New music

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This article was published 20/01/2022 (1722 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

POP / ROCK

Elvis Costello & the Imposters

The Boy Named If (And Other Children’s Stories)

(Capitol / EMI)

Bloody hell… Elvis Costello is 67-years-old. But he’s certainly nowhere near ready to hang up his guitar.

EC’s 32nd studio album is a rollicking return to “classic Costello” mode — the sort of muscular power-pop he defined with My Aim is True and This Year’s Model and refined on Armed Forces. It’s also a 50-minute, singer-songwriter’s journey through 13 tunes informed by his youth and young manhood in suburban London and Liverpool.

“If,” he says in the press release accompanying the record, “is…your secret self, the one who knows everything you deny, the one you blame for the shattered crockery and the hearts you break, even your own.”

If that sounds tantalizing, it is, as Costello and producer Sebastien Krys bring bassist Davey Faragher, keyboardist Steve Nieve and drummer Pete Thomas together (figuratively, at least,; Faragher and Nieve recorded their parts remotely) to kick holes in the boxes we’ve all been living in these past two years.

There’s plenty of rocking, youthful energy in the stomping opening cut Farewell, OK — you can almost picture Nieve rocking his keyboard back and forth — while the title track is an ominous vamp written from the point of view of the narrator’s petulant id. Penelope Halfpenny is about a dissatisfied, daydreaming secondary school teacher, while the The Death of Magic Thinking is a first-person tale of sexual naivete and loss of innocence.

Several songs express adult regrets and doubts as Costello takes on tales of heartache, heartbreak, passionate trysts and romantic near-misses, most notably on My Most Beautiful Mistake and Magnificent Hurt. Trick Out the Truth, meanwhile, is a jazzy sample of Costello the punster having fun with wordplay. ★★★★1/2 out of five

STREAM THESE: Farewell, OK; Magnificent Hurt; Trick Out the Truth

— John Kendle

POP/ ROCK

The Lumineers

Brightside (Dualtone Records)

It will be hard for The Lumineers to top their immersive 2019 masterpiece III — a three-part concept album and accompanying short film exploring the cycle of addiction through generations. So, they didn’t try to.

Instead, the Denver band, consisting of founding members and songwriters Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites, went in a different direction entirely on their fourth LP, Brightside.

If their last album was lightning in a bottle, this album is a drop of concentrate — it is shorter (nine tracks), with quiet moments that are quieter, loud moments that are louder and a sense of urgency that propels each track into the next.

It’s a typical Lumineers album in many ways. Schultz and Fraites are masters of storytelling and Brightside is no exception. The catchy Where We Are is vivid in its imagery: “Crashed the car in Arizona on the interstate/ People pullin’ over cryin’ thinkin’ we were dead.”

What separates Brightside from albums past is a raw quality, like sitting in on a jam session. Strings are sparse, instead relying on piano, percussion and guitar to carry the record. Songs like the stripped down A.M. Radio with its acoustic guitar lead-in have a simplicity that allow the craftsmanship to shine.

The Lumineers may not have toured for III in 2020 as planned, but they chose to look on the bright side of a difficult situation, giving fans some playful tracks bristling with hopefulness as society peers forward to a life beyond the pandemic. ★★★★ out of five

STREAM THESE: Where We Are, A.M. Radio

— Ragan Clark, The Associated Press

JAZZ

Don Macdonald

Shifting Sands

(Bandcamp)

Don Macdonald, a concert and film score composer as well as a multi-instrumentalist, plays the violin instead of his usual saxophone on his latest album, Shifting Sands.

From this background comes an album that is a mix of moods that he says are inspired by jazz, bluegrass and Eastern music. Perhaps a disparate-sounding blend, but the music, a delightful mélange of complex rhythms and fascinating instrumentation, is anything but.

The mandolin, played by Jason Anick and Dylan Ferris, along with Macdonald’s violin, create an unusual and refreshing groove with a swinging and exotic presence, especially in the bluesy Atacama to the title track, with its Eastern mood and rhythms.

Add in Dave Restivo’s fine piano and Mike Rud’s guitar and Macdonald is able to blend the familiar with the new beautifully. Bassists Rob Fahie and Jill McKenna and drummer Steven Parish create some captivating rhythms that are a huge treat.

It probably goes without saying that jazz can place a wide range of demands on listeners. Each has a legitimate place, but with Shifting Sands, Macdonald offers complexity and compositional variety, as well as a lot of fun. It simply swings its way through a number of intriguing and surprisingly varied styles and nails them all. ★★★★ out of five

STREAM THESE: Homecoming, Dali’s Hourglass

— Keith Black

CLASSICAL

Pablo Barragán and Sophie Pacini

Boundless

(Aparté)

Any album titled “Boundless” during a time of lockdowns and relentless isolation is going to hold immediate appeal.

This upcoming release features Spanish clarinettist Pablo Barragán with German-Italian pianist Sophie Pacini in sonatas by Francis Poulenc, Leonard Bernstein, Mieczyslaw Weinberg and Sergei Prokofiev that explore the boundaries of the genre.

All the works, except for Poulenc’s, were written during the Second World War, further underscoring the point that even periods of global strife can give rise to art infused by a spirit of sunny optimism and hope.

Bernstein’s youthful Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, his first published work, grabs the listener’s ear with its jazz-flavoured harmonies. The duo brings a light touch throughout, including tossing off its finale Vivace e leggiero teeming with quicksilver syncopations.

Weinberg’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano Op.28 draws on Jewish klezmer as the music of his childhood, providing sonic counterpoint as an often more introspective offering. It also allows Barragán to show off his natural lyricism and dramatic flair, particularly during the Adagio, which begins in the hushed depths of Pacini’s lowest range.

Another highlight is Poulenc’s tightly woven Clarinet Sonata, FP 184, which was composed during the heady days of the 1920s. It becomes a showcase for Barragan’s technical virtuosity and Pacini’s ability to match him note for note, at its best during their fiery closer Allegro con fuoco.

Last but not least, a newly minted arrangement by Prokofiev’s famous Flute Sonata No.2 in D Major shows the enduring beauty of this composer’s music and suitability to the clarinet’s versatility.

Both its good-natured Scherzo, and fourth movement Allegro con brio are hard to resist and provide an enthralling conclusion to this appealing addition to the clarinet duo discography. ★★★★ out of five

STREAM THIS: Scherzo, from Prokofiev’s Flute Sonata No. 2 in D Major

— Holly Harris