Sunday, June 12, 2011

'So Beautiful or So What,' 'See My Friends,' 'Tchaikovsky and Shakespeare' CD reviews

So Beautiful or So What
Paul Simon (Hear Music)

Paul Simon has been calling "So Beautiful or So What" his best work in two decades. He's being too hard on himself. The moody, poetic "Surprise," his 2006 collaboration with Brian Eno, was a masterpiece. "You're the One" (2000) felt wounded and pessimistic, but that's what made it so compelling. Even the maligned "Capeman" contained its share of musical delights. "So Beautiful" will be more commercially successful than any of those projects because Simon is at his most identifiable, singing about divine mysteries and assuaging common human anxieties in the angelic voice that has been his moneymaker since the '60s. On "Surprise," the narrator asked, "If the answer is infinite light/Why do we sleep in the dark?" On "So Beautiful," we're assured that "love is eternal sacred light" with less irony than Simon has mobilized in many years. God doesn't always show up, and Simon's idea of the Pearly Gates resembles the DMV, but there's a newfound sense that he is at peace with the universe. "You know, most folks, they don't get when I'm joking," he sings in the pitch-shifted voice of the Almighty. "Well, maybe someday they will."

? Tris McCall

See My Friends
Ray Davies (Decca)

Most artists don't get a tribute album until they're retired or dead, but Ray Davies is an impatient sort. For "See My Friends," he has recruited 15 famous musicians to cut new versions of some of his best-known songs. Bruce Springsteen growls through "Better Things." Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora turn "Celluloid Heroes" into an arena rock anthem. James Hetfield of Metallica whacks at "You Really Got Me" like he's trying to kill a roach. Jackson Browne contributes a detached, glassy-eyed version of "Waterloo Sunset." Not content to stand on the sidelines while his stories are getting reinterpreted, Davies shares lead vocals on all tracks. The result is a Kinks-sized version of those old Sinatra duets albums that ran on curiosity rather than chemistry.

"See My Friends" helps explain why the Kinks aren't covered as frequently as the Who or the Stones: Davies can handle levels of irony that would be toxic for a normal human. His collaborators are game, but their readings of his songs lack nuance. Still, if this CD introduces fans of the Boss, Bon Jovi and others to Davies' catalog, it will have done its job.

? Tris McCall

Tchaikovsky and Shakespeare
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor; Sim�n Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela (Deutsche Grammaphon)

Hearing Gustavo Dudamel lead an orchestra, one feels a palpable sense of excitement. This sense has often translated to his recordings, including those with the Sim�n Bol�var Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, a youth orchestra. But here, when he performs Tchaikovsky's Fantasy Overtures to three of the bard's plays, the spark is less apparent.

In a sluggish "Romeo and Juliet," one can feel the drama only ? rather than most intensely ? at its climactic moment. "Hamlet" is less popular, with haphazard shifts between violence, militancy and stoicism. The performance is fine, but "The Tempest" is more successful, with notes of foreboding, lyricism and sprightliness. The tightness of the ensemble is impressive as violins swirl, timpani pound and brass instruments blare. The winds and strings play off each other enchantingly in the lovers' music. Still, the work loses steam at times, and the direction of its more subdued passages is not always clear.

? Ronni Reich

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