A-Robert Plant
lullaby and ... the Ceaseless Roar
Nonesuch
Robert Plant's solo career has taken many a fascinating turn.
Those who embraced Raising Sand, the 2007 album with Alison Krauss, may find this particular turn challenging, but there is much to like on this often mystical work that explores British and Celtic folk, West African polyrhythms, American blues and music of the Appalachians with seasonings of electronica and rock.
This set of mostly originals by Plant and his musicians is emotional and vital. His well-named band, The Sensational Space Shifters, includes the great Gambian ritti (one-string violin) musician Juldeh Camara and multi-instrumentalist Justin Adams (producer of Tinariwen).
The original tunes are emotionally raw, especially the ballads "House of Love" and "A Stolen Kiss," both about his breakup with singer/songwriter Patty Griffin. Plant has never sounded so vulnerable. Fascinating cover choices include the album-opener, a reimagined, spectral take of the folk song "Little Maggie" (popularized by The Stanley Brothers). It closes with a very different version, titled "Arbaden (Maggie's Babby)." There also is a striking take on Lead Belly's "Poor Howard."
Plant's voice is filled with ache, longing and, perhaps, a sense of resignation or serenity on this often intense, meditative and mature music. Building on his own and larger musical traditions, Plant's latest musical journey is alluring, one that is imbued with remarkable depth and heart.
Hot tracks: "House of Love," "Little Maggie," "Poor Howard," the yearning, out-of-this-world "Rainbow."
-- ELLIS WIDNER
A Ryan Adams
Ryan Adams
Pax-Am
With his own label/studio/clubhouse and producing himself (mostly), Ryan Adams sounds comfortable and at ease on his latest full-length.
It has taken him 13 solo albums to finally name one for himself, and the timing seems perfect. Surrounded by pals like Benmont Tench and producer Mike Viola, Ryan Adams has a warm, honest feel reminiscent of stripped-down Bruce Springsteen and, perhaps because of keyboardist Tench, Tom Petty. Adams circulates through romantic minefields and his own tangled thoughts with little drama but loads of emotion over these 11 songs, his voice and instincts for melody strong as ever.
Hot tracks: "Gimme Something Good," the shimmering ballad "Feels Like Fire," "My Wrecking Ball" and its quiet wish for obliteration.
-- SEAN CLANCY
A- John Oswald/Grateful Dead
Grayfolded
Important Records
In 1985, producer/composer John Oswald coined the word Plunderphonics to describe his version of sound collage, using existing music cut up, altered and reconfigured into completely new and greatly complex forms. Within avant-pop circles, similar work has been done by artists such as Negativland, Christian Marclay and Danger Mouse. What sets Oswald's work apart is his way of crafting novel, gripping, lengthy compositions built on layers (sometimes using thousands of edits) of samples and snippets.
At Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh's insistence, Oswald, credited as "arranger," accepted the mission of "folding" more than 100 versions of "Dark Star" -- the ultimate psychedelic, improvisational Dead jam -- into one elegantly contoured, menacingly hallucinatory, two-hour work diced into 16 chapters.
Oswald's take on the ghostly beauty of this quintessential Dead tune is taffy-pulled, miniaturized and morphed into something more open-form, orchestral and trippy than anything Jerry Garcia imagined. Oswald uses long-vaulted versions from the entirety of the Dead's tenure (with all membership represented).
"Dark Star" itself never sounded the same twice as it went from altered state to altered state, with male and female voices, instrumentation and feel, shifting with the tenor of the times. Oswald has knit a skyful of "Stars" into a symphony of the dustily familiar and the startlingly new.
Hot tracks: all of them.
-- A.D. AMORISI
The Philadelphia Inquirer
B+Ty Segall
Manipulator
Drag City
Prolific garage rock champ Ty Segall took a whopping 14 months to complete his latest and, yeah, that extra care and attention are appreciated.
The album is Segall at his most powerful (he played all the instruments on the record) -- beefy acoustic guitars meld into tripped-out psychedelic flourishes, glam ballads rub shoulders with pub folk and stoner rock, all smiled upon by the spirit of Marc Bolan.
Manipulator, 17 tracks in 56 minutes, is also Segall's longest album to date. Not to worry, though; it's all killer and no filler, growing even stronger as it progresses.
Hot tracks: "The Singer," "Don't You Want to Know (Sue)," "Tall Man Skinny Lady."
-- SEAN CLANCY
Style on 09/16/2014