A rather sweltering week here in New Jersey comes to an end with some great new releases from The Weekend, Kate Taylor, The Art of Noise, Barbra Streisand, and The Beach Boys.
The country feels unable to pull itself up right now by its bootstraps and many of us are heading back to college next week unsure of what to expect. One thing is certain — great music will be flowing every week in my dorm room courtesy of Spotify and Qobuz and let’s hope that live music returns to college campuses across the country.
The Weekend: “Take My Breath” (Release Date: 08/10/21, XO-Republic Records, 24-bit/44.1kHz)
The Weekend has a knack of knowing when to drop a new single and his latest is one of his most digestible songs yet. Almost 6 months after his performance at Super Bowl LV, The Weekend returns with “Take my Breath,” a pulsating track that feels like an homage to the late-Michael Jackson with an impressive display of his falsetto range and choice of instrumentation.
The Art of Noise: Noise in the City (Live in Tokyo, 1986) (Release Date: 08/06/2021, WM UK, 16-bit/44.1kHz)
One of the most inventive techno-pop bands of the the late-1980s, The Art of Noise blend almost every genre of music into this live set recorded in Tokyo in 1986. Noise in the City is a soundscape of different sounds and styles that range from jazz on “Eye of the Needle” to the synth-pop style on “Paranomia.”
What makes the album so interesting is how effortlessly they move from one genre to the next within the body of one song and blend acoustic and electronic instruments with prerecorded vocals. Tracks like “Beatbox” offer up a mixture of hip-hop and synth pop that would be spectacular as a multi-channel mix. “Moments in Love” is the best known song on the live set and it delivers the same hypnotic impact of the original studio track with layers of instrumentation that swirl around the room. A fun live set that doesn’t have the same degree of intimacy as their studio albums but a great background mix to listen to while painting or illustrating.
Barbra Streisand: Release Me 2 (Release Date: 08/06/21, Columbia-Legacy, 24-bit/96kHz)
This collection of previously unreleased tracks from the vault offer up Streisand in a series of duets with Willie Nelson, Kermit the Frog (they had to go there), and Barry Gibb. While each of those selections allow her to show of her powerful pipes and slight rasp, it is the solo selections where she is free to show off her dynamic range; “Be Aware” sounds absolutely incredible on a good pair of headphones or speakers and you can really hear the texture of her voice as she hits the highest notes. Streisand doesn’t make mistakes when she sings and easily turns every song into her own; even if the level of schmaltz becomes a tad much.
Listening to her sing each song as if she’s performing for the Queen or President, I started to wonder about the song selection. Why is every track so safe? Clearly someone with her degree of talent could take more chances and even if she stumbled somewhat — it would still sound better than 99% of the singers in her field.
She makes it sound too easy; something that is quite amazing for someone who suffered from terrible stage fright for 90% of her career and had to fend off ridiculous questions and comments about her nose. She was blessed with a perfect voice and while this album doesn’t cross over into “Yentl” territory, it’s clearly for her diehard fans who want “perfect” Barbara.
Kate Taylor: Why Wait! (Release Date: 08/06/21, Red House Records, 24-bit/96kHz)
Imagine growing up in the Taylor household with multiple Grammy Award winning brother, James Taylor. Talk about setting a high bar for oneself. Kate Taylor took a 23-year sabbatical after a series of album misfires only to return in 2003 with her first studio album in ages. Her debut album in 1971, Sister Kate, demonstrated a great deal of promise; the folk and Appalachian stylings of both her own music and more famous older brother, clearly appealed to the audience but the intensity of the music world at the time where female artists needed to be either Janis or Grace proved to be too much for the young Taylor.
In a recent Rolling Stone interview, she acknowledged that the experience at such a young age with her two brothers (James and Livingston) introduced a lot of negative elements into her life and while it all seemed glamorous being around the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and other music world luminaries, it created a life she never really wanted. Britney Spears would likely agree.
Why Wait! stumbles slightly out of the gate with her cover of the Beatles’ “Good Day Sunshine” but it also includes a wonderful cover of Ed Sheeran’s “She” (rewritten as “He”), Tommy James’ “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” the old Bert Berns–written hit “Tell Him,” and Taj Mahal’s “She Caught the Katy.” Taylor is now a 71 year-old grandmother without the pressure and stress of a music career and its quite clear that the talent she displayed at such a young age never really left. A surprisingly fun and wonderful performance. The weekend has arrived and this might be the right way to begin.
Louise White
August 13, 2021 at 2:55 pm
Love this!