The Frames: The Cost

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Greg Mitchell wrote in his blog Pressing Issues: "David Carr at his always entertaining Carpetbagger blog at The New York Times tells us that the song from the wonderful indie film 'Once' that is up for an Oscar may be ruled ineligible. A big meeting about it on Monday. He doesn't know why there is a dispute. Well, here's the likely cause: The song, 'Falling Slowly,' appeared on two albums before the movie came out … but the question is, was it written for the movie specifically and then ended up on the CDs as the film made its slow way to release? It appears on two excellent 2006-2007 CDs by the co-writer and male star in the film, Glen Hansard: One is from his band, The Frames, called The Cost, and the other is the duet album he made with his co-star in the flick, Marketa Irglova, The Swell Season. … Update: A commenter at Carr's blog writes that 'Falling Slowly' was previously featured in a Czech movie called 'Kráska v nesnázích' released in September 2006 in the Czech Republic. He includes a YouTube link to the trailer which includes the tune" (1/27/08). P.S. "Falling Slowly" won the Oscar for best song.

Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos 2 & 5; Franck: Symphonic Variations

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Bernard Holland wrote in the New York Times: "It is hard to lose an important Romantic work for piano and orchestra, but the music business has done a pretty good job with Franck's 'Symphonic Variations.' With its sinuous, sighing half-step movement and splendid piano writing, this 15-minute piece ought to attract as much attention as Franck's Sonata for Violin and Piano and D minor Symphony. … Decca had the nice idea of placing Franck with the Second and Fifth Piano Concertos of his contemporary Saint-Saëns. No one seems better fitted these days to take on this kind of repertory than Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and he plays here with the equally suitable Charles Dutoit conducting the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Next to Franck's dark, gothic moods the two concertos here glide by handsomely. Saint-Saëns, probably the most disarming child prodigy since Mozart, knew everything there was to know about writing and playing music, and knew it at an early age. Berlioz, on encountering the young genius, said that he 'suffered from lack of inexperience.' … This is a valuable recording" ("Classical Recordings," 1/13/08).

Give Us Your Poor: Help End Homelessness

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Contents: Land of 10,000 homeless—Minnesota (audio documentary set to music) (4:00) — Show me the way (Jon Bon Jovi & Mighty Sam McClain) (3:38) — Baby don't let me go homeless (Keb' Mo' & Eagle Park Slim) (3:12) — There is no good reason (Natalie Merchant & Friends) (4:43) — Hobo's lullaby (Bruce Springsteen & Pete Seeger) (5:11) — So lonely (Sonya Kitchell) (5:38) — Becky's tune (Michelle Shocked & Michael Sullivan) (3:42) — Walking the dog (Bonnie Raitt & Weepin' Willie Robinson) (3:47) — My name is not "these people" (spoken, with music) (Danny Glover) (3:22) — I think it's going to rain today (Madeleine Peyroux) (3:43) — Portable man (Del Goldfarb & John Sebastian) (2:51) — Boll weevil (Dan Zanes & Kyla Middleton) (4:06) — Ink falling (father outside) (Buffalo Tom) (3:52) — Stranger blues (Sweet Honey in the Rock) (5:24) — 1,000 miles away (Jewel) (3:47) — Impossible boulevard (spoken, with music) (Tim Robbins) (4:35) — Feels like home (Mario Frangoulis) (4:31) — When we left Minneapolis (spoken, with music) (Danny Glover) (1:08) — Here and now (Mark Erelli) (3:27).

The Mars Volta: The Bedlam in Goliath

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Brian LaRue wrote in the New Haven Advocate: "The Mars Volta's … catalogue at this point sounds like a continued exercise in seeing what they can get away with. That's not a dig. Their early work sounded like a spasmodic reaction to guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez' and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala's liberation from the genre and compositional strictures of At the Drive In, their now-legendary old post-hardcore band. But with each progressive (pun intended) album, they've thrown new challenges at their listeners (not to mention at themselves) while more clearly defining their sound. Three albums of tight-jeans wailing, freaky treated vocals, Magnetic Poetry-esque lyrics, spaced-out sound effects, schizoid song structures, 10-minute-plus tracks, woodly guitar solos, stuttering time signatures and bombastic pounding later, they're poised to release a new one, The Bedlam in Goliath, ostensibly a concept album (their third!) based on lust-and-murder stories dictated to the band by a Ouija-ish board that messed with the band's heads and gear. Got it? Great. Now try to hold on for the duration of the show" (1/10/08, p. 31).

The Hives: The Black and White Album

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Eric R. Danton wrote in his Hartford Courant blog Sound Check: "Few bands rival the Hives for outrageous hyperbole and deadpan declarations of self-regard. Fortunately, the Swedish garage-rockers mostly back up their insistent (and witty) claims to greatness. … [T]he Hives try faux-sleazy funk on 'T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S.' (one of two songs produced by Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes) and trippy organ on the instrumental 'A Stroll Through Hive Manor Corridors.' The lean two-note bass line and oddball electronic sounds on 'Giddy Up!' evoke Devo’s post-punk eccentricity, and slinky piano gives “Puppet on a String” a decadent cabaret feel. But the Hives’ best tunes are the ones that race pell-mell through churning guitar riffs and pounding drums while singer Almqvist hollers about, well, whatever. He gets apocalyptic over precision riffage on 'You Dress Up for Armageddon,' extols his own virtues on 'Try It Again' and twists words into a dizzying mess on 'Return the Favour' over three juiced-up punk chords that would have made the Ramones proud" ("CD Review," 11/12/07).

Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites; Six Orchestral Songs

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Grieg wrote this summary of Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, for which he wrote the incidental music that is the source of the two suites: "Peer Gynt, the only son of poor peasants, is drawn by the poet as a character of morbidly developed fancy and a prey to megalomania. In his youth he has many wild adventures — comes, for instance, to a peasants' wedding where he carries off the bride up to the mountain peaks. Here he leaves her to roam about with wild cowherd girls. He then enters the kingdom of the mountain king, whose daughter falls in love with him and dances to him. But he laughs at the dance and the droll music, whereupon the enraged mountain folk wish to kill him. But he succeeds in escaping and wanders to foreign countries, among others to Morocco, where he appears as a prophet and is greeted by Arab girls. After many wonderful guidings of Fate he at last returns as an old man, after suffering shipwreck on his way to his home as poor as he left it. Here the sweetheart of his youth … meets him, and his weary head at last finds rest in her lap" (quoted in Bagar and Biancolli, The Concert Companion, p. 303).

Mike Ladd: Nostalgialator

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Eric R. Danton wrote in his Hartford Courant blog Sound Check: "The Boston-born French transplant is part hyper-literate MC, part hyperkinetic studio wizard with an ear for booming psychedelic soul vamps and gritty electro-rock rave-ups on 'Nostalgialator' (Definitive Jux). It’s his most wide-ranging album, with busy songs packed full of blaring horns, guitars and synthesizers and, inevitably, beat after irresistible beat. Ladd gets revved up over zooming bass on 'Wild Out Day,' rides a scratchy, vintage-sounding guitar sample on 'Black Orientalist' and offers a spoken-word dissertation on the poetic allegory 'How Electricity Really Works.' It’s subtle and moving, almost as much as when Ladd chills all the way out with his subdued singing on 'Sail Away Ladies,' a cover of the traditional gospel song anchored here by a soulful Fender Rhodes sound. … 'Nostalgialator' may spring from the past, but it’s the sound of the looming future" (1/16/08).
N.B. Mike Ladd is the son of Florence Ladd, author of the novel Sarah's Psalm.

Dinosaur Jr.: Beyond

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Eric R. Danton wrote in his Hartford Courant blog Sound Check: "It's a noble partnership: Toyota and Urban Outfitters are collaborating on 'Free Yr Radio,' a venture supporting non-commercial radio. Part of this endeavor is to include in-store performances by indie-rock bands at various Urban Outfitters locations: The Ponys in Lawrence, Kan.; Voxtrot in Houston; The Long Winters in Seattle; Annuals in Raleigh, NC; The Rapture in Philadelphia; Rogue Wave in Santa Cruz, Calif.; Tapes 'n Tapes in Minneapolis and Dinosaur Jr in Boston. Dinosaur Jr! I love the idea of them playing an Urban Outfitters, sending patrons scurrying like startled mice through the racks of faux-vintage clothing in a futile attempt to escape the trio's skull-shattering volume. Unless the band plays an acoustic set (heresy!), Dinosaur Jr will be audible all the way down Newbury Street. Bring earplugs. (The band's excellent new album, 'Beyond,' comes out May 1 on Fat Possum. …) New Haven's Urban Outfitters store is on the list, too, though the date and band have not yet been announced" ("Indie Bands Invade Urban Outfitters," 4/12/07).

Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti

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Stephen Davis wrote in Hammer of the Gods: "Recording for Led Zeppelin's sixth album had begun back in November 1973, at Headley Grange with the mobile studio owned by Ronnie Lane, the former bass player of the Faces. But John Paul Jones had become ill, and the sessions were postponed until early the next year. … The sessions resumed in February 1974, again with Ronnie Lane's mobile. … Led Zeppelin was hot, and the new songs came quickly, drawing on the usual, traditional sources. 'Custard Pie' was Led Zeppelin's second raid on Bukka White's 'Shake 'Em on Down,' with chainsaw guitar, wailing harp and an ambience of unrepentant raunch that was as fresh as new dung. 'In My Time of Dying' was an old spiritual that had been revived by Bob Dylan years before. Jimmy [Page] covered it with his weird, ectoplasmic slide guitar before blasting in hard, up-tempo Zeppelin rock. The track ended with Robert calling on Jesus (an anomaly in a Zeppelin recording) and dissolving into a comic coughing fit. … [I]t would be another year before Led Zeppelin's double album would actually be released" (pp. 233-235).

Cat Power: Jukebox

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Contents: New York (F. Ebb/ J. Kander) — Ramblin' (wo)man (Hank Williams) — Metal heart (Chan Marshall) — Silver stallion (L. Clayton) — Aretha, sing one for me (J. Harris/ E. William) — Lost someone (James Brown/ B. Byrd/ L. Stallworth) — Lord, help the poor & needy (traditional) — I believe in you (Bob Dylan) — Song to Bobby (Marshall) — Don't explain (A. Herzog, Jr./ Billie Holiday) — Woman left lonely (S. Oldham/ D. Penn) — Blue (Joni Mitchell).
Wired wrote: "It's easy to sing somebody else's song — but near impossible to do it well (Exhibit A: every karaoke bar from Topeka to Tokyo). Which is why we love Cat Power's stripped-down take on classics like 'New York, New York.' For fans of the soulful singer's The Covers Record, this is a welcome return to the form, with 10 bluesy reimaginings of tunes by James Brown, Billie Holiday, and Bob Dylan, plus a redo of her own 'Metal Heart' and the set's only new original, 'Song to Bobby.' True, there's a long tradition of covering Dylan songs. But few have ever sounded this good" ("Playlist: What's Wired This Month," 1/08, p. 79).

Wolfmother: Wolfmother

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Eric R. Danton wrote in his Hartford Courant blog Sound Check: "Hard rock has evolved over the years into heavy metal and its various sub-categories, but sometimes you can’t improve on a classic sound. That seems to be the guiding tenet of Australia’s Wolfmother, a shaggy trio that plays in the vein of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin like it’s 1970 all over again. Any band that echoes the sludgy sound of Sabbath is a natural fit in metal-crazy Connecticut, and Wolfmother finally made its local debut Saturday night at a packed Webster Theatre. The group thundered through more than an hour of lean, rugged rock that had fists pumping and air guitars, er, strummed. The tunes were epic, blending savage riffing with vivid lyrics about vintage-metal topics: mythical creatures, mystical messages and magical women. Singer Andrew Stockdale blended all three on 'White Unicorn,' howling out lyrics in a piercing tone reminiscent of Ozzy Osbourne’s prophet-in-the-wilderness cry. Strapping on a white double-neck guitar, Stockdale played dreamy Zeppelin-esque chords. …" ("Wolfmother at the Webster Theatre," 4/29/07).

Hot Chip: Made in the Dark

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Contents: Out at the pictures ("For J. D. Wetherspoon"; recorded by Jonathan Digby; live intro recorded by James Shaw in June 2007; saxophone by Emma Smith) — Shake a fist ("For Lindsay Pollock"; featuring samples from "Intro" by Todd Rundgren) — Ready for the floor — Bendable poseable — We're looking for a lot of love ("For Black Dice") — Touch too much — Made in the dark — One pure thought ("For Jonathan Digby"; recorded by Jonathan Digby) — Hold on (recorded by Jonathan Digby) — Wrestlers ("For James Murphy, Justin Showah and Jim Dickinson") — Don't dance — Whistle for Will ("For Ezra Jack Keats, and Will") — In the privacy of our love. All songs written and recorded by Hot Chip except as noted.
Steven Leckart wrote in Wired: "Since its 2006 breakout album The Warning, this Casio-pounding UK quintet has been perfecting its electro-funk by remixing everyone from Amy Winehouse to the Gorillaz. Their third LP builds on that rump-shaking rep, with a few slow jams to woo your valentine" ("Play: Music," 2/08, p. 71).

Jonny Greenwood: There Will Be Blood

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Personnel: Martin Burgess, violin; Caroline Dale, cello; Michael Dussek, piano; Emperor Quartet; BBC Concert Orchestra; Robert Ziegler, conductor.
Josh Tyrangiel wrote in Time: "The THERE WILL BE BLOOD sound track is sweet like barbed wire.* (Technically it's a score, though as composed by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, it feels more like a bunch of individual avant-garde tracks than your typical James Horner schmaltzfest.) But with its charged strings and melodies emerging out of chaos, it too becomes entwined with the film's disposition. [The album is] a reminder that listening to the movies can be just as thrilling as seeing them" ("60-Second Synopsis: Movie Music to My Ears," 1/21/08).
*Coincidentally, according to a very interesting book I am reading right now, Genius by Harold Bloom, A. Bartlett Giamatti used to say in conversation that Ralph Waldo Emerson was "as sweet as barbed wire," and it seems Giamatti also wrote this opinion down in his book The University and the Public Interest (1981).

Hilary Duff: Dignity

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Contents: Stranger — Dignity — With love — Danger — Gypsy woman — Never stop — No work, all play — Between you and me — Dreamer — Happy — Burned — Outside of you — I wish — Play with fire.
Executive producers: Hilary Duff and Andre Recke.
Chuck Arnold wrote in People: "While Britney, Lindsay and Paris have been poster girls for bad behavior, Hilary Duff has shown that it it possible to be a young pop starlet and maintain your dignity. She addresses her peers on the pulsating title tune of her new album: 'Where's your dignity?/ I think you lost it in the Hollywood Hills. … Can't buy respect but you can pick up that bill.' On the breezy 'No Work, All Play,' she has more words for Hollywood's party girls, singing, 'Life's not one big high.' But Duff herself is all about fun here, with '80s-inspired and electronica-infused dance tracks. When the bland bubblegum kicks in, though, you can't help but wish that she had a little more bad girl in her" ("Pop," 4/9/07).

Ryan Adams: Easy Tiger

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Contents: Goodnight rose — Two — Everybody knows — Halloween head — Oh my god, whatever, etc. — Tears of gold — The sun also sets — Off Broadway — Pearls on a string — Rip off — Two hearts — These girls — I taught myself how to grow old.
Andrew Kronfeld, in the Huffington Post, listed this album among the best of 2007 and wrote: "Let me start by saying that Ryan Adams is, for me, the best American songwriter of this generation, so everything I write is somewhat biased by this opinion. … I did think that the 2005-2006 trilogy of Cold Roses, Jacksonville City Nights and 29 were his weakest albums to date. Happily, Easy Tiger is a real return to form; it is not Ryan Adams doing country, Ryan doing a jam band thing or Ryan doing indie rock - it is just Ryan Adams being Ryan Adams, writing tight, emotional songs that hit you hard. Welcome back Ryan, we've missed you!"
The following albums were also on Mr. Kronfeld's list: The National, Boxer; LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver; Peter, Bjorn and John, Writer's Block; Bruce Springsteen, Magic.

The Byrds: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

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Christopher Arnott wrote in the New Haven Advocate: "The line-up: High Lonesome Plainsman, Freewheelin' Chris Bousquet with the Telephone Hour. East Coast Country sextet Mercy Meadows. … The repertoire: Bob Dylan's 'You Ain't Going Nowhere' and 'Nothing Was Delivered.' Gram Parsons' 'Hickory Wind' and 'One Hundred Years From Now.' Woody Guthrie's 'Pretty Boy Floyd.' Merle Haggard's 'Life in Prison.' Cindy Walker's 'Blue Canadian Rockies.' And the traditional folk tune 'I Am a Pilgrim.' All from The Byrds' 1968 country-rock milestone LP Sweetheart of the Rodeo. The album showed a depleted Byrds (following the defection of David Crosby and Michael Clarke) rallying behind new sounds and ideals (and the astonishing creativity of new member Gram Parsons), emerging with an uncompromised masterpiece. Masterminded by New Haven area Americana master Bousquet … Saturday's live local Sweetheart tribute shows the same collaborative community spirit that marked the Country Rock era. The show's a benefit for Elm City Cycling" ("Rodeo Ride," 11/29/07, p. 37).
Update, 2/14/08: Amoeba, a California record store and label, writes in to say that they are releasing a free Gram Parsons MP3 every two weeks. The link is here.

Domenico Scarlatti: 14 Keyboard Sonatas

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Anthony Tommasini wrote in the New York Times: "Anthony di Bonaventura … has just added a new release of Scarlatti sonatas to his distinguished discography of recordings. … As ever, Mr. di Bonaventura plays with pristine clarity, exquisite technique and impeccable musicianship. He has long had a special affinity for Scarlatti's single-movement sonatas. For this program of 14 works he has chosen some of the less familiar sonatas, like the capricious A flat (K. 127), an elusive piece that keeps shifting moods: by turns playful, episodic and curious. Mr. di Bonaventura vividly conveys the fanfares, hunting calls and Spanish-influenced dance rhythms that run through this music, as in the jocular Sonata in E (K. 216). And he elegantly articulates Scarlatti's intricate contrapuntal writing, which threads through boldly shifting modes and keys in these inventive pieces. The pensive and elegant Sonata in C minor (K. 302) comes across as a work of astounding nobility and harmonic ingenuity. This recording is worth the wait."
N.B. Recorded at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, home church of Clement Clarke Moore.