ring a Ding Ding" ("6 Jazz Singers Worth a Listen," 8/28/06).

Dukas: Piano Sonata in E flat minor; Decaux: Clairs de lune

CML call number: CD/CLASSICAL/Dukas
Vivien Schweitzer wrote in the New York Times: "The technical difficulty of the sonata, composed from 1898 to 1900, has been cited as a reason for its recent neglect. Yet this seems implausible, given the formidable techniques of contemporary pianists able to master difficult repertory staples like Beethoven's 'Hammerklavier' Sonata, to which Dukas's work has been compared. Dukas, not a talented pianist himself, defiantly used Beethoven's classical sonata form while compatriots like Debussy were shunning the genre for so-called Impressionistic music. It is a challenge to sustain the momentum and preserve the structure of this vast, wandering sonata, which subtly echoes Schubert, Saint-Saëns and Franck. Mr. [Marc-André] Hamelin, who has recorded many works off the beaten track, succeeds. He balances the initial seething turbulence with quiet introspection. A breathtakingly lovely second movement precedes technical fireworks and reflective, harmonically colorful phrases in the third, before Mr. Hamelin propels the majestic finale to a virtuosic conclusion. … Mr. Hamelin's evocative playing renders [Decaux's 'Clairs de lune'] worthwhile."

Christina Aguilera: Back to Basics

CML call number: CD/POPULAR/Aguilera
Kelefa Sanneh wrote in the New York Times: "Much of the first 'Back to Basics' disc was produced by DJ Premier, a pioneering hip-hop producer; his barebones staccato beats give [Aguilera] plenty of room to ululate. His productions include 'Ain't No Other Man,' the album's glorious, mile-a-minute hit single, which proves once again that no one can roar like Ms. Aguilera. Her decision to work with the low-key Premier was also a decision to snub some of the big-name producers on whom pop stars often rely. In one song she rails against a big-name producer who is also a former collaborator, Scott Storch, taunting, 'Looks like I didn't need you'" (8/17/06).
Sasha Frere-Jones wrote in the New Yorker: "Aguilera's second album, 'Stripped,' contained several tracks written with Linda Perry … now one of pop music's reliable hired guns. … On 'Stripped,' Perry's most significant contribution was 'Beautiful,' a barn burner for everyone who has ever felt less than cute on a Friday night. … 'Back to Basics' maintains the plucky spirit of 'Stripped,' and the songs on the second disk were co-written with and produced by Perry."

Concerto Köln/Sarband: The Waltz: Ecstasy and Mysticism

CML call number: CD/CLASSICAL/Concerto
Contents: Mozart: Sechs Deutsche Tänze K. 571; Dede Efendi: Three Semais & excerpts from "Ferahfeza Mevlevi Ayin" (Ritual of the Whirling Mevlevi Dervishes); Lanner: Pesther-Wälzer, Die Osmanen; Abdi Efendi: Sevdim yine bir nev-civan; Beethoven: Zwölf Deutsche Tänze WoO 8 (excerpts); Cantemir: Three Semais; Johann Strauss, Sr.: Kettenbrücke-Wälzer.
Meline Toumani wrote in the New York Times: "The album showcases delightful waltz compositions by Turkish composer like the dervish chief Dede Efendi … alongside popular dances by Beethoven, Mozart and others" ("A Bridge of Sound across a Cultural Ravine," 8/6/06).
From the notes by Vladimir Ivanoff, founding director of Sarband: "[I]n the years around 1800 in particular … Turkish composers were influenced by European culture. … In contrast to the quick waltzes of Europe, the 3/4 metre tended to be transformed by Turkish composers into a slower tempo and thus provided the basis for reflective and even religious compositions. As part of the ritual of the whirling dervishes, the European waltz thereby gained entry into Muslim mysticism."

Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint: The River in Reverse

CML call number: CD/POPULAR/Costello
Contents: On Your Way Down; Nearer to You; Tears, Tears and More Tears; The Sharpest Thorn (Costello-Toussaint); Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?; The River in Reverse (Costello); Freedom for the Stallion; Broken Promise Land (Costello-Toussaint); Ascension Day (Costello-Byrd-Toussaint); International Echo (Costello-Toussaint); All These Things; Wonder Woman; Six-Fingered Man (Costello-Toussaint). All written by Toussaint except as indicated.
V. R. Peterson wrote in People: "Costello, the wry veteran of new wave, pop and classical, joins New Orleans piano man and R&B treasure Toussaint on a memorable disc full of irresistible grooves and social commentary (including the title tune, with its bracing Katrina references). Yet what truly resonates are the ballads of gospel-tinged angst backed by old-school harmonizing. When it comes to passionate pleas, Costello may not rival Otis Redding, but his efforts on the charming standout 'Nearer to You' can't be denied."
Toussaint is also featured on Our New Orleans 2005: A Benefit Album.

The OC Mix 5

CML call number: CD/SOUNDTRACKS/OC
Contents: Rock & Roll Queen / The Subways — Reason Is Treason / Kasabian — Wish I Was Dead Pt. 2 / Shout Out Louds — Daft Punk Is Playing at My House / LCD Soundsystem — Publish My Love / Rogue Wave — Forever Young / Youth Group — Requiem for O.M.M. / Of Montreal — Kids with Guns / Gorillaz — Na Na Na Na Naah / Kaiser Chiefs — Your Ex-Lover Is Dead / Stars — California 2005 / Phantom Planet — Hide and Seek / Imogen Heap.
Kelefa Sanneh wrote in the New York Times: "'[O]ne of the year's most sublime songs [is] 'Hide and Seek' by Imogen Heap. … The only sound is her voice, multitracked and digitally processed to create a rich humanoid chorus. 'Hide and Seek' first arrived in America on the soundtrack to the season finale of 'The O.C.,' and … appears on '"The O.C." Mix 5' … the program's latest spinoff compilation" ("Playlist: Reggae's Bootleg Respect and a Hit for the Text-Message Set," 11/20/05).
Sonia Zjawinski wrote in Wired: "Over the last three seasons, The OC, a weekly chronicle of teenage angst … has become an unlikely stop on the road to indie-rock superstardom."

Dixie Chicks: Taking the Long Way

CML call number: CD/COUNTRY/Dixie
Jon Pareles wrote in the New York Times: "'Taking the Long Way' … is the first Dixie Chicks album on which group members collaborated in writing all the songs. The first single, 'Not Ready to Make Nice,' declares, 'I'm not ready to back down/ I'm still mad as hell,' and starts with a tolling guitar more suitable for a Metallica dirge than a honky-tonk serenade. … [T]he album wraps gleaming California rock around its raw emotions. Although there's plenty of country in the music, 'Taking the Long Way' reaches not for the lucrative yet insular country airwaves but for an adult pop mainstream. … The album is a defiant autobiography of their career, and 'Not Ready to Make Nice' mentions the death threats after the Incident [i.e., lead singer Natalie Maines's disparaging onstage remark about George W. Bush in 2003]. But until it does, the song could be about the resentment following any breakup or betrayal. 'Lubbock or Leave It,' a fierce country-rocker, describes Ms. Maines's Texas hometown as a hypocritical 'fool's paradise' with 'more churches than trees.' … [T]he songs work as meticulous pop vows of loyalty and determination" (5/21/06).

Los Lonely Boys: Sacred

CML call number: CD/POPULAR/Lonely
Personnel: Henry Garza, vocals, electric & acoustic guitars, harmonica; JoJo Garza, vocals & bass guitar, piano; Ringo Garza, vocals & drums.
Contents: My Way, Orale, Diamonds, Oye Mamacita, I Never Met a Woman, Roses, Texican Style, One More Day, Memories, My Loneliness, Outlaws, Home, Living My Life.
Chris Strauss wrote in People: "Things are surely a little less lonely for this Tex-Mex trio now that they have Grammys (for their 2004 hit 'Heaven') to keep them company. On their second studio album, the brothers Garza up the ante with greater musicianship and confidence, even adding a horn section on the defiant anthem 'My Way' (no, not the Sinatra standard). While their self-titled debut traced a more direct line to their Mexican heritage, Sacred celebrates their Lone Star State roots on cuts like the excellent country kicker 'Outlaws,' featuring Willie Nelson and their Tejano musician dad, Enrique Garza Sr."
The guitar work on this album gets my attention and reminds me of Santana.

Keb' Mo': Peace … Back by Popular Demand

CML call number: CD/R&B/Keb'
Contents: For What It's Worth (S. Stills); Wake Up Everybody (G. McFadden, J. Whitehead, V. Carstarphen); People Got to Be Free (E. Brigati, F. Cavaliere); Talk (K. Moore, K. So); What's Happening Brother (M. Gaye, J. Nyx); The Times They Are A-Changin' (B. Dylan); Get Together (C. Powers); Someday We'll All Be Free (E. Howard, D. Hathaway); (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding (N. Lowe); Imagine (J. Lennon).
Artist website: http://www.kebmo.com/
According to the website: "Singer-songwriter and guitarist Keb' Mo's music is a living link to the seminal Delta blues that traveled up the Mississippi River and across the expanse of America — informing all of its musical roots — before evolving into a universally celebrated art form. Born Kevin Moore in South Los Angeles to parents originally from the deep South, he adopted his better known stage name when he was a young player who became inspired by the force of this essential African-American legacy. …"

Weill: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2; Lady in the Dark (Symphonic Nocturne)

CML call number: CD/CLASSICAL/Weill
Performers: Bournemouth Symphony, conducted by Marin Alsop.
Bernard Holland wrote in the New York Times: "The performances here are well organized, motivated and worth the trouble taken over them. The Second Symphony, from 1934, incorporates the captivating directness that makes Weill's stage pieces work. His unhurried, marchlike relentlessness is on display. The impression is of a wordless anthem in celebration of an unspoken cause. We hear Weill's momentum even when it is in hiding or undergoing subtle rhythmic transformation, as in the pervasive rhythmic tic of the slow movement. By rights, music by itself cannot invoke politics or any social cause. Why, then, do we hear this stirring and determined music and long to pick up a flag and march alongside? The First Symphony — sweaty, anxious and ambitious for bigness of sound and spirit — tells more about what Weill was in 1921 than about what he would become … A world and a lifetime away are the gentler curves and easygoing beauties of 'Lady in the Dark,' from 1940" ("Classical Recordings," 10/23/05).