Anne E. Johnson

Recording of October 2023: I Inside the Old Year Dying
Recording of the Month
Anne E. Johnson  |  Sep 12, 2023
PJ Harvey: I Inside the Old Year Dying
PTKF (auditioned as 16/44.1 FLAC stream on Qobuz). 2023. Produced by PJ Harvey, Flood, and John Parish.
Performance ****
Sonics ****

In 2022, PJ Harvey published an epic poem called Orlam. Harvey's 10th studio album, I Inside the Old Year Dying, isn't exactly a musical setting of Orlam's English- and Dorset-dialect poetry; rather, it's an interpretation of the poem with added improvisation. The result is as bizarre and fascinating as one could hope.

Continue Reading >
July 2023 Rock/Pop Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Anne E. Johnson, Ray Chelstowski  |  Jul 13, 2023
Natalie Merchant: Keep Your Courage; The Hold Steady: The Price of Progress.
Continue Reading >
May 2023 Rock/Pop Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Robert Baird, Phil Brett, Anne E. Johnson  |  May 11, 2023
John Lee Hooker: Burnin'; Paramore: This Is Why; New Order: Low-Life (Definitive Edition); Yo La Tengo: This Stupid World
Continue Reading >
Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations: The Complete Unreleased 1981 Studio Sessions
Rabbit Holes
Anne E. Johnson  |  Apr 27, 2023
In 1955, Canadian pianist Glenn Gould surprised executives at Columbia Masterworks by choosing J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations for his debut recording. His performance was fast and fluid and sparkling and delicious, and it was an astonishingly big seller. In 1981, Gould came full circle and recorded the Goldbergs again. It was his last studio recording. That second attempt could not be more different from the first: relentlessly intellectual, percussive, insistent.

Late last year, to honor what would have been Gould's 90th birthday, Sony put out a package with a full-color coffee table book and 10 CDs of unreleased outtakes from the 1981 sessions—The Goldberg Variations: The Complete Unreleased 1981 Studio Sessions—with an 11th disc containing the 1981 album.

Continue Reading >
April 2023 Rock/Pop Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Robert Baird, Phil Brett, Anne E. Johnson  |  Apr 06, 2023
Weyes Blood: And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow; Gina Birch: I Play My Bass Loud; Rick Rosato: Homage.
Continue Reading >
February 2023 Rock/Pop Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Jim Austin, Robert Baird, Phil Brett, Tom Fine, Anne E. Johnson  |  Feb 09, 2023
Peggy Lee: Norma Deloris Egstrom from Jamestown, North Dakota (Expanded Edition); Blancmange: Private View; Weyes Blood: And In the Darkness, Hearts Aglow; Pit Pony: World to Me; Various Artists: Live Forever: A Tribute to Billy Joe Shaver
Continue Reading >
January 2023 Rock/Pop Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Robert Baird, Phil Brett, Anne E. Johnson  |  Jan 13, 2023
David Bowie: Divine Symmetry (An Alternative Journey Through Hunky Dory), Björk: Fossora and Emily Scott Robinson: Built on Bones.
Continue Reading >
October 2022 Pop/Rock Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Anne E. Johnson  |  Oct 07, 2022
Angel Olsen: Big Time and Bananarama: Masquerade.
Continue Reading >
Recording of October 2022: Dialogue
Recording of the Month
Anne E. Johnson  |  Sep 14, 2022
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.

Continue Reading >
September 2022 Pop/Rock Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Kurt Gottschalk, Anne E. Johnson, Tony Scherman  |  Sep 09, 2022
Madison Cunningham: Revealer, Black Midi: Hellfire and Porridge Radio: Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky.
Continue Reading >

Pages

X