B+ Dashboard Confessional
It has been more than eight years since the last Dashboard Confessional album, but Crooked Shadows erases that gap quickly, as singer-songwriter Chris Carrabba catches us up on his life like an old friend.
The songwriting is as personal and raw as ever, although the situations have changed. “We never learned to keep our voices down, no,” Carrabba declares in the anthemic “We Fight,” as he tries to remind people what an indie-rock scene can be. “We only learned to shout, so, we fight our way in and we fight our way out.”
He stretches musically as well, revving up the energy with the power-pop rocker “Catch You” and adding some swagger to the title track, though most land in the sweet spot of emotional, well-crafted ballads like “About Us” and “Just What to Say.”
While early Dashboard classics like “Hands Down” are so personal that it’s hard to imagine anyone but Carrabba singing them, new songs such as “Open My Eyes” could be hits for anyone from country singers to pop divas. Crooked Shadows puts Dashboard in the mainstream, showing how much Carrabba and the mainstream have changed for the better.
Hot tracks: “We Fight,” “Catch You,” “Just What to Say”
— GLENN GAMBOA
Newsday (TNS)
B Calexico
The Thread That Keeps Us
Anti-
Calexico has long used the wide-open landscape of Mexican American border country as inspiration, lyrical and musical. Their latest, and ninth, studio album, has traces of their usual mariachi horns and cinematic reveries, but they are tempered by dissonance. Apocalyptic opener “End of the World With You” strikes the keynote with lines about “love in the age of extremes” and an increasingly abrasive guitar line that suggests our politically discordant world.
Leaders Joey Burns and John Convertino stick mainly with their core touring band, and the tone is often ominous and insidious. “Show me a sign when the world falls apart,” Burns sings in “Under the Wheels,” an insistent track punctuated with trumpets. The Thread That Keeps Us is still expansive enough to encompass restrained funk in “Another Space,” rough-edged rock ’n’ roll in “Thrown to the Wild,” and gentle acoustic balladry in “Music Box,” which closes the album on a note of resigned optimism in the power of love and music.
Hot tracks: “End of the World With You,” “Thrown to the Wild,” “Music Box”
— STEVE KLINGE
The Philadelphia Inquirer
(TNS)
A- The Bad Plus
Never Stop II
LegbreaKer
Since 1990, Minnesota’s most scientific threesome of progressive jazzbos, The Bad Plus, has been unified toward one goal: an angular, post post bop version of math rock. Bad founders Reid Anderson (bass), Dave King (drums) and Ethan Iver-son (piano) were brothers in askew rhythm and complex songsmithing, so much so that every element of their eccentric improvisation was driven by total instinct and intuition. So then any interruption of such — say, 2017’s departure of Iverson — could spell disaster, if not for the arrival of smart and soulful daredevil pianist Orrin Evans of Philadelphia.
Rather than replace Iver-son, Evans — a Plus-pal with a solo career’s equal footing in the avant-garde and romantic melodicism — makes his own Bad mark, quickly, with his own brand of 88-key noise and nuance. Although he fits within the role of strident piano player on compositions such as Anderson’s throbbing “Salvages” and King’s haunting “Lean in the Archway,” Evans is truly a Bad comrade-in-arms when it comes to their compositional stakes. The sidesplitting “Boffadem” and the poignant “Commitment” with their passionate rests and busy, buoyant codas sound as much a part of Evans’ catalog as it does (or will) that of The Bad Plus going forward.
Hot tracks: “Salvages,” “Lean in the Archway,” “Commitment”
— A.D. AMOROSI
The Philadelphia Inquirer
(TNS)
B Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa
Black Coffee
J&R Adventures
Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa’s third studio album of mostly soul and blues sticks to the formula of “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” and it serves them well.
Hart, a powerful singer also capable of nuance, is a good fit with Bonamassa, a guitar whiz with a wide range of sounds. They are bonded by their shared intensity, and the well-chosen repertoire, including many lesser-known tunes, gives them 10 opportunities to realize their potential.
Etta James songs are a staple of the duo and here they take on “Damn Your Eyes,” from 1989’s Seven Year Itch. R&B diva Lavern Baker gets two nods, “Soul on Fire” and “Saved,” while “Lullaby of the Leaves,” a ballad with a scorching Bonamassa solo a la Gary Moore, dates to the early 1930s.
Horn arrangements from Lee Thornburg, tasteful backing vocals and excellent keyboard parts from Reese Wynans, who used to play with Stevie Ray Vaughan, help Black Coffee percolate into a tasty brew.
“Addicted” is a real gem, originally released in 2007 by Austria’s Waldeck. It has elements of a James Bond theme, shades of the tango and a European vibe.
The world is full of under-appreciated treasures. If Hart & Bonamassa and producer Kevin Shirley keep finding them, there’s a bright future in the grooves for more albums.
Hot tracks: “Addicted,” “Damn Your Eyes,” “Saved”
— PABLO GORONDI
The Associated Press
