Apologies for absence endure week's blog: A active anniversary vacationing in Miami, afresh addition in Austin, Texas for the contempo South By Southwest confab, kept me abroad from my computer and appropriately any agency whatsoever for cogent rational thought!
Major regrets? That I could not accord the admirable new David Bowie anthology the appropriate acceptable it deserves, nor altercate the actual angle of a new anthology by Bon Jovi, nor-worst of all-use Twitter to active the masses that any accurate artisan was "killing it" in Austin!
And now, of course, every active getting in Austin is dead!
Next year I'll accompany an iPad or something!
Justin Timberlake: The 20/20 Experience (RCA) Perhaps it's just me, but I cannot believe that anybody cares abundant at all about Mr. Timberlake--who seems a likable, agilely talented, affable fellow, but about fascinatingly accustomed in his music-making. Like, what am I missing? A above boy-bander with a few glossy moves, a array of acclaimed accompany who could accomplish a toad complete commercially appealing, and a claimed portfolio that now includes the newly-relaunched MySpace, which this anthology was acutely created to promote, JT now seems beneath a being than a business concept! While I've consistently durably believed that humans should not be advised on the base of their agreeable taste, I tend to anticipate those who in actuality yield this absorbing adolescent man seriously-at atomic in agreement of his agreeable pursuits-might wish to amend their actual existence! Luckily, a bedfellow actualization by Jay-Z on "Suit & Tie" makes this the anthology of the year-in Stupidland! Like added Timberlake albums, The 20/20 Experience is audible!
David Bowie: The Next Day (Columbia) Not just endure week's highlight but one of 2013's actual best albums, David Bowie's The Next Day is a acceptable relief: Years afterwards the fact, one of pop music's bigger icons has it aural him to actualize a abundant plan every bit as cogent as his accomplished triumphs that is awful musical, conspicuously catchy, affably arranged, and-no baby thing-as adeptly articulate as annihilation he's anytime done. With all due to account to Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan, who abide to almanac with articulate ranges now bargain to a half-dozen (low) notes, Bowie actuality sounds absolutely like the aforementioned man who sang his 1970 masterwork The Man Who Sold The World; that, and the fact that the actual he's singing sounds as appropriately beginning and varied, agency that The Next Day is little abbreviate of astonishingly good. One of the year's bigger surprises and, to my mind, the best so far.
Duane Allman: Skydog: The Duane Allman Retrospective (Rounder) A marvelously absolute copy that does all it sets out to do in admiring detail, Skydog abstracts the remarkable, brief career of guitarist Duane Allman from his actual ancient days, through his stints as a affair player, through his plan with Derek & The Dominos and, of course, through the much-loved Allman Brothers. While his plan with the closing has been agilely reissued-and of advance deserves all the adulation accorded it-it's the music alfresco that group, never so absolutely compiled, that's absolutely the big win here. Between his beforehand groups the Escorts, Allman Joys and Hour Glass, and the affair gigs with Arthur Conley, Boz Scaggs, Clarence Carter, Johnny Jenkins, Lulu and so abounding others, a massive, acicular account of a behemothic aptitude is eloquently accurate in a loving, massive accolade that functionally, in the account of box-setdom, has actual few precedents. Awful recommended, and hopefully to be on the accepting end of a few awards next time the Grammys cycle around.
Karl Bartos: Off The Record (Bureau B) While the works of German bands like Can and Tangerine Dream accept been appropriately accepted and absolutely explained to the masses, and the even added acclaimed Kraftwerk afresh acclaimed at the Museum Of Avant-garde Art, the latter's attenuate recordings and advised aloneness accept fabricated the angle of audition annihilation even accidentally akin the-grandeur-that-once-was a abreast impossibility. Yet here, unexpectedly, from above (1975-1991) Kraftwerk affiliate Karl Bartos, comes an anthology that affably evokes the celebrity and consummate Dadaism of his above band. Pulsing, rhythmic, deceptively simple and, not insignificantly, slyly humorous, Off The Record is a easygoing but awful ambrosial treasure, and a aces admonition of the abundance of Kraftwerk's chaste legacy.
Tomasz Stanko/New York Quartet : Wislawa (ECM) A 2-CD set of alluringly played avant-garde applesauce headed up by Polish trumpeter Stanko, Wislawa appearance 12 contemplative, basic compositions bolstered by the awful attuned accessory of a best accent area (Thomas Morgan and Gerald Cleaver) and pianist David Virelles. In some means evoking the spirit of late-'60s Miles Davis, Stanko's trumpet is at times abrupt and eerie, at one with the adult actual and foolishly active it forward. Intuitively played, carefully paced and in the end awful rewarding, the anthology is a accomplished archetype of abreast applesauce played by artists whose accessible agreeable abilities are akin by tasteful abstemiousness and subtlety.
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band: Vol. 2 (Reprise vinyl edition) Any adventitious I accept to acknowledgment the actual best anthology by one of bedrock 'n' roll's finest groups is acceptable abundant for me! Newly reissued in black vinyl, the 1967 set offers up abounding of the LA bandage band's best songs-"Suppose They Accord A War And No One Comes," "Smell Of Incense," "Unfree Child" and "Tracy Had A Hard Day Sunday" a part of them-and sounds bigger than anytime 45 years later. From its amazing foreground cover-dudes at blow in a argent spray-painted bathroom-to its fable on the back-- "Every song in this anthology has been written, arranged, articulate and played by the group. No one censored us. We got to say aggregate we capital to say, in the way we capital to say it."-this is a accurate pop archetypal still under-appreciated by the masses. On vinyl yet again? You can't go wrong!
The Mary Onettes: Hit The Waves (Labrador) Out endure anniversary but advised this week-hey, I was in Austin aggravating on wristbands-Hit The Waves is the third anthology by this alluringly ambrosial Swedish "indie dream pop" band, and like it predecessors offers strong, melodic, hardly askance tunes that assume to be the axial focus of the Labrador label: Surefire pop hits from a alongside world. With great, relatable lyrics articulate by one Philip Ekström, to music that is angry and upbeat generally simultaneously, the band's plan is a abundant admonition that the Swedish pop arena generally offers abundant Swedish pop! Quote me now!
Soft Machine Legacy: Burden Of Proof (Moonjune) The 21st Century adaptation of one of England's a lot of acclaimed bands-Soft Machine, who arose in the mid-'60s, afflicted players regularly, and eventually achromatic abroad in the '80s-is acclaimed by the "Legacy" at the tail-end of its name and the accomplished musicians within, including above Soft Machiners John Marshall, Roy Babbington, and John Etheridge, and saxophonist Theo Travis. Carrying on afterward the deaths of Elton Dean and Hugh Hopper, the accepted quartet are heard actuality on their third flat set alms their aforementioned alloy of adult animated fusion, and it's acceptable traveling indeed. Featuring 13 tunes, including a awning of "Kings And Queens" from Soft Machine's Four, the anthology is a strong, auspicious account that upholds the band's legacy, as their name would accept it, after active it into the ground, as cynics ability fear. Awful recommended.
Various Artists: Love for Levon: A Benefit To Save The Barn DVD (ATO) Available in all sorts of configurations-2 CDs, 2 DVDs, Blu-ray, combined-this superb set abstracts the 2012 Meadowlands Arena concert accolade to the Band's backward bagman and diva Levon Helm, a much-loved singer/performer with accompany in the actual accomplished of places. A part of them: Roger Waters, John Mayer, My Morning Jacket, Don Was, Gregg Allman, John Hiatt, Allen Toussaint and…lots, lots more. Well-played and well-sung, and abounding with amazing amore for Helm--truly a musician's musician, it would appear--the accumulating showcases abutting to 30 songs associated with the man and in its assortment is accidentally rich. Roger Waters singing "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"? Believe it.
Les Misérables: Original Motion Account Soundtrack (Republic) This ability be a abundant abode to altercate the new Bon Jovi album!
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