New music

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This article was published 10/09/2015 (4000 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Coeur de pirate

Roses (Dare to Care)

A STAR in Quebec and France, francophone Montrealer Béatrice Martin (a.k.a. Coeur de pirate) is taking a shot at the global market by including seven English songs on her new 11-track album.

Unlike some of her predecessors, the classically trained pianist and singer isn’t reinventing herself for a new audience, nor is she turning her back on her heritage. What she has done is create a bilingual record of modern pop songs created with producers who’ve worked with the likes of Robyn, Lykke Li, PJ Harvey and Cold Specks.

It’s an audacious move — and it’s largely a success. The production on one or two cuts will bring comparisons to Lorde or Lana Del Rey, but the strength of this record lies in the unique timbre of Martin’s naturally girlish singing voice and in the expressive examinations of love in her lyrics, both English and French. Interestingly, Roses opens and closes with English and French versions of the same song, Carry On (no points for guessing which is better). ****

DOWNLOAD: Oceans Brawl; Drapeau blanc; Oublie-moi (Carry On)

— John Kendle

 

Tia Brazda

Bandshell (Independent)

TORONTO-BASED singer-songwriter Tia Brazda’s new album has the kind of sass, snap and crackle that finds its roots as far back as Billie Holiday and as up to the minute as Amy Winehouse.

With her bebop-style ’40s-vintage up-do in place, the cheerful Brazda, along with her sprightly band, presents the music as a kind of tribute to swing jazz. While we have been in this musical territory plenty of times before, these 10 tracks are worth hearing. Smooth opener Shine is as good as it gets, replete with a subtle horn section augmenting the hip pastiche.

Part of Brazda’s charm/failing is her slurred enunciation of certain words for effect. Perhaps blame Lady Day for the appreciation of lazy cadence, but mangling the word “heart” into “hay-ut” and “blurring the lines” into “bla-een the lines,” etc. gets a bit tedious. Her heart is definitely in the right place, though, and closing track All For You drops the most of the mannerisms and makes like an indie-rock ballad from another time. **1/2

DOWNLOAD: All For You, Waste of Time

— Jeff Monk

 

David Gogo

Vicksburg Call (Cordova Bay)

A RECENT issue of British music magazine Uncut made a valid claim that because of the nature of the genre and how long it has been around, contemporary blues artists find themselves grinding it out for middle-aged males.

Nevertheless, the music is still being played and there are legions of fans who count on wily cats such as award-winning Canuck bluesman David Gogo to fill their needs.

On Vicksburg Call, Gogo balances hard-rocking tracks (Cuts Me To The Bone, What’s Not To Like) with slower acoustic burners (There’s a Hole) to good effect. The gospel-like arrangement and wailing backing vocalists on the inspirational Our Last Goodbye wouldn’t have sounded out of place on an early Humble Pie album, and while Neil Young’s The Loner may not have needed this kind of ham-handed upgrade, it’s nice that Gogo tried.

Legendary Savoy Brown mainstay Kim Simmonds adds some mildly interesting guitar figures to mid-tempo shuffle Fooling Myself, and thus the circle becomes complete. ***

DOWNLOAD: Cuts Me To The Bone, What’s Not To Like

— Jeff Monk

 

COUNTRY

Brett Kissel

Pick Me Up (Warner)

THE pride of Flat Lake, Alta., is back with his second major-label outing after scoring heavy airplay on five tracks from his debut. The first single from Pick Me Up is already storming the charts here at home.

Brett Kissel released his first album at the age of 12; now 25, he’s living in Tennessee, working with Nashville’s Mickey Jack Cones (Jason Aldean/Trace Adkins) and recently played the Grand Ole Opry. Kissel hasn’t turned his back on Canada; he’s still working with former Portage la Prairie musician and producer Bart McKay.

Most of the tracks here are love songs (both discovery and loss), featuring solid pop production. Kissel toured with Brad Paisley last year and some of Paisley’s humour and style rubbed off on the young artist. He is joined by 23-year-old multi-instrumentalist Hunter Hayes, who displays his six-string pyrotechnics on I Can Play Guitar.

The highlight of the set is the closer, I Didn’t Fall In Love With Your Hair, featuring fellow Canadian Carolyn Dawn Johnson — it’s a song for his mother, a multiple cancer survivor. ***1/2

DOWNLOAD THIS: That’s Why God Made Guitars, I Didn’t Fall In Love With Your Hair

— Bruce Leperre

 

CLASSICAL

Shostakovich Under Stalin’s Shadow

Symphony No. 10 (Universal)

YOU’D be hard pressed to find a more attention-grabbing title than the one attached to this politically charged album.

The first in an ongoing collaboration with the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s newly appointed music director, Andris Nelsons, its lofty goal is to record Shostakovich’s complete cycle of works for Deutsche Grammophon. The first instalment features his Symphony No. 10 in E minor (Op. 93), composed in 1953, the year of Stalin’s death.

Having come of age in the then-Soviet Union — and still only in his mid-30s — Nelsons proves an ideal interpreter for the four-movement work considered the composer’s personal commentary on the Stalinist regime. He instils a sense of verisimilitude throughout the work, including its brooding opening movement that leads to a savage scherzo performed with militaristic attack. The third movement — including its encoded DSCH motif and Elmira theme, and the finale underpinned by its deceptively naive folk tune — are similarly given both clarity and weight.

Also included is the passacaglia from Shostakovich’s harshly criticized opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, which earned Stalin’s contempt and ultimately led to a radical change of compositional style. Under Nelsons’ baton, the orchestra effectively realizes this shorter, one-movement work that shrieks and bellows against cruel forces of political tyranny. ***1/2

— Holly Harris