B+ Jeff Tweedy
Together at Last
dBpm
With its paradoxical title, Together at Last features Wilco songwriter and lead singer Jeff Tweedy solo with just his acoustic guitar and occasionally a harmonica.
Read one way, the title could refer to Tweedy and his songs being brought together in a new way, without any interference or contributions from other musicians.
There are no new compositions. Instead, Tweedy re-imagines 11 songs originally recorded with either Wilco or Tweedy's other side projects Golden Smog and Loose Fur.
With each song, Tweedy invites the listener to hear the familiar in a new way.
The versions Tweedy lays down here are similar to how he plays the songs when he tours solo without Wilco. For anyone unfamiliar with those arrangements, it could be quite a jolt hearing Wilco standards like "Via Chicago" and "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" laid bare.
By stripping the songs down to their essence, lyrics that may have gotten lost in the previous full-band arrangements also now shine through, allowing the listener to re-engage with a new perspective.
So maybe Together at Last refers not to Tweedy's relationship with the songs, but ours.
Hot tracks: "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," "Via Chicago"
-- SCOTT BAUER
The Associated Press
A- ALA.NI
You & I
Missing Piece
ALA.NI's sleek, crystalline vocals recount the full cycle of an autobiographical, yearlong affair on You & I, her alluring debut created in a very determined yet timeless style.
A former backing vocalist for Blur, Mary J. Blige and Andrea Bocelli, ALA.NI was born in London to parents from Grenada and is based in Paris.
Comparisons to Madeleine Peyroux and Lena Horne are reflexive and the clarity of her singing certainly bears the influence of childhood heroine Julie Andrews. The music sounds as if from decades long past but her approach feels modern.
With sparse but elegant instrumentation, ALA.NI's vocals carry the songs stupendously.
The songs were released on EPs in 2015, with performances covering one season of the year on each disc, starting with the budding romance in spring on tunes like "Cherry Blossom" and reaching a winter conclusion with "Circle" and its promise of a new start.
In between, there's hope he will choose her over his wife ("One Heart"), the amicable goodbye ("Darkness at Noon") and deeply ingrained memories ("I'll Remember").
Having already gone through numerous phases in her career, ALA.NI does not lack the confidence and talent to follow her muse, so her next album is bound to be another rewarding chapter.
Hot tracks: "Cherry Blossom," "I'll Remember," "Darkness at Noon"
-- PABLO GORONDI
The Associated Press
B Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, James McAlister
Planetarium
4AD
Planetarium is a collaboration among multitasking artists who have moved in similar orbits in indie-rock and contemporary classical music -- the National's guitarist Bryce Dessner, classical pianist Nico Muhly, singer/lyricist Sufjan Stevens and his longtime collaborator percussionist/programmer James McAlister. It began five years ago as a multimedia performance that included a string quartet and a trombone septet, but Stevens and McAlister have reworked it, tweaking the original recordings with beats, vocoders and other effects.
It's a concept album using the planets and other heavenly bodies to contemplate human failings and ambitions, touching on love, sex and faith and often using mythology as a launching point -- "Mars" is a meditation on war, for instance. It's a cosmic trip that veers from ambient quietness (the instrumental "Sun") to electronic cacophony (the conclusion of the 15-minute "Earth"), and from orchestral fanfare ("Venus") to gentle beauty ("Mercury" -- which ranks with Stevens' best melodies).
Hot tracks: "Mercury," "Mars," "Sun"
-- STEVE KLINGE
The Philadelphia Inquirer
B Jonas Kaufmann
Das Lied von der Erde
Sony Classical
Gustav Mahler wrote Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) in 1908-9 as an orchestral setting of six songs adapted from ancient Chinese poems. The composer intended the vocal parts to be taken by a tenor and mezzo-soprano (or tenor and baritone), alternating throughout the hourlong piece.
Dozens of artists have teamed up for recordings over the years, including Placido Domingo with Bo Skovhus. But apparently never did one singer see fit to take on both vocal parts himself.
Until Kaufmann.
Kaufmann's singing is beautiful and at times deeply moving. The tenor throws himself energetically into the strenuous exertions of the opening drinking song, and summons a melting tenderness for the closer, "Der Abschied" ("The Farewell").
But there's an inevitable lack of vocal contrast that keeps the work from realizing its full, shattering potential. Kaufmann's voice has darkened somewhat, so that on the tenor songs he sounds almost like a baritone (high notes are hardly stinted), while in the others he lacks the depth of resonance that baritones bring.
Hot track: "Der Abschied," "Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde" ("The Drinking Song of Earth's Sorrow")
-- MIKE SILVERMAN
The Associated Press
Style on 07/04/2017