I’m passionate about music, and this is where I post about it.
A towering achievement and also an immensely likeable record. Emmylou Harris, after spending the first half of the 90s playing and recording solid if traditionally-oriented country albums, in 1995 teams up with Daniel Lanois and engineer Malcolm Burn to make … [read more]
This is a beautiful performance of Mozart’s 20th and 18th piano concertos, one of those records that changed my perception of how Mozart concertos could be played. I had grown up listening to Barenboim and Gulda playing these works (my … [read more]
Billie Holiday changed how we hear women sing. In recorded music, she essentially redefined vocal pop music by introducing a more personal and immediate singing style. She also changed how we think about phrasing, basing hers on instrumental music rather … [read more]
Bryan Ferry is a classic crooner in the same sense that Frank Sinatra was – he can sing anything and imbue it with his own style, interpreting it meaningfully and casting it in a new light. Starting in the 70s, … [read more]
What powerful music this was, and still is. Vince Clarke, the original composer/arranger behind Depeche Mode, teams up with blue-eyed soul singer Alison Moyet, and together they create some of the most memorable, path-breaking electronic pop music ever recorded. What … [read more]
I know people say “Snorah Jones.” But I like her music – I think it’s mature in a good way: music that begs to be listened to, music that’s firmly based in craft (she’s a very fine pianist) and sung … [read more]
Sometimes, the music you don’t understand is the music that touches you most deeply. I’ve never been much of a jazz listener; I’ve skirted around it for years, essentially avoiding bebop in its myriad permutations, and enjoying traditional jazz, some … [read more]
The wonderful first album from Madeleine Peyroux, a jazz singer whose music and voice sound somewhat like Billie Holiday. This is very well-recorded and engaging music. Her two subsequent albums are also good. I like this for dinner parties, in … [read more]