Album reviews: Sufjan Stevens, Bad Bunny, Joshua Redman, Steven Osborne

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This article was published 20/10/2023 (711 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ROCK

Sufjan Stevens | Javelin (Asthmatic Kitty)

Sufjan Stevens is a restless genius — the kind of musical artist with tastes and talents so broad they can’t be pigeonholed.

Most fans of indie rock and pop are probably familiar with his Michigan and Illinois “state” records, as well as Carrie & Lowell, his ode to his late mother. And while they may have scratched their heads to his holiday album, Songs for Christmas, or The Age of Adz, an electronic album influenced by Philip Glass, few will have gone so far as seeking out his compositions for film or his commissions for the Houston Ballet.

Rest assured, though, that Stevens’ innate musicality and melodicism are apparent in all he does.

Javelin, which is ostensibly Stevens’ ninth studio album, finds him in singer-songwriter mode, producing, recording, singing and playing all the parts himself (save for backing vocals and a couple of guitar parts on one song contributed by the National’s Bryce Dessner). The result is an intensely personal, 10-song study of spirituality, intimacy and grief.

Stevens uses hushed tones, acoustic guitar- and piano-based arrangements, choral vocals and profound evocations of life’s fleetingly sacred moments to express his faith in love and in God. The record is dedicated to his late partner, Evans Richardson IV, who died on April 30, and it really is an elegy, right down to its artwork and packaging, based on collages by Stevens that are full of images of him, Richardson and their life together.

The songs themselves are simply gorgeous, both on their own and as a whole. Album opener Goodbye Evergreen, A Running Start and Sh** Talk are personal and emotional addresses to a lover, while Will Anybody Love Me? is a heart-breaking cry of loneliness and sorrow. Everything That Rises and Genuflecting Ghost are practically hymns, and the album’s closing song, a spare, acoustic reworking of Neil Young’s There’s a World, becomes a simple prayer of peace, love, hope and beauty.

★★★★ out of five

Stream these: Goodbye Evergreen; Will Anybody Love Me?; Sh** Talk.

— John Kendle

POP

Bad Bunny | Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana (Rimas)

Bad Bunny, born Benito Martínez Ocasio, adorns his new album with totems of his hard-earned life of luxury.

With the Champagne-drenched braggadocio of songs such as Monaco, it becomes apparent that trophies, cars and beautiful women serve as consolation prizes for what Bad Bunny lost in the privacy he once enjoyed.

As he crows in the orchestral opening track, being as famous as he is means that he doesn’t have to answer to just anyone anymore. “I’m not a trapper, nor a reggaetónero,” he reminds us all in Spanish. “I am the biggest star in the whole world.”

It’s an attitude shift that might have completely alienated Bad Bunny’s listeners, had he not revived the sound that endeared us all to him in the first place: Latin trap.

As always, he flaunts his Puerto Rican bona fides. For the six-minute scamp’s anthem Acho PR, he ushered in veteran MC Ñengo Flow and reunited the former duo Arcángel and De La Ghetto. Bad Bunny also paid it forward by welcoming in a formidable lineup of Boricuas on the rise, including Eladio Carrión, Young Miko, Mora, Bryant Myers, Yovngchimi and Luar La L.

Young Miko, arguably the MVP in Bad Bunny’s illustrious guest list, takes the wheel on Fina, a frisky queer jam that exalts women who lean into their sexuality. Bad Bunny captains a refreshing change of pace with Mora in the brisk house number Hibiki, followed by the Jersey club romps Where She Goes and Cybertruck. He then cools off with Vou 787, in which he says, “if I were a woman, I’d be Madonna, I’d be Rihanna.”

Yet Bad Bunny’s lyricism devolves into petulant Drakeism on Baby Nueva, a bitter parade of vitriol aimed at an ex he swears he doesn’t lose sleep over. (“Ya ni Mami te quiere,” he spits coldly, asserting to his antagonist that “not even Mommy loves you anymore.”) Even the unbridled hedonism described in Teléfono Nuevo couldn’t conceal the cursed feelings underpinning his vacuous sexcapades.

Ultimately, the Bad Bunny we get to know in Nadie Sabe is a superstar who has been hunkered down on the defensive too long — whether from critics, haters, possessive fans or other entities that have seemed to whittle away at his humanity. The cold, brutalist tower he’s built in Nadie Sabe stands in contrast to the wellspring of rich, modern-day Puerto Rican storytelling that we drank from in previous albums.

★★★½ out of five

Stream these: Acho PR, Where She Goes

— Suzy Exposito, Los Angeles Times

JAZZ

Joshua Redman | Where Are We (Blue Note)

Saxophonist Joshua Redman has been here several times, including a jazz fest gala at the human rights museum where he was amazed by his surroundings. His new album is a thematic musical tour of the U.S., although there is a sense that Where Are We has a bit of a double meaning. The tunes are mainly covers of pop songs that he bends in fascinating shapes. It is an enjoyable road trip.

His band here has pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Joe Sanders, drummer Brian Blade and a young singer named Gabrielle Cavassa. In a very neat concept, there are guests included on tracks that reflect their native cities — vibraphonist Joel Ross on Chicago Blues, guitarists Kurt Rosenwinkel on Streets of Philadelphia and Peter Bernstein on Manhattan and trumpeter Nicholas Payton on Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans.

Vocalist Cavassa, the first singer to feature on a Redman-led album, has a very fine non-invasive style that presents the themes without artifice but with clarity and focus.

The first track, a modified Woody Guthrie tune, hints at the mixture of feelings about this journey. It’s called After Minneapolis (face toward mo[u]rning). As well as writing the lyrics, there is real mourning in Redman’s opening solo. He shows why he is solidly in the top echelon of contemporary saxophonists and he demonstrates a wonderful partnership with his singer.

There are many treats here. Springsteen’s Streets of Philadelphia is a romp. The lesser known That’s New England is very smooth.

Familiar tunes such as By the Time I Get to Phoenix get introduced to a new generation. Chicago Blues, usually played as hard-edged blues is reimagined at a slower and more intimate mood here.

And the track that is the most powerful is Redman’s cover of John Coltrane’s Alabama: pain, anger and perseverance in classic form. It is impossible to listen to unmoved.

All in all a diverse and always engaging road trip.

★★★★ ½ out of five

Stream: Baltimore, Alabama

— Keith Black

CLASSICAL

Steven Osborne | Debussy: Études & Pour le piano (Hyperion)

Acclaimed Scottish pianist Steven Osborne offers a program of Debussy solo works in this upcoming release by Hyperion, notably the label’s November record of the month.

Composed in 1915 and regarded the quintessentially French composer’s late masterpieces, the collection of 12 études came with their own warning not to be performed by a pianist lacking “formidable hands.” Fortunately, Osborne possesses those, as he tackles each inordinately technical piece with aplomb, while ably bringing out the impressionist tonal colours and hues of each shorter work.

An early highlight is No. 1 Pour les cinq doigts (d’après Monsieur Czerny), with its deceptively simple opening erupting into cascades of figuration. Others are the expansive No. 5 Pour les octaves and No. 7 Pour les degres chromatiques, the latter infused with furtive energy, as well as No. 9 Pour les notes répétées, before leading ultimately to an emphatic finale, No. 12 Pour les accords.

The second substantive work, Pour le piano, becomes a thoughtful counterbalance to the Études as an expressive, three movement suite. The artist once again unleashes his full arsenal of pyrotechnics, including sweeping glissandi heard during the opening Prelude, before displaying his luminous tone in the subsequent Sarabande. The finale Toccata bristles with driving energy, as Osborne punches out rhythmic accents with precision before a triumphant close.

The album is capped by a lovely, lilting La plus que lente, as Osborne brings the lush sonorities of its harmonies; Berceuse heroique, exploiting his instrument’s most lugubrious depths; before wrapping up with Étude retrouvee.

The recording is a rich buffet for Debussy connoisseurs, and a welcomed addition to the French music discography.

★★★★ out of five

Stream these: No. 1 Pour les cinq doigts (d’après Monsieur Czerny) from Études; Toccata from Pour le piano; La plus que lente

— Holly Harris