Album Reviews

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Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2006  |  0 comments

Another sonic spectacular from the Everest catalog, this pairing of Shostakovich’s 9th Symphony, completed in 1945, with Prokofiev’s score for the 1933 film “Lieutenant Kije,” offers rich, warm orchestral colors, remarkable transparency and air, and dynamic contrasts that mimic what one hears in a good concert hall.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2006  |  0 comments

“She brushes off comparisons to Billie Holiday,” according to Mobile Fidelity’s online blurb. Why? That’s like denying the elephant in the room. Peyroux’s squooshy vibrato and top of the throat delivery produce sly vocal timbres that just about channel Billie Holiday between your speakers. Even the miking and equalization have been carefully chosen to sustain the Holiday allusion and almost mimic the mellow recording quality of the time, just as the inner gatefold photography and Peyroux’s outfits reprise the visuals of the ‘40s. It’s canny but I find it distracting and mannered.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2006  |  0 comments

As old-fashioned ear candy, David Gilmour’s On An Island is difficult to beat. Produced by seasoned studio pros intent upon making you stop what you are doing and actually listen, the record is a rich minefield of sonic surprises and delights, beginning with impressionistic musical sound effects mimicking foghorns, sea-gulls and the like, after which enters Gilmore’s familiar feedback-drenched, crescendo-capped guitar, and archetypal mid-tempo woozy balladry.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2006  |  0 comments

Much was made of special guest star Diana Krall’s appearance when this superb album was announced, and while her reading of Cheryl Ernst’s lyrics set to a Jimmy Rowles’s composition is poignant and heartfelt, appropriately, it is Wilson who shines both as an arranger, comfortably in the grip of Gil Evans, and as a precise master of the hollow-bodied electric guitar.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2006  |  0 comments

Former child star and Rilo Kiley front-gal Jenny Lewis may present herself as a latter day Charo, but she’s not afraid to plant serious concerns within her art, both in Rilo Kiley and in this earnest solo setting backed by Louisville natives The Watson Twins.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2006  |  0 comments

After releasing two perfectly conceived and executed if somewhat campy albums of “country and eastern,” Gray DeLisle is back with an off kilter but no less enticing and superb sounding third effort.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2006  |  0 comments

Scoring a concerto for violin and cello provided pianist/composer Brahms with an opportunity to create a piano like texture by simultaneously using the low and high-pitched strings to create keyboard-like chords.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2006  |  0 comments

While Mercury gets all the 35MM audiophile glory, Everest also produced a series of sonically spectacular LPs, many recorded on 35MM magnetic film by the late engineer-turned audio columnist Bert Whyte. The advantages of sprocketed 35MM magnetic film are zero “print-through,” minimal “wow and flutter,” higher signal to noise ratio and wider dynamic range than conventional ¼” or ½” recording tape.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2006  |  0 comments

Presaging the "Christian rock" phenomenon of the 1990's, this Farfisa-filled fire and brimstone exercise in religious guilt asks where you will hide when Armageddon happens and your personal judgment day is at hand.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2006  |  0 comments

This Glasgow-based pop band, led by lead singer and songwriter Tracyanne Campbell produces breezy, tuneful string-driven pop confections bathed in near-cavernous reverb. So great is the reverb that what are real strings sound like synth ones. Oh, well.

Michael Fremer  |  Aug 01, 2006  |  1 comments

These songs will be familiar to you if you attended a “socialist” summer camp during the 1950’s and/or 1960’s. I did. What’s a “socialist” summer camp? It’s roughly defined as one that had an on staff guitar and banjo-playing Pete Seeger following pre-Hippie collegiate or “long hair.”

Michael Fremer  |  Aug 01, 2006  |  0 comments

Better late than never to discover this family of fanciful, faith-based music makers living in Clarksburg, New Jersey, a small hamlet located between Trenton and Point Pleasant on the New Jersey shore.

Michael Fremer  |  Aug 01, 2006  |  0 comments

Former Kinks frontman Ray Davies’ fans are among the most fan-atic in rock. I found out the hard way when I dared to post a less than fawning review of an Irving Plaza show I attended last spring on a Kinks fan newsgroup that I joined.

Michael Fremer  |  Aug 01, 2006  |  0 comments

I think there’s a recent interview with these guys online but I don’t want to read it. The less I know the better.

Michael Fremer  |  Aug 01, 2006  |  0 comments

This album of analog (or analog sounding) bleeps, blops and buzzes, backed by a drum track apparently created from real skins by Mr. Hebden, has an organic, hypnotic, soothing quality that many will find attractive.

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