Norah Jones – The Fall
Still friendly and folksy, Norah Jones [ tickets ] has made another good album, her first venture toward an electric pop-rock record. It is also her breakup tome, with 10 of the 13 songs solidly addressing the final stages of a romance, the dripping confusion of a break-up’s aftermath and the predicaments that come with re-entry into single life.
The reflections on “The Fall” come from her real-life breakup with longtime bassist and romantic partner Lee Alexander, and for the first time in her four-album career, her first-person voice dominates. Jones’ songwriting is full of questions and remorse, her head spinning from ruminations about the next chapter. Alternately, she’s ruined, lonely, needy and, on “Man of the Hour,” finding solace in her pet dog, the theme of the album’s artwork. (Read the Full Review)
Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures
Ladies and gentlemen, Them Crooked Vultures — the second-best band John Paul Jones has ever been in! The Led Zeppelin guys never made much of a splash in the supergroup scene, unless you’re the kind of die-hard fan who still busts out those old records by the Honeydrippers or the Firm. But when John Paul Jones got the hard-rock supersession itch, he didn’t mess around. For Them Crooked Vultures, he hooks up with Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) and Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), two of Zep’s smartest disciples. If these three 800-pound gorillas want to bash out an album as willfully weird and slapdash as Them Crooked Vultures, who can tell them not to? And if they do a song called “Elephants” where they basically crunch every riff on Led Zeppelin II into seven dizzy minutes, why not? (Read The Full Review)
John Mayer – Battle Studies
As Pat Benatar once said, love is a battlefield. That’s the main point John Mayer wants to convey on his fourth studio album. It’s called Battle Studies, and militaristic song titles expand on the theme: “Heartbreak Warfare,” “War of My Life,” “Assassin.” That last one is the set’s most ambitious track — an obsessive groove building louder toward clatter and buzz for five minutes, insulated by Middle Eastern background wails as Mayer likens both parties in an apparent one-night stand to killers performing a night’s mission. But the album’s tone is already set in the first two numbers, both prominently featuring broken hearts; by the third – a duet with Taylor Swift, who enters only briefly, toward the song’s end – his heart has been split in half. (Read The Full Review)
David Rawlings Machine – A Friend of a Friend
For more than 12 years, the Nashville-based musician has toured, written and recorded with Gillian Welch, exploring the well-worn byways of country, bluegrass and stringband music while making the old-timey sound new. As a hired gun, he’s played sideman to artists following in Welch’s wake or creating their own: Sara Watkins, Ryan Adams, Bright Eyes, Guy Clark, Mark Knopfler and Jay Farrar, among others. So his debut as Dave Rawlings Machine is either a case of him stepping up, or everyone else stepping back. Welch herself appears on almost all of these songs, either singing harmony or playing guitar, as do several other musician friends. But Rawlings takes the lead on every track, as a singer and picker.
For nine songs over 40 minutes, Rawlings proves fascinating company — a good man to share a front porch with. As a performer, he makes good use of his distinct, reedy tenor (imagine a twangier Loudon Wainwright). And he has a spry, jumpy guitar style that lends his arrangements some bounce. As a producer, he keeps things loose and lively, mixing covers with originals. A Friend of a Friend plays like a rough, intimate live album instead of a polished studio affair. (Read the Full Review)
