New music

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This article was published 06/04/2023 (1275 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

POP/ROCK

Boygenius

The Record

(Interscope)

The backstory of Boygenius is that Julien Baker, a young, up-and-coming alt/indie singer-songwriter from Nashville, met Lucy Dacus, a young up-and-coming alt/indie singer-songwriter from Richmond, Va., backstage at a show in Washington, D.C., in 2016, where they bonded over their shared love of music and literature, exchanged email addresses and stayed in touch. Dacus was already friendly with Phoebe Bridgers, a similarly aged and like-minded alt/indie singer-songwriter from L.A., and just over a year later, the threesome went out on a co-headlining tour, playing their own sets every night but also playing and harmonizing on each other’s songs. By tour’s end, they had decided to record together and the resultant, six-song Boygenius EP was one of the most highly praised records of 2018.

Each has since released a career-elevating album – Bridgers’ 2020 record, Punisher, earned four Grammy nominations, while Baker’s Little Oblivions and Dacus’ Home Video, both of which came out in 2021, were both lauded as artistic high-water marks.

Given those successes, the possibility of Boygenius making another record seemed remote. However, the forced inactivity of the COVID-19 pandemic actually brought Baker, Bridgers and Dacus closer, to the point that Baker forced the issue by creating a Google Drive folder full of demos and sharing it with Bridgers and Dacus.

The Record opens with an a cappella reminder of why and how this trio works — a glorious three-part harmony called Without You Without Them featuring Dacus singing lead while the voices of Baker and Bridgers fit in seamlessly behind her. The chunky guitar-pop of Baker’s $20 cranks up the volume as the last notes of the opener fade and the song’s first line – “It’s a bad idea and I’m all about it” — sets the record’s ‘let’s do this’ tone. A Bridgers song, Emily I’m Sorry, follows and then Dacus takes the lead on True Blue to bring the record’s opening salvo to a close. (Check out the Kristen Stewart-directed video The Film, which knits $20, Emily I’m Sorry and True Blue together in a visual dreamscape.)

Over 12 tracks and 42 minutes, there are clearly Dacus songs, Baker songs and Bridgers songs on The Record, but these wouldn’t exist without the input of the others and when the three singers and writers truly become one, as on Cool About It (an in-the-round acoustic folk song), Satanist (a Pixies-ish paean to youthful irresponsibility) or Not Strong Enough (a shimmering pop tune), the music is simply spellbinding. ★★★★1/2 out of five

STREAM THESE: $20, Not Strong Enough, Satanist

— John Kendle

POP/ROCK

Miracle-Level

Deerhoof (Joyful Noise Recordings)

On their 19th album, Deerhoof remains as playful and experimental as ever. The title of the first track on Miracle-Level serves as a polite command, Sit Down, Let Me Tell You a Story, and this oddball, guitar-driven release merits attention throughout.

The band self-produced its first 18 releases before deciding to try something different. In 2022, they brought in producer Mike Bridavsky to take themselves out of their home-recording comfort zone and into the studio. The impact is most notable in the spare instrumentation and the punchy garage-band feel of the guitars.

On first listen, the album is like a visit to an unfamiliar city — it feels anarchic and unstructured until the listener has some time to acclimate to its rules and norms. But the band is a musical microculture unto itself, and within two or three songs, the unique logic of Deerhoof starts to fall into place.

Singer and bass-player Satomi Matsuzaki was born in Japan, and Miracle-Level is the first Deerhoof release sung entirely in her native language. Japanese poetry and songwriting leans away from simple rhyming couplets (think “remember” and “September”). On Everybody, Marvel, for example, the band offers more impressionistic imagery: “view through a distorted, broken window/ a comfortable filter”. The freeform lyrical structure further liberates the band from familiar song formats.

Deerhoof tends to toggle between apocalyptic fatalism and childlike wonder, and Miracle-Level is an album that focuses mostly on small miracles. My Lovely Cat! is a frenetic slice of feline life that channels a catnip-addled brain. The title track, Miracle-Level, declares, “we need only love songs.” The song Phase Out All Remaining Non-Miracles by 2028 is a brief manifesto on magical thinking that crystallizes the mood of the release. ★★★★ out of five

STREAM THESE: Everybody, Marvel; Phase Out All Remaining Non-Miracles by 2028

— Jim Pollock, The Associated Press

JAZZ

Ingrid Laubrock

The Last Quiet Place (Pyroclastic Records)

It is perhaps unnecessary for me to say that contemporary avant-garde jazz can sound at first listen to be chaotic when in fact it is anything but. Saxophonist/composer Ingrid Laubrock presents us here with a beautiful example of how dissonant and not conventionally “melodic” music can express powerful emotions. Her sextet here has Mazz Swift on violin, Tomeka Reid on cello, Brandon Seabrook on guitar, Michael Formanek on bass and Tom Rainey on drums. Together they explore Laubrock’s compositions that sprang from her readings of current world issues and the need, or wish, to find a quiet place to mitigate the pain.

This is not “free” music. The tunes are purposeful and haunting within patterns of jagged changes and ensemble integrity within swirling solos by all members. The patterns are predominantly edgy and complex but succeed in presenting the yearning expressed in the album title. Delusions moves from up tempo to quiet reflection to quirky finish. Grammy Season is a constantly shifting sound picture, while the title track reflects the search for that illusive quiet place of peace. Laubrock’s soprano is especially noteworthy as I found it fully embodied the concept of the album. The strings are a fascinating part of the moods throughout, with the gentle opening to Afterglow a fine example of their seminal part of the plan.

As with much of modern “post-classical” music, the jazz listener is presented with new and challenging ways to respond to the contemporary music scene. While never forgetting the great jazz of former years, there is much to love about the less familiar directions that albums like this one offer. In the notes Laubrock realizes that if there is a last quiet place it is within each of us. I found that her music helps in the search. ★★★★1/2 out of five

STREAM THESE: Grammy Session, Anticipation

— Keith Black

CLASSICAL

Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg with Orfeo Català

Giacomo Puccini’s Messa di Gloria & Orchestral Works: Scherzo per archi, Capriccio Sinfonico, Crisantemi

(Harmonia Mundi)

Think “opera” and chances are the name Puccini comes to mind. This new release by Harmonia Mundi celebrates the Italian composer’s lesser-known works, featuring two ensembles: the Orfeo Català chorus (Pablo Larraz, conductor) and Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg led by maestro Gustavo Gimeno.

Messa di Gloria scored for orchestra, mixed chorus, tenor and baritone soloist immediately displays the composer’s theatrical flair, with its five parts comprised of 18 individual movements. The Agnus Dei, featuring the robust tones of tenor Charles Castronovo and baritone Ludovic Tézier, and based on Lamb of God text evokes gentle pastoral images of shepherds with their flutes. Crucifixus from the Credo becomes a musical depiction of Jesus’s crucifixion, with the increasingly dense orchestration growing weightier by the measure. Other highlights include the pair of Glorias from the second part, bursting with ebullient joy with the chorus in full voice.

Three instrumental works are also offered: “Scherzo per archi,” the rugged last movement from Puccini’s String Quartet in D and Capriccio sinfonico, a large-scale symphonic poem bristling with drama; notably the composer’s final examination piece for his graduation from the Milan Conservatory. Last but not least, Crisantemi, an elegiac work originally scored for string quartet is inspired by chrysanthemum flowers Italians traditionally leave for their loved ones at gravesites. Gimeno’s passionate artistry infuses the one-movement work with deeply felt, poetic sensibility, striking just the right balance between heartfelt sentiment and operatic fervour. ★★★★ out of five

STREAM THIS: Crisantemi

— Holly Harris