Música: Indie Rock/Lo-Fi

Comentário AM:

Will Oldham has usually preached the gospel of less-is-more, but after an own-covers record that emanated from the belly of Nashville itself (Bonnie Prince Billy Sings Greatest Palace Songs), followed by a collaboration with guitarist Matt Sweeney (Superwolf) and a churning live record (Summer in the Southeast), his work began to seem positively indulgent. The Letting Go is not quite as far a stretch, but it is yet another intriguing departure. Granted, its approach would strike most bands as skeletal, but compared to his last solo album of originals, 2003's Master and Everyone, it sounds downright gaudy. It was recorded in Iceland with a producer, Valgeir Sigurosson, who gets more out of Oldham's voice and songs than has ever been heard on record. Oldham's harmony companion, Dawn McCarthy from Faun Fables, takes a much larger role than her predecessor on Master and Everyone, and her credit for harmony arrangements tells you everything you need to know about how important she is to the success of this album. Oldham's songwriting is breathtaking, close to the best of his career, although little changed from the norm -- his surreal, fatalistic take on Americana Gothic. "Cursed Sleep" is especially wonderful, with a string arrangement that harks back to Nick Drake's "Way to Blue," haunted vocals from McCarthy the chanteuse far in the background, and a set of lyrics that build up to a tragic peak ("Cursed love is never ended, cursed eyes are never closing, cursed arms are never closing, cursed children never rising, cursed me never despising"). To the other extreme is "Cold & Wet," a downright jaunty (despite the lyrics), fingerpicked blues of the type that Mississippi John Hurt would have recorded for Vanguard in the mid-'60s, and percussion from Dirty Three drummer Jim White that could be confused with electric drums or the worst recorded organic drum set ever heard. Truth to tell, since the quality of Oldham's songwriting has rarely wavered, the excellent arrangements and McCarthy's contributions make The Letting Go the best of his career to this point.

4.5

Bonnie "Prince" Billy - The Letting Go [2006]

Música: Indie Rock/Neo Psychedelia

Comentário AM:

There wasn't much room for Beach House to improve on Devotion, so instead, the duo improved the room in which they made Teen Dream. Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally recorded their Sub Pop debut in a converted church with producer/engineer Chris Coady, who has also worked with TV on the Radio and Blonde Redhead. The same dark lushness echoes through this album as those bands' works, with a spaciousness that's more like a beach mansion than a mere house (and Teen Dream’s DVD of videos for each song adds to its lavishness). The slightly squalid sound quality of Beach House and Devotion had a unique charm, as if the band had to record those albums not just on the cheap, but in secret. On Teen Dream, however, the hugeness previously implied in Legrand's lyrics and luscious vocals is made real, like tuning Beach House in at their full frequency. The duo's mix of retro electronics and chiming guitars is still as dreamlike and distinctive as ever -- if anything, the tinny taps and hisses of their drum machine are even more present in Teen Dream's pristine settings, making the contrast between them and the molten slide guitars and rippling keyboards on “Norway” even more vivid. The songwriting is also more focused, using Devotion songs such as “You Came to Me” and “Heart of Chambers” as templates for the album's elegant longing. Like Teen Dream's title, these songs are wry and wise enough to know better about idealizing love, and romantic enough to still believe in it. “Zebra” positively swoons, while “Walk in the Park,” with its graceful coda and chorus lament “In a matter of time/it will slip from my mind/In and out of my life/you would slip from my mind,” makes losing sound beautiful, even if it's anything but a walk in the park. Despite the wintry sorrow that dominates Teen Dream and songs like “Used to Be” and “Better Times," in particular, Beach House lets a little hope into the album before it closes with “10 Mile Stereo” and “Real Love.” Though it's not as eclectic and whimsical as their earlier work, Teen Dream is some of their most beautiful music, and reaffirms that they're the among the best purveyors of languidly lovelorn songs since Mazzy Star.

4.5

Beach House - Teen Dream [2010]

Música: Indie Rock

Comentário AM:

Montreal’s Arcade Fire successfully avoided the sophomore slump with 2007’s apocalyptic Neon Bible. Heavier and more uncertain than their near perfect, darkly optimistic 2004 debut, the album aimed for the nosebleed section and left a red mess. Having already fled the cold comforts of suburbia on Funeral and suffered beneath the weight of the world on Neon Bible, it seems fitting that a band once so consumed with spiritual and social middle-class fury, should find peace “under the overpass in the parking lot.” If nostalgia is just pain recalled, repaired, and resold, then The Suburbs is its sales manual. Inspired by brothers Win and William Butler’s suburban Houston, TX upbringing, the 16-track record plays out like a long lost summer weekend, with the jaunty but melancholy Kinks/Bowie-esque title cut serving as its bookends. Meticulously paced and conservatively grand, fans looking for the instant gratification of past anthems like “Wake Up” or “Intervention” will find themselves reluctantly defending The Suburbs upon first listen, but anyone who remembers excitedly jumping into a friend’s car on a sleepy Friday night armed with heartache, hope, and no agenda knows that patience is key. Multiple spins reveal a work that’s as triumphant and soul-slamming as it is sentimental and mature. At its most spirited, like on “Empty Room,” “Rococo,” “City with No Children,” “Half Light II (No Celebration),” “We Used to Wait,” and the glorious Régine Chassagne-led “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains),” the latter of which threatens to break into Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” at any moment, Arcade Fire makes the suburbs feel positively electric. Quieter moments reveal a changing of the guard, as Win trades in the Springsteen-isms of Neon Bible for Neil Young on “Wasted Hours,” and the ornate rage of Funeral for the simplicity of a line like “Let’s go for a drive and see the town tonight/There’s nothing do, but I don’t mind when I’m with you,” from album highlight “Suburban War.” The Suburbs feels like Richard Linklater’s Dazed & Confused for the Y generation. It’s serious without being preachy, cynical without dissolving into apathy, and whimsical enough to keep both sentiments in line, and of all of their records, it may be the one that ages so well.

4

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs [2010]

Música: Indie Electronic/Dubstep

Comentário AM:

During 2009 and 2010, James Blake issued a clutch of abstract dubstep singles on Hemlock, Hessle Audio, and R&S. Each release increased anticipation for the producer’s next move as he continually shuffled the deck on his bristly, off-center, and generally groove-less tracks, some of which incorporated vocals -- he sampled Kelis and Aaliyah on “CMYK,” for instance -- or his own voice, heavily processed. The Klavierwerke EP, the last in the series, was the most stripped down of the bunch. The day after it was released, Blake uploaded a video for his dramatic cover version of Feist’s “Limit to Your Love,” which indicated that the focus on his voice and sparse backing would continue. Consisting of Blake's pensive vocal, a simple but affecting piano, and recurring beat weighed down by sub-bass, it’s one of the most straightforward tracks on Blake’s brief debut album. The following “Give Me My Month” deviates most from Blake’s vinyl output; it’s a wistful piano-and-voice ballad that has far more in common with Procol Harum than any given contemporary linked to Blake. The rest of the tracks are more like exercises in sound manipulation and reduction than songs. The approach is no fault, but Blake pares it down to such an extent that the material occasionally sounds not just tentative but feeble, fatigued, even, as on “I Never Learnt to Share,” where one creaky line is repeated and treated throughout, placed over swelling synthesizer frequencies and a stamping beat. “The Wilhelm Scream,” one of the album’s highlights, is far more effective, a ballad with a pulse that increases in intensity with skillfully deployed reverb and surging waves of soft noise.

3.5

James Blake - James Blake [2011]

Música: Blues Rock/Contemporary Blues/Hard Rock

Comentário AM:

Gary Moore might just be the greatest guitar hero America's never heard of, probably because only his recent blues recordings have benefited from proper distribution stateside. In fact, Moore has worn so many hats during his near 30-year career that the words eclectic and unfocused immediately come to mind. Victims of the Future arrived in the middle of the most consistent phase of his career -- that of a heavy metal guitar slinger. Between the epic cold war-inspired title track and the massive riffing of "Murder in the Skies" (written about the Korean airliner shot own by Russian fighter jets), Moore assaults the listener with more guitar notes than appear in most careers. These are great songs though, and his powerful vocals are also very effective, especially on the hit ballad "Empty Rooms." None of Moore's recordings are very easy to find in America, but make sure this is the first one you look for.

4.5

Gary Moore - Victims of the Future [1983]

Música: Contemporary Blues/Jam Bands

Comentário AM:

For an artist such as Ben Harper, who's reflective blend of acoustic soul & organic stripped down blues and R&B, coupled with his emotional singer/songwriter approach gave his debut album "Welcome to the Cruel World" a great starting point, for those tired of music lacking any intellectual content. But it was this, his fiery politicised second album "Fight for your mind", that he was to truly make his mark on the musical landscape. This is a intimate and deeply introspective record, that not only looks inwards, but frequently looks at the world from the perspective of a enraged musical poet (Harper's influences such as: Dylan, Hendrix, Bob Marley, are clear to see). Because for a track like "Another Lonely Day" which is largely minimal in its instrumentation, and relies mostly on Ben's soul-folk singing to carry the emotional impact of this song, (think stripped back folk, with some lovely slide guitar), it went some way to prove that Ben wanted people to hear what he had to say, rather than just purely focus on the music. "Burn one Down" which is actually a Pro-weed song, with Harper brazenly declaring ""if you don't like my fire, then don't come around, yes I'm gonna burn one down.", shows that Ben like the protest songs of someone like Dylan, many years before him for instance, hasn't shy-ed away from controversial subject matters. "Ground on Down" is unquestionably my favourite track, Ben hooks up the electric guitar for a occasionally feedback drenched throwdown, that has more place on a rock album, such is its explosive energy, with Harper assuming the lyrical stance of a righteous commentator over the energetic guitar that is probably the nearest he's come to sounding like an infuriated Jimi Hendrix, in this insistent, almost slightly aggressive rock-out. There is an undeniable sense of Harper wanting to get a lot of his chest, as quite of few of the songs deal with social/racial injustice to some degree, as "Fight For your Mind" & "Oppression" immediately spring to mind, with unsettling guitar tones which range from poignant one minute, to curiously uplifting the next. Although none of this would mean anything without some inspired writing by Harper, that easily surpasses his debut in structure and musical dynamics. In fact Ben would never truly match (much less surpass what was achieved here), this level of articulation and poetic lyrical content, although with impressively strong musical arrangements. If your looking for a Ben Harper Cd, and your not interested in collecting his albums, then without doubt Its widely known that this was his most significant effort on the album market, and although his other albums are certainly worth a look if you like his music. The combination of righteous finger pointing, consice lyrics and, cerebral blues-folk would never quite have the same bite, as this, his finest album.

4.5

Ben Harper - Fight for Your Mind [1995]

Música: Blues Rock/American Trad Rock

Comentário AM:

For his seventh studio album, guitar wiz Joe Bonamassa has chosen to work again with producer Kevin Shirley, who produced the highly successful and huge-sounding You & Me for Bonamassa in 2006. This outing, though, is far from a ditto session, with a much more acoustic feel and a greater focus on Bonamassa's singing, which unfortunately has been generally (and unfairly) overshadowed by his guitar playing. Bonamassa has also stepped up his songwriting (four of the 11 tracks here are originals; the rest are blues and hard rock covers) and cut way down on his clichés, delivering in the process his most varied and impressive album yet. The lead track, a version of Chris Whitley's "Ball Peen Hammer," is an atmospheric gem, as is the title tune, a cover of a song written by Bob Ezrin and Michael Kamen that first appeared on Tim Curry's solo debut album in 1978. Bonamassa's singing on both of these is wonderfully nuanced and shows he can do way more than just shout out blues-rockers. Also worth noting is his Dobro work on a fine cover of John Martyn's "Jelly Roll," and then there are the four originals -- "Dirt in My Pocket," "Richmond," "Around the Bend," and the striking "India" -- which show Bonamassa's continued growth and confidence as a songwriter. There are less of those flashy and jaw-dropping guitar leads on Sloe Gin (rest assured, he stretches out a few times on guitar, though), which is mostly a good thing, since it allows his increasing maturity as a writer and singer to shine through. This is a fine album, and one gets the distinct feeling that an even better one may be lurking just around the bend.

4

Joe Bonamassa - Sloe Gin [2007]

Música: Folk Blues/Contemporary Blues/Electric Country Blues

Comentário AM:

The list of special guests who appear on Taj Mahal's Maestro is hardly what one would expect from a veteran bluesman. Among the special guests are Ziggy Marley, Los Lobos, Ben Harper, and African pop vocalist Angélique Kidjo -- not exactly a conventional blues lineup. But then, Mahal is hardly a conventional blues artist. He has been providing eclectic, far-reaching albums for a long time, and that spirit of adventure is alive and well on this 2008 release (which marks his 40th year as a recording artist -- Mahal provided his first album in 1968). No one expects Mahal's albums to be the work of a blues purist; in fact, Mahal (who plays guitar, harmonica, banjo, and ukulele on Maestro) is the opposite of a blues purist. While Maestro has its share of electric blues, the veteran singer also gets into everything from soul ("Further on Down the Road") and early R&B (Fats Domino's "Hello Josephine") to reggae ("Black Man, Brown Man," "Never Let You Go") and African pop ("Zanzibar"). The latter features Kidjo on lead vocals and Toumani Diabaté on the kora (a traditional African instrument), while Los Lobos appear on "Never Let You Go" and the humorous "TV Mama" (which is among the disc's straight-ahead blues offerings). Mahal, true to form, is all over the place stylistically on this 57-minute CD -- and yet, Maestro never sounds the least bit unfocused. Being eclectic comes naturally to Mahal, who sees to it that Maestro is a consistently engaging celebration of his 40th year as a recording artist.

4

Taj Mahal - Maestro [2008]

Música: Contemporary Folk/Country Rock/Progressive Country/Americana

Comentário AM:

Townes Van Zandt is better regarded as a songwriter than as a performer, and not without reason -- he was a peerless lyricist with a singular ability to capture the landscape of the heart and soul in words, but while he was a fine singer he wasn't exceptional, and the ravages of alcohol, tobacco and drugs took a fearsome toll on his voice in his last years. But Van Zandt could work magic in front of an audience under the right circumstances, and while a wealth of live recordings of Van Zandt have emerged since his passing on the first day of 1997, Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas ranks with the very best of his concert albums. Live at the Old Quarter is simple and spare, capturing Van Zandt in a 1973 solo performance at a Houston saloon with just his acoustic guitar for company, and the engineering ably captures the ambience of the room, with the audience clearly caught up in the spell of these songs. The set features 26 songs, all originals except for covers of "Cocaine Blues," "Nine Pound Hammer," and "Who Do You Love," and Van Zandt brigs these tunes to life with an easy grace that's a striking complement to the emotional gravity of his lyrics, though he also gives his lighter side an airing here, occasionally cracking jokes and offering a pair of funny talking blues numbers, "Talking Thunderbird Blues" and "Fraternity Blues." If the renditions of "Pancho & Lefty," "If I Needed You," "Rex's Blues," "For the Sake of the Song," and "Tecumseh Valley" aren't quite definitive, they're beautiful and affecting, and thanks to the sharp performances, on-point vocals, and superb set list, this is a superior document of Townes Van Zandt on-stage, and is a fine introduction to his body of work.

4.5

Townes Van Zandt - Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas [1977]

Música: Blues Rock/Contemporary Blues

Comentário AM:

If you're seeking a joyous blast of Chicago blues, you need look no further. This album of energetic party music is the best-sounding album from Duke Tumatoe, thanks to the meticulous production of John Fogerty, who saw them in a bar and decided to produce their major-label debut. In fact, if it wasn't for Fogerty, they probably wouldn't have gotten on a major label; the following album, without Fogerty producing, was back on J-Bird. I Like My Job! crackles with energy from the opening notes of the cheerful "Get Loose." Recording live was a smart move, since the audience response to songs like "If I Hadn't Been High" and "More Love, More Money" makes both vastly better than any studio take. This is doubly true for the salacious "Tie You Up," as seductive a song about bondage play ever written -- at least, up to the point where Tumatoe is raving about using garbanzo beans and croutons as sex toys. This inspired silliness holds from end to end and makes this a must-have album for anyone who likes their blues spiced with more than a dash of humor.

4.5

Duke Tumatoe & the Power Trio - I Like My Job! Live! [1988]