Laura Veirs: Year of Meteors

CML call number: CD POPULAR Veirs
Jon Pareles wrote in the New York Times: "The elemental powers of nature course through Laura Veirs's songs on 'Year of Meteors' … Ms. Veirs … once studied to be a geologist. Now, like a latter-day Romantic poet, she maps her feelings across the landscape and the cosmos. There are ocean waves, lava flows and mudslides, and that's just in the album's first song; in the second, 'galaxies fall down my cheeks/ galaxies they flood the street.' Lyrics like that usually come with new-age pretension or prog-rock bombast, but there's none of that on the album. For Ms. Veirs, marvels and cataclysms are intimate, something to sing about with an acoustic guitar and a breathy familiarity that's almost matter-of-fact, even when she's imagining that 'furnaces burn everlasting black tattoos of you on me.' In this collection of enigmatic songs, romance and travel, psychology and geography are inseparable; each journey reflects inward. Her band, the Tortured Souls, can play breezy folk-pop (complete with viola) or distorted electric rock, and it often slips eerie electronic sounds into the mix" ("Critic's Choice: New CD's," 8/22/05).

Osvaldo Golijov: Ayre

CML call number: CD CLASSICAL Golijov
Alex Ross wrote in the New Yorker: "'Ayre,' a new song cycle by the Argentinean-born composer Osvaldo Golijov … is not only an ecstatically beautiful piece but also a radical and disorienting one. Many people, on first encountering its rasping sonorities, hurtling rhythms, and welters of lament, will be unsure whether they are listening to pop music or to classical music or to some folk ritual of indeterminate origin. However they answer, they will be right. Golijov … has woven his cycle from a skein of Arabic, Hebrew, Sardinian, and Sephardic material. He has enlisted the Argentinean rock producer, film composer, and guitarist Gustavo Santaolalla to give heft and color to the sound; this music jumps out of the speakers in a way that classical records seldom do. Dawn Upshaw, the soprano, delivers an electrifying performance in which she assumes a half-dozen vocal guises. Early in the record she makes a hairpin turn from a fragile, softly glowing Sephardic song entitled 'Una Madre Comió Asado' to a bloodcurdling Sardinian number entitled 'Tancas Serradas a Muru' — I had to double-check the credits to make sure that Upshaw was still the singer" (9/26/05).

Pernice Brothers: Live a Little

CML call number: CD ROCK Pernice
Personnel: Joe Pernice, Peyton Pinkerton, Bob Pernice, Patrick Berkery, James Wallbourne, Michael Deming.
Eric R. Danton wrote in his Hartford Courant blog Sound Check: "[Joe] Pernice's voice sounds much the same live as it does on his albums, which speaks to his ability, which is considerable and a joy to witness when he's on stage. His show Saturday at the Iron Horse was excellent, and all the music glitterati on the Northampton scene turned out to see the hometown boy made good. Pernice and the band played a bunch of tunes from the new album, 'Live a Little,' including a stripped-down version of 'PCH One' consisting mostly of Joe's voice and acoustic guitar, until the distinctive bass part finally burst in on the last chorus. Awesome. His singing voice also sounds nothing like his speaking voice, which is unprepossessing and dead-pan. He dedicated 'The Ballad of Bjorn Borg' to its namesake star, 'because Bjorn Borg is the most enigmatic figure is the world of sport'" (12/11/06).

Ciara: The Evolution

CML call number: CD R&B Ciara
Chuck Arnold wrote in People: "On her double-platinum debut, 2004's not-so-great Goodies, Ciara was all about doing the '1, 2 Step.' On this follow-up, the 21-year-old R&B star is more concerned with making artistic strides, and she displays significant growth on The Evolution. As a show of her newfound maturity and confidence, Ciara cowrote every song and even tapped a ballad as the first single: 'Promise,' with its grinding groove and '80s synths, sounds like the kind of sexy slow jam Prince might have written for Sheila E. back in the day. But like Janet Jackson before her, Ciara is a small-voiced singer who relies on big-time beats, the better to show off her fly dance moves. And there is no lack of choreographic inspiration from hot club tracks like the crunked-up 'That's Right,' which reunites her with 'Goodies' producer Lil Jon, and the irresistibly funky 'I Proceed,' one of several electro-infused cuts that will have you bringing your best steps to the floor" ("Picks & Pans: Music," 12/11/06, p. 47).
Includes a DVD with music videos for 2 tracks, plus Ciara teaching how to do the moves involved.

Theo Bleckmann: Las Vegas Rhapsody

CML call number: CD POPULAR Bleckmann
Contents: Las Vegas rhapsody (Prologue) (Yasuda / Bleckmann) -- Out of my dreams (Rodgers / Hammerstein) -- The night they invented champagne (Loewe / Lerner) -- Teacher's pet (Joe Lubin) -- True love (Cole Porter) -- You make me feel so young (Myrow / Gordon) -- Chim chim cheree (Sherman / Sherman) -- A gal in calico (Schwartz / Robin) -- You go to my head (Coots / Gillespie) -- Smoke gets in your eyes (Kern / Harbach) -- We kiss in a shadow (Rodgers / Hammerstein) -- Button up your overcoat (Brown / De Sylva / Henderson) -- I've got a gal in Kalamazoo (Warren / Gordon) -- Luck be a lady (Frank Loesser) -- My favorite things (Rodgers / Hammerstein) -- Las Vegas rhapsody (Epilogue) (Yasuda / Bleckmann).
New York magazine wrote: "Theo Bleckmann [vocals] and Fumio Yasuda [orchestration, piano]’s CD of standards reinforced Bleckmann’s fast-rising reputation" ("The Year in Classical & Dance*: Honorable Mentions," 12/18/06, p. 71).
*The number 1 item in this top ten list, Ainadamar by Osvaldo Golijov, is also in our collection.

Beyoncé: B'day

CML call number: CD R&B Beyoncé
Contents: Deja vu (featuring Jay-Z) -- Get me bodied -- Suga mama -- Upgrade u (featuring Jay-Z) -- Ring the alarm -- Kitty kat -- Freakum dress -- Green light -- Irreplaceable -- Resentment -- Bonus track: Check on it (featuring Bun B and Slim Thug) -- Encore for the fans [i.e., Listen, from the motion picture Dreamgirls, and other material].
Artist website: http://beyonceonline.com/
New York magazine wrote in their "Best in Pop" list for 2006: "Beset by nasty rumors about her relationship and her music, Beyoncé rushed into the studio and turned out B’Day, a furious document of a superstar asserting her independence" (12/18/06, p. 54).

Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

CML call number: CD ROCK Case
Contents: Margaret vs. Pauline -- Star witness -- Hold on, hold on -- A widow's toast -- That teenage feeling -- Fox confessor brings the flood -- John saw that number -- Dirty knife -- Lion's jaws -- Maybe sparrow -- At last -- The needle has landed.
Eric R. Danton placed this album at #2 on his list of most-listened-to CDs for 2006, and wrote: "Eastern European folk imagery and tremulous guitars prove a potent mix as Case sings in a voice that all but stops time. Her songwriting reaches new heights on this collection of noir-ish Americana tunes, and some of her vocal harmonies are downright shattering" (12/28/06).
Other CDs on Eric Danton's list to be found in our collection: #1, The Hold Steady, Boys and Girls in America; #5, Cat Power, The Greatest; #7, Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not; #8, Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere; #9, Art Brut, Bang Bang Rock & Roll; #10, The Flaming Lips, At War with the Mystics; honorable mention: Scritti Politti, White Bread Black Beer; Neil Young, Living with War.

Wagner: Das Rheingold

CML call number: CD OPERA Wagner
Anthony Tommasini wrote in the New York Times: "It turns out that the landmark account of Wagner's 'Ring' with Georg Solti conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, begun in 1958, was not the first stereo version. Before that some enterprising Decca engineers attended the Bayreuth Festival in Germany in 1955 and recorded the 'Ring' live, in stereo, with the great German conductor Joseph Keilberth. Testament has been releasing the operas one at a time, first 'Siegfried,' then 'Die Walküre' and now 'Das Rheingold.' The casts are incomparable, with Hans Hotter, in his prime, as Wotan. … But Mr. Keilberth's organic conducting is the revelation" ("Buying Classical CDs in a Post-Tower-Records World," 12/28/06).
Charles Osborne wrote in Wagner and His World: "Whether The Ring is successful as theatre or as music-drama is debatable. What is beyond question is that it provides the listener with a great musical experience, and one that in some mysterious way transcends the art of music alone to become almost a spiritual or psychical experience" (p. 101).

Mission of Burma: The Obliterati

CML call number: CD ROCK Mission
Personnel: Peter Prescott, Roger Miller, Clint Conley, Bob Weston; with assisting musicians.
Contents: 2wice -- Spider's web -- Donna Sumeria -- Let yourself go -- 1001 pleasant dreams -- Good, not great -- 13 -- Man in decline -- Careening with conviction -- Birthday -- The mute speaks out -- Is this where? -- Period -- Nancy Reagan's head. Bonus DVD: Live at Tsongas Arena December 2, 2004.
Greg Kot placed this album at #3 in his Chicago Tribune best of 2006 list, and wrote: "The best second act in rock history continues. During their first lifetime (1979-83), Clint Conley, Roger Miller and Peter Prescott helped define post-punk. Now they're back, and their third album is a near-perfect marriage of big noise and even bigger melodies waging a thrilling turf battle."
Other albums on Greg Kot's list: #1, TV on the Radio, Return to Cookie Mountain; #4, Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat; #7, Art Brut, Bang Bang Rock & Roll; #17, Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere.

Leif Ove Andsnes: Horizons

CML call number: CD CLASSICAL Andsnes
Anthony Tommasini wrote in the New York Times: "[G]ive the pianist Leif Ove Andsnes enormous credit for having come up with a truly fresh and exquisitely played album of short works for his latest EMI recording. From the first item, an étude from a collection of 13 piano pieces by Sibelius, this program is filled with surprises. Who knew that this brooding Finnish symphonist had written études, especially a bouncy piece like this? Yet the music is tinged with minor-mode wistfulness, which Mr. Andsnes conveys in a fleet and nimble performance. On the next track he offers two impromptus by Scriabin that again confound expectations. These are lilting Chopinesque works, played with lyricism and impetuosity. … He offers chestnuts too, including Liszt's 'Liebestraum' No. 3 and even Debussy's 'Clair de Lune,' played so lovingly that they sound rediscovered. Still, many of the selections (22 in all) will be unfamiliar discoveries for most listeners: an Albéniz tango, a tumultuous concert étude by Smetana, a pulsating toccata by George Antheil; delightful pieces by Ibert, Cyril Scott and Federico Mompou. …" (11/19/06).

Sam Moore: Overnight Sensational

CML call number: CD R&B Moore
J. Freedom du Lac wrote in the Washington Post: "[Sam Moore's] legacy as the lead half of the great Southern soul duo Sam and Dave can … be a touchy subject. Especially now that Moore, at the age of 71, is trying to shake the shadows of his own history with a new album, 'Overnight Sensational,' his first solo recording since 1972. … Sam and Dave's incendiary performances were the stuff of legend back then, all explosive energy and showstopping antics, which usually included the singers dropping to their knees, maybe during 'When Something Is Wrong With My Baby,' or 'Hold On, I'm Comin',' or 'Soul Man.' They'd roll on the floor in their sharp suits. … 'Overnight Sensational' features more than 20 guests doing a dozen covers with Moore: 'Better to Have and Not Need' with Bruce Springsteen, 'Lookin' for a Love' with Jon Bon Jovi, 'Blame It on the Rain' (yes, the Milli Vanilli song) with the American Idol Fantasia, 'It's Only Make Believe' with Vince Gill and Mariah Carey. The album's showpiece is a remake of 'You Are So Beautiful' featuring Eric Clapton, Robert Randolph, Zucchero and the late Billy Preston."

Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem

CML call number: CD CLASSICAL Brahms
Bernard Holland wrote in the New York Times: "Brahms's 'German Requiem' could just as well have added the words 'North' or 'Protestant' to its title. Roman Catholic ritual is abandoned, as are Latin texts; indeed, Brahms chose the German words from the Bible himself. The King's College recording is from EMI, conducted by Stephen Cleobury, and please, no orchestra; we'll use duo-pianists instead. … [T]he arrangement is Brahms's own. … [T]he transcription works better than expected. Brahms's gray orchestral sound is not far removed from the monochromatic quality of the piano's lower registers. Tempos move unsentimentally, with the chorus's vibrato-free boy-treble timbre buoying up music that in the wrong hands can sink into the lugubrious. Orchestral pieces played on a piano do have forensic uses. With color altered, moving parts and construction methods are easier to hear, as with architecture (the Pompidou Center in Paris, for example) that wears its skeleton outside its skin. … Susan Gritton and Hanno Müller-Brachmann are the appealing soloists in the Brahms" ("How to Breathe Life into the Requiem," 12/17/06).

The Beatles: Love

CML call number: CD ROCK Beatles
Sasha Frere-Jones wrote in the New Yorker: "The Beatles, a pop combo from England, have a new album. … The producer Sir George Martin, working with his son, Giles, has revisited the original Beatles recordings to provide a soundtrack for the Cirque du Soleil act 'Love.' The Martins have created an eighty-minute Beatles mix tape using the well-known recordings, demo versions, and bits that were buried the first time around. (One significant benefit of 'Love' is that the Martins worked from original multitrack tapes, and the songs get their best digital sound to date.) In several instances, they have blended elements of two or three Beatles songs to make a new composition. … [T]he subtle tweaking of familiar songs is consistently smart and can sometimes be thrilling. … In one track, the drum pattern from 'Tomorrow Never Knows' (Ringo's finest moment) is threaded into George Harrison's 'Within You Without You' to create a radically remixed song, emphasizing the strings and voice while blending in reversed tapes. It is gorgeous and odd, kind of like something the Beatles would do" ("Pop Notes: And in the End," 12/11/2006, p. 24).

George Jones and Merle Haggard: Kickin' Out the Footlights … Again

CML call number: CD COUNTRY Jones
Contents: Footlights (duet; written by Haggard) -- The race is on (Haggard) -- The way I am (Jones) -- She thinks I still care (Haggard) -- All my friends are strangers (Jones) -- Things have gone to pieces (Haggard) -- I think I'll just stay here and drink (Jones; written by Haggard) -- Born with the blues (duet; written by Haggard) -- Sick, sober & sorry (duet) -- I always get lucky with you (Haggard) -- Sing me back home (Jones; written by Haggard/Owens) -- The window up above (Haggard) -- You take me for granted (Jones) -- Don't get around much anymore (duet).
Ralph Novak wrote in People: "You'd be hard-pressed to find a better country album than this collection featuring two still-vigorous old warriors singing each other's songs, both separately and together. So it's more than a little ironic that the best number here isn't a country tune but a jazz standard, Duke Ellington's perfect romantic lament 'Don't Get Around Much Anymore.' On this and other duets included on the disc, Haggard, 60, and Jones, 75, evoke the spirit of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin at their playful best" ("Picks & Pans: Music," 12/11/06, p. 49).

Art Ensemble of Chicago: Non-Cognitive Aspects of the City

CML call number: CD JAZZ Art
Contents: Disc 1. Song for my sister (Roscoe Mitchell) -- The morning mist (AEC) -- Song for Charles (Mitchell) -- On the mountain (AEC) -- Big red peaches (Mitchell) -- Odwalla (Mitchell) -- Disc 2. Erika (Mitchell) -- Malachi (Mitchell) -- The J song (Joseph Jarman) -- Red sand green water (AEC) -- Slow tenor and bass (Mitchell) -- Odwalla (Mitchell) . Recorded at Iridium Jazz Club, New York, NY, April 2nd & 3rd, 2004.
Personnel: Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Famoudou Don Moye, Corey Wilkes, Jaribu Shahid.
Artist website: http://www.artensembleofchicago.com/. See also http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Delta/8835/art.html
Troy Collins wrote at allaboutjazz.com: "The reinvigorated Ensemble recently enjoyed a week-long residency at New York's Iridium, where this live concert was expertly recorded. Basking in the glow of an enthusiastic crowd, the Ensemble plays in an unrestrained fashion, exploring four decades' worth of tunes that veer from esoteric to primal."

Sugarland: Enjoy the Ride

CML call number: CD COUNTRY Sugarland
Contents: Settlin' -- County line -- Want to -- Everyday America -- Happy ending -- These are the days -- One blue sky -- April showers -- Mean girls -- Stay -- Sugarland.
Chuck Arnold wrote in People: "Though they went from a trio to a duo — Kristen Hall departed after 2004's double-platinum debut Twice the Speed of Life — the country-pop sounds of Sugarland remain just as sweet on the crowd-pleasing Enjoy the Ride. With lead singer Jennifer Nettles still the driving voice of the group, and Kristian Bush still providing harmony and guitar/mandolin, the twosome carry on without missing a foot-stomping beat. Sugarland continues to connect with the heartland on songs like the small-town anthem 'Everyday America' and the nostalgic romp 'County Line.' On the defiant opener 'Settlin',' Nettles strikes a blow for the Everywoman: 'I ain't settlin'/ For just getting by/ I've had enough so-so/ For the rest of my life.' Meanwhile, the sentimental closer 'Sugarland' paints a place that is, more than anything, a state of mind" ("Picks & Pans: Music," 11/13/06, p. 45).

The A.V. Club

CML call number: CD POPULAR AV Club
Contents: Sweethearts at 17, Girl from Mars, Degrees of Grey, Lost My Head, Fall Down, Midnight Bus, Trouble Girls, Without You, Everybody Sees My Love, Don't Take That Part of Me, Crazy Circles; all songs written by The A.V. Club.
Personnel: Aaron Carr, Jens Guettel, Jon Moser.
Artist website: http://www.avclubmusic.com/
According to "A Letter from Aaron" on the website, "Having been a session musician with no songwriting experience, spite drove me to write my first batch of songs." The record "has songs about love, divorce ['Sweethearts at 17'], devotion, obsession, social alcoholism, secret lust, getting old, the romantic implications of public transit, and the destruction of an abstinence pledge at the hands of a girl in desperate need of a dye job ['Trouble Girls']."
The New Haven Advocate described this album as "fresh power pop" and included it in their round-up of "best-loved local CDs of 2006" ("Band of Locals," 11/23/06, p. 21).

Stefon Harris: African Tarantella

CML call number: CD JAZZ Harris
Siddhartha Mitter wrote in the Boston Globe: "'African Tarantella' is Harris’s attempt to express the dual European and African paternity of jazz — and with it, in some ways, of American culture itself. If that sounds abstract, have no fear. 'African Tarantella' … is wholly accessible, a beautiful program of movements from suites by Duke Ellington and Harris himself, interpreted on the album by a thoughtfully constructed ensemble that includes, among other instruments, viola, cello, trombone, and flute. For Harris, 33 … the top vibraphonist and one of the most original bandleaders of his generation, 'Tarantella' is a triumph of lyricism that marks … an arrival at a certain maturity. … [H]e calls his recent efforts a 'musical rebirth.' … 'A lot of people when we start, including myself, we want to start in the middle. … After Bird, you check out Trane, then Miles. … You memorize sounds and play them back as licks. But you don’t really understand how to make a melody. It wasn’t until I went back and started studying Louis Armstrong that I got a much greater understanding about how a line is put together. …" (11/24/06).