Passion Pit: Gossamer

"From their achingly hip EP 'Chunk of Change' to their 2010 follow-up 'Manners,' anticipation has been turbo-charged for another pitch-perfect, electro-pop album from Passion Pit. And their latest, 'Gossamer,' hits all the right notes. The band keeps exploring the themes of hipster life – intoxication, love lost and hopelessness sung in their beautiful, uncontrived manner. Opening track and first single 'Take A Walk' is a rousing festival anthem that you could easily imagine a beer-tinged audience chanting its chorus. 'I'll Be Alright' blasts with a weighty beat and 'Mirrored Sea' sounds like a definite dance-floor hit. Then there's the electro synth-heavy 'Cry Like a Ghost,' which muses on excessive drinking. Overall, the Massachusetts-based band has a created an album that is melodically upbeat and lyrically melancholy. And it works" (Sian Watson, "Passion Pit, 'Gossamer' Review," Huffington Post, 7/24/12).

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The Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet

"The Rolling Stones have turned 50. (As a collective entity, of course. The individual members are mostly basking in their late 60s and early 70s.) I don’t think it takes anything away from that feat of longevity — though it may annoy some fans — to suggest that the Stones were a truly great rock band for about one-fifth of that time, from 'Beggars Banquet' in 1968 to 'Some Girls' a decade later" (A. O. Scott, "Early Stones, Presented as Diamonds in the Rough," New York Times, 10/25/12).

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Rick Springfield: Songs for the End of the World

"1980s popster Rick Springfield is probably one of the last singers who comes to mind when you think of songs about apocalyptic upheaval. Yet on Oct. 9, Springfield — he of 'Jessie's Girl' and 'Don't Talk to Strangers' — released 'Songs for the End of the World.' Its subject matter is precisely that, with songs titles such as 'Wide Awake,' 'Our Ship's Sinking,' 'My Last Heartbeat' and 'Depravity.' But the new disc really isn't such a departure, says Springfield, who on Oct. 19 plays at Sands Bethlehem Event Center. Springfield's best known for more sugary songs such as his Grammy Award-winning 1981 song 'Jessie's Girl.' But he says his songwriting has been more weighty than perhaps it was perceived ..." (John J. Moser, "Rick Springfield says changes on new disc don't mean 'End of the World,'" Lehigh Valley Music, 10/14/12).

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Broken Bells (self-titled)

"Indie-rock duo Broken Bells are the fused talents of the multi-faceted Shins frontman/guitarist James Mercer and producer/songwriter Brian Burton, a.k.a. Danger Mouse of Gnarls Barkley and DangerDoom. Their live action is graced by Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band's Nate Walcott and Nik Freitas, with Hella ex-pats Jonathan Hischke and Dan Elkan rounding out the lineup. The Los Angeles-based outfit debuted in 2009, and launched their freshman full-length in 2010, a sophomore EP in 2011, along with a sprinkling of singles. Collective collaborations include Beck, Gorillaz and The Black Keys" (Phil Ramone and Danielle Evin, "Dog Ears Music," Huffington Post, 10/12/12).

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Dwight Yoakam: 3 Pears

"When he emerged in the ’80s, Dwight Yoakam seemed more a dividend of punk and second-wave rockabilly than a fully paid-up country singer; in the country business now, at 55, he’s considered a venerable elder, with plenty of Billboard country-chart hits behind him but still operating in a parallel universe. Throughout, he’s been consistent: not the mainstream of anything, but entirely credible. He’s too good to condescend to, or discard. '3 Pears,' his first album since 2007, isn’t any kind of categorical step away from his past work. It’s got hard shuffles, trebly guitars, steel-guitar solos, strong chorus hooks. It still locates some measure of cool within old obsessions: the late-’50s Bakersfield sound and the young Beatles. But the record draws closer to where he started: this music is entirely referential, but doesn’t want to be contained. It’s got some freelance cool, some autonomous energy. The easiest way to telegraph the heart of this record is that Beck, whose music always sounds as if it came out of a slight ironic distance, helped produce two of its songs, using some of his own band members. ... Mr. Yoakam produced the rest of the record himself, but there’s always something slightly unusual about each track, some proud difference, private enthusiasm or rusty hinge" (Ben Ratliff, "Albums From Pink, Dwight Yoakam and Aimee Mann," New York Times, 9/18/12).

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Bob Dylan: Tempest

"Tempest is the thirty-fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on September 10, 2012 by Columbia Records. Dylan wrote all of the songs himself with the exception of the track 'Duquesne Whistle', which he co-wrote with Robert Hunter. Tempest was very well received by contemporary music critics, who praised its traditional music influences and Dylan's dark lyrics. The album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200. ... In his review in Rolling Stone magazine, Will Hermes gave the album five out of five stars, calling it 'musically varied and full of curveballs' and 'the single darkest record in Dylan's catalog.' According to Hermes, the album draws upon elements common throughout Dylan's career—especially the last three albums—with music that is 'built from traditional forms and drawing on eternal themes: love, struggle, death.' Hermes continues: 'Lyrically, Dylan is at the top of his game, joking around, dropping wordplay and allegories that evade pat readings and quoting other folks' words like a freestyle rapper on fire'" (Wikipedia).

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Chico Hamilton: Revelation

"Chico's work is timeless. Part of the appeal lay in the fact that unlike some of the other great musicians/composers, he need not quote himself as point of reference to bring the audience along on his journey. Every album and performance has been part of the odyssey shared by both artist and audience, who always remain fully engaged; which is one of the keys to his continuing (artistic) vitality. For long time admirers of his work, these latest sessions, done to celebrate Chico's 90th birthday are akin to the familiar voice of an old friend who still has an abundance of interesting things to say. Here once again Chico records with his long time sextet Euphoria. As always, they do more than merely provide support, sharing some of the writing duties and creating the always compelling interplay which reiterates the extent that this ensemble, while having a definite leader in Chico, is also somewhat of an extended family and like all family are to be present at important birthday parties" (CD notes by Maxwell Chandler).

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Grizzly Bear: Shields

"If the Fox Theater in Oakland had a voice, it would sound like Grizzly Bear. Rich with intricacies like a palace: golden embellishments of finely detailed crown molding hanging tight to the solid foundation, shining tokens of craftwork, mirroring the layered vocal orchestration of the Brooklyn quintet. Visually, Grizzly Bear looked right at home; however, this was Grizzly's first time (forgive me) occupying Oakland. As the lights dimmed, the band graciously shuffled to their respective spots on stage and dove right in with new tracks from their critically acclaimed Shields" (Ryan Holmes, "Photos: Grizzly Bear at the Fox Theater in Oakland," Huffington Post, 10/12/12).

Update: Listened to Shields again 2/6/13, and I must say, there is a lot going on in this music.

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John Scofield: A Moment's Peace

"John Scofield (born December 26, 1951, Dayton, Ohio), often referred to as 'Sco', is an American jazz-rock guitarist and composer, who has played and collaborated with Miles Davis, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson, Charles Mingus, Joey Defrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Pat Martino, Mavis Staples, Phil Lesh, Billy Cobham, Medeski Martin & Wood, George Duke, Jaco Pastorius, John Mayer, and many other well-known artists. At ease in the bebop idiom, Scofield is also well versed in jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul, rock and other forms of modern American music. ... Early in his life, Scofield's family left Ohio and relocated to the small, then mostly rural location of Wilton, Connecticut; it was here that he discovered his interest in music ..." (Wikipedia).

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Cat Power: Sun

"On 'Sun,' her demons come out in the form of a constant attempt to solve some outstanding problem; the album feels less like a series of songs than like eleven different ways to reflect the same anxious human. 'Cherokee,' the opener, is one of the least tense songs on the record, yet its lyrics feature its darkest notes. 'If I die before my time, bury me upside down,' Marshall sings, in a silvery chorus of herself, as the beats pile up. From a distance, it sounds vaguely celebratory, almost blithe. In the verses, Marshall plays with that contrast, alternating the phrase 'I never knew pain like this' with 'I never knew love like this'; as she approaches the chorus, she does it again, singing, 'bury me, marry me to the sky.' Although the album doesn't deviate from the initial idea of an original wound and ways to heal it, the mood is never desperate or melodramatic. 'Sun' sounds like a document of something that's happened, rather than the report of someone's aching desire to address something undone" (Sasha Frere-Jones, "Light Show," New Yorker, 9/10/12).

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Beethoven: String Quartets Op. 59 No. 1 and Op. 130

"I could not possibly identify a favorite work of Beethoven, but nothing he wrote strikes me as more emblematic of his personality than the Cavatina from the Quartet Op. 130. In it, after several minutes of uninterrupted, always-yearning melody, the music begins to break down, and what was previously expressed unhindered, in the most open-hearted manner, now comes out in fits and starts, effortful and uncertain. This extraordinary passage is marked beklemmt, roughly translated as 'oppressed,' and many interpret this peculiar and entirely unprecedented direction as connoting sorrow, anguish. But the oppression I hear in this music is not anguish, but shortness of breath, the kind that comes from a heightened state of emotion -- in this case, tenderness gone out of control" (Jonathan Biss, "Beethoven's Shadow").

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Beethoven: Piano Sonata in E, Op. 109, and other works

"By the time one arrives at the end of the final movement of Op. 109 ... one knows the theme not merely in terms of its expressive possibilities, but as a living being, with desires and vulnerabilities which, this being Beethoven, have been not merely worked through, but wrestled to the ground. No one ever wrote more music between and behind the notes than Beethoven. ... [T]he fourth variation [is] for me the moment when this movement begins to become truly otherworldly. Until this point, each variation has been an increase in speed over the one before, and the theme, which has a solemnity to go with its beauty, gradually evolves into an almost lighthearted thing. The fourth variation not only stops this forward momentum, but it re-imagines the theme as a tapestry, woven by three voices, collectively spanning nearly the whole range of the piano. As these voices converse, creating between them a seamless, endless line, the material begins to take on both a new spaciousness and, paradoxically, an urgency; it opens up, and it cries out" (Jonathan Biss, "Beethoven's Shadow").

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Bill Frisell: All We Are Saying ...

"Mr. Frisell, the guitarist, applies his golden-hued, rustic-cosmopolitan vision to the songs of John Lennon on 'All We Are Saying…' (Savoy), his latest postcard from an elusive, idealized America. His band — Jenny Scheinman on violin, Greg Leisz on guitars, Tony Scherr on bass and Kenny Wollesen on drums — brings as much sensitivity to the anthems as the love songs, and no less twang" (Nate Chinen, "Jazz Listings," New York Times, 7/26/12).

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More Best of Leonard Cohen

"More Best of Leonard Cohen is a collection of Leonard Cohen songs released in 1997. Tracks are drawn from albums I'm Your Man (1988) and The Future (1993), as well as the live album Cohen Live (1994). The collection features two unique tracks: 'Never Any Good' (recorded 1995 in Los Angeles) and 'The Great Event'" (Wikipedia).

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Jimmy Cliff: Rebirth

"MR: ... [F]or your new album Rebirth, you took a different approach. Can you describe it? JC: Absolutely. It's produced by Tim Armstrong, and I've written some of the songs with Tim Armstrong. That's a completely different avenue from what I've done in the past. MR: Rancid's Tim Armstrong. JC: Right, Rancid, yes. MR: Jimmy, was this album recorded as just a band playing together in the studio, everyone together? JC: Yes. Back in the day, that's the way the recording business went. You'd go into the studio with four, five or six people and you all feel each other's energy and kick it off and record it. That's the way we did it. MR: Let's talk about the players for a second. JC: Well, the players are all from L.A., and that's a departure from me recording in Jamaica. They all have knowledge of all the former instruments and studios and all of the things that we recorded former reggae music in. They wanted to capture that same sound of that period in this time period. MR: ... [Y]ou covered The Clash's 'Guns of Brixton.' JC: Yes, 'Guns of Brixton' because The Clash was another group that were inspired by Jimmy Cliff, and Joe Strummer and I had the opportunity before he went on to higher planes to record a song together, so doing 'Guns of Brixton' is like one respect to him" (Mike Ragogna, "A Conversation with Jimmy Cliff," Huffington Post, 7/16/12).

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BeBe Winans: America America

"BW: ... I believe the songs, I pray and hope will remind us all that we're all Americans before any party. ... So I have a right just like anyone else has a right to these wonderful songs, and not only the songs, but the meaning behind the songs because we're all Americans. I'm excited to sing these songs. Being a songwriter, I have just enjoyed the journey of recording this album because these songs come from the heart. They come from experiences. It's been a pleasure for me, and exploration. I've explored that there's more than just one verse to the 'Star Spangled Banner' and to 'My Country 'Tis of Thee.' There are some third and fourth verses that I never knew existed. To me, some of them are even more powerful than the verses that we know. ... 'Ultimate Sacrifice,' along with the title cut 'America America,' along with 'We're the United States of America' are songs that I penned, so I am excited to throw those into the ring of the incredible patriotic songs that we do know. But these are songs that I wrote. 'Ultimate Sacrifice' is a song that I wrote when I went to sing for the troops right before we went to war in Iraq. I was touched by the many brave men and women that I met, and from that moment on, I wanted to say thank you for their sacrifices, so that song is really dedicated to the troops" (Mike Ragogna, "A Conversation with BeBe Winans," Huffington Post, 7/6/12).

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