Shortbus

CML call number: CD SOUNDTRACKS Shortbus
Contents: Upside Down (Scott Matthew), If You Fall (Azure Ray), Wizard's Sleeve (Yo La Tengo), Winter's Love (Animal Collective), Surgery (Scott Matthew), Beautiful (Lee & LeBlanc), It's Not Safe (Gentleman Rag), Kids (John LaMonica), Language (Scott Matthew), Soda Shop (Jay Brannan), Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby (Anita O'Day), Kolla Kolla (The Ark), This House (Jasper James & the Jetset), This Piece of Poetry Is Meant to Do Harm (The Ark), Boys of Melody (The Hidden Cameras), Little Bird (Scott Matthew), In the End (Justin Bond & the Hungry March Band).
Toby Barlow wrote in the Huffington Post: "[T]he Short Bus Soundtrack … deserves to be mentioned 'cause it's so damn good. As far as soundtracks go, it reminds me of the collection in 'Something Wild' which held a lot of the same life-affirming joy. There's a Scott Matthew tune on it that sounds like great Bowie, there's a nice little Yo La Tengo tune, there's a fun debauched pop ditty by Jay Brannan, and a mess of other lovely, cool music. … [T]urn it up and pass the gravy."

Lindsey Buckingham: Under the Skin

CML call number: CD ROCK Buckingham
Contents: Not too late -- Show you how -- Under the skin -- I am waiting (by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards) -- It was you -- To try for the sun (by Donovan Leitch) -- Cast away dreams -- Shut us down (by Cory Sipper and Lindsey Buckingham) -- Down on Rodeo -- Someone's gotta change your mind -- Flying down Juniper. (All songs written by Lindsey Buckingham except as noted)
Artist website: http://www.lindseybuckingham.com/
Notable lyrics: From the song "Not Too Late" — "Reading the paper saw a review/ Said I was a visionary, but nobody knew/ Now that's been a problem/ feeling unseen/ Just like I'm living somebody's dream/ What am I doing anyway/ Telling myself it's not too late. …"
People wrote: "The Fleetwood Macster smoothly goes his own way on his first solo album since 1992, but gets a little help from bandmates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie on the country-style 'Down on Rodeo'" ("Picks & Pans: Quick Cuts," 11/20/06, p. 45).

Holst: The Planets; Matthews: Pluto; Asteroids

CML call number: CD CLASSICAL Holst
Steve Smith wrote in the New York Times: "The British composer Gustav Holst completed the work in 1916 … with a movement devoted to each of the seven planets then known, excluding Earth. … Another British composer, Colin Matthews, supplied … 'Pluto, the Renewer,' in 2000. … [Conductor Simon] Rattle's two-CD set, with the Berlin Philharmonic, draws particular attention to it, packaging it along with newly commissioned works, called 'Asteroids,' by four prominent contemporary composers. And the release came just in time for the deflating announcement by the International Astronomical Union that Pluto was being demoted to the status of dwarf planet. … Mr. Rattle makes the most persuasive case to date for … Mr. Matthews's 'Pluto.' … Kaija Saariaho's 'Asteroid 4179: Toutatis' magically conjures the unpredictable orbit of its celestial body. Matthias Pintscher's fragmented 'towards Osiris' and Mark-Anthony Turnage's propulsive 'Ceres' offer decidedly personal views of the cosmos. Brett Dean's expressive 'Komarov's Fall' [takes] as its subject … the Russian astronaut … who died during the re-entry of his Soyuz I spacecraft in 1967."

Gang of Four: Entertainment!

CML call number: CD ROCK Gang
Sasha Frere-Jones wrote in the New Yorker: "The nineteen-seventies English band Gang of Four comes up every few minutes these days because of the huge influence that its scratchy, skeletally funky rock has exerted on a recent crop of popular guitar bands: the Rapture, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, and the Futureheads, among others. Gang of Four's original members … recently reunited after more than twenty years to undertake a tour, during which they played in front of kids who have been ripping them off without ever having seen them in action. V2 will release newly recorded versions of their old songs in the fall, but all of this news is as dust next to the original document — their 1979 début, 'Entertainment!' (reissued by Rhino), one of the most efficient, articulate rock records ever made. After meeting in and around the University of Leeds, the four musicians decided to combine punk's raw energy with a loose take on Marxist self-critique. Their lyrics approached every social relationship as a potential exploitation: love affairs, marriages, jobs, friendships. … No other band has ever done anything like this" (6/27/05).

Sigur Rós: Takk …

CML call number: CD ROCK Sigur
Contents: Takk …, Glósóli, Hoppipolla, Med Blodnasir, Se Lest, Saeglópur, Milanó, Gong, Andvari, Svo Hljótt, Heysatan.
Jon J. Eilenberg wrote in Wired: "Discerning music fans deserve an antidote to disposable emo bands and bump-by-numbers pop. Sigur Rós dispenses a dose of neuron-tickling Elysium. The Icelandic quartet eschews rock's conventional verse-chorus-break structure for a minimalist, linear dynamic that ebbs and flows like an all-consuming train of thought. Takk features modulating piano lines and floaty keyboards — think Coldplay meets Pink Floyd, but without the former's saccharine pathos and the latter's tense bombast. Woven through it all is the singing of Jónsi Birgisson, who falsettos like some seraphic elf (those Icelanders do love elves). This is delicate, layered art that rewards the attentive listener with a euphoric aural experience" ("Play: Reviews: Music: It's a Beautiful Noise," 10/05).

Milton Nascimento: Pietà

CML call number: CD JAZZ Nascimento
Ben Ratliff wrote in the New York Times: "There's … a good new Milton Nascimento album … produced by Tom Capone [Brazilian pop producer, d. 2004]. 'Pietà' (Savoy Jazz), which actually came out three years ago in Brazil, is a kind of stylistic retrospective. Some songs recall Mr. Nascimento's spookily beautiful records of the early 1970's, mixing his painfully honest, wavering voice with Catholic Mass solemnity, advanced harmony and Beatlesesque melody hooks; others, with swelling, cinematic orchestral arrangements by Eumir Deodato, evoke the records he made for the American market in the late 1960's. A version of Herbie Hancock's 'Canteloupe Island' with Mr. Hancock on piano, Pat Metheny on guitar and Mr. Nascimento layering wordless vocals acknowledges his importance to jazz musicians. But the song 'Pietà,' full of Capone's fingerprints, is the most impressively original: it's essentially 12-string guitar, orchestra, tape loops and surdo drums, with Mr. Nascimento chanting lyrics that match the drum rhythm. Let's hope Capone had many apprentices" ("Playlist: A Saxophonist's Hard-Won, High-Cost Brilliance," 8/19/06).

Barry Manilow: The Greatest Songs of the Sixties

CML call number: CD POPULAR Manilow
Karen Schoemer wrote in New York: "The Greatest Songs of the Sixties … covers the Decade of Love with a fig leaf, eliminating war protests, mud baths, and brown acid from the picture. These were the sixties that besotted adults and sheltered children knew: a swaggering, bemused era of Rat Pack swingers, Bacharach candlelight, and 'Blue Velvet' before David Lynch got his twisted mitts on it. Released on October 31, Songs of the Sixties logged the biggest one-week sales total of Manilow’s career, with 202,000 units sold — the week before the Democrats retook Congress. I’m sorry, but somewhere out there these voting blocs overlap. In fact, I’m willing to gamble that Manilow fans are a much more liberal bunch than critics give them credit for. Think about it: They have a weakness for men in princess sleeves and spangles, they’re giving an indirect thumbs-up to Bette Midler (Barry was her pianist and arranger in the early seventies), and they’re willing to risk shame and derision for a cause they believe in. Try as I might, I just can’t see the guy as a threat to rock and roll’s integrity" ("Pop: A Man Much Maligned," 11/27/06).

Willie Nelson: Songbird

CML call number: CD COUNTRY Nelson
Eric R. Danton wrote in his Hartford Courant blog, Sound Check: "Apparently almost everyone has covered Leonard Cohen's song 'Hallelujah.' … Cohen's version is moving, with a sardonic and pointed edge, as he asks in his deep voice, 'But you don't really care for music, do ya?' [Jeff] Buckley's version is pleading and passionate, as if he's desperate to be heard. Now there's a third version worth adding to the ranks: Willie Nelson's cover, which appears on his new album 'Songbird.' Produced by Ryan Adams and featuring Adams' band, the Cardinals, 'Songbird' features a soul-searing alt-country tune called 'Stella Blue' and a spectacular new recording of Nelson's classic 'Sad Songs and Waltzes' that sounds like vintage Willie rescued from the vaults. It also features 'Hallelujah,' and Nelson's version offers a third way, between Cohen's and Buckley's. Willie's cover is subdued and earnest, and his vocals circle the beat, sometimes a step ahead, sometimes a touch behind, the way a jazzman bends a melody to his own purposes. Cohen's version is still my favorite, but I sure do love the way Nelson's voice handles those lyrics."

The Breakfast: Moxie Epoxy

CML call number: CD ROCK Breakfast
Brian LaRue wrote in the New Haven Advocate: "The long-running jam band busts out with a sprawling new disc — nine songs in 68 minutes. Damned if it doesn’t whiz right by, though. These guys cleverly integrate their jamming into songs in such a way that [a] listener might start out grooving on a midtempo pop-rocker, and next thing you know, the band has gone clear through a burbly funk-rock interlude and a noodly space-jam, and now guitarist Tim Palmieri is hammering on an anthemic melody set to a charging rock rhythm. These transitions are seamless, but would be self-indulgent without good songwriting. Fortunately, if this disc’s soul is the band’s chemistry and skill, its heart is the songs. At times the lyrics can be a bit silly — the love-interest-as-sweetened-condiment metaphor of 'Honey Butter,' the salute 'Here’s my ode to you with rock and roll' in 'The Late and the Great' — but they’re full of confident hooks and smart chord changes. The Breakfast could settle for dazzling with their chops, but choose to compose and arrange well, too, and deserve credit for that" ("Local CDs," 10/26/06, p. 28).

Matt Mays: Matt Mays + El Torpedo

CML call number: CD ROCK Mays
Contents: Stand Down at Sundown, Travellin', Cocaine Cowgirl, The Plan, Ain't So Heavy, Move Your Mind, What Are We Gonna Do Come the Month of September?, Good People, Lost Souls, It Don't Matter, On the Hood, Time of Your Life (Til You're Dead), Wicked Come Winter.
Eric R. Danton wrote in his Hartford Courant blog, Sound Check: "After someone tells me enough times how great something is, I can't help but adopt a contrarian position. This is especially true when publicists flog their bands — they're getting paid to say nice things, so how great can it really be? In the case of Matt Mays & El Torpedo, the answer is pretty darn great. Mailroom issues on one end or the other prevented me from hearing the record until today, but now that I've heard it, you were right, Publicist Carrie, it's worthwhile. It's loud rock 'n' roll with an alt-country vibe — think Bruce Springsteen jamming with the Jayhawks — so naturally it grabbed my attention. But the songwriting is sharp, the guitars nice and growly and there's just the right amount of world weariness" (10/13/06).

Simon Dawes: Carnivore

CML call number: CD ROCK Dawes
Personnel: Blake Mills, Stuart Johnson, Taylor Goldsmith, Wylie Gelber.
Contents: Save Your Ticket, The Awful Things, Salute the Institution, All Her Crooked Ways, Got a Light?, Lazy Daisy, Have a Heart, Maybe Not Today, Every Single Time, Behind the Bleachers, Be There Right Now, Execution Song; all songs by Taylor Goldsmith & Blake Mills.
Christopher Arnott wrote in the New Haven Advocate: "An instant indie sensation. This unassuming pop disk struck the Advocate offices like a windstorm and regularly is trotted out to lift our spirits. That’s because these Californian Britpop poseurs capture both the raw exhiliration and the world-weariness of classic Kinks and other righteous pop acts with the uncanny ability to unleash both introspective and extroverted rock emotions at once" ("CD Reviews," 10/26/06).
A very strong album, with attitude reminiscent of bands like Arctic Monkeys while the level of musical sophistication brought late-period Beatles to one listener's mind. The booklet art features stuffed animals from the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis, Roscoe Mitchell: Streaming

CML call number: CD JAZZ Abrams
Contents: Scrape, Bound, Dramaturns, Soundhear, Streaming; all by Abrams-Lewis-Mitchell.
Nate Chinen wrote in the New York Times: "Conceived and centered in Chicago but well represented in New York and elsewhere, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians has always encompassed a wider breadth of styles than its de facto flagship, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, could ever manage alone. 'Streaming,' a new album on Pi Recordings, documents a three-way conversation between the pianist Muhal Richard Abrams (the movement's patriarch), the multireedist Roscoe Mitchell (of Art Ensemble renown) and the trombonist George Lewis (of Columbia University tenure). Their interaction runs deep, even in the plentiful stretches of the album unattached to any tempo or key. There are jingling bells, creaky drones, birdlike twitters, roomy pauses; there are also moments of startling clarity. The full effect registers only when the album is experienced whole" ("Playlist: Vintage Jazz and Contemporary Keyboards," 10/15/06).