New music: Leon Bridges, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, James Bay, Patricia Brennan Septet, London Symphony Orchestra

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This article was published 11/10/2024 (720 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ROCK

Leon Bridges
Leon (Columbia)

Sweet-voiced Texas singer Leon Bridges made his name with 2015’s Coming Home, a debut album that established him as a ’60s soul revivalist. Over his next two records, Bridges took several stylistic steps forward — echoing the funk and disco evolutions of the 1970s and ’80s, and yielding at least one all-time classic in the testifyin’ heartache of Beyond.

He also became a first-call collaborator with the likes of Kacey Musgraves and John Mayer, and the addictive 2021 song, Texas Sun, recorded with atmospheric instrumentalists Khruangbin, introduced Bridges to a whole new audience of Millennial and Gen Z stoners.

On his fourth record, the 35-year-old, working with Musgraves’ producers, Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian, have opened Bridges’ music up to manifest the wide-open spaces of Bridges’ Fort Worth hometown, blending piano, synths, strings and fat mid-tempo grooves (even a pedal steel guitar) to create what should be called chillout soul.

★★★★ out of five

Stream: That’s What I Love; Laredo; Panther City

— John Kendle

 

Godspeed You! Black Emperor
No Title as of 13 February 2024, 28,340 Dead (Constellation)

Yes, the title is bleak, but Montreal’s GYBE is an avowedly political and activist collective and there’s always been an element of the apocalyptic in its compelling instrumental music, often described as chamber-rock or post-rock. Despite the group’s worldview, GYBE always opens its shows with an unrecorded piece it calls Hope Drone, as a projection of the word “HOPE” flickers on a screen behind it, so it seems obvious that love and collective action and losing oneself in the profound catharsis of making beautiful noise is something the group’s 10 members believe in.

Thus it is that the six tracks, or movements, on No Title… can be heard as aspirational — the sound of as many as three electric guitars, two basses, two drum kits and a violin coming together to both exult in and reflect upon the urgency of the moment.

★★★★ out of five

Stream: Raindrops Cast in Lead

— John Kendle

 

POP

James Bay
Changes All the Time (Republic)

Talk, like much of British troubadour James Bay’s latest album, Changes All the Time, ends with a rousing chorus sung above a guitar melody. To get there, he starts with a confession: “I don’t know how to talk to you/I gotta give you something true.”

The truth is, Bay is incredibly articulate. The folk-styled album, his fourth, sees the musician turn lyrics into soulful cries or earnest encouragement atop raw instrumentation.

The singer-songwriter, 34, first emerged over a decade ago, making waves with his 2014 debut album, Chaos and the Calm. His breakout hit, the six-times platinum Let It Go — with its fingerpicked introduction and easy-to-sing-along-to chorus — has since surpassed 1.2 billion streams on Spotify.

Noah Kahan and the Lumineers join Bay on the spirited lead single, Up All Night, an entry into the “stomp and holler” canon that quickly conjures the image of live musicians jamming in a pub, around a campfire or in a garage.

Holly Humberstone, known for her moody pop, lends a writing credit to the album closer Dogfight. The Killers’ Brandon Flowers co-writes Easy Distraction an apologetic love song with a killer bridge and electric guitar melody. Bay emulates singer-songwriter Kevin Garrett’s tender, whisper-singing on Crystal Clear, which Garrett co-wrote.

Bay’s strength as a songwriter is felt deepest in the album’s most emotive moments — such as when Hope employs a chorus of background vocals, turning a plea for optimism into a unifying message.

What Changes All the Time makes clear is that positivity — even in moments of tension — is Bay’s love of the craft shining through.

★★★1/2 out of five

Stream: Talk; Up All Night; Dogfight

— Elsie Ryan, The Associated Press

 

JAZZ

Patricia Brennan Septet
Breaking Stretch (Pyroclastic)

Mexican-born vibraphonist Patricia Brennan produced this spectacular tour-de-force. Her septet here is an amazing band with Brennan on vibes with electronics and marimba; Jon Irabagon on alto and sopranino saxophones; Mark Shim on tenor; Adam O’Farrill on trumpet; Kim Cass on bass; Marcus Gilmore on drums; and Mauricio Herrera on percussion. With her native and Latin rhythms often front and centre, the powerful base offers a veritable buffet of rhythmic variety that propels this album into relentless excitement. Brennan says, “I wanted to push the music and the musicians almost to the breaking point.”

They are totally up to the challenge.

The opening track, Los Otros Yo (The Other Selves), offers a driving sample of the various influences that inform her persona. The other selves blend seamlessly with a fierce energy.

Throughout the album the three horns are tightly wound or sequentially stunning. Often the complex melodies are played in unison by the horns at a pace that explains Brennan’s wish to push the musicians. The overall impact of the music is that at any tempo it flat out needs full attention. It is obvious one is listening to something completely worthwhile and 100 per cent involved. The title track and 555, which refers to a rhythmic sequence of three beats divided by five, both have outstanding solos by Shim.

Palo de Oros (Suit of Coins) is set up with an intro by bassist Cass before spinning into shifting time signatures with unison choruses and solos by Irabagon and O’Farrill.

This is an album impossible to ignore or simply put on as background. Its excitement is not (and should not be) dismissible. Brennan grounds a landmark release here. Hugely recommended.

★★★★★ out of five

Stream: Five Suns; Los Otros Yo

— Keith Black

 

CLASSICAL

London Symphony Orchestra
Mendelssohn: Elijah (LSO Live)

LSO Live marks its 25th anniversary with this new recording of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, featuring the London Symphony Orchestra and its companion ensemble, the London Symphony Chorus (Mariana Rosas, director), including four soloists all artfully led by Sir Antonio Pappano.

Originally premièred in 1846 and based on the life of the Old Testament’s Elijah, the oratorio sung in English is regarded one of the three greatest in the classical canon, structured episodically in two parts based on the Biblical prophet’s life.

Grammy-award winning Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley enthralls in the title role, with his dramatic sensibility immediately displayed from his opening declamation As God the Lord of Israel liveth, to final arioso, For the mountains shall depart.

Soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha also shines as the Widow and the Angel in her recitative/aria What have I to do with thee? before entwining her voice with Finley in their subsequent duet. Mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly as the Angel and the Queen (Jezebel) brings her darker tones to her latter role in The Lord hath exalted thee from among the people, joined by the chorus in tightly knit, four-part harmonies.

An early highlight comes with tenor Allan Clayton in Obadiah’s If with all your hearts” preceded by his natural recitative in Ye people, rend your hearts as well as his second role of Ahab’s As God the Lord of Sabaoth liveth, his soaring vocals seamlessly melding with Finley in their following chorus.

A special nod goes to treble Ewan Christian as the Child; the former head chorister of Westminster Cathedral Choir’s sweet sounds of youth never growing old in this satisfying addition to the oratorio discography.

★★★★1/2 out of five

Stream: As God the Lord of Israel liveth; What have I to do with thee?

— Holly Harris