Unlike the recent Classic Yo-Yo, really a single-disc sampler of the recorded work of our true superstar cellist, The Essential Yo-Yo Ma purports to be something more -- the Yo-Yo Ma album to own if you're going to own just one. Where Classic Yo-Yo more or less alternated track by track between Ma's straight classical and crossover music, The ...
Canyon Trilogy represents a return to the simplicity of Carlos Nakai's earlier albums such as Changes and Journeys. There are no additional instruments here, no rattles, and no chanting, just his haunting flutes, either solo or multi-tracked. The "trilogy" in the title refers to the three sections of the tape -- "Dawn's Mirage," "Dreamscapes," and ...
Colin Meloy and his brave Decemberists made the unlikely jump to a major label after 2005's excellent Picaresque, a move that surprised both longtime fans and detractors of the band. While it is difficult to imagine the suits at Capitol seeing dollar signs in the eyes of an accordion- and bouzouki-wielding, British folk-inspired collective from ...
The National don't do anything radically different on Boxer, but then again, they don't really need to: their literate, quietly anthemic take on indie rock seemed to have arrived fully formed on their 2001 self-titled debut. Boxer just hones in even more precisely and intimately on the heartfelt territory the band covers, with punchy-yet-polished ...
Depending on the mood you're in, this compilation album will make you dream, smile, or cry a nostalgic tear. It is a typical Windham Hill sampler: wistful, joyful, lush, and lovely. Most songs stick with piano or string instrumentation, and none of them could ever be classified as up-tempo. A few of the tracks, including "The Gift" and "Sung to ...
A Thanksgiving recording? That's what the folks at Windham Hill have proposed. Whether or not the theme truly makes sense is quickly made irrelevant by the beautiful performances. Of particular note is the stunning performance of "We Gather Together" by Paul McCandless, Philip Aaberg, and Michael Manring. The entire set is a consistently beautiful ...
Here, Wynton Marsalis switches to cornet and tries to recreate the ambience of the proverbial village wind bands of long ago -- albeit with the emphatically big-league help of Donald Hunsberger and the massive Eastman Wind Ensemble. This means a program of transcriptions of classical tunes, variations on popular ditties, dollops of sentimentality, ...
Colin Meloy's dynamic vocals lead the way on Castaways and Cutouts, the impressive 2003 effort by Portland, OR, quintet the Decemberists. Throughout the disc, Meloy's songs tell tales of life's castaways, including Spanish gypsies and Turkish prostitutes, painting glorious pictures with supposedly suspicious characters. After opening the album ...
What has the field of lo-fi slacker pop come to when faced by an LP as ambitious and entertaining as Badly Drawn Boy's The Hour of Bewilderbeast? Despite all attempts to sabotage his songwriting and production with innumerable experimental tidbits, songs within a song, and (seemingly) tossed-off arrangements, Damon Gough has to face the fact that ...
The latest in Windham Hill's line of classic seasonal collections couples the label's most renowned artists and some of the holiday's mostly beloved music. We hear Alex de Grassi, Oysten Sevag, Turtle Island String Quartet, Will Ackerman, and Nightnoise, among others. The varied performances of these artists paint a perfect accompaniment to ...
Rufus Wainwright croons and cries through another set of obscenely lush and opulent pop operettas on his third album Want One. As is to be expected, the songs are meticulously layered and richly textured, with full orchestral passages and many-throated harmonies. Producer Marius deVries (Björk, Massive Attack, Madonna) didn't mess with the already ...
Throughout Neptune City, Nicole Atkins takes inspiration from some of rock's most famous women -- Stevie Nicks, Chrissie Hynde and Siouxsie Sioux to name the most prominent. Though only time will tell if she will join the ranks of her inspirations, Atkins shows on this album that she has both the capability and potential. By either happy accident ...
Why do people keep buying The Glorious Sound of Christmas, recorded in 1962, when there's such a profusion of other holiday albums out there? Because it quite simply remains one of the very best. There are no bonus tracks here to augment the original LP; what we get are 14 well-known carols, lasting about 45 minutes in total. But it's 45 minutes ...
R. Carlos Nakai has been at the forefront of Native American artists since the mid- to late '80s (around the time of release of this CD). On Earth Spirit, his acoustic reveries are direct and true. Each of the 15 compositions comes from Nakai's heart and goes to listeners' hearts. Two of the compositions are for the "eagle's bone whistle," the ...
Sanctuary: 20 Years of Windham Hill is an excellent sampler of the new age label's history, featuring all of their most famous artists, as well as most of their best-known music. It's an excellent way to become acquainted with the label's history, and it also encapsulates everything Windham Hill was about. ~ Rodney Batdorf, All Music Guide
After releasing two solid albums of British folk-inspired library-pop, it's only fitting that the Oregon-based collective the Decemberists would construct a nearly 20-minute EP based on an epic tale concerning a violent cattle raid in pre-Christian Ireland. If anything, Tain is the indie rock generation's "Court of the Crimson King," a narrative ...
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