Recording of the Month

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Recording of January 2023: Here It Is: A Tribute To Leonard Cohen

Thomas Conrad Dec 21, 2022 First Published: Dec 21, 2022 0 comments

Here It Is: A Tribute To Leonard Cohen

Norah Jones, Peter Gabriel, Gregory Porter, Sarah McLachlan, Luciana Souza, James Taylor, Iggy Pop, Mavis Staples, David Gray, Nathaniel Rateliff, vocals; Bill Frisell, guitar; Immanuel Wilkins, alto saxophone; Kevin Hays, piano, Estey; Scott Colley, bass; Nate Smith, drums; Gregory Leisz, pedal steel guitar; Larry Goldings, Hammond organ

Blue Note B003552102 (CD, available as download, LP). 2022. Larry Klein, prod.; Adam Greenspan, eng.; other engineers for seven vocal tracks.

Performance ****½

Sonics ****

This is not just another Leonard Cohen tribute album. It is an ambitious, unified work of art. The performances are all new. They constitute a profound encounter with a towering figure among North American songwriters.

Recording of the Month

Recording of December 2022: Muswell Hillbillies/Everybody's in Show-Biz

Robert Baird Nov 16, 2022 First Published: Nov 16, 2022 0 comments

The Kinks: Muswell Hillbillies/Everybody's in Show-Biz

BMG BMGCAT720DBOX (6 LP, 4 CD, Blu-ray). 2022. Ray Davies, Andrew Sandoval, prods.; Mike Bobak, Matt Jaggar, Kevin Gray, others, engs.

Performance ****

Sonics ***½

Despite world-class songwriting and great singing from Ray Davies, solid guitar work from brother Dave, a run of six classic albums from Face to Face (1966) to Muswell Hillbillies (1971), multiple hit singles and albums in the US and the UK, the Kinks are rarely mentioned, on either side of the Atlantic, in the same breath as contemporaries the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Why is that?

Recording of the Month

Recording of November 2022: From Afar

Jason Victor Serinus Oct 18, 2022 First Published: Oct 18, 2022 0 comments

Víkingur Ólafsson: From Afar

Víkingur Ólafsson, grand and upright pianos

DG 4861681 (24/192 WAV, available on 2 CD, 2 LP). 2022. Christopher Tarnow, prod. & eng.

Performance *****

Sonics ****

From Afar seems on its face like a dream recording for audiophiles and music lovers. The 2-CD, 44-track project spotlights Víkingur Ólafsson, the sensitive, 38-year-old Icelandic pianist, performing a captivating program of short pieces twice on dissimilar pianos with very different sound: a concert grand and an upright. The very different performances are dictated by Ólafsson's response to these very different instruments. The contrasts are wondrous.

Recording of the Month

Recording of October 2022: Dialogue

Anne E. Johnson Sep 14, 2022 First Published: Sep 14, 2022 0 comments

Howard Jones: Dialogue

D-Tox Records (Multiple formats; auditioned as 16/44.1 stream). 2022. Howard Jones, prod.; Robbie Bronnimann, eng.

Performance ****½

Sonics ****½

Howard Jones has always come across as an endearing blend of mad scientist and hopeless romantic. Since his 1983 debut single, "New Song," he has blended obsessive technical detail with extreme emotionality. His newest album, Dialogue, is the latest example of this approach, in which intricate structures of synthesized sound grow into musical mountains supporting impassioned lyrics.

Recording of the Month

Recording of September 2022: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Phil Brett Aug 18, 2022 First Published: Aug 18, 2022 0 comments

Bowie: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Parlophone DBZS50 (LP). 2020/1972. David Bowie and Ken Scott, prods.; Ken Scott, John Webber, engs.

Performance *****

Sonics *****

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was one of the first albums I ever purchased. A week before, an uncle had given me his old red Dansette record player; I used collected pocket money to christen it. After just one play, the 10-year-old me was blown away. But it wasn't just elementary school kids who loved this album, causing it to break into the top 30 US and UK album charts. This was the album that launched Bowie to superstardom.

Recording of the Month

Recording of August 2022: Cruel Country

Mike Mettler Jul 21, 2022 First Published: Jul 21, 2022 0 comments

Wilco: Cruel Country

dBpm (24/96 stream, Qobuz; also available as 2CD, 2LP). 2022. Jeff Tweedy, Tom Schick, prods.; Tom Schick, eng.

Performance ****½

Sonics ****½

The cover art for Wilco's finely hewn double album Cruel Country resembles a hand-stitched doily or the kind of patch you might have seen sewn onto the back pocket of a pair of vintage faded jeans circa 1978. It's appropriate: Wilco's music has long been a patchwork, piecing together the scope and potential of American music for the band's nearly 30 years.

Recording of the Month

Recording of July 2022: Growing Up

Anne E. Johnson Jun 23, 2022 First Published: Jun 23, 2022 0 comments

The Linda Lindas: Growing Up

Epitaph (16/44.1 stream, Qobuz). 2022. Produced, engineered, and mixed by Carlos de la Garza.

Performance *****

Sonics ****½

When your uncle is an award-winning producer and engineer, a band formed by you and your cousins has a higher-than-average shot at going somewhere. But even that family advantage can't explain the immediate success of the Los Angelesbased Linda Lindas; they've earned their accolades through talent, hard work, and ingenuity. Their first album, Growing Up, offers proof of their worth and the promise of a stellar musical future.

Recording of the Month

Recording of June 2022: Richard Strauss: Orchestral Works

Jason Victor Serinus May 25, 2022 First Published: May 25, 2022 0 comments

Richard Strauss: Orchestral Works

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Andris Nelsons, cond.; Yuja Wang, piano; Yo-Yo Ma, cello

Deutsche Grammophon 486 2049 (7 CDs, auditioned as 24/96 WAV), 2022. Various prods. and engs.

Performance *****

Sonics ****½

At last, a box set of the orchestral works of Richard Strauss to rival the classic analog traversal from German conductor Rudolf Kempe and the Staatskapelle Dresden: a heaping helping of orchestral blockbusters, 93 tracks of music that, for color, splash, dynamic impact, fantasy, romance, wonder, and thrill, are without peer in the classical canon.

Recording of the Month

Recording of May 2022: Strictly a One-Eyed Jack

Anne E. Johnson Apr 20, 2022 First Published: Apr 20, 2022 0 comments

John Mellencamp: Strictly a One-Eyed Jack

Republic (16/44.1 stream, EMI/Qobuz). 2022. John Mellencamp, prod.; David Leonard, eng.

Performance ****

Sonics ****

You might think an artist with 22 Top-40 hits would identify his winning formula and stick with it. Instead, John Mellencamp's long career has been a tale of determined development and often improvement. On his latest album, the 70-year-old Indiana native has nestled deeper into his rural Midwestern roots, eschewing rock defiance for folk philosophy. The result is a powerful baring of the soul, which, to many Americans, will also be a glance in the mirror.

Recording of the Month

Recording of April 2022: Ghost Song

Fred Kaplan Mar 24, 2022 First Published: Mar 24, 2022 0 comments

Cécile Mclorin Salvant: Ghost Song

McLorin Salvant, vocals; Sullivan Fortner, piano, Fender Rhodes; Aaron Diehl, piano, pipe organ; Paul Sikivie, Burniss Travis, bass; Alexa Tarantino, flute; Marvin Sewell, guitar; James Chirillo, banjo; Keita Ogawa, percussion; Kyle Poole, drums; Daniel Swenberg, lute, theorbo; Brooklyn Youth Chorus.

Nonesuch (LP, CD). McLorin Salvant, prod.; Todd Whitelock, Patrick Dillet, Chris Muth, engs.

Performance *****

Sonics *****

Starting with her out-of-nowhere triumph at the 2010 Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition and continuing with the release of four albums including three Grammy winners, Cécile McLorin Salvant, still just 32, has been raising eyebrows and neck hairs for a dozen years. She reigns as the supreme jazz singer of our time, ranking among the best of all time. More remarkable, she keeps getting better, and, rarer still, she keeps evolving, expanding her repertoire of styleswhich was vast from the startwithout losing a wisp of her deep blues, swing, precision, wit, operatic range, or storytelling drama.