The Greenberger Gallery
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Greenberger's Record Reviews Check out David Greenberger's
Book Reviews
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Love
and Theft |
Love and Theft
Bob Dylan (Columbia)
While 1997's Time Out of Mind was a fine album, it was
also equaled by its two oft-forgotten predecessors, Good As I
Been to You and World Gone Wrong. They're veritable
blueprints for all that's followed. Love and Theft is an
album that could only been made after forty years of work and
explorations; there are no shortcuts to these confident heights. And
it'salso some of his finest singing, ever.
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Vespertine
Björk (Elektra)
Depending on what aspect first strikes your fancy,
Björk is either the world's most daringly sensual innovator or its
most innovative sensualist. |
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Vespertine
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Last
Man on Earth |
Last Man on Earth
Loudon Wainwright (Red House)
This is Wainwright's finest, most sustained release in a decade.
The genesis of this album came after a writing slump and the
emotional upheaval of the death of his mother. Returning to his
childhood home he slowly roused himself, penning some of his most
remarkable songs.
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Global A Go-Go
Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros (Hell Cat)
This second album by Strummer with his Mescaleros
fearlessly melds assorted international rhythms. The cover is
adorned with photos of disposable lighters onto which have been
collaged words and images. Strummer made them, it's his hobby, and
they visually capture what occurs in his music. |
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Global
A Go-Go
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The
Convincer |
The Convincer
Nick Lowe (Yep Roc)
Ten new originals have the subtle grace of the classics they'll
become. "Indian Queens" has the ephemeral bearing of a
light breeze, "Cupid Must Be Angry" is quietly incessant
soul and "Lately I've Let Things Slide" is just plain
great.
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Amnesiac
Radiohead (Capitol)
One of the most avant releases to ever climb its way
up the charts. As remarkable as if King Crimson's Larks Tongues
in Aspic had done so. |
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The
Convincer
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Fan
Dance |
Fan Dance
Sam Phillips (Nonesuch)
Freed from the expectations of a pop music label, Phillips
quietly soars with this set, subtly arranged and produced (by
husband T Bone Burnett) as art songs.
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First Record
Jackshit (no label)
This feisty trio finally allows one to connect a
line between Elvis Costello and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Guitarist Val McCallum is the son of that show's Illya Kuryakin and
drummer Pete Thomas anchored The Attractions. These nine songs were
recorded live in the studio during a single five-hour session and
are the next best thing to catching one of their biweekly shows at
The Mint in LA. |
(not available)
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The
World Won't End |
The World Won't End
The Pernice Brothers (Ashmont)
With his breathy but purposeful vocals, Joe Pernice sounds at
times like Nick Drake, while compositionally he's more like Brian
Wilson or Jimmy Webb. The songs and arrangements have a luxurious
regal bearing, with rich strings and production flourishes to match.
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Poses
Rufus Wainwright (Dreamworks)
Self-absorbed father begets self-absorbed son.
Rufus's second release actually builds on his dazzling debut. Though
stylistically unrelated, the familial line ties them both to the
mast of self-scrutiny in the public eye for the sake of art.
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Poses
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The Best of
Paolo Conte |
Long popular in Europe and now in his sixties, Paolo Conte's
songs, singing and arrangements roll along with seductively idiosyncratic invention.
Everything is sung in his native Italian, a language I don't speak a word of, but which
feels clearly understandable as emoted by Conte.
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Meditations on loss and longing that create a unified mood on a
par with Sinatra's *Sings For Only The Lonely*. This work is the best parts of each
collaborator.
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Schleep |
The best music news of the year was the reinvigoration of
Robert Wyatt's career. The relative commercial success of this heartbreakingly beautiful
album opened the door for a series of deserved reissues. For anyone unfamiliar with Wyatt,
this is as fine a place to start as any.
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Several years ago at Caffe Lena, I saw Rufus Wainwright open a
show for his father, Loudon, and experienced the sudden startle of witnessing someone
clearly on the verge of reaching countless more than the hundred or so people in
attendance that night. This is an incredibly rich and mature debut album which delivers on
the promise of that night in full.
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Through The
Trees |
The nineteenth and twenty-first centuries collide in these
mysterious contemporary fables by the husband and wife duo of Rennie and Brett Sparks.
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Much like his blues and R&B mentors who were finding newer
and truer ways to dazzle and stir in their fifties, Peter Wolf has continued to grow as an
artist. With the influences and foibles of the pop marketplace stripped away, what remains
is this, his finest work to date.
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Mermaid
Avenue |
With the words of Woody Guthrie bringing them together, Billy
Bragg finally connects with America and Wilco gets some high caliber lyrics. Stands nicely
next to *The Basement Tapes* or *Music From Big Pink*.
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A sprawling houseful of friends, siblings, children and
ex-husbands. Their choice of material as well as the talents of all involved allowed this
album to blossom with room for everyone and no pushing or shoving. A familial celebration
of the bonds found in music.
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The
Salesman and Bernadette |
There's a gentle grittiness in every aspect of Chesnutt's music
-- from the writing to the arranging and performing. Every story is rife with the sad
guarantee that mistakes will be made over and over again by every one of us, spinning in
our own circles. But Chesnutt never comes off as misanthropic; his fractured, sometimes
bemused tales have the warmth of optimism in his voice.
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Cinematic imagery with impressionistic instrumentation (think
Tom Waits), these songs beckon the listener to enter a place where tales of pain do not
abate and fears grow stronger day by day. But small details in the lyrics, coupled with
the purity of the singing, make it sound like hope still glows within, inextinguishable.
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