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River: The Joni Letters

On paper, River sounds like a match made in several versions of heaven. Legendary pianist Herbie Hancock re-imagines Joni Mitchell with his hand-picked, star-studded band–including saxophonist Wayne Shorter–in tow. Luminary guests lend vocals to a song apiece: Norah Jones (”Court and Spark”), Tina Turner (”Edith and the Kingpin”), Corinne Bailey Rae (”River”), Luciana Souza (”Amelia”), Leonard Cohen (with an unsettlingly sanguine version of “The Jungle Line”), even Mitchell herself (”Tea Leaf Prophecy”). In the event, though, a few fundamental elements go awry. Hancock plays with almost saccharine understatement throughout, and even Shorter’s seminal “Nefertiti” and Duke Ellington’s “Solitude” fall into the album’s presiding, somnolent surface, though to a lesser degree does the instrumental version of Mitchell’s “Sweet Bird.” But girding, and in some measure, saving, the proceedings, the lyrics here testify to a subtler wisdom guiding Hancock’s set list. The mix includes a continuum from intrepid classics to dusty, fans-only fare, but a distinct reverence for Joni Mitchell the Poet threads them together, and, in the end, this album works best as a sleepy window into one fan’s giddy and particular love affair with his source material. Fans of Hancock win out. –Jason Kirk

Product Description
This Amazon.com exclusive version of River: The Joni Letters includes two bonus tracks, “All I Want” featuring Sonya Kitchell and “A Case of You.”The legendary pianist and innovator Herbie Hancock explores the words and music of another musical pioneer, Joni Mitchell, on his first new studio recording for Verve since 1998’s GRAMMY® award-winning Gershwin’s World.

Inspired in equal parts by Mitchell’s poetic lyrics and unique melodies, Hancock and saxophone giant Wayne Shorter play with a restraint and elegance that achieves a perfect balance between the adventurous aesthetics of jazz improvisation and the emotional directness of the finest Adult Pop music.

Hancock builds upon his (and Shorter’s) previous collaborations with Ms. Mitchell to create a sound that will appeal not only to fans of both artists, but to the listener familiar with the work of Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae and the other brilliant guest vocalists featured on this session. River: The Joni Letters is the perfect CD for the music fan looking for something new that’s based in the familiar.

Sleep Through The Static - Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson recorded his fourth album using nothing but solar power. This is somehow fitting for a singer-songwriter, surfer, and filmmaker who spends most of his days floating in the ocean under Hawaii’s open skies. The forces of nature certainly seem to have found their way into the mellow grooves of standout tracks like “What You Thought You Need,” “Adrift,” and “Go On,” songs so lovely and effortless that you can almost hear the melodies coming to Johnson on a warm breeze that rustles through the coconut trees. Sleep Through the Static documents his best work to date, even better than the Curious George soundtrack. The sedate singer transforms the acoustic campfire strums of the past into sublime, soulful ruminations on his wife, kids, and the state of the world. He even manages to conjure up some real anger on the title track, which is hardly diminished by its lavish grooves and glistening harmonies. –Aidin Vaziri

Product Description
My friends and I have just finished recording a new album called Sleep Through the Static. At this point in my life I weigh about 190 lbs and my ear hairs are getting longer. I also have a couple of kids. My wife popped them out, but I helped. Some of the songs on this album are about making babies. Some of the songs are about raising them. Some of the songs are about the world that these children will grow up in; a world of war and love, and hate, and time and space. Some of the songs are about saying goodbye to people I love and will miss.

We recorded the songs onto analog tape machines powered by the sun in Hawaii and Los Angeles. One day, JP Plunier walked into the studio and told us, “It has been 4 to 6 feet and glassy for long enough,” and so we gave him a variety of wind and rain as well as sun and so on. And Robert Carranza helped to put it all in the right places.

After inviting Zach Gill to join Adam Topol, Merlo Podlewski, and myself on our last world tour, we decided to make him an official member of our gang. So our gang now has a piano player, which probably makes us much less intimidating, but Merlo, our bass player, is 6′3″ so we are still confident.

All of these songs have been on my mind for a while and it is nice to share them. I am continually grateful to my wife who is typing this letter as I dictate it to her.

I hope you enjoy this album.

Mahalo for listening,

Jack Johnson

Back to Black [EXPLICIT LYRICS]

From Amazon.co.uk
Amy Winehouse’s second album, Back to Black, is one of the finest soul albums, British or otherwise, to come out for years. Frank, her first album, was a sparse and stripped-down affair; Back to Black, meanwhile, is neither of these things. This time around, she’s taken her inspiration from some of the classic 1960’s girl groups like the Supremes and the Shangri-Las, a sound particularly suited to her textured vocal delivery, while adding a contemporary songwriting sensibility. With the help of producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, “Rehab” becomes a gospel-tinged stomp, while the title track (and album highlight) is a heartbreaking musical tribute to Phil Spector, with it’s echoey bass drum, rhythmic piano, chimes, saxophone and close harmonies. Best of all, though, is the fact that Back to Black bucks the current trend in R&B by being unabashedly grown-up in both style and content. Winehouse’s lyrics deal with relationships from a grown-up perspective, and are honest, direct and, often, complicated: on “You Know I’m No Good”, she’s unapologetic about her unfaithfulness. But she can also be witty, as on “Me & Mrs Jones” when she berates a boyfriend with “You made me miss the Slick Rick gig”. Back to Black is a refreshingly mature soul album, the best of its kind for years. –Ted Kord

Product Description
Hailed by Newsweek Magazine as a cross between Billie Holiday and Lauryn Hill, British soul singer Amy Winehouse’s U.S. debut, Back To Black hits the US amid a flurry of accolades, radio and TV buzz unprecedented in recent years for a young siren.

Her brassy mix of emotive vocals tinged with 60’s girl-group stylings, sly funk, and anguished jazz, sparked the New York Daily News to crown Back To Black a “marvelous debut that would do Etta James proud” while New Yorker Magazine called her “a fierce English performer whose voice combines the smoky depths of a jazz chanteuse with the heated passion of a soul singer,” and Spin Magazine affirming “there’s never been A British star quite like her.”

Back To Black smolders with a bristling fusion of old school doo-wop/soul inflected uprisings, (the charismatic singer/songwriter wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the album) brewing instant classics such as the Shirley Ellis influenced “Rehab,” the Supremes tinged title song “Back To Black,” the aching “Wake Up Alone,” and the album’s closer, “Addicted.”

Once [SOUNDTRACK]

Even those allergic to musicals may be won over by Once, a tender-hearted Irish romance with songs by Czech Republic–born Markéta Irglová and Frames frontman Glen Hansard. (The film’s director, John Carney, actually used to play bass in the group.) The trick here is that Irglová and Hansard also play the leads; because their characters are shown busking, writing music, or rehearsing, the songs are smoothly integrated in the film. The overall acoustic mood won’t surprise fans of the Frames–some tracks (”Say It to Me,” “When Your Mind’s Made Up”) have even popped up on the band’s albums, though the arrangements are more pared-down here, befitting the scruffy, street-musician setting. Being the lesser-known entity, Irglová feels like a revelation; she sounds a bit like a folkie Björk on “If You Want Me,” and her song “The Hill” is downright heartbreaking. Irglová and Hansard had already made the 2006 album The Swell Seasontogether, so their collaboration here feels really organic–they sound particularly good together on the title track, for instance. Now that’s the kind of magic you want from musicals. –Elisabeth Vincentelli

Many visiting Amazon will remember the film THE COMMITMENTS telling the story of an Irish soul band specializing in many of the Stax classics of the sixties. Though most of the attention was focused on the rotund lead singer, the guitarist Outspan Foster was played by a veteran 21-year-old busker by the name of Glen Hansard. He played, in fact, one of the two first members of the band, since he and the band’s keyboardist asked Jimmy Rabbitte to help them form a band (though they would dispense of their tentative name, And And And, though they were also considering And And! And). Though no one at the time would have guessed it, it was Hansard more than any other member of the fictional band (though it did tour as a real band in the wake of the movie’s success) who would achieve musical success. About the same time that filming for the Commitments began, Hansard had formed a band, the Frames, that would over the course of the next seventeen years develop a reputation for being one of the best live bands in the world and though their recorded output never quite matched the extraordinary live performances they would release several superb albums. Two of the Frames’ albums–FITZCARRALDO and THE COST–would be nothing short of masterpieces. One of the original members of the Frames was John Carney. To complete the background story, Carney met the young Czech singer Markéta Irglová while visiting Prague and she later provided some vocals for his 2006 solo album THE SWELL SEASON.

I’m not quite sure whose idea it was to make a movie, but former-Frame Carney and Hansard, with the help of our young Czech heroine, came up with the idea to make a movie based on Carney and Hansard’s experiences in Dublin. Though the Frames are not well known in the United States, there are many who regard them and not U2 as the great Irish band. Those seeing this movie are not going to have a great deal of difficulty believing that. Hansard is one of the world’s great frontmen, singing with a white-hot intensity remarkably emotional and passionate songs. For those unfamiliar with his work, he will have seemed to drop out of the sky like a meteor. They will have trouble believing someone this talented is not already a household name.

The songs for the movie are culled from a number of places. The absolutely extraordinary “Say It To Me,” one of Hansard’s greatest songs, comes from the great 1996 Frames’ album FITZCARRALDO, “Lies” and “Falling Slowly” come from Hansard’s solo album THE SWELL SEASON (on which Irglová also sings), and “When Your Mind’s Made Up” is one of the best songs off this year’s amazing new Frames’ album THE COST. Regardless of the source, the songs here are amazingly well performed, more acoustic than in their original versions. I know some audience members for the film are blown away by the music and I think part of the reason is that they don’t realize that these songs represent highlights from a large and exceedingly great body of work. Even so, the great news is that Hansard has written far more great music than appears on this album.

I strongly recommend this disc for people who saw the movie and loved the music (and hey, what’s not to adore?). This is simply gorgeous stuff and anyone who isn’t moved by it probably is never moved by great music. So the album can act as a terminus, but it should also act as a door to the rest of Hansard’s work. The two albums I would most recommend are the two I mentioned above, FITZCARRALDO and THE COST. These are filled with great songs, all songs magnificently by Hansard, who also wrote them. If those don’t exhaust your interest you could also look at BURN THE MAPS as well as the aforementioned solo album THE SWELL SEASON. And as fine as this soundtrack is, the two main Frames albums I mentioned are each even better.

Juno [SOUNDTRACK]

Product Description

Fox Searchlight Picture’s December 2007 coming-of-age comedy Juno, directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking). The narrative centers on whip-smart Juno (Ellen Page, in a breakthrough role), a teenage girl faced with an unplanned pregnancy from an afternoon with the charmingly unassuming Bleeker (Michael Cera). Juno finds her unborn baby the perfect set of parents in Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), an affluent suburban couple who are eager to adopt. Along with the total support of her parents, (Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons) Juno conquers her problems head-on, displaying a youthful exuberance that is both smart and unexpected. The film was an official selection at this year’s Telluride, Toronto, and London film festivals and received the Best Film award at the Rome International Film Festival. The soundtrack to Juno mixes classic rock favorites with indie-rock gems.

The songs in the soundtrack to Juno fit perfectly with the movie. They are soft, folksy, slightly eccentric, and capture the emotional aura of the film’s story, characters, and message. I will comment on each of the songs.

* All I Want is You: A delightfully zany song about love; uses analogies (”if you were the wood, I’d be the fire”) to get the point across. It’s folksy, using the harmonica and guitar.

*My Rollercoaster: A lyric-less song, with the artist just singing “doo-doo-doo.” Still, with its whimsical feel, it definitely is in keeping with the spirit of the rest of the album.

* A Well-Respected Man: A nice “soft-rock” song about a well to-do man. It reminds me of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Richard Corey,” but without the tragic ending.

* Dearest: Buddy Holly. Need I say more?

* Up the Sprout: A short guitar piece that is soft, yet has some “edgy” measures.

* Tire Swing: Kimya Dawson is really a revelation. Her soft-spoken eloquence really shines through. This is another soft-rock song that discusses the writer’s experiences with her boyfriend. It includes a canon, which adds spice to the song.

* Piazza, New Catcher: A song about a baseball catcher, who struggles with love and life. This one’s fast-moving and has several minor chords.

* Loose Lips: An apt title for the song; Dawson speaks freely. This one’s pretty fast-moving, so pay attention.

* Superstar: Definitely the edgiest song on this album, from Sonic Youth, no less. It has a bittersweet feel.

* Sleep: An instrumental song, with humming by Kimya Dawson. Another soft, folksy, sweet song.

* Expectations: A fast, fairly sad song. It’s a nice contrast with the rest of the album.

* All the Young Dudes: A great classic rock song, with hints of soul and jazz. Mott the Hopple belts the lyrics out emotionally.

* So Nice So Smart: Kimya Dawson again. Don’t let the sunny tune of this song fool you- it’s actually quite dark! The chorus is:
“you’re so nice and you’re so smart
you’re such a good friend i hafta break your heart
tell you that i love you then i’ll tear your world apart
just pretend i didn’t tear your world apart”

* Sea of Love: A slow, melancholy love song.

* Tree Hugger: Think of this as a folk poem song. To give you an idea:
“The flower said, `I wish I was a tree,’
The tree said, `I wish I could be
A different kind of tree,’
The cat wished that it was a bee,
The turtle wished that it could fly
Really high into the sky,
Over rooftops and then dive
Deep into the sea.”

*I’m Sticking with You: A self-consciously corny song, but an enjoyable one. It has the “oom-pah” chords and starts out with piano, though it switches to a regular guitar sound eventually. The song begins with “I’m sticking with you, `cause I’m made out of glue.” This is definitely not for all tastes- it depends on what your threshold for cheese is.

*Anyone Else But You: A guy and a girl singing to each other about how they couldn’t be with “anyone else but you.” The Moldy Peaches aren’t the best singers, but they’re good enough to keep the listener interested, and the music and lyrics are sweet and folksy.

*Vampire: A kind of strange song; the singer compares herself to a vampire and sees herself as a social outcast.

*Anyone Else But You: Michael Cera and Ellen Page sing the Moldy Peaches song. This is sweet, and I think their performance is better than the original.

Across The Universe [Deluxe Edition]

Product Description
ACROSS THE UNIVERSE - MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE DELUXE - 2 DISC VERSIONA love story set in the 1960’s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, mind exploration and rock `n roll. Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), along with a small group of friends and musicians, are swept up into the emerging anti-war and counterculture movements with “Dr. Robert” (Bono) and “Mr. Kite” (Eddie Izzard) as their guides.

FEATURING SONGS FROM THE GREATEST SONGWRITERS OF ALL TIME, PERFORMED BY THE CAST INCLUDING EVAN RACHEL WOOD, JIM STURGESS, DANA FUCHS, MARTIN LUTHER McCOY, BONO, JOE COCKER AND EDDIE IZZARD

Package art will incorporate stills from pivotal scenes from the movie and a 16-page folder foldout poster with a strawberry image.

Detours - Sheryl Crow

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Thematically, Detours may not seem like much of a detour to Sheryl Crow fans. Her politics pour out of these songs the way you might expect them to if you caught wind of her epic cross-country bus trip, with the activist Laurie David, to promote environmental awareness months prior to this release. From the quiet, faraway-sounding opener “God Bless This Mess”–a novel in a song–to the catchy but thought-provoking “Gasoline,” it’s clear that Crow has more on her mind these days than soaking up the sun or having a little fun, à la the Tuesday Night Music Club era. Yet there’s not a groan-worthy song on this standout rock/pop/folk/blues album. If the themes are heavy (in addition to the political songs, there’s an almost painfully tender lullaby for her son Wyatt and one, “Make It Go Away [Radiation Song],” that touches on her breast-cancer experience), the mood is cathartic, determined, hopeful at times and sad at others. “Now That You’re Gone” grabs at clarity through the clouds of a devastating love affair and gets it, and “Peace Be Upon Us” picks apart pettiness and arrives at a wide-minded beauty. George Harrison seems present in some of these songs, especially the more personal ones (”Drunk with the Thought of You,” “Love Is All There Is”). And that may be the highest compliment that Sheryl Crow, who seems to admire his gentle soul and shares his big heart, could ask for. –Tammy La Gorce

Product Description
Sheryl Crow is set to release her sixth studio album, DETOURS. The album marks the return of producer Bill Bottrell, who previously worked with Crow on her breakthrough debut album Tuesday Night Music Club, which earned the singer three Grammy Awards, and sold more than ten million copies worldwide. “This is the most honest record I’ve ever made. It’s about being forced to wake up,” says Crow.

Raising Sand - Robert Plant and Alison Krauss

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Perhaps only the fantasy duo of King Kong and Bambi could be a more bizarre pairing than Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Yet on Raising Sand, their haunting and brilliant collaboration, the Led Zeppelin screamer and Nashville’s most hypnotic song whisperer seem made for each other. This, however, is not the howling Plant of “Whole Lotta Love,” but a far more precise and softer singer than even the one who emerged with Dreamland (2002). No matter that Plant seems so subdued as to be on downers, for that’s one of the keys to this most improbable meeting of musical galaxies–almost all of it seems slowed down, out of time, otherworldly, and at times downright David Lynch-ian, the product of an altered consciousness. Yet probably the main reason it all works so well is the choice of producer T Bone Burnette, the third star of the album, who culled mostly lesser-known material from some of the great writers of blues, country, folk, gospel, and R&B, including Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt, Milt Campbell, the Everly Brothers, Sam Phillips, and A.D. and Rosa Lee Watson. At times, Burnette’s spare and deliberate soundscape–incisively crafted by guitarists Marc Ribot and Norman Blake, bassist Dennis Crouch, drummer Jay Bellerose, and multi-instrumentalist Mike Seeger, among others–is nearly as dreamy and subterranean as Daniel Lanois’s work with Emmylou Harris (Wrecking Ball). Occasionally, Burnette opts for a fairly straightforward production while still reworking the original song (Plant’s own “Please Read the Letter,” Mel Tillis’s “Stick with Me, Baby”). But much of the new flesh on these old bones is oddly unsettling, if not nightmarish. On the opening track of “Rich Woman,” the soft-as-clouds vocals strike an optimistic mood, while the instrumental backing–loose snare, ominous bass line, and insinuating electric guitar lines–create a spooky, sinister undertow. Plant and Krauss trade out the solo and harmony vocals, and while they both venture into new waters here (Krauss as a mainstream blues mama, Plant as a gospel singer and honkytonker), she steals the show in Sam Phillips’ new “Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us,” where a dramatic violin and tremulous banjo strike a foreboding gypsy tone. When Krauss begins this strange, seductive song in a voice so ethereal that angels will take note, you may stop breathing. That, among other reasons, makes Raising Sand an album to die for. –Alanna Nash

Product Description
The musical collaboration of the decade, Raising Sand is the sound of two iconic figures stepping out of their respective comfort zones and letting their instincts lead them across a brave new sonic landscape. Despite hailing from distinctly different backgrounds, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant share a maverick spirit and willingness to extend the boundaries of their respective genres. This spirit, expertly honed by producer T Bone Burnett, has resulted in an album pitched three steps beyond some cosmic collision of early urban blues, spacious West Texas country, and the untapped potential of the folk-rock revolution.

Supported by the unparalleled musicianship of Marc Ribot, Dennis Crouch, Mike Seeger, Jay Bellerose, Norman Blake, Greg Leisz, Patrick Warren, and Riley Baugus, Plant and Krauss — as both solo and harmony vocalists — tackle an intriguing selection of songs from such tunesmiths as Tom Waits, Gene Clark, Sam Phillips, Townes Van Zandt, The Everly Broth! ers, and Mel Tillis. Raising Sand finds Robert Plant and Alison Krauss exploring popular music’s elemental roots while still sounding effortlessly, breath-takingly contemporary.

The song “Killing the Blues” is featured in the new JC Penney American Living Campaign.