This album was first released in late 2008 and I had a download version. It was an extremely well recorded live set that was basically a greatest hits album. It was also a DVD, but I have never watched that. This past summer a deluxe edition was released with a second disk and Record Store Day – Black Friday released that deluxe edition on vinyl.
To me, Jeff Beck is the most talented of the 60s guitar gods. Well at least he is the most diverse in his styles: blues, heavy rock, funk and jazz rock fusion (sometimes in the same song). He has gorgeous tone and is a great interpreter of songs. He can showoff with the best of the guitar heroes, but his gift is his lyrical playing – his guitar sings.
This album is a great introduction to Jeff Beck’s work. The original album (disk 1 and 2 of this vinyl version) do not have single clunker. For a live album, it has studio quality sonics. The LP version of the album is lush (of course I am comparing to an MP3).
A great sequence that defines Jeff Beck is LP 2 Side 1 (AKA Side C). It opens with “Angel (Footsteps),” which is Beck at his most lyrical – he sounds more like a horn player than guitar player. Think late 50s Miles Davis. He juxtapositions that with “Scatterrbrain” which is pure guitar god pyrotechnics (this version was features on the hardest set list of Guitar Hero 5). He closes out with the pure jazz of Mingus’ “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” which segues into “Brush With The Blues” which is down and dirty (yet pretty damn fancy) blues . I won’t bore you with a track by track account of the whole album. This sequence pretty much defines the album: brilliance, genius and most of all joy. And by the way his band is perfect.
The bonus disk side 1 (side E) is filled with guest vocalists: Joss Stone for one song, Imogine Heap for two songs and Eric Clapton for a couple (and of course he adds a little fret work with his appearance). The vocalist distract you from Beck’s guitar, but if you give it a careful listen you realize what a sensitive accompanist Beck is. For me Imogine Heap and Beck work the best because she matches closest to his lyrical ballad style (although “Rollin’ And Tumblin'” is pretty damn bluesy). Clapton is a gentleman and does not try to get into a guitar cutting session with Beck, opting for a friendly conversation and deferring to Beck for the big statements.
The final slide is with The Big Town Playboys who accompanied Beck on his 1993 Gene Vincent tribute Crazy Legs. Clearly Jeff Beck enjoys playing vintage rock and roll. This genre may seem corny, but this is no different from Wynton Marsalis playing Dixieland jazz – this is foundation stuff. You need to acknowledge the base. For me it is Chuck Berry, but Vincent must have been Beck’s drug of choice.
Overall this album is a great overview of Jeff Beck’s career in one sitting. An extraordinary document of the guitar genius and guitar diversity that is Jeff Beck.
There are not many mega pop stars that I followed from day one, but Adele is one of them. Her debut album 19 was great and “Chasing Pavements” was an amazing single (and the fact she invented a clever phrase was a triple bonus). 21 was even better and she became the biggest and brightest star in the pop world. People loved her music so much they actually paid for it. She has made her fans wait 4 years for the follow-up – this is one of the most anticipated releases in a long time. It sold a record setting 2.3 million albums in the first three days.
I love Adele, but it is annoying she is not streaming the album and she issued the vinyl LP without a download. Oh well, that just forces me to listen on my home system and fully appreciate the sounds vs. listening in the car or on Spotify through buds. This is big music that deserves to be listened to in the proper context.
I did listen to the pre-album single and LP opening song “Hello” before buying the LP and I thought it was a Lionel Richie song. The song did not grab me at first, but on repeated listens it has grown on me. When I bought the LP and looked at the liner notes I was surprised it was not a Ritchie song. I pulled out Can’t Slow Down just to make sure. It is a different song but clearly inspired by the Richie original. Ultimately this is a great single – a worthy calling card for the rest of the album.
“Send My Love (To Your New Lover) has a Radiohead like guitar riff, which is a pretty cool way to frame Adele.
“I Miss You” is a nice contemporary sounding song with echoey Phil Collins drums. It has just a touch of funk and risk.
One of the things I like about Adele’s voice is that it conventionally pretty, but it has just a touch of a growl. Her production values are epic, yet not over powering. The focus is always on the voice. “When We Were Young” is a great example of what I am talking about. This is my favorite song on the album.
“Remedy” closes side A with a simple voice and piano arrangement. Adele sings her ass off and you don’t need anything more. Her voice is an orchestra.
“Water Under The Bridge” open side B and is one of the more anonymous songs on the album. It is catchy but it seems a bit light weight for Adele. Over produced and it already sounds dated (seems like she is trying to be Taylor Swift – a move that is unnecessary).
“River Lea” is a Danger Mouse production. Adele and DM are a pretty good duo: his cinematic production values and Adele’s epic voice. You can imagine this song behind the end credits of a great movie and you would be Shazaming it because it sounded so foreign and familiar at the same time. This song begs for more Adele/Danger Mouse collaborations.
“Love The Dark” is a simple piano and strings arrangement that allows Adele to shine on the top. A real showcase for her.
“Million Years Ago” has a beautiful stark arrangement-just Adele and guitar (with some other subtle shading). It has a very retro feel to me. This could be from a 60s chanteuse.
Adele does a second simple arrangement in row (just voice and piano) with “All I Ask.”
The album concludes with “Sweet Devotion” – a bang. This is a big room anthem.
So does it live up to the hype and is it worthy of earning the all time one week album sales record? Nope, but no album could live up to that hype. This is a solid album and a worthy follow-up to 21. Adele does not sell out, she just does her thing (which just happens to monetize really well). I like the record but there is nothing on it that blows you away like “Rolling In The Deep.” I like that it has a diversity of styles but holds together. Ultimately it is Adele’s voice that defines her – she could sing a telephone book. Amazingly her cowriters/producers don’t get in the way, but properly elevate her. In the end this album appeals to me more than Taylor Swift’s 1989. It is a more grown up album and is fits better into my baby boomer aesthetics. It is gimmick free – just a great voice showcased.
Again it does annoy me this album is not streaming and even worse the vinyl did not come with a download (especially without a streaming option). It comes off as a money grab and disrespectful of the fans. It leaves just enough of a bad taste in my mouth to keep me from totally falling for the album (and frankly it just won’t be convenient enough to fall for).
I am not much of a punk music fan so I ignored Titus Andronicus despite all the hype over that last few years. I recently heard the band’s leader Patrick Stickles on a WTF podcast and was absolutely charmed and intrigued to check out the band’s ambitious new album The Most Lamentable Tragedy.
I listened to it on Spotify and was blown away. This is epic Born To Run Springsteen, The Who, Queen, Johnny Rotten and The Pouges inspired rock and roll. The band’s tag line for the album is: “a rock opera in five acts.”
I am in no position to provide a plot synopsis. So I will defer to the Pitchfork review:
The Most Lamentable Tragedy is a story told in five acts that follows the Hero, an unnamed man (who’s someone like Stickles) in an unnamed city (which is somewhere like New York) grappling with his neuroses. He’s confronted by his doppelgänger—an alternate self that seems to have everything figured out, and pushes him to find solace outside of sin. It’s a protracted allegory for manic depression, which Stickles has publicly struggled with since the band first came to attention.
I can speak to the music. It is both majestic and messy. It is both stadium rock and dive bar punk. It has tremendous anger and tender moments.
This is the second three-LP masterpiece I have enjoyed this year. Kamasi Washington’s The Epic being the first. Washington mined a couple of generations of jazz for his album. Titus Andronicus has done the same with rock and roll.
Patrick Stickles has an amazing voice. Once you get used to the shredding vocal chords and phlegmatic scream you come to appreciate what a brilliant and expressive instrument it is.
This is never garden variety garage rock, it is more in line with the ambitious wall of sound of mid-70s Springsteen. Lots of big guitar, but also plenty of keyboards, woodwinds, strings and back up vocals. If you want to dip your toe in the water with one of their more accessible yet complex numbers try “Lonely Boy.”
Some may find the album pretentious, I prefer to call it ambitious. It is albums like this that restore my faith in rock and roll. This is a dramatic presentation of raw human emotion: pissed, in love, self loathing, in lust, adrenaline fueled euphoria and an occasional fist through the wall. In short: rock and roll and I like it (if you don’t póg mo thóin).
I learned about Lenny White from his drumming with Return To Forever (RTF). RTF was one of the great fusion bands of the 70s where every member of the band was a virtuoso.
I don’t know the story of this album, but it is a hodgepodge.
The LP opens with the titular track where Lenny joins forces with Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express and the Tower Of Power horns. As you might expect it is badass jazz rock with a twist of funk.
The next is a soul jazz ballad featuring vocalist Linda Tillery and pianist Herbie Hancock. “Sweet Dreamer” is pretty anonymous, except for the Hancock keys.
Lenny juxtapositions the ballad with two disjointed “Interludes.” The first is a minute jam between Lenny and bassist Marcus Miller. The second a minute and half of an orchestra.
Lenny takes another hard turn on extended jam between Lenny, Herbie Hancock and Ray Gomaz (on guitar). “Rapid Transit” Is a punk-jazz jam. This song would have sounded perfectly fine after the first cut.
Side one ends with drum solo (“Ritmo Loco”) and an uncredited heavy guitar riff for a couple of bars.
Side two starts out with “Dreams Come And Go Away” a literal definition of jazz rock fusion. Heavy guitars from Journey’s Neal Schon and jazz piano from Onaje Allan Gumbs.
White then presents the ambitious “Enchanted Pool Suite.” A RTF-like composition featuring Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Jerry Goodman (violin) and Jan Hammer.
The album ends with a live cut featuring Brian Auger and the dueling guitars of Neal Schon (left channel) and Ray Gomez (right channel). A dash of sax from from Bernie Maupin spices things up.
Although this is a disjointed album, the individual cuts are worth the price of admission. The best cuts are on the rock side of the fusion spectrum. This album must have a following amongst collectors: used CDs are $100 and quality vinyl is in the $25 range. I picked up a decent vinyl copy for $4. I just wish the album had a little more continuity to it. It reminds me of another fusion drummer’s brilliant mess – Tony Williams The Joy Of Flying from about the same era. The album is not on Spotify, so start digging.
My conscious introduction to Allen Toussaint was from Robert Palmer’s Double Fun album where side two opened with “Night People.” I thought that was the funkiest shit I had ever heard at 19 years old. Unconsciously I had heard his pop hits before, but did not know it. It was the dawning of my musical enlightenment and I read LP credits like a hungry dog. I learned the song was by Allen Toussaint – whoever he was.
About a year later I was crate digging at Woolworth’s in downtown Minneapolis on my lunch break in the two for a dollar cut-out bins when I found Toussaint’s 1978 LP Motion. Its opening cut was “Night People.” Now that was some seriously funky shit.
I learned yesterday of Toussaint’s passing via ?uestlove’s Instagram. I will leave it to bigger music heads and professional journalists to write Toussaint’s obituary.
I must have spun “Night People” a thousand time over the years and I have never sickened of it. Over time I learned who Toussaint was and his broad subtle influence on pop music.
I got to see Toussaint live many years ago at the old Guthrie Theater. He was solo at a grand piano pumping out his songbook. It is one of my great concert memories. Not only the music, but what gentleman he was – it just radiated out of him.
Toussaint is a great interpreter of his own work, but he is more famous as a producer and songwriter. There are so many great covers of Toussaint songs, from schmaltz artists like Glen Campbell, to the edgy and hip like the Rolling Stones. His duet album with Elvis Costello is pretty great.
Toussaint’s music is soul music, but it is unique in that is always dripping in Nola funk – it has a unique groove – even when covered by the most milk-toast singer. A national treasure is lost, but his music lives on.
Recommended listening is his Warner Brother’s sides from the 70s:
I am pretty late to the party. I am just now listening to Taylor Swift’s 1989. I am not a hater, but I have never listened to T-Swift (at least that I am conscious of) in my life. I just have not had the opportunity – especially in light of her not being on Spotify.
I like the concept of Taylor Swift. A pop star who is fully conscious of being a pop star. Kind of like U2 embraces being rock stars. No irony and no pretensions. Authenticity fake and in total control. A mirror reflecting on itself. I like that there appears to be no Svengali. But some how I was never interested to listen until now. I am a Ryan Adams fan, so I had to check it out what the hell has inspired him.
I listened to the Ryan Adams cover of 1989 the day it came out and I thought it was the blandest thing Adams had ever done. I have been giving the Taylor Swift original repeated spins and it is catchy as hell. And I admit I have heard “Shake It Off” prior to this serious listen.
I come to T-Swift as a fully blossomed pop star vs. country pop princess. So there is no shock that she opens the album with a Lady Gaga like anthem: “Welcome To New York.” That song could be performed by any pop diva, so a little underwhelming.
Adams turns the song into a late 70s Springsteen arena anthem, which seems like a pretty appropriate take.
“Blank Space” sounds exactly what I imagined Taylor Swift would sounded like both musically and lyrically – a boy crazed predator.
Adams puts on his best Nick Drake mask on. Every singer songwriter can’t seem to help having a Nick Drake moment. Interesting twist on the original.
“Style” opens like a long-lost Blondie track. The chorus is a fast forward from the 80s to contemporary pop. This is an extremely fun song and reeks of T-Swift’s sexy librarian image.
Ryan turns it into an Arcade Fire song.
“Out Of The Woods” is like a short movie. It tells a story like the best commercials. I am starting to realize what a great songwriter she is.
This is the first time Adams makes one of the songs totally his – this could easily be on one of his albums. Mellow and contemplative and dripping with emotion.
“All You To Had To Do Is Stay” is a wonderfully bitter. No delicate flower, Taylor is not heartbroken – she is pissed.
Another shade of Adams – the pop rock Ryan. Again this would not sound out-of-place on several of his albums.
“Shake It Off” is what a great pop song should be – multiple dimensions: a playful dance song, a sing along, a stadium anthem and a fuck you.
This is where it gets tricky – tackling a ubiquitous single that most people love just for the hook. Adams slows it down and gives it a Springsteen “Streets of Philadelphia” groove. He savors each word and helps you understand that under the pop sheen of the single there is a gorgeous song. Adams has taken this tactic before when he took the Stone’s “Brown Sugar” and deconstructed it to reveal its disturbing lyrics.
“I Wish You Would” is heartbreak but with your chin up. Hurt but still defiant.
This is the closest to the original, yet purely Ryan Adams.
“Bad Blood” is a cooler single to me than “Shake It Off.” It is darker and more complex musically. Everyone has a friendship gone bad and can embrace this anthem.
Pure Ryan Adams – this absolutely could be his own song. He follows the dynamics of the original, but the instrumentation and voice is all Ryan.
“Wildest Dreams” finally slows down. I like that this is quite song after all the bombastic songs before it. An embrace of love you know is going to go wrong.
Ryan pulls out his alt-country groove on this one. The opening guitar riff is thick and twangy. This has the roll down the windows on the car / turn up the stereo and go cruising groove. Upbeat melancholia.
“How You Get The Girl” sounds like it would be a pure country song if it was arranged differently.
Ryan gets his most contemplative, opening the song with just acoustic guitar strumming and soft voice. Then an occasional kick drum to emphasize the heartbreak. Taylor’s version is sassy and sarcastic. Ryan’s has a more kicked in the nuts heartbreak feel.
“This Love” is a gorgeous ballad. The least adorned song on the album. It has a purity and a vulnerability. Interestingly it is the only song on the album where Swift does not share writing credits.
Adams also takes a stark minimalist take on the song – even more unadorned than the Taylor original.
“I Know Places” is us against the world.
Ryan makes it an Elvis Costello song – what could be more against the world than that!
“Clean” ends the album with a nice atmospheric feel. It floats. Lyrically it is coming up for air after almost drowning. Redemption.
Adams goes Eagles flavored country rock on his take.
So after listening to T-Swift’s album several times I get why Taylor Swift is such a big thing. She has got the looks, the hooks and there is no gobbledygook. You fall for the character and assume it is autobiographical, but you can’t be sure if you are being deceived. You feel like you know her, but you also now she is unattainable. It is one hell of an act.
The fact that Ryan Adams would fall for T-Swift should not surprise us. He was married to Mandy Moore and used Creed to inspire Jenny Lewis. I believe he is genuinely gob smacked by Taylor and 1989. He is not ironic and this is not a career move. He loved the album enough to make it his own. Listening to the Adams’ cover after studying the original is better than hearing it cold. It is required to live in the shadow. It is not a standalone – but a genuine companion piece – which is makes it even more a love letter from a fan to the star. I now officially love Ryan’s 1989.
Taylor Swift deserves the magazine covers and mega success. I can’t remember a pop star who is so comfortable in the spotlight, yet not pandering. The fact that she has a super-fan like Ryan Adams who is willing to risk is artistic integrity by hooking on to her train is one hell of a compliment.
Sorry no Taylor – remember she hates Spotify – her one blemish.
This post has been sitting in draft status for a couple of months now. Other releases have somehow leapfrogged it. But I consistently come back to it the LP, so I owe it a post. Now it is time to write my best of 2015 post, so I feel compelled to get it out of draft status.
Craig Finn takes a different approach from his day job with The Hold Steady on this album. But his voice is so distinctive it is hard for him to stray too far.
He lures us in by throwing a familiar pitch with the opener “Maggie I’ve Been Search For Our Son.” On repeated listens this song has a lot more going on than the usual arena-bar anthems of The Hold Steady. It has Lindsey Buckingham pop finesse.
Finn throws a change-up with the second cut “Roman Guitars.” That song incorporates horns and vocals in a very anti-rock and almost dissonant way. At first It did not really work for me, but on repeated listen I started to appreciate the Tom Waits beauty of it.
“Newmeyer’s Roof” is straight ahead rock, but in a different style than the arena-bar anthems of The Hold Steady. A little more straight 80s Springsteen channeled through Arcade Fire. It is pretty deep lyrically as Finn recounts 9/11 and watching the Twin Towers fall from roof of a friend’s apartment and the years of recovering from witnessing that tragedy firsthand.
“Sarah, Calling From A Hotel” has a minimalist Bruce Springsteen Nebraska feel. It has a nice sense of despair about it.
“Going To A Show” has a wonderful sway to it. Guitar and piano. This would not be out-of-place on a Wilco album. It includes the great lyric: “I try so hard not to talk to myself/But it is hard ’cause I’m always alone.”
“Sandra From Scranton” is a portrait of desperate adulthood: “She don’t go to go to shows anymore.”
If ever a character from the bible deserved a rock song is St. Peter. “St. Peter Upside Down” flip-flops between the story of the crucifixion of St. Peter and a modern tale. The song has a great horn accent.
“Trapper Avenue” is a surreal tale that sounds like the bastard love child of Springsteen and Lou Reed.
“Christine” is the sound of longing. A nice portrait of unrequited love.
“I Was Doing Fine (Then A Few People Died)” might be the best song on the album. A great arrangement with a foundation of horns and cool background vocals. It is just short enough to be a tease.
I was introduced to the ECM sound by Pat Metheny in the late 70s via his Pat Metheny Group album. I have played that album more than any other album in my collection. Once turned on to Metheny I backtracked through his albums and found a teenage Metheny in Gary Burton’s band. Which led me to the very fluid and melodic bassist in that band: Eberhard Weber. That led me to explore Weber’s ECM catalog which led me to Fluid Rustle. An album title that perfectly describes the contents.
Hommage À Eberhard Weber is credited to Metheny, but it really various artists. No doubt Manfred Eicher was looking for an excuse to issue a fresh title from ECM’s most famous son. Other big names (at least to me) are Jan Garbarek (a frequent sax player on many ECM sides), Gary Burton (perhaps the greatest vibe player of his generation), old PMG drummer Danny Gottlieb and Paul McCandless (Oregon). New to me is the SWR Big Band.
The centerpiece of the album is the second cut: “Hommage” a 31 minute composition by Metheny based on Weber improvisations and featuring tapes of Weber (the concert on which this album is based on also had video of Weber to augment the performance). Weber is represented on tape because he has been sidelined by a stoke since 2007.
The SWR Big Band backs Metheny. It is great to hear a classic Metheny composition performed by a big band. Metheny has always had grand rich arrangements, but with a very talented big band and brilliant soloists, Metheny really gets some elevation. I have always loved Metheny with horns and to have a full big band is a real thrill. The use of Weber via tape could have been a tacky gimmick, but it turned out brilliantly. I assume we can thank Metheny’s composing, arranging and adventurous musical heart for pulling a most amazing rabbit from his hat.
Pat Metheny explains his methodology in the liner notes:
“Since Eberhard’s stroke in 2007, he has not been able to play. But I felt that his sonic identity was such a huge component in his work that I wanted to somehow acknowledge it in whatever form I could. It came to me that it would be interesting to take the idea of sampling one step further; to find video elements of Eberhard improvising and then reorganize, chop, mix and orchestrate elements of those performances together into a new composition with a large projection of the Eberhard moments that I chose filling a screen behind us as we performed. It seemed like a new way to compose for me that would almost take the form of visual sampling.”
The rest of the album is filled out by Weber compositions. The range from minimalistic, just sax and Weber’s bass (the first cut staring Jan Garbarek), to complex big band pieces with multiple soloists (“Maurizius”). Weber’s tone was his calling card, but this album shows what a great composer he was.
If you are a fan of Metheny or curious what a contemporary big band sounds like, you need to check out this album. Unfortunately ECM releases are not on Spotify – so no samples. Here is a trailer to give you a little taste:
Y2K’s St Germain album Tourist is on my all time favorite album list. At the time I had never heard anything like it. Was it jazz (the Blue Note label suggested that)? Was it electronica (it had elements of Moby’s Play which was a mega hit about this time)? I did not really know, but it sounded great. Per St Germain’s Wikipedia page it is: acid jazz, nu jazz, deep house and downtempo. All meaningless categories to me. My love of this album was not unique – the album sold 3 million copies. It was one of those rare pop masterpieces that comes along every once in a blue moon.
It has been 15 years since Tourist. I had assumed that St Germain was a flash in the pan. Last week I read in the Wall Street Journal that there was a new St Germain album.
When Tourist came out I never figure out what the hell St Germain was (internet resources where not so rich back then). But recent searches have revealed it is French composer producer Ludovic Navarre, who is part of a French school of producers that spawned pop stars like Air and Daft Punk.
Tourist was jazz influenced, but the new eponymous album is Malian (Afropop) influnced. It has the same general feel as Tourist but the African feel makes it all new. Navarre’s featured muse is Malian guitarist Guimba Kouyaté who is the star of the show. His percussive and rhythmic style works perfect with Navarre’s groves. There are sampled blues vocals and featured Malian vocalists. Even though the Malian vocals are in a different language, they convey so much soul that the actual words are not important.
This is a wonderfully groovy record – give it a listen.
I am a Pink Floyd fan like I am a Grateful Dead fan – I like David Gilmour more than the band (similar with Jerry Garcia). The Gilmour helmed Division Bell is my favorite Pink Floyd album.
Gilmour is not very prolific and so it was with great anticipation that I waited for this release. The album is great and may be Gilmour’s best vocals ever. I had no idea he had such a fine pop voice. In short Rattle That Lock is a pop music masterpiece.
There are not many musicians these days that can afford to present their music as richly as Gilmour is able. In the grand tradition of Pink Floyd this album is total ear candy (on the Godiva side vs Tootsie Roll side). In addition to the great music, the album has two spectacular animated videos for the album’s most ambitious songs (“Rattle That Lock” and “The Girl In The Yellow Dress” – unfortunately this is not available on the internet).
“Five A.M.” is the album’s overture – an instrumental that feature Gilmour’s signature fret work. Gilmour’s electric leads have always reminded me of a cross between sonar and a seagull.
“Rattle That Lock” doesn’t even sound like Gilmour. It sounds more like The Cure than Pink Floyd. Musically the song was inspired by a French train’s pronouncement chime (a jingle) and lyrically by Milton’s Paradise Lost. How Gilmour pulls that off without the slightest pretension is a true high wire act. I learned watching the bonus material that lyrically Gilmour has long been leaning on his wife, the well-regarded novelist Polly Samson. This song displays their stunning collaboration. See the brilliant video:
“Faces Of Stone” starts out with a simple yet elegant keyboard and then Gilmour and company drop into full Punk Floyd mode with a sprinkle of Tin Pan Alley. Gilmour’s soaring guitar holds it all together.
“A Boat Lies Waiting” opens as a gorgeous melancholy instrumental. Gilmour finally begins to sing and his voice is augmented by Crosby/Nash in lush harmony. This is a loving memorial to Gilmour’s old friend and Floyd bandmate Richard Wright.
“Dancing Right In Front Of Me” starts out as little waltz and then converts into full Floyd mode.
“In Any Tongue” surges between gentle meditation and a full-out stadium rocker.
“Beauty” is a nice instrumental allowing Gilmour to display some nice guitar work.
“The Girl In The Yellow Dress” is a jazz song and it really works. It is a cinematic narrative of watching a beautiful woman take over a club. Again Gilmour sings in a voice I have never heard before. I can’t wait to play this for people and play “who is this?”
“Today”has a Talking Heads feel, yet undeniable Floyd feel. This could almost be a dance song.
“And Then…” is a nice closing meditation echoing the opening cut.
I have been listening to the Blu Ray in stereo PCM (96 kHz/24 bit) and it sounds great. It is pristine, yet warm. As to be expected this is a well-engineered album. In a day when the studio has lost its place in recordings it is great to hear rooms.
Axl's Catch Groove 