‘Sabotage and Celebration'
John Escreet (Whirlwind)
Keyboardist John Escreet leads his band through an album that frustrates as much as it intrigues on “Sabotage and Celebration.” The arrangements range from the aggressive but exciting “He Who Dares” to a title cut that is 11 minutes of disjointed noise. The two-minute string quartet opening to “He Who Dares” is a creative opening to the song and seems to promise a great deal. It takes a little more than 19 minutes of music before that hint of quality becomes realized on the energetic “Laura Angela.” But “Animal Style” again lets the band wander into an awkward eight minutes before returning to a somber “Beyond Your Wildest Dreams.” That number again features the string section as well as two trumpets that create a driving backup group at one point. The best part aspect of the album is that it features David Binney on alto and soprano saxophones and Chris Potter on tenor, two reed players who always produce good work. Escreet performs well, too, but his conception leads to an erratic album.
— Bob Karlovits
‘Life in This World'
Will Calhoun (Motema)
‘Endangered Species: The Music of Wayne Shorter'
David Weiss (Motema)
It would seem disc label Motema has a strategy on its mind: Put together a strong cast of musicians, give them good material, and how can you go wrong. “Life in the World” and “Endangered Species: The Music of Wayne Shorter” work slickly in that method. The Shorter collection, recorded live in New York City, is made up of arrangements by Weiss of six pieces by the saxophonist. The 12-piece band features the likes of sax players Ravi Coltrane and Marcus Strickland, trumpeters Jeremy Pelt and Diego Urcola, pianist Geri Allen and bassist Dwayne Burno. The collection is topped by a 14-minute look at “Fall.” In a similar way, “Life in This World” is built around drummer Calhoun leading a group of 12 in songs that go from originals to classics such as “Naima” and “Evidence.” The band features trumpeter Wallace Roney, saxophonists Ravi Coltrane and Donald Harrison and bassist Ron Carter, among others. While the Shorter group plays like a big band, the group on the Calhoun album works as a duo to a quintet. In both cases, the personnel make the albums succeed.
— Bob Karlovits
‘Crash My Party'
Luke Bryan (Capitol Nashville)
Within the first minute of “That's My Kind of Night,” the opening track on Luke Bryan's new album, “Crash My Party,” he cites tailgating, beer drinking and a nameless “pretty girl” in suntan oil and cowboy boots — all standard modern-day signifiers for a country song. Set to an electronically altered bass-and-drum rhythm, the song also refers to a country hip-hop mix tape, a reflection of the tune's arrangement, which mixes banjo, hard-rock guitar riffs and hip-hop production touches. What Bryan's fourth album doesn't offer is many surprises. The current Academy of Country Music entertainer of the year, Bryan sticks with souped-up country rockers and romantic ballads about how guys who like to fish and guzzle beer and drive pickups do better with women and generally have more fun than their counterparts. That theme rings out in the title song and many others, including “Beer in the Headlights,” “We Run This Town,” “Play It Again,” “Out Like That” and on and on. Bryan and producer Jeff Stevens push the edge of how many electronic effects they can use in a country song, but in every other way, Bryan sticks a bit too predictably with a successful formula on “Crash My Party.”
— Associated Press
‘The Civil Wars'
The Civil Wars (Sensibility Music/Columbia)
Joy Williams and John Paul White are the two artists who make up the Civil Wars, whose name is also on the album at hand. I don't know whether they are really as dysfunctional as they seem from a distance, but they act the part well. Their first album, “Barton Hollow,” featured songs of wrong and longing, Möbius-strip harmonies, and tales of enchantment and dissolution. During a tour later, they split, issuing a statement about “internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition.” Somehow, here they are again, in an album produced by eclectic visionary Charlie Peacock, with Rick Rubin on the rustic romancer “I Had Me a Girl.” Williams' pure, dulcet tones are more present than White's. Unlike “Barton Hollow,” the pair loses some intimacy to bolder arrangements and instrumentation (as in the bucking blues of “Oh Henry”). What “The Civil Wars” loses in sonic proximity, however, it gains in lyrical strength. “The One That Got Away” has lines like “I got caught up by the chase/ And you got high on every little game/ I wish you were the one that got away.” Whether the duo work better together or apart, “The Civil Wars” is heartbreaking stuff.
— The Philadelphia Inquirer
