New music: Lydia Loveless, Wilco, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Mahan Esfahani

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This article was published 29/09/2023 (1076 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ROCK

Lydia Loveless

Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again (Bloodshot)

When Lydia Loveless (she/her/they/them) emerged from Ohio in 2011, she was a 21-year-old, alt-country firecracker — armed with a siren of a voice, a quick wit and a smokin’ band that could just as easily blaze through a 4/4 rocker as wail through a heartbroken ballad.

In the past dozen years she’s done an awful lot of living — through marriage and divorce, calling out her record label for enabling predatory sexual behaviour (Bloodshot is now under new ownership) and, of course, trying to survive a global pandemic. Most of those experiences were examined and filtered through the material on her three subsequent records, but she’s never been quite as emotionally honest, or as musically expansive, as on her sixth full-length recording.

Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again is the high point of Loveless’s career to date, a 10-song cycle that came to fruition after the breakup of a long-term relationship, a return home to Ohio, and the encouragement of a friend who “assigned” her to write through the pain.

Yes, this is a breakup album, but it’s also a self-aware document of emotional and artistic growth — the latter expressed through a genre-busting embrace of piano, keys, strings and synthesizers. Sure, Loveless laments what’s been lost on the atmospheric album opener Song About You and she longs for the first rush of new love on the stomping alt-rock of Poor Boy. But she’s also smart enough to admit things are over in Feel and resolute enough to realize she can get through it in the bittersweet, revenge fantasy of Ghost.

The anthemic Sex and Money could well be called her state-of-the union address, as she admits to being a music lifer and a hopeless romantic, and she allows herself just one angry song — French Restaurant — to rage against the dying of romantic light. ★★★★ out of five

Stream these: Sex and Money, Ghost, Summerlong.

— John Kendle

ROCK

Wilco

Cousin (dBpm)

If you like your Wilco mid-tempo, melodic and breathy, then Cousin is for you.

Taking yet another departure in tone after last year’s epic double album Cruel Country, the Chicago combo’s latest is more along the lines of 2019’s Ode to Joy.

Wilco enlisted Welsh artist Cate Le Bon to produce the 10 tracks the band’s 13th studio record. It marked the first time since 2007’s Sky Blue Sky that Wilco went outside the band for a producer.

The result is a deeply layered, musically rich record, albeit heavy on the slower tracks. At times, as on Pittsburgh, the soundscape is so thick it feels like an aural impressionist painting, with layer upon layer of music melded together to create a sonic image.

This is music for late at night, with the lights down low, a favourite beverage within reach, and no distractions.

Infinite Surprise is a standout, leading off Cousin slowly and then building to a cacophonous crescendo. But songwriter and Wilco impresario Jeff Tweedy quickly brings things back down with the next track Ten Dead that opens with, “I woke up this morning and I went back to bed/Ten dead/Ten dead/Now there are 10 dead.”

It’s got a catchy melody, but not exactly a tune to spin at a Friday afternoon happy hour. And that’s OK.

Wilco fans who prefer the rocking side of the venerable band will find a lot to like in the album closer Meant to Be, which is definitely destined to be a crowd pleaser live with the catchy chorus of “Our love was meant to be.” It wasn’t meant to be for the rest of Cousin to swing as hard, but there’s still plenty to love. ★★★½ out of five

Stream these: Meant to Be, Infinite Surprise

— Scott Bauer, The Associated Press

JAZZ

Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society

Dynamic Maximum Tension (Nonesuch)

Any release by leader/composer/educator Darcy James Argue is anticipated with excitement. Vancouver-born Argue, now an international band leader, composer and educator at several U.S. universities, represents the very peak of innovative current big band possibilities. He periodically convenes his “Secret Society” of 18 musicians to display his latest compositional ideas. His albums have been nominated for both Grammys and Junos.

His releases usually have a theme, and this double disc album is named for the three words futurist Buckminster Fuller used to reference his inventions. Argue is fascinated by Fuller’s desire to make the most of design to benefit daily life, and his encouragement of wind and wave power. The term “Dymaxion,” which Fuller coined, is the title of the opening track.

The 18 musicians here are among the top jazz musicians of the day who offer a series of stunning solos. Argue’s writing is dense and intricate, while remaining powerfully accessible and enjoyable. This is seriously terrific jazz. Winged Beast, for example, moves through 13 minutes with increasing intensity and tension, maintaining musical excitement. Codebreaker moves the tempo up with a driving sax solo and a great rhythmic base. Ferromagnetic offers a funky guitar riff and trumpet and flugelhorn solos that soar.

Argue’s music always moves forward; there is striking direction and purpose, with arrangements that put the solo openings exactly where they should be.

It is also obvious that this “Secret Society” is totally into the project. The excitement of the music is reflected fully by the tangible excitement of the players. The title Tensile Curves is initially puzzling — it is 34 minutes broken into three distinct parts that are different in length and mood — all good but a bit . Singer Cécile McLorin Salvant sneaks in on the final track Mae West: Advice.

As you can gather, this is an extraordinary album: one of the best of the year. ★★★★★ out of five

Stream these: Dymaxion, Codebreaker

— Keith Black

CLASSICAL

Mahan Esfahani

Bach: The French Suites (Hyperion)

Internationally renowned Iranian harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani follows his prior J. S. Bach recordings with this new release featuring the Baroque master’s six French Suites.

What’s refreshing is that the musician divides the set between harpsichord and its ancestral predecessor, the lesser-heard clavichord, succinctly capturing the delicate intricacies of the contrapuntal works. While it admittedly takes a few moments for 21st-century ears to adjust to the latter instrument’s decidedly more brittle sound, this album offers a golden opportunity to hear these pieces performed as originally performed.

Highlights include the slower paced Allemande movements for each suite, rendered with stately gravitas, as well each respective Sarabande and Menuet, in which Esfahani plunges the listener into the innermost layers of Bach’s polyphonic style.

He further displays his technical prowess during each of the highly embellished Gigues and Courantes, bringing out their dancelike, dotted rhythms with both clarity and precision.

Also included is Bach’s Suite in A minor, BWV818, with the artist’s clavichord particularly striking during the penultimate Passepied, before its final Gigue caps the work, and the album, with one last burst of florid passagework as its draws to a peaceful close. ★★★★ out of five

Stream these: Suite in A minor, BWV818 and French Suite, No. 5 in G major, BWV816

— Holly Harris