- Sarah Slean
- Pheromone/Universal
- Four stars
Downloads may have reduced the number of CDs being pressed, but they haven’t stopped people from making double albums, as Slean shows here. On the land side, she rocks (rock being a form of land, after all) with Joel Plaskett handling the production duties, and while the rhythm arrangements are sometimes plodding, the melodies are sprightly and occasionally full of vinegar, as on the anti-social stomp Society Song. By contrast, the sea side is string-soaked and dramatic, with Slean – who not only co-produced but did half of the arrangements – showing off both her compositional depth and vocal heft. Both are amazing, but I’d generally rather stay at sea. – J.D. Considine
COUNTRY/FOLK: Get Yourself Home
- Laura Repo
- Independent
- Three and a half stars
The singer with the summer peach voice suggests we peruse her snapshots – “look at ’em slow, one at a time.” A bittersweet shuffle, A Three Inch Stack of Photographs isn’t about nostalgia, but perspective and old stories that never change, for good or for bad. On her affecting, melodic third album, the Toronto songstress Laura Repo wins with lullabies, lovely harmonies, a waltz about a wedding dress never worn, sweet weariness and one high-and-lonesome ballad about a city (Montreal) where she can unwind. Get Yourself Home explores bygones – things missed and things gained, not always in black and white. Tuneful and relaxed, this record never stops. – Brad Wheeler
ROCK: Lulu
- Lou Reed & Metallica
- Warner
- One and a half stars
The actual flight of the Hindenburg was fine – it was the instantaneous deplaning that ruined things. On the other hand, Lulu, the unlikely conceptual album inspired by German dramatist Frank Wedekind's early 20th-century plays about an abused dancer, is quite the disaster until its better final tracks. The weird walk on the Lou side by heavy-metal grimacers Metallica closes with the tense acoustic number Little Dog, the dynamic Dragon and the contemplative 19-plus minutes of Junior Dad. The rest is mostly Reed’s off-pitch poetry, set uneasily to generic guitar grunges. It’s unsettling at times; not since the Vichy French has the term collaboration held such an ugly connotation. – B.W.
CLASSICAL: Carte Postale: Music for string quartet by José Vieira Brandao, Alessandro Annunziata, José Evangelista, Miguel Del Aguila, Dimitri Nicolau, Paquito D’Rivera, and Airat Ichmouratov
- Quatuor Alcan
- Atma Classique
- Three stars
Postcards are short, as are most of these pieces, and, like postcards, they provide a snapshot of someplace we’d have to travel to get to – Latin America and Greece, Spain and Russia. A modal twist in a melody or a rhythm to a dance that has a name in another language might be what orients us, but most of the music reminds us less of how multifarious the world is than how small it has become: Even places well off the track have been tidied for the tourists. Quatuor Alcan’s performances are attractive but somewhat monochromatic, like photos taken through the windows of a tour bus, although certain pieces beckon us back for longer stays: José Evangelista’s tantalizing Spanish Garlands, Paquito D’Rivera’s Wapango and Alessandro Annunziata’s Meltemi. – Elissa Poole
