Album reviews: Sarah Shook, Vampire Weekend, Vijay Iyer, Piers Lane

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This article was published 05/04/2024 (906 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ROOTS

Sarah Shook & the Disarmers

Revelations (Abeyance)

Sarah Shook & the Disarmers played the Winnipeg Folk Festival in 2019, a stop which included a crackling Sunday set of country-tinged rock ’n’ roll on the Big Bluestem stage. Interestingly, a recent New York Times story on Shook refers to “a Canadian bacchanalia” in July 2019 as the point at which they realized it was time to “sober up or die trying.”

In the years since, Shook has stopped drinking, profoundly reassessed life, and come out as a non-binary person named River, who uses they/them pronouns but still records and performs as Sarah Shook. They’ve also rediscovered their musical essence and, by self-producing their latest album after a difficult experience with Pete Anderson on 2022’s Nightroamer, they have brought it to fullest fruition.

Revelations takes a road-tested band, capable of crunching rock ’n’ roll grit and loping country swing, adds a keening pedal steel and matches them with Shook’s world-weary, aching vocal twang and 10 songs full of raw, honest lyrics.

The album opens with the title track, on which Shook reveals that they’re “sick of standin’ in my own way” and they quickly declare their newfound truths on You Don’t Get to Tell Me: “I came this way I didn’t plan it, you don’t gotta understand it / And I don’t gotta stand here and explain myself.”

With personal purpose stated and regrets expressed, Shook turns their observant gaze to sleazy exes (Motherf—er), the simple pleasures of pastoral beauty (Dogbane), the horrors that can befall young women (Jane Doe), and the little lies we all tell ourselves (Backsliders, Criminal).

Along the way, they also take time to share the anticipation of passion (Nightingale) and exult in the security of true partnership (Give You All My Love) — all while giving their band, and especially guitarist Blake Tallent, plenty of room to shine. 4/5

Stream these: You Don’t Get to Tell Me; Backsliders; Criminal

— John Kendle

ROCK

Vampire Weekend

Only God Was Above Us (Columbia)

American rock band Vampire Weekend returns with their most challenging record to date, the frenetic Only God Was Above Us.

It’s like a musical shot of adrenaline, but its rewards are worth working to discover.

It just takes repeated and close listens to get there.

The 10 tracks on Only God Was Above Us won’t easily grab the listener the first time through, like the instantly infectious cuts Harmony Hall or This Life did on their last full-length release, 2019’s Father of the Bride.

While Father of the Bride has a California sunshine and Grateful Dead-infused sheen, Only God Was Above Us is a sometimes dissonant, cacophonous ode to New York City in the 1980s.

That sometimes-confounding tone is set right out of the gate with the first track, Ice Cream Piano, which begins with lead singer Ezra Koenig singing an expletive and features a furious guitar riff throughout, ending with a crash of instruments.

Gen-X Cops is perhaps the most accessible track with driving guitar and a catchy refrain of “each generation makes its own apology.” But even its layers have layers, much like New York, making it somewhat of an effort to uncover what the song has to offer.

The mesmerizing album closer and best track, Hope, comes in at nearly eight minutes and is both unsettling and soothing at the same time, with a whirling dervish of sound punctuated by Koenig’s refrain of “I hope you let it go / I hope you let it go.”

The chaotic energy of Only God Was Above Us may be too challenging for more casual Vampire Weekend fans looking for them to duplicate their earlier work, but it’s a fascinating evolution for a band that refuses to stay in one place for too long. 3/5

Stream: Hope; Gen-X Cops

— Scott Bauer, The Associated Press

JAZZ

Vijay Iyer

Compassion (ECM)

Pianist Vijay Iyer has a wonderful discography that demonstrates his wide range of musical influences and approaches. He has seamlessly incorporated elements of his classical training in both small groups and in large ensembles for which he has composed genre-bending material. He is also a social activist and holds teaching positions at Harvard in both music and African and African American studies.

It is reported that he is self-taught on piano after being trained on the violin. If so, he has found a beautiful touch to go with a boundless musical imagination. This trio album is a fascinating example of solid writing, swinging solos and an egalitarian approach to the concept of the three-piece that is extremely refreshing.

His colleagues here are Linda May Han Oh on bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums. They all shine through a playlist that cuts loose on uptempo gems or lays back on lovely ballads.

The title track starts the album in a gentle and introspective mood while beautifully introducing the three musicians. Stevie Wonder’s Overjoyed moves through a great bass solo to a three way jam that is good fun. Iyer leads the way on Maelstrom – well named.

Prelude: Orison is lush and restrained. Arch is a tribute to South African icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu and is appropriately reflective. Bassist Oh’s solo on Panegyric is noteworthy, while everyone moves to the dissonant edge on the brief Nonaah.

A striking factor of the whole album is the interactive chemistry. The maturity of approach is tangible. Perhaps the most noticeable link is between Iyer and Oh. This is truly a tight-knit trio; obviously comfortable and trusting in every sense. The rollicking tracks move beautifully and the peaceful ones, such as It Goes, are deeply contemplative.

It sometimes seems unusual to refer to jazz music or jazz musicians as “intelligent.” While losing nothing in the emotion of the music, this is wonderfully intelligent jazz. 4.5/5

Stream: Overjoyed; Compassion

— Keith Black

CLASSICAL

Piers Lane

Russian Variations (Hyperion)

Acclaimed Australian pianist Piers Lane performs a virtuosic program of Russian music featuring works by Glazunov, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky and John Field, the latter, Irish-born composer having settled in St. Petersburg in the early 19th century, and notably hailed as the father of the piano nocturne genre.

Glazunov’s Theme and Variations, Op. 72, immediately displays the London, England-based pianist’s expressive artistry from its opening plaintive theme through to its rousing Variation 15: Finale: Allegro moderato bursting with the ebullient spirits of a polonaise.

He then proceeds to infuse Tchaikovsky’s Six Morceaux composes sur un seul theme, Op. 21 with deeply felt sentiment; the set written in 1873 dedicated to the composer’s teacher, Anton Rubinstein. It’s a treat to hear its six pieces, frequently performed as standalones, work the way they were originally intended, with a particular highlight being No. 6 in A flat major: Scherzo, in which the dark storm clouds of the earlier No. 4 in A flat minor: Marche funebre, including its brief quote of the Dies Irae theme from the Catholic Requiem Mass.

Another highlight is No. 5 in A flat minor: Mazurque, its idiosyncratic, halting dance rhythms knitted together as one cohesive whole by Lane.

The lion’s share of the album belongs to Rachmaninov’s Variations on a theme of Chopin, notably his first large-scale work written for solo piano, and inspired by the Polish-born composer who lived most of his all-too-brief adult life in Paris. After performing the opening theme with grave solemnity, the pianist navigates each of the remarkably inventive, short 22 variations — several clocking in at 20 seconds or less — that further showcase his versatility.

Fields’s Variations on a Russian folksong rounds out the program as another charming set of short variations based on Russian folksong In the garden. Lane takes listeners on a seamless journey in which each variation flows into the next; his luminous tone and sensitive, well-arched phrasing bringing each section to life while firmly rooted in Russian soul. 4/5

Stream this/these: Six Morceaux composes sur un seul theme, Op. 21; No. 5: Mazurque; Variations on a Russian folksong

– Holly Harris