Monthly Musical Musings

The Imagined Savior is Far Easier to Paint.

In spring, an older man’s fancy turns to thoughts that aren’t much different from the young man’s, although the former scales down his fancy to accommodate the brutal realism of later years. Nevertheless, warm temperatures and occasional forays outside still appeal to him.

Music, too. Tis the season for a sense of renewal, whether it comes through a dynamic version of a classical standby or through some musical nostalgia that isn’t bad when it’s done very well. I’m so fancy that I didn’t even list the Drive-By Truckers’ fantastic new album, English Oceans, among the following:

FIVE TO FEEL…

1. Ambrose Akinmusire, The Imagined Savior Is Far Easier to Paint (Blue Note). Three albums in, this California trumpeter might or might not be the Great Post-Bop Hope, but he clearly understands that the best jazz can be, should be, at once exquisitely accessible and ferociously challenging.
2. The Bad Plus, The Rite of Spring (Sony Masterworks). Elaborating upon accessible, challenging jazz, this trio, led by pianist and Wisconsin native Ethan Iverson, puts another brick in its experimental edifice by successfully adapting, and sometimes assaulting, Igor Stravinsky’s difficult and revered ballet score.
3. The Baseball Project, 3^rd (Yep Roc). Major-league rock ‘n’ roll musicians—including two founders and one auxiliary member of R.E.M., the latter of whom is the Project’s captain—play like scrappy minor leaguers and thus pay fitting tribute to the greatest American sport of all time.
4. Future Islands, Singles (4AD). Many singers in synth-pop bands float like ghosts amid the machines, but Samuel T. Herring, the voice of Future Islands, is too passionate, too eccentric and above all, too earnestly, twitchily alive to be a ghost, and the beeps and bleeps of FI’s fourth LP move, beautifully, to the beats of his heart. For a great sample of the music, check this youtube snippet.

1. The War on Drugs, Lost in the Dream (Secretly Canadian). Adam Granduciel, the primary songwriter for the War on Drugs, is not the first or 151^st guy to fill songs with classic-rock and 1980s references. He could be the first to implement a seamless combination of the two, making his Philly group’s latest effort a hardy journey into a neglected area and era.

1. The Dandy Warhols, 13 Tales From Urban Bohemia: Live at the Wonder (The End). Despite what I’ve written above in favor of nostalgia, and although I’ve occasionally enjoyed seeing musicians revisit their own classic albums in a live setting, I object to a minor alt-rock band’s attempt to sell an in-concert recording of a marginal 2000 LP.