New music

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/08/2024 (733 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

POP

Sabrina Carpenter

Short n’ Sweet (Island)

Say you can’t sleep? Sabrina Carpenter knows. That’s that her espresso.

The 25-year-old pop sensation’s smash hit of the summer, Espresso — with its grammatical mystery of an earworm line, “That’s that me espresso” — gave listeners a taste of her newest album, Short n’ Sweet. The former Disney Channel actor’s sixth studio album follows an explosive year marked with successes, from opening for Taylor Swift on her Eras Tour to performing at Coachella.

She’s confident, she’s radiant, and she’ll air out all your dirty laundry in a breakup song if you wrong her.

In the flirty, fun and wholly unserious Short n’ Sweet” Carpenter’s soprano vocals take humorous jabs at exes and drop innuendos with an air of cheeky innocence. Sugary songs such as Taste and Juno incorporate enough NSFW references to have listeners blushing almost as much as the rosy-cheeked singer.

Carpenter shows a more vulnerable side with ballads such as Dumb & Poetic and Lie to Girls, in which she drops her carefree front to sing unguarded lyrics airing out grievances against an ex.

But it’s when pop tracks blend into R&B that Carpenter really shines. Her breathy vocals work so well on such tracks as Good Graces and Don’t Smile, reminiscent of Ariana Grande or Mariah Carey.

Which direction will she take next? Only Carpenter knows. Isn’t that sweet? Carpenter guesses so. That is, after all, that her espresso.

Three and a half out of five stars

Stream: Espresso; Good Graces

— Kiana Doyle, The Associated Press

ROOTS

The Cactus Blossoms

Every Time I Think About You (Walkie Talkie)

“I’m a big fan of appreciation,” the Cactus Blossoms’ brothers Jack Torrey and Page Burkum sing on Keep Walkin’.

That sounds like the cue for a compliment: Every Time I Think About You might be the duo’s best record yet.

Torrey and Burkum have built a career on classic sibling singing, but on the new album, harmony vocals are only part of the charm.

Handsome melodies make these 10 songs shimmer; there’s also an elemental but sturdy ’50s-style structure to uncluttered arrangements framed by tuneful electric guitars. Even the instrumental solos are catchy. The new songs are rooted in country and the blues (with lyrics referencing Jimmie Rodgers and Howlin’ Wolf), ensuring a tasteful mix of savoury with their familiar sweetness.

The Torrey-Burkum vocal blend remains the anchor, and the songs tend to, yes, blossom when those harmonies arrive. The songs are fuzzy on details but strong on feeling. There’s a recurring theme of moving on, as suggested by several titles. Keep Walkin’ evokes the late Marc Bolan; There She Goes is a deceptively breezy breakup tune; and Go On soars as a ballad worthy of fellow Minnesotans the Jayhawks.

The set opens with the funky rock of Something’s Got a Hold on Me, while Be What I Wanna rides a mossy groove. Guitars swap licks as the simile-centric Is It Any Wonder celebrates the romance of discovery and discovery of romance.

The album turns topical on Statues” a ballad distinguished by tremolo guitars, a Blue Bayou beat and concise, clever lyrics.

“Statues,” the duo sings, “cast shadows that fall on you. Statues — they’re falling, too.” That’s a couplet to appreciate.

Four out of five stars

Stream: Keep Walkin’; Statues

— Steven Wine, The Associated Press

JAZZ

Wayne Shorter

Celebration Volume 1 (Blue Note)

Saxophone giant Wayne Shorter died in 2023. In late 2022, he was asked to review and curate a large batch of unreleased recordings to assess their worth, and until about 10 days before he died, he was looking through this material. The first one he got excited about was this 2014 live concert from the Stockholm Jazz Festival. In the hospital he accepted he would not be around to see the release(s) and requested the titles of any releases be Celebration.

This was a gracious and totally appropriate choice.

This two-disc set is stunning. Shorter’s late career quartet has Danilo Perez on piano, John Patitucci on bass and Brian Blade on drums. They are all in amazing form here. There are several familiar tunes from the repertoire, with a couple of surprising extras. Shorter’s Zero Gravity is given several versions, called “dimensions.” The opening track, Zero Gravity to the 15th Dimension is haunting, intense and emotional. It sets up other tracks with twisting melodies, dissonant grooves and relentless intensity. Several 20 minute tracks, such as Lotus and She Moves Through the Fair display a chemistry that is simply beautiful.

Shorter’s music is challenging at all times. This concert shows his complete control of the message without bravado or flamboyance. The well-known tune Orbits is an extraordinary version and perhaps the “wildest” track. All members cut loose with great effect.

Other tracks move through tempi and rhythmic changes with consummate ease. Shorter is predominantly on soprano, quite common in the latter part of his career. Pianist Perez is frankly jaw-dropping — at times assuming the leadership on various tracks.

Celebration indeed. I’m surprised this concert was neglected until now. And as for other unreleased music curated by Shorter, the good news is that this is Celebration Volume 1.

Five out of five stars

Stream: Zero Gravity to the 15th Dimension; Lotus

— Keith Black

CLASSICAL

Emmanuelle Bertrand, Pascal Amoyel

Cello Dreams: Berceuses pour violoncelle et piano (Harmonia Mundi)

This kinder, gentler release whisks listeners to dreamland, with cellist Emmanuelle Bertrand and pianist Pascal Amoyel performing a program of 13 lullabies and serenades for all ages.

Listeners are treated to several familiar works, including Brahms’s famous Wiegenlied from his Five Lieder, Op. 49, with the players’s slowly rocking tempo allowing its hushed lines to ebb and flow. The real-life couple’s own arrangement of Faure’s (among others) deceptively simple Wiegenlied in A flat major, D. 498 is another, with Bertrand’s plaintive cello theme echoed by Amoyel’s piano further displaying their simpatico artistry.

Frank Bridge’s Berceuse in B flat Major, H. 8, inspired by the same French composer, recalls Faure’s graceful singing lines with the popular piece transcribed for various instruments during the 1920s.

Other highlights include Dvorak’s 7 Gypsy Songs, Op. 55, B. 104 from Songs my mother taught me, with the musicians taking turns rendering its huskier theme, as well as the equally mesmerizing Nana from Manuel de Falla’s Siete canciones populares Españolas, as tender as an Andalusian lullaby.

Several pieces take poetic licence with the genre itself, albeit still borne of the “wellspring of wonder,” as per the artists’s own liner notes. One unusual offering is Ravel’s Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Faure in G Major, M. 74, its adventuresome theme derived from letters in the composer’s name, while Schubert’s Standchen, originally inspired by an amorous poem by Ludwig Rellstab, soothes the soul; both artists giving full voice to its unabashedly lyrical, romantic sentiment.

Four and a half out of out of five stars

Stream: Nana; Standchen; Wiegenlied

— Holly Harris