Review: Girlpool, Before the World Was Big

Girlpool comprises Cleo Tucker (guitar, vocals) and Harmony Tividad (bass, vocals).  I saw them open for Jenny Lewis in Northampton, MA last November and for Waxahatchee in Boston last month.

They're young, just out of high school, recent transplants to Philadelphia from Los Angeles.  Before the World Was Big is their first full-length album, following up a 2014 self-titled EP.

Cleo and Harmony offer a unique sound, just the two of them, stripped down, so far devoid of percussion or other instrumentation.  Their vocals are suitably raw as well, while they sing in harmony, unison, and alternating parts.

They have some potent lyrics in their back pocket, addressing growing pains and insecurity.  "I'm still here, remember me, Emily," they implore in the song "Emily."  In "I Like That You Can See It," the album's closer, they sing, "Is it pouring out my body? My nervous aching" and "My mind is almost 19, and I still feel angry/I'm searching for the reason."

"Chinatown" is a standout track and my personal favorite.  The music and the lyrics meld so well, and these are some of Girlpool's best lyrics:  "Do you feel restless when you realize you're alive?"  "If I loved myself would I take it the wrong way?" "I'm still looking for sureness in the way I say my name." A version released ahead of the album as a single (and closest to the live rendition) is louder and more raw than the wistful, softened album version.  Each version lends the song a different interpretation.  I like that they did both.  The song deserves both treatments.

What is most appealing about Girlpool is the band's authentic voice, which its members put front and center.  I'm looking forward to more from them.  Like I told Cleo at the Boston show, I think they are rising stars.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Review: Jenny Lewis, The Voyager

Jenny Lewis's latest solo album, The Voyager, was three years in the making.  She enlisted Ryan Adams as producer, as well as Johnathan Rice and Beck for a few individual tracks.  Jenny's sound can be described as retro California rock. This is her third solo album, and it sounds a lot more like her long-time, now-diffused band Rilo Kiley than either of the the previous ones (it also may be my favorite of the three).  The song "Slippery Slopes" even has a very similar melody and sound to "Under the Blacklight."

The first track, "Head Underwater," juxtaposes catchy music with lyrics contemplating mortality.  "There's a little bit of magic/Everybody has it/There's a little bit of sand left in the hourglass."  "She's Not Me" has a fun disco sound.  "She's not me," Jenny sings.  "She's easy." The song has a bit of an unexpected end to it:  "Remember the night when I destroyed it all/When I told you I cheated/And you punched through the drywall/I took you for granted/When you were all that I needed."

Beck produced and provided backing vocals on "Just One of the Guys."  Jenny sings about how she can never fully make being one of the guys work.  "There's only one difference between you and me/When I look at myself all I can see/I'm just another lady without a baby."  It is a song that makes you think about gender expectations.

"Late Bloomer" is a standout track, showcasing Jenny's storytelling ability. She has said it is inspired by a girl she met while traveling abroad who followed around a songwriter.  In the narrative of the song, the girl inspires her lust for life.  "When I turned sixteen, I was furious and restless" and got a "plane ticket to Paris." She meets Nancy from Boston, whose "eyes were changing like mood stones." "How could I resist her?"  she asks.  "I had longed for a big sister/And I wanted to kiss her but I hadn't the nerve."  It is a poignant reflection on coming of age.  Jenny has said this song almost didn't see the light of day and that it was really coaxed along by Ryan Adams and Benmont Tench (keyboardist of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers).  Lucky for us it came through, as it is quite a special song.

Jenny Lewis' hallmark is a certain stoicism.  She writes lyrics about hardship and heartache, yet the music is usually catchy and often downright sunny.  She clearly wants people to enjoy it and to have fun herself.  Therefore her output can be enjoyed on different levels.  Should the listener choose to go deeper and delve into what she's talking about, there's more to understand.  Says Beck, "I just feel like music needs her. It needs someone doing what she's doing. She's got a special voice, as a writer, and then as a musician.  She's this great combination of so many things."  Indeed.

Rating:  4 out of 5 stars

Review: Tori Amos, Unrepentant Geraldines

Tori Amos is back with her first pop release since 2009's Abnormally Attracted to Sin.  Since then, she made a seasonal album, Midwinter Graces; the impressive Night of Hunters with reworkings of classical pieces; and wrote the music for the London stage production The Light Princess.

Unrepentant Geraldines draws some of its inspiration from paintings, but otherwise does not strain conceptually, as she has a tendency to do (American Doll Posse, anyone?).  Tori is now 50, and aging is a theme of the album, bluntly faced in "16 Shades of Blue" ("There are those who say / I am now too old to play").  She addresses a long-term romantic relationship in "Wedding Day" and "Wild Way."

Tori's 13-year-old daughter Tash (short for Natashya) first sang on Midwinter Graces, then on Night of Hunters.  Here, they duet on "Promise," in which they offer assurances that they will be there for each other.  It is a touching song, although Tash has now styled her vocals in an R&B-inspired way that can be distracting.

Tori has long drawn inspiration from mythology of all kinds, and the beautiful song "Selkie" references a Scottish myth of a creature that lives as a seal in the sea and a human on land.  Standout "Oysters" showcases equally dexterous piano and vocals.  This goosebumps-inducing song is right up there with the best output of her career.  Tori describes the song as being "about a woman trying to work through a lifetime of memories to find out who she really is."  She sings, "I'm working my way back to me again."

This is a notably stripped-down album, with Tori's keys and vocals at the forefront.  All other instrumentation is generated by her sound engineer husband Mark Hawley.  The album would have benefited from other musicians on the tracks that include more than her vocals and piano.  However, the strength of Tori's musicianship relegates this to more of a minor issue.  Basically, I'm left to marvel at the great songs that she continues to produce.

Rating:  4 out of 5 stars

Review: Johnathan Rice, Good Graces + Concert at Mercury Lounge + Meeting Conor Oberst

Good Graces is Johnathan Rice's first solo album since 2007's Further North.  In between, he collaborated with longtime girlfriend Jenny Lewis as Jenny and Johnny for the 2010 album I'm Having Fun Now (my quick review of that album is here).  Good Graces is a lot more reminiscent of that album than of Johnathan's other two solo albums:  it has that sun drenched California sound, and Jenny Lewis sings harmony on most of the tracks.  He also employs Z Berg and the Watson Twins; in an interview with Earbuddy, he says, "I'm addicted to singing with beautiful women, and I have no desire to get help."  The album has nine tracks and clocks in at about thirty minutes.  "I love short songs and short records," he notes.

Good Graces is also a departure from Johnathan's previous solo work in that many of the lyrics have to do with being in love.  In fact, the first two songs, "Acapulco Gold" and "My Heart Belongs to You" are love songs.  In an interview with LA Music Blog, Johnathan says, "'My Heart Belongs to You,' for me, is a milestone in my songwriting because of the honesty in it.  There are no barbs in it or trap doors you can fall down into.  It's a very honest love song, which didn't come naturally to me."

The title track brings Jenny to the fore more than elsewhere on the album; that is, it feels more like a duet on the chorus rather than simply backing vocals.  "I'm forgiven! I'm forgiven!  And it feels so good!" they sing on a song about reconciling.  And then he adds:  "I might do wrong just to feel it again."

This is definitely a likeable album.  "Lou Rider," for example, is a catchy song; Johnathan says that it "has that title because the vocal is kinda Lou Reed and the groove is kinda Low Rider."  Still, I have a few issues with the album.  If you prefer your albums on the longer side (like I do) you will find it lacking in that regard.  Secondly, it seems like it's in between a Johnathan Rice album and a Jenny and Johnny album, as Jenny's vocals are nearly always present.  Then there's the fact that it's heavy on the loved-up lyrics--I would have liked a bit more variety.

I had not seen a solo show from Johnathan before.  I had seen him as part of Jenny Lewis's band during her Acid Tongue tour and then again during their tour as Jenny and Johnny (both times in New Haven, CT).  This time I headed to NYC's Mercury Lounge to catch him in concert  (plugged set) this past Monday.  He did a lot of new songs, of course, along with three apiece from I'm Having Fun Now and  Further North.  He didn't do any songs from his debut album Trouble is Real.  He opened the set with "Good Graces."

I figured certain songs would be off limits since they had vocals from Jenny Lewis that would be missed if they weren't included.  However, Johnathan didn't shy away from such songs and Jenny's vocals were often piped in--which underscored how much of a presence she was on the album and made it seem like she ought to be there in the flesh.  The backing track was an appropriate volume, though--not very loud.  Johnathan's vocals and musicianship are just as good live as they are recorded.

And for something cool and unexpected:  I met Conor Oberst!  I knew he and Johnathan Rice and members of his touring band were tight, but Conor happened to be in the crowd for this show.  Mercury Lounge has a capacity of 250 (fewer than that were in attendance), and I recognized him right away.  The small, low-key space made it seem like not a big deal to talk to him briefly.  I mostly just wanted to convey how much I liked his music.  I asked if he was working on a solo album and he said yes and I think he said something about putting it out at the end of the year.

In my short interaction with him, I appreciated how present he seemed.  His striking light-brown eyes had a calm and expressive look and he listened thoughtfully while I spoke.  To close the brief conversation, I said, "Keep doing what you're doing, love the music," and he replied, "Thanks darling."

Good Graces rating:  3.5 out of 5 stars

Johnathan Rice at Mercury Lounge, NYC, 9-23-13

Review: Sara Bareilles, The Blessed Unrest

Sara Bareilles' new album, The Blessed Unrest, is influenced by her move from Los Angeles to New York.  She says that New York had always felt too overwhelming to her but that it now seems like an environment that she needed after all.  The idea of challenging oneself is probably the most important theme of the album.

The first track and single "Brave" is very poppy.  I wish Sara would do fewer poppy songs because she's a talented songwriter with great vocal facility and where she really shines has been with her ballads.  I am not suggesting that she should only do ballads, but for her more upbeat songs I wish she would get away from that kind of predictable, poppy sound.

"Hercules" is one of the best tracks--if not the best, and has piano chords reminiscent of those in Tori Amos' "Take to the Sky."  The theme of the song is about summoning extra strength.  Sara sings, "I'm on the hunt for who I've not yet become/But I'd settle for a little equilibrium."  I totally know what she means in terms of  earnestly pursuing your more evolved self but that in the meantime, why do you feel unsure and off balance?  She sings, "I have sent for a warrior/From on my knees, make me a Hercules/I was meant to be a warrior please/Make me a Hercules."  The theme of this song ties in nicely with that of "Brave."  "Hercules" hits the mark both sonically and lyrically.

"Manhattan" is a quiet ballad, piano and some horns.  Sara sings, "You can have Manhattan" and "Hang on to the reverie/Could you do that for me?/'Cause I'm just too sad to."  She realizes the good times spent there as a couple but can't quite bear to own them herself.  "1000 Times" is like "Hold My Heart" Part Two, a ballad with a plodding drumbeat and other instrumentation in addition to the piano:  since that was my favorite song off Sara's 2010 LP Kaleidoscope Heart, I promptly sent "1000 Times" into heavy replay.  "Satellite Call" bears some similarity to those songs but has more interesting things going on, particularly with her vocals.  The experimentation of this song is more what I think she should do than with "Eden" or "Cassiopeia," which I don't dislike but which both miss the mark a little bit.

Theme-wise, in addition to that of making courageous strides in life, there is one straight up love song, "I Choose You," and a few of the songs are about breakups or problems in romantic relationships (as were multiple songs on Kaleidoscope Heart).  Sara mostly plays to her strengths and this is a satisfying album.

Rating:  4 out of 5 stars

The Civil Wars is an awesome duo

It often takes me awhile to get into musical artists.  I first heard The Civil Wars on the last Grammy Awards (which I watched very sporadically) when the pair performed briefly before introducing Taylor Swift.  (They won two Grammys:  Best Folk Album and Best Country Duo/Group Performance.  I would describe their music as Americana--not fitting neatly into either of the narrower classifications of folk or country.)  I kept them in mind as performers in whom I might be interested, and eventually got their 2011 CD through the library system.  Barton Hollow is a great album.

Joy Williams and John Paul White met during a songwriting session in Nashville, TN in 2008.  Their vocal harmonies are great as is the male-female dynamic. White plays the guitar and Williams the piano (the guitar is a constant, the piano brought out more selectively).

"Poison and Wine" is the album's standout track.  It is about the love-hate duality in a relationship, with its oft-repeated line, "I don't love you but I always will." "I've Got This Friend" is another highlight, a song that is playful and touching at the same time. "The Violet Hour" is a hauntingly beautiful instrumental piece with guitar, piano, and strings.  By far the most upbeat song, title track and single "Barton Hollow," is strategically placed in the middle of the album's tracklisting.

A week ago, the duo announced the cancellation of their upcoming tour dates, citing "internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition."  Williams is a new mom and perhaps that has something to do with the tour being halted.  But she and White don't appear to be breaking up:  "Our sincere hope is to have new music for you in 2013."

Rating:  4.5 out of 5 stars

Twenty years since Little Earthquakes

It has been twenty years since Tori Amos released her breakthrough album Little Earthquakes, becoming known as the fiery redhead at the piano.  To mark the occasion, she produced Gold Dust, a collaboration with the Metropole Orchestra of fourteen songs spanning her career with orchestral arrangements.  The orchestra is conducted by Jules Buckley and Tori's long-time collaborator John Philip Shenale gave the songs new string arrangements.

The arrangement improves upon opening track "Flavor" with a richer sound than the original.  The arrangement of "Precious Things" misses the mark, however.  One of Tori's best loved songs, "Cloud On My Tongue," gets wonderful treatment with the orchestra and is very moving.  It is the highlight of the album for me.  I'm glad "Marianne" is included, as it is one of my all-time favorites.  "Silent All These Years" is a natural choice for the album.  "Jackie's Strength" is the only song representing From The Choirgirl Hotel--unfortunately, as I can't stand that song!  "Programmable Soda" (from American Doll Posse) is a curious addition, as it is a bit of a throwaway, brief song.  "Yes, Anastasia" lacks the lengthy piano introduction of the original.  B-sides are represented with "Flying Dutchman" and "Snow Cherries From France."

Of the process of choosing which songs to include, Tori says in an interview with Rolling Stone, "I thought, 'We have to retain the essence of who these song-girls are.'  But yet, we have to also think about how to create a narrative where they can live together.  A lot of this was about picking songs that had different subject matter but could live in the world and feel as though they're a complete album."  Of the title track (a solid choice, from Scarlet's Walk), she explains, "I felt I needed something that could work as an album title and a flagship song that would explain what the work is, to hold all the other ones and to treat this like a memory box."

This release allows me to reflect on all of Tori's output, which is staggering in volume.  Says Tori in The Observer, "Making thirteen albums in the past twenty years requires a particular discipline.  There's a time to take a holiday and a time to take a pilgrimage and write."

I started listening to Tori's music when I was thirteen, around the time of the release of Boys for Pele.  Of course at that age there was a lot that Tori was singing about that was over my head but I knew I liked her music.  I was somewhat baffled by Pele for awhile; until the release of my all-time favorite Tori album--From the Choirgirl Hotel--when I was sixteen, I listened the most to Under the Pink.

Tori is very aware of the independent lives of her songs; it's like Jeff Tweedy sings in Wilco's "What Light":  "If the whole world's singing your songs/And all your paintings have been hung/Just remember what was yours is everyone's from now on."  From the Choirgirl Hotel helped me through one of the most difficult years of my life, and I am grateful to Tori for that.  As songs do, certain ones transport me back to a particular time and place, a particular frame of mind.

Songs can also take on new significance as time passes, which Tori acknowledges with Gold Dust, describing it as "a collection of new recordings of where [the songs] are now and who they have become."  She has long held Meet and Greets before her performances as her schedule allows, and listens to her fans' stories of how her songs have affected them.  She has spoken about how this dialogue is important to her and how she knows people come to her shows because of their own relationships with the songs.  She even speaks about her songs as though they were living, breathing beings.  Repeatedly described as kooky as she rose to popularity in the '90s, she is a true artist who trusts in her muses (whom she thanks in the liner notes of Gold Dust).

Tori & me at a Meet and Greet in Buffalo, NY, Oct. 2007

After 2001's Strange Little Girls, an album of covers, I took a break from following her for awhile, eventually picking up Scarlet's Walk and her compilation album Tales of a Librarian and delving back in.  Rolling Stone ranked Tori in the top five best live performers of all time, and I have had the pleasure of seeing her in concert eight times so far--in 1998 (I am so glad to have caught a date on the Plugged tour!), 2005, and then twice each of the following tours:  2007, 2009, and 2011.

I have not rated any of Tori's albums fewer than three stars (even Strange Little Girls, The Beekeeper, and American Doll Posse).  Every release has at least a few gems.  Many Tori fans would agree that output post-To Venus and Back or post-Scarlet's Walk doesn't usually measure up to her earlier work, but she continues to be incredibly creative.  Night of Hunters, in particular, was impressive.  Tori has not ceased to be innovative.

Gold Dust rating:  3.5 out of 5 stars

Review: Dave Matthews Band, Away From the World

Three years in the making, Dave Matthews Band's Away From the World is produced by Steve Lillywhite, who produced the band's first three studio albums.  The lineup of the band has undergone changes but has remained strong.  Tim Reynolds contributes to the album on electric guitar. Replacing saxophonist LeRoi Moore, who died in 2008, are trumpeter Rashawn Ross and saxophonist Jeff Coffin.  The album is musically solid, balancing between rocking and acoustic tracks and creating a more favorable impression overall than their previous album.

The album's lyrics include themes of love, being yourself, and making a difference in the world, and can be on the cheesy side.  I always think of Dave Matthews Band as being more about the music than the words, with the occasional song that really gets it right lyrically, so this is par for the course.  For example, the lyrics to "Gaucho" mostly consist of:  "Gotta do much more than believe/If we wanna see the world change."  This seems to be an overplayed sentiment in songs.

"Sweet" is my favorite song on the album.  Dave plays a ukelele and sings poignantly high notes.  "The Riff" follows, with some good lyrics, including, "Why waste time staring at the TV set/Like I got dreams to kill and people to forget."  The song closes with a blistering guitar solo by Tim Reynolds.  Another standout is "Drunken Soldier," a satisfying album closer at almost ten minutes long.  Dave sings, "Fill up your head and fill up your heart and take your shot/Don't waste time trying to be something you're not."

Rating:  3.5 out of 5 stars

Fiona Apple's amazing new album

The Idler Wheel is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do is Fiona Apple's fourth album and first in seven years.  It is a collaboration between Fiona and percussionist Charley Drayton; they coproduced it and played most of the instruments.  This is a raw and pared down album that is certainly a departure from her preceding album Extraordinary Machine.  It seems to have the most in common with her sophomore effort When the Pawn.  The instrumentation is largely piano and percussion.

There are some interesting sounds in some of the songs.  She explains about the song "Jonathan":  "On the first night of recording with Charley, we walked by this bottle-making factory.  The door was open and you could hear a machine running.  We both had our recorders with us and we agreed that the sound would be good for the song."  On "Anything We Want," she achieved a sound effect "with a pair of scissors, a tin full of burnt-cedar sashays, and a plastic cup.  I was hitting everything with scissors and the cedar was flying all over the place."  The song "Werewolf" includes a screaming sound that she was inspired to include after hearing a battle scene in a movie; she worked to find a duplication of it and finally found it in screams from a group of children at a school across from her house:  "They were jumping with balloons between their legs, trying to make them pop.  In the actual song, we had to take out all the balloon pops because they sounded like gunshots.  But it was so perfect."

There is not a weak song on the album--all are strong musically and lyrically.  In "Every Single Night," she sings, "Every single night's a fight/With my brain" and then later, "I just want to feel everything."  And from "Werewolf":  "We can still support each other/All we have to do's avoid each other/Nothing wrong when a song ends in a minor key."  "Hot Knife" is the closing track, blending her and her sister's voices (they stood at the same microphone):  "If I'm butter then he's a hot knife/He makes my life a CinemaScope screen showing a dancing bird of paradise."

My choral director in high school said that if an audience member described a performance as "ambitious," that meant that there was a high standard that was reached for and inevitably (and embarrassingly) not achieved.  This is one album that can be called ambitious and actually live up to it.

Rating:  5 out of 5 stars

Review: Sara Bareilles, Once Upon Another Time EP

Two years after the release of her third and strongest full-length album, Kaleidoscope Heart, Sara Bareilles has come out with five-song EP Once Upon Another Time.  It was produced by her friend Ben Folds.  The first thing I noticed was that she has been working on her vocals, most evident on the first two tracks: more of a belting-it-out, R&B style.  She certainly has the vocal capacity to pull it off, but that's a direction I did not anticipate.

Of making an EP as her next move, Sara explains to American Songwriter, "I knew I wanted to take some time off between my records and I wanted my fans to have some new music to tide them over.  An EP is especially great because there's less pressure than with a record, so it's a good place to explore and play creatively without feeling like it will define my next career move."  She goes on to say that "I wouldn't say this EP has a very concrete thread running through it.  It's really about picking a collection of songs that I loved."

The title track, which is the opener, is largely a cappella.  Sara notes that it "is really about loss of your childhood and letting go of your past, and that's a part of my life right now, a journey I feel like I'm on.  It felt befitting to name the album that."  "Stay" also showcases her vocals.

"Lie to Me" is a lively track, both in in its instrumentation (including strings) and lyrics:  "Run your mouth/I bet I can catch it/You sound just like a Judas."  Sara says of the song, "I actually write kind of mean lyrics, but usually wrapped up in a sunny song.  For awhile I was having fun with that juxtaposition, but 'Lie to Me' is a bit more direct.  It sounds like what it means.  It's experimentation, finding new ways to express what I was trying to say."

"Sweet As Whole" unleashes her cheeky, foul-mouthed side.  It recalls Cee Lo Green's "F*** You," which Sara loves and sings on tour:  "I wish I wrote that song.  I just think it's so ballsy, and brash, and I absolutely love it.  It's awesome."

"Bright Lights and Cityscapes" is a ballad that is right on par with her best ones such as "City" and "Gravity."  She describes it as "a very emotional performance.  When I listen back to that vocal take, I don't hear my best singing and I get self-conscious about that.  But Ben was adamant about getting a take that had a lot of emotion, and he was right:  I was sitting in the piano room crying while singing, and he's the one who made me keep that on the record."  That was a good move, because this is the Sara that resonates most with me and likely many others as well.

Rating:  3 out of 5 stars

Review: Jack White, Blunderbuss

Jack White's first solo album comes a little over a year after the announced breakup of The White Stripes, his best known band.  He subsequently cut two albums apiece with very different projects The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather.  It was expected that White would strike out on his own, but he was reluctant to do so.  In fact, Blunderbuss came into being rather accidentally after RZA (of the Wu-Tang Clan) didn't show up for a studio session and White used the time to develop his own material.  Blunderbuss hit the Billboard charts at #1, a first for White.

The best track may be "Hypocritical Kiss," with rollicking piano and lyrics like "I want names of the people that we know that are falling for this" and "You would sell your own mother out/And then betray your dead brother with another hypocritical kiss."  The album includes one cover, a Little Willie John song, "I'm Shakin'," with a spirited chorus of female backup singers.

Blunderbuss channels the sound of The White Stripes more than that of his other groups.  A likely reason is that The White Stripes was more his brainchild than either of the other, more populous bands were.  Still, the sound of Blunderbuss is more rock and roll and less garage band than the music of The White Stripes.

Rating:  4 out of 5 stars

Review: Whispertown, Parallel

Whispertown's Parallel is a solid new EP from Morgan Nagler and company, following '08 album Swim under the name The Whispertown 2000.  Parallel sees a shift from somewhat spare, raw instrumentation and a folk-pop sound into more electronica territory at times.  Nagler's voice, with a touch of whine, and what Paste writer M.T. Richards describes as a "hungover" quality, may be an acquired taste and shapes the tone of the songs.

The title track is the strongest, telling of two people who would seem to be on deceptively different wavelengths.  "It's easy to tell that we are parallel," Nagler sings.  "You are far away even if you stay there" and "Marching side by side/Even deaf and blind."

In another standout track, "Open the Other Eye," she addresses someone contemplating giving up on life:  "If you don't want to wake up/I recommend a deep sleep/Uninterrupted, it's a balance beam." She encourages deeper insight in saying, "Open the other eye" (Third Eye?).

"The Fall" talks about needing to open up and participate fully in life.  With the exception of one cringeworthy tearing-down-the-Great-Wall reference, the song has lyrics that resonate:  "I was meant to be the wall coming down/I was meant to be the fall" and "I'd trade it all in for . . . the comfort of an old friend."

The EP stumbles a bit with "Blood from Wine," a jangly duet that seems out of place on this seven-song collection.  But, overall, Parallel is cohesive, displaying both a healthy dose of musical evolution and a satisfying continuity with previous efforts.

Rating:  3 out of 5 stars.

My year in music

#1. Tori Amos, Night of Hunters. Tori is my favorite artist and I regard this as her best album since 1999's To Venus and Back! Not only that, it's her first album on the classical label Deutsche Grammophon (twelfth studio album in all). Tori was approached by the label to compose a twenty-first century song cycle based on classical themes. To listen to her tell the story, she responded by saying, "Can I have a drink?" She said that if she were to get it wrong, she would get it really wrong because she was messing with the masters so to speak.

Tori's vocals and virtuosic piano playing are accompanied by the Apollon Musagete Quartet on strings and Berlin Philharmonic clarinet soloist Andreas Ottensamer. And as with her last effort, 2009's seasonal album Midwinter Graces, she enlisted her daughter and niece to provide a few of the vocals.

Night of Hunters is a great achievement, as was the tour in support of it with the Apollon Musagete Quartet through Europe, South Africa (her first time touring there), and North America. The highlight for me was a stunning new arrangement of "Cruel." It was so daring to rework that song from her '98 album From the Choirgirl Hotel (my favorite) with the string quartet.

#2. Bright Eyes, The People's Key. Bright Eyes' eighth album and first in four years represents a departure from both the band's last album, Cassadaga, and Conor Oberst's recent side projects: "I was really burnt out on that rootsy Americana shit. So I tried to steer clear of that." Honestly, I hope he gets into that again but I also love Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, so this album did not disappoint. It certainly has a harder electric sound, with the exception of the quiet "Ladder Song," which Conor Oberst tacked on after the album was almost complete and a friend of his committed suicide. "No one knows where the ladder goes," he sings. Influenced by his interest in Rastafarianism (the Bible and eastern religion are also referenced), the most prominent theme on the album is unification of humanity.

Other 2011 releases that I've enjoyed include:

Adele, 21
Death Cab For Cutie, Codes and Keys
The Decemberists, The King is Dead
Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues
Indigo Girls, Beauty Queen Sister
The Kills, Blood Pressures
Paul Simon, So Beautiful or So What
Robbie Robertson, How to Become Clairvoyant
Stevie Nicks, In Your Dreams
Vanessa Carlton, Rabbits on the Run
Wilco, The Whole Love

Concerts I attended this year:

Jan. 2nd: Sarah McLachlan, Capitol Center for the Arts, Concord, NH
Jan. 8th: Vienna Teng, The Center for the Arts, Natick, MA
Mar. 11th: Bright Eyes, State Theatre, Portland, ME
Mar. 13th: Shawn Colvin, Chandler Center for the Arts, Randolph, VT
Apr. 1st: Sara Bareilles, State Theatre, Portland, ME
June 24th-25th: Wilco's Solid Sound festival, Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA
July 28th: Bright Eyes, Meadowbrook U.S. Cellular Pavilion, Gilford, NH
Aug. 1st: Death Cab For Cutie, Bank of America Pavilion, Boston, MA
Aug. 30th: Sara Bareilles, Bank of America Pavilion, Boston, MA
Sept. 9th: The National, Bank of America Pavilion, Boston, MA
Sept. 20th: Wilco, Wang Theatre, Boston, MA
Oct. 22nd: Indigo Girls, Keefe Auditorium, Nashua, NH
Nov. 2nd: Brandi Carlile, Calvin Theatre, Northampton, MA
Dec. 2nd: Tori Amos, Beacon Theatre, New York, NY
Dec. 6th: Tori Amos, Orpheum Theatre, Boston, MA

Review of Wilco's The Whole Love

The Whole Love is Wilco's eighth studio album and the first on the band's own label, dBpm records. It is also Wilco's best album since 2004's A Ghost is Born. The Whole Love has plenty of variety. Interviewed in the latest issue of Rolling Stone, frontman Jeff Tweedy says, "It sounds like Wilco, but with something that feels new and fresh."

The album is bookended by its longest and best tracks, "Art of Almost" and "One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)." The latter was also the highlight of Wilco's Boston concert I attended on September 20th. "One Sunday Morning" clocks in at twelve minutes and has a beautiful acoustic guitar medley with an equally beautiful piano accompaniment. "Art of Almost" recalls the experimental rock of Ghost and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, with the added benefit of some great guitar work by Nels Cline toward the end. Says Tweedy, "There's a certain faction of Wilco fans that I think has felt maligned by the directness of the last couple of records. 'Art of Almost' scratches that itch for them." In another interview, he remarks that the type of song like "Art of Almost" fits best at the beginning of an album, and wryly laments some people's dismissal of Sky Blue Sky because of its especially mellow opening track.

Were it not for "One Sunday Morning" the louder songs on the album would steal it. There are numerous relatively quiet songs on the album, perhaps more than there should be because of how powerful the more rocking songs are, leaving the listener eager for more of them. Despite how rich the album is sonically, Tweedy's lyrics still captivate. Some standouts include "You won't set the kids on fire / Oh but I might" from "I Might" and "Sadness is my luxury" from "Born Alone." "Open Mind" has strong lyrics (but it's a shame that the song is somewhat boring musically): "I would throw myself underneath / The wheels of any train of thought / Running off the rails or sail you through / The rogue waves of your brain." In "Sunloathe," Tweedy sings, "I kill my memories / With a cheap disease." He remarks, "A lot of 'Sunloathe' is mocking the internally manufactured abyss of addiction. It's a common thread in a lot of my songs--being angry at my own self-pity, or self-pity in general, in the face of real suffering in the world."

This is Wilco's third album with its current lineup of six talented musicians and its strongest together. A few critics have pointed to the variety of the songs on the album as making it seem disjointed--sure, it's not the most coherent, but it is a quality album and one of Wilco's better efforts.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

At first listen: I'm Having Fun Now

I just received my copy of Jenny and Johnny's album I'm Having Fun Now. This is their debut as Jenny and Johnny, but you might know them for their previous accomplishments as singer-songwriters Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice. They have previously collaborated (they are also a real-life couple), but not to the extent that they do here. Johnathan joined Jenny as part of her touring band and they appeared on each other's solo albums. I liked them each separately and collaboratively from what I'd heard so far, so naturally I was eager for this project.

The album has Jenny's trademark deceptively upbeat sound mixed with more downbeat lyrical content written all over it! As in, "I'm having fun now, but I got some cynical banter for you." Johnathan is a talented musician and writer, but Jenny ups him on intrigue and charisma, and he's always been more willing to take a backseat anyway. Still, he rocks out on two of the best tracks: "Animal" and "Committed."

I was hoping for a "that's what I'm talking about" reaction like the one I had to Jenny's "The Next Messiah" on Acid Tongue, which featured Johnathan. They were going for a different sound and idea with this album, and it leaves something to be desired. Though not as complex as I was hoping for, it is called I'm Having Fun Now.