Album reviews: The Kills, Bob Dylan, Todd Snider, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

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This article was published 17/11/2023 (1060 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ROCK

The Kills | God Games (Domino)

Formed 23 years ago, just as male-female duos and reclaiming rock’s garage roots were becoming “things,” the trans-Atlantic duo of English guitarist Jamie Hince and American singer Alison Mosshart emerged as the Kills in 2003 with a debut album called Keep on Your Mean Side that was a blues-based bundle of crackling energy.

Their sound has naturally evolved over the years — moving on from sparse angularity to incorporate a broader palette of instruments, textures and beats — but the heart of the duo is still found in the interplay between Mosshart’s alternately bristling and haunting singing and Hince’s dramatic sense of sonic griminess.

Yes, they may dress up songs such as New York or LA Hex in big beats and horns (on the former) or twinned vocals and swelling synthesizer washes (on the latter) but both songs are made by Mosshart’s expression of their titular moods (New York brings her alive, L.A. feels oppressive) and by Hince’s squalling, distorted guitar.

The overarching mood of these 12 tunes is one of seeking redemption for the emotional and spiritual journey of the past two decades. As they negotiate the push-me, pull-you desires of songs such as Going to Heaven (“And I’m going to raise hell”) and Wasterpiece (about a failed relationship), Mosshart and HInce give off the almost fatalistic sense that the consequences which lie ahead of us may be unavoidable.

That said, for a pair of artists who say they’re atheists, yet who recorded this album in the basement of a church, Mosshart and Hince also offer up hope and happiness in songs such as the gospel-ish My Girls My Girls (which features a choir from L.A.’s Compton Kidz Club) and the album’s spaghetti western closing track, Better Days. This album’s title, God Games, is a play on the slang for video games such as Sims or Fortnite, and title song (and album art) make fun of the artifice and folly of the “god game” of bullfighting, as Mosshart sings to a matador that crowds “are praying for the bulls to gore you.” ★★★1/2 out of five stars

Stream these: New York, My Girls My Girls, God Games.

— John Kendle

ROCK

Bob Dylan | The Complete Budokan 1978 (Sony)

Bob Dylan with flute and saxophone isn’t for everyone.

But that’s what you get with The Complete Budokan 1978, a deluxe box set presenting two live shows at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan Hall from a tour that has been derided in some corners as Dylan going Vegas.

The extravagantly packaged four-disc set expands upon the 1979 Bob Dylan at Budokan live record that caught Dylan in Japan on the second week of his 1978 world tour that would run for 10 months. The Complete Budokan 1978 includes full concerts from Feb. 28 and March 1 with Dylan breaking out dramatically reworked versions of his well-known songs complete with backing singers, violin, flute and saxophone. Even today, 45 years later, the arrangements are striking for how far afield they are from the recorded versions.

A chipper, violin-heavy instrumental version of A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall opens both concerts and sets the mood.

On Mr. Tambourine Man, Dylan speeds up the tempo with the flute front and centre. And on I Threw it All Away, the backing singers are given a prominent role as Dylan tinkers with the lyrics. If you ever wanted to hear All Along the Watchtower with flute, now is your chance.

The Man in Me, in just its sixth time played live and with new lyrics, is beautifully delivered, complete with a saxophone solo. One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later), from 1966’s Blonde on Blonde also shines under a dramatic reworking, with the backing singers and sax giving the song new dimensions.

The packaging is top notch, with an expansive 12-by-12 inch photo book, liner notes and a box of memorabilia that includes two posters, replicated tour program, tickets and flyers. ★★★★ out of five stars

Stream these: One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later), The Man in Me

— Scott Bauer, The Associated Press

SINGER-SONGWRITER

Todd Snider | Crank It, We’re Doomed (Aimless)

A singer-songwriter with the persona of a fried folkie can be expected to work at a poky pace, as is the case of Todd Snider. His Crank It, We’re Doomed album has been a long time coming, despite the urgency of its title.

Snider recorded the 15-song album in 2007 before shelving it. Much of the material subsequently surfaced elsewhere and will be familiar to fans when they hear Doomed.

Even so, it ranks among Snider’s strongest collections. Four songs have never been released before, including the bluesy stomper Juice and What Made You Do It, a marvel of cool jazz that evokes Tom Waits singing to Billy Joe Shaver.

Other highlights include a brief star turn by Kris Kristofferson on Good Fortune and Snider’s duet with Loretta Lynn on Don’t Tempt Me, which they co-wrote. “Anyone can see you’re stoned as a rock,” she sings.

These garage-folk versions of tunes, available elsewhere, are often significantly different. Mercer’s Folly combines the words for one later song with the music for another. A cover of Jimmy Buffett ’s West Nashville Grand Ballroom Gown is stripped down to two acoustic guitars, while fiddle and organ underpin America’s Favorite Pastime, a great song written about performance-enhancing drugs.

Snider strings together non sequiturs that seem seamless as he contemplates love and greed, war and peace, the cycle of life and what matters most.

Whether he’s singing a song that’s old or new, Snider always sounds like a busker on the corner of sanity and madness. ★★★★ out of five stars

Stream these: Don’t Tempt Me, What Made You Do It

— Steven Wine, The Associated Press

CLASSICAL

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra | Domingo Hindoyan conductor | Verisimo (Onyx)

Celebrated Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra delves into turn-of-the-20th century Italian opera on its third full-length album under the baton of chief conductor, Domingo Hindoyan.

The 14-selection, all-orchestral program particularly focuses on verisimo tradition — translated as “realism” — that first took hold in Italian opera during the 1870s, in turn inspired by French and Russian realist writers, Stendahl, Pushkin and Balzac, among others.

Excerpts include a suitably sprightly rendition of Ponchielli’s La Gioconda, (Dance of the Hours), as well as two intermezzi from Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and Puccini’s Manon Lescaut. The latter composer’s Act 3 Prelude from Madama Butterfly is infused with dramatic tension, while the intermezzo from Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana unfolds with lush sentimentalism.

Another, arguably more unusual highlight is Puccini’s The Witches’ Sabbath from La Tregenda that bristles with devilish energy before his Suor Angelica: Intermezzo provides serene counterpoint to the previous storms, as well as an appealing palate cleanser.

While clearly understood this is an instrumental album, it’s still vaguely unsettling to hear an entire program of excerpts from the world’s greatest operas sans soloists or choruses, only leaving listeners’ appetites whetted for more. ★★★1/2 out of five.

Stream these: Act 3 Prelude from Madama Butterfly; The Witches’ Sabbath from La Tregenda

– Holly Harris