Album reviews: Ed Sheeran, Breeders, David Binney, Ophélie Gaillard

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This article was published 06/10/2023 (1085 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

POP

Ed Sheeran

Autumn Variations (Gingerbread Man)

“I’ve been up all night, thinking about dying,” Ed Sheeran opens When Will I Be Alright. “I’ve just been wasting time. God is not on my side.”

Somehow, that’s not even the most devastating moment.

That arrives later in the track, when mournful strings carry the song to its coda like a country dirge. Sheeran has never been one to shy away from explicit emotionality, but something’s different on Autumn Variations, his sixth studio album and the first since his series of releases named after mathematical symbols. Is this the end of an era, or the beginning of something novel?

Inspiration came from an unusual place: composer Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, in which every composition was about a different friend. Sheeran’s Autumn Variations, instead, centres on his relationships.

Chalk it up to fatherhood, marriage, or simply residual effects of a global health crisis that has altered the psychology of humanity in increasingly complex and unearthed ways, but it makes for some of the best songs of Sheeran’s career, from the lo-fi Midnights, the lamenting reverbed riff of Punchline, to the Billy Joel-channeling The Day I Was Born.

Autumn Variations was produced by the National’s Aaron Dessner. Perhaps that can account for some of the big existential queries here, met with production of a similar depth.

Sheeran and Dessner have proven to be a marvellous partnership. In the past, Sheeran has spent time demonstrating a masterful understanding of taking pop architecture and marrying it with EDM, reggaeton, Afropop, however you’d describe the sonic idiosyncrasies of Jai Paul. But here, with Dessner, he’s returned home to his folk-y pop craft, the world he knows best. And with obvious evolution. And a bit of depression. ★★★★ out of five stars

Stream these: Midnights, Punchline

— Maria Sherman, The Associated Press

• • •

ROCK

Breeders

Last Splash (4AD)

The Breeders are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their second studio album with the release of Last Splash (30th Anniversary Original Analog Edition). The re-release won’t rewrite the history of the ’90s alt-rock band, but it surfaces new curiosities from the vault and delivers plenty of opportunities for discovery within the landmark album’s songs and lyrics.

In 1990, Pixies bassist Kim Deal launched the Breeders as a side project to explore an independent creative direction. The Breeders’ unique blend of angular, sledgehammer instrumental and dreamy harmonies had more in common with bands such as the Kinks and early, live Go-Go’s performances than it did with the Pixies or any of their ’90s contemporaries. Perhaps, as a result, they still sound fresh three decades later.

The two new songs on the analog edition are welcome additions to the catalog.

Go Man Go, co-written with Frank Black from the Pixies, delivers a classic Breeders blend of punchy guitars and sweet harmonies. The second new track, Divine Mascis, features Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis on vocals in an alternate take on the Breeders’ Divine Hammer.

The impact of the remaster on the original Last Splash songs merits a close listen. The Breeders were never really an audiophile’s band, but this analog edition doesn’t try to clean them up – it instead doubles-down on their gritty side. Bassist Josephine Wiggs and drummer Jim Macpherson emerge from the background with a rhythm section as gritty as early Led Zeppelin, and the Deal twins’ — Kim and Kelly — harmonies soar.

The mid-album stretch best highlights the band’s high-wire act between oddball experimentation and pop sensibility. The remaster isolates the slide guitar on No Aloha and the shaky cello on Roi to make the songs more expansive. And the vocals on Do You Love Me Now soar, starting sweet and sad and growing in implied menace as the song builds. ★★★★ out of five stars

Stream these: Go Man Go, No Aloha

— Jim Pollock, The Associated Press

• • •

JAZZ

David Binney

Action (Mythology)

Alto player David Binney has released albums that span a wide swath of jazz modes and styles, from small groups to big bands. He can play fabulous melodic tunes or edgy tracks with ease. This new album is a trio release that reflects both acoustic and electronic moods leaning solidly toward the rock side of the bell curve. His trio has Pera Krstajic on bass and Louis Cole on drums. Each member also contributes mixes to the album.

Binney is quite shy on first meeting, but when he plays his typical flurries of notes and wild arpeggios things are completely different. After a brief title track to set the stage, the following Medium Power and Power (Band Version) have upbeat rock rhythms and are driving and exciting. When Love Goes pulls back to a gentle ballad that is a lovely counterpoint to the former style until it digs in later with an extended drum solo by Cole. Several tracks, such as For My Friends, basically superimpose a rock/pop tune with terrific jazz riffs provided by Binney’s swirling alto.

The brief track Outer Moat is perhaps the farthest out mix on the album, with all members augmenting their acoustic roles. Without question the album is predominantly “electric Binney.” Ritual is rhythmically grounded by the drummer, but the context is fully electronic. Birth and Leaving are laid back while maintaining the rock feel.

All are comfortable here and solo beautifully. Overall this is not a laid back album. The beat is relentless and lots of fun with deceptively subtle writing that hides in the aggressive groove. Binney is at his best when he is flying through complex phrases, and he gets to prove that here.

The longest track, One Version Of A Journey, follows a haunting electronic opening with drum solo and electric ensemble before Binney’s alto kicks in at about six minutes. The track ends the album with a clear idea of the musical journey it represents. Very cool. ★★★★ out of five stars

Stream: For My Friends, Medium Power

— Keith Black

• • •

CLASSICAL

Ophélie Gaillard

Pulcinella Orchestra

Sandrine Piau, Marina Viotti, Luan Góes Napoli! (Aparté)

Ophélie Gaillard continues her ongoing musical voyage through the cello repertoire on Napoli!

The themed, two-disc set takes listeners into the heart of 18th century Naples, with the musician joined by the Pulcinella Orchestra performing an eclectic program of works. Featured composers include Durante, Leo, the Spaniard Ortiz and Corselli, who spent the second half of his career in Madrid, as well as Barbella and Matteis, who in turn craft musical depictions of iconic characters Scaramouche and Harelequin from quintessentially Italian street theatre, commedia dell’arte.

The album also features operatic excerpts, as well as both secular and religious works, that showcase singers Sandrine Piau, soprano; Marina Viotti, mezzo-soprano; and the otherworldly vocals of countertenor Luan Góes.

Highlights include, as one might expect, Barbella’s Tarentella La vallubrella, as well as Scarlatti’s Cello Sonata No. 1, its four movements a revelation in itself, written by the composer famously known for his keyboard works. Another is the final instrumental number, Giga, from Ayres for the Violin, Book I, propelled by highly infectious rhythms that defy any listener not to dust off their dancing shoes.

Viotti also delivers a rousing rendition of Bonno’s Non turbar quand’io mi lagno, (L’isola disabitata), with Góes’ Fiero il ciel balena intorno (Temistocle) another standout. He enthralls with florid runs in his uppermost tessitura, capturing the ebullience of Neapolitan society in these centuries old, musical postcards from the sun-soaked Mediterranean coast sure to please. ★★★★ out of five stars

Stream these: Fiero il ciel balena intorno (Temistocle); Giga from Ayres for the Violin, Book I

— Holly Harris