Quantcast
Channel: critic’s picks – The Musical Box
Browsing all 171 articles
Browse latest View live

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

critic’s pick 256

Something curious but quite revealing happens as the soundtrack recording of the new James Bond film Skyfall heads into the home stretch. Sitting at No.23 in a dossier of 30 musical vignettes is a...

View Article



Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

critic’s pick 257

Longtime Americana pals Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale contradict themselves within the very first line from their splendid new collaborative country album, Buddy and Jim. The line comes from I Lost...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

critic’s pick 258

Who could have foreseen the day when Graham Parker would reunite with his famed ‘70s band, The Rumour, and, as if by chance, simultaneously become something of a hip Hollywood attraction? That is...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Critic’s pick 259: King Crimson, ‘Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, 40th Anniversary...

Fewer recording from the height of the ’70s-era progressive rock movement brought about swifter and more assured transition to a band than Larks’ Tongues in Aspic did for King Crimson in 1973. After...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Critic’s pick 260: The Who, ‘Live at Hull 1970; Eric Clapton, ‘Slowhand —...

Mick Jagger remarked during the televised 121212 benefit that the concert was a summit of sorts for the elders of English rock. Well, here we are, exiting 2012 with a pair of newly released live...

View Article


Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

10 from 12

The best pop music of 2012 boiled down to one thing – rebirth. In some cases, that meant pairing veterans with new generation producers. In other instances, it meant reenergizing and even reinventing...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Critic’s pick 261: Buddy Guy, ‘Live at Legends’

“Don’t say nothing,” Buddy Guy whispers after the onset of his thundering new concert recording Live at Legends. “I’m not through yet.” The line isn’t some whimsical command or even an aside. It is...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Critic’s pick 261: Joe Lovano, ‘Cross Culture’

One can only suppose in listening to Cross Culture, the splendid third album by Joe Lovano’s Us Five ensemble, that the saxophonist thinks little of familiarity. As perhaps the most visible...

View Article


Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

critic’s pick 262: lindsey buckingham, ‘one man show’ ; mike cooley, ‘the...

What we have here are two realities of the digital age – a pair of splendidly recorded solo acoustic works by singer-songsmith-guitarists known far more for their work as members of cherished rock...

View Article


Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

critic’s pick 263: konitz/frisell/peacock/baron, ‘enfants terribles’

The liner notes to Enfants Terribles states the quartet at hand is leaderless. That the recording gives equal billing to all four players seems to underscore the claim. Then as the music elegantly...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

critic’s pick 266: jim james, ‘regions of light and sound of god’

There are instances on Regions of Light and Sound of God, the new and profoundly contemplate solo album from Louisvillian Jim James, when one can’t help but think of Van Morrison. It’s not a matter of...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Critic’s pick 267: Wayne Shorter Quartet, ‘Without a Net’

It seems only fitting that the first notes of Wayne Shorter’s new concert recording, Without a Net, go to someone else. A masterful composer for the past five decades and a saxophonist of intense...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

critic’spick 268: stevie ray vaughan and double trouble, ‘texas flood’ and...

How do you reawaken new generations to decades-old albums that, despite their career-defining popularity in another era, have essentially been pushed aside over time? Simple. You do the same thing...

View Article


Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

critic’s picks 269: son volt, ‘honky tonk’ and the mavericks,’in time’

As if you weren’t conflicted enough by what does or doesn’t constitute country music these days, we have two fascinating new recordings by Son Volt and The Mavericks to further blur the borderlines....

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Critic’s pick 270: David Bowie, ‘The Next Day’

Prior to the occasion of his 66th birthday earlier this year, David Bowie had effectively disappeared. He had not released a new studio recording since 2003 and hadn’t been seen onstage since a heart...

View Article


Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

critic’s pick 271: steven wilson, ‘the raven that refused to sing’

Pity the poor musical genre known as prog. Full of symphonic intent, narrative bravado, and long instrumental passages loaded with tricky shifts in tempo and temperament, it catapulted bands like Yes,...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

critic’s picks 272: emmylou harris & rodney crowell, ‘old yellow moon’ ;...

The duet format has long been a staple of every genre of contemporary music. But nowhere has its influence established itself more generously than in country circles. Two new recordings offer wildly...

View Article


Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

critic’s pick 273: Various artists, ‘Love for Levon’

The celebrity status accorded Levon Helm during his final years was a curious thing. Not that it wasn’t richly deserved, mind you. As one of the three lead singers of The Band, he helped to forge a...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Critic’s pick 276: JJ Grey and Mofro, ‘This River’

The story goes that This River, the sixth studio album by southern soul-funk strategists JJ Grey and Mofro, takes its name from the St. John’s River near Jacksonville. But as you listen to the record’s...

View Article

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Critic’s Pick 277: John Medeski, ‘A Different Time’ and Matthew Shipp,...

Few musical situations elicit greater or more immediate excitement than the junctions where composition and improvisation meet. And perhaps no instrument better showcases that balance than the piano....

View Article
Browsing all 171 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images