New music

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This article was published 12/08/2021 (1829 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

POP / ROCK

Billie Eilish

Happier Than Ever (Interscope)

Late adolescence is tough. Adult responsibility looms. The security of home and family is tested. Ideations of love and heartbreak — complicated by the excitement of sexual intimacy — become achingly and painfully real. There’s a lot of stuff to deal with. Imagine that, in the midst of it, you make a pop record, become a global superstar, suddenly have 88 million Instagram followers, and feel like there’s nowhere to hide.

It’s no wonder that the title of Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever has been parsed as ironic, sarcastic, or even straight-up legit. At any given time it is all these things but, as Billie bares her soul and producer brother Finneas takes their music in a moodier, low-key direction (nothing here bangs and bumps like Bad Guy, for example), its apparent that this album is essentially a compelling state of the union.

Happier Than Ever’s 16 tracks were largely written and recorded at Finneas’s home studio during the pandemic, and they basically follow two paths ­— the first is a purge of Billie’s emotion and anger in the wake of toxic relationships and emotional trauma, as on Oxytocin, Lost Cause and Goldwing; the second involves gauging the stress of the past three years and striving to adapt to a new reality, as on Getting Older, Not My Responsibility, NDA and My Future.

Billie still sing/speaks close to her mic and rarely lets her voice wail (the epic crescendo of the title track being a notable exception), and Finneas uses muted electronic beats and synthesizer to keep the songs moving, but they also broaden and open their sound to elements of acoustic jazz (Billie Bossa Nova) and piano balladry (Halley’s Comet), which may well be signs of even better things to come. ★★★★ out of five

STREAM THESE: Getting Older, Not My Responsibility, NDA

— John Kendle

INDIE FOLK

Faye Webster

I Know I’m Funny haha (Secretly Canadian)

The funny thing about I Know I’m Funny haha is that Faye Webster isn’t trying to be funny anymore.

The Atlanta songwriter and photographer’s first three albums were marked by detached, bemused irony. There was real feeling to be found, but if Webster wanted to communicate a sense of loneliness, she was liable to toss off a clever line like, “My dog is my best friend, and he doesn’t even know my name,” on Jonny, from 2019’s Atlanta Millionaires Club.

As inviting as that album was, I Know I’m Funny — whose opening song, Better Distractions, made it on to Barack Obama’s favourite songs of 2020 playlist — is that much more effective.

That’s partly because Webster has grown more comfortable building songs from delectably understated hallmarks of old-school soul that settle in and cast a languorous spell. An organ fill here, a hint of strings and a touch of sax there, paired with a near-deadpan delivery: “I didn’t know I was capable of being happy right now,” Webster sings on In a Good Way, with disarming directness. “But you showed me how.”

Songs that might appear to be goofs wind up having an emotional impact. A Dream With a Baseball Player, about Webster’s fond feelings for Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. — that’s a lighthearted novelty, right? Not really. The song notes the absurdity of — and finds the pathos in — forming intimate bonds with those we only see on screens, or in our dreams. “I saw you last night in my dream, that’s the closest you and I have been/ That’s kind of sad, don’t you think?” It is, but the way Webster sings it, it’s also sort of beautiful. ★★★★ out of five

STREAM THESE: Better Distractions, In a Good Way

— Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer

JAZZ

Barry Altschul 3Dom Factor

Long Tall Sunshine (Not Two)

Drummer Barry Altschul is well known in the world of experimental and avant-garde jazz. He has worked with many groups as well as leading his own bands, and several years ago he formed his 3Dom Factor trio with bassist Joe Fonda and saxophonist Jon Irabagon. After four years, the trio was reconvened in 2019, leading to this newly released, mainly live album that, as the liner notes say, was “recorded somewhere in Europe.”

This is truly excellent exploratory and adventurous music with three current giants. Each gets extended airtime here on five Altschul compositions that range across the now of the jazz scene.

While not totally dissonant or edgy, there are moments of wild improvisation and Altschul’s drumming is the base throughout. Irabagon’s explosive saxophone can be fairly straightforward or anything but. I have a friend who likes jazz but says he doesn’t like anyone playing notes or sounds that an instrument wasn’t built for. He would definitely not like some of Irabagon’s music, as he adds squeaks and other sounds that Adolphe Sax never dreamed of.

That is not the whole picture of course. The title track is actually a hummable tune that takes off from there; a pattern for several of the tracks. The 3Dom Factor has been recorded on earlier releases, and rhythmically drives for almost 15 minutes through quite edgy sounds. Anyone used to modern experimental jazz will simply love this album, while the uninitiated can find much to enjoy. This part of the current jazz genre is an acquired taste, and this album would be a fine way to develop that taste. These three musicians are all hugely talented and have endless improvisational skill. We can only hope that with easing restrictions, the 3Dom Factor will record again somewhere in the world. ★★★★1/2 out of five

STREAM THESE: Long Tall Sunshine, Irina

— Keith Black

CLASSICAL

Stravinsky, The Soldier’s Tale

Isabelle Faust, Dominique Horwitz (Harmonia Mundi)

German violinist Isabelle Faust performs three masterworks by Igor Stravinsky, in the latest instalment on the Harmonia Mundi label commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Russian composer’s death in 1971.

The cornerstone is the always gripping theatrical chamber workThe Soldier’s Tale, composed in the wake of the First World War and the tumult of the October Revolution. After its première in 1918, all subsequent performances were shuttered until 1924, after the Spanish Flu swept the world that year — a prelude to our own still-raging pandemic that similarly decimated our global arts community 100 years later.

French actor Dominique Horwitz serves as narrator, the Soldier and the Devil, spitting out Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz’ biting libretto performed in English. A seven-piece ensemble performs on period insruments that allow listeners to hear the full tonal colours and sonorities originally intended by Stravinsky. Highlights include a particularly crisp Marching Song, with its wild percussion strikes infusing the entire work with driving energy and forward thrust. Others include the trio of highly stylized dances, Tango, Waltz and Ragtime, capped by the The Dance of the Devil, with Horwitz’s cackling delivery holding nothing back, likewise during the climactic Devil’s Song.

As though a tonic to this diabolical offering, the album also features two lesser-known Stravinsky works. The first of those, Elegie, offers a highly introspective respite, with Faust’s hushed tones during the single-movement piece drawing the listener into composer’s more contemplative, sorrowful climes. The idiosyncratic, five-movement Duo Concertant further showcase her sensitive artistry, along with Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov, who matches her note for every jagged, syncopated note.

★★★★ out of five

STREAM THIS: Devil’s Song from The Soldier’s Tale performed by Isabelle Faust

— Holly Harris