Mick Jagger unveiled a surprise new song, "Eazy Sleazy" with Dave Grohl on YouTube.Universal Music Canada
Shakespeare wrote that April “hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” On his new single, Mick Jagger sings that “everything’s gonna get really freaky.” There are masters, and then there are masters.
Jagger’s new single with Dave Grohl is Eazy Sleazy, a glam-rock response to the social suffocation of the big lockdown. The song sneers at online samba classes, bemoans cancelled tours and rhymes “shooting the vaccine” with “Bill Gates is in my bloodstream.” Ultimately, a post-pandemic optimism emerges: “It’s gonna be a garden of earthly delights.”
Eazy Sleazy rocks free and grins broadly as an antidote to the brooding pandemic-made music of the past few months. It’s a timely and required track that leads a pack of new music that promises a better time coming.
Cheap Trick’s latest Another World kicks off with The Summer Looks Good on You, a power-pop ode to smiles, sunshine and tan lines. With her first ever live album, ‘Til We Meet Again, jazz-pop chanteuse Norah Jones warmly extends a rain check for the concerts we can’t wait to happen again.
When will the shows start? Late-summer dates are beginning to be booked in Montreal and Toronto. It could be wishful thinking, but more likely it’s a false start – April is a born liar. Still, an influx of often buoyant LPs propose a rejuvenation that is needed on any level that matters.
In Another Word, by Cheap Trick
If the realization that Cheap Trick’s new album is its 20th makes you feel ancient, the track Boys & Girls & Rock N Roll is chicken-soup for the arena rock soul. Quit Waking Me Up tries to bop like the Beatles, only to chug brightly as if serving a rom-com soundtrack. The Party stomps and swirls, but could be about the loss of live music: “When the party’s over, will you be back again?” It’s the question on everyone’s mind.
Eau De Bonjourno, by Bernice
On Bernice’s third album, Robin Dann introduces herself with It’s Me, Robin, a self-explanation from an artist who plays with the pop-song form in delightfully jazzed and quirky ways. Groove Elation is classy lounge soul; Infinite Love upgrades the reputation of new age music significantly. Toronto’s Dann and her Toronto collective Bernice make one feel as if wearing a brand new skin.
Frampton Forgets the Words, by Peter Frampton
Senility? No, the British guitar hero chooses to let his guitar do the talking by covering the vocal melodies of classics with his mouth shut on an all-instrumental album. Top tracks include sublime takes on Sly Stone’s If You Want Me to Stay and Radiohead’s Reckoner. A rave-up of Lenny Kravitz’s Are You Gonna Go My Way is pure fun, with a guitar solo from Frampton in a style that is as signature as anything he could sing.
Heavy Sun, by Daniel Lanois
“If you feel like you wanna dance, go ahead and do your dance.” Working within a quartet that includes organist Johnny Shepherd, Daniel Lanois congregates gospel, reggae and sun-splashed R&B. Harmonies are joyous and sounds shimmer in a “church with no walls.” In a world where there are many ways to say amen, Lanois and friends have found most of them.
The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers, by Valerie June
The latest from the luminescent southerner Valerie June sparkles and twangs with astral soul. Angels drop in, as does soul legend Carla Thomas. Meditative, euphoric and eclectically arranged, The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers feels like a new record you’ve known all your life.
‘Til We Meet Again, by Norah Jones
A mellow concert album from the multiple Grammy winner ends with a solo piano version of Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun. When Norah Jones croons, “No one sings like you anymore,” you’re supposed to think of Chris Cornell. Jones, though, makes a case for her own inimitability. And when she asks for the black hole sun to come and “wash away the rain,” one can almost feel the sunlight.
Brad Wheeler