I can’t get terribly excited about Who We Are. It’s just too bland
It’s frustrating. I’d like to embrace it more. And there are glimpses of just the sort of sounds I like most here and there.
Don’t get me wrong both singer Viktoria Tolstoy and pianist Jacob Karlzon from Sweden are excellent musicians.
I like above all Tolstoy’s work with Esbjörn Svensson on 1997’s White Russian. That was far more jazzier than what’s here.
Perhaps it’s the middle of the roadness of Who We Are that prevents me really relating to the album. A song like ‘Satellites’ is so creamy and pristine. There isn’t really a darkness. ‘Who We Are’ is a little moodier but again there isn’t really an edge. The piano accompaniment wraps itself around the vocals beautifully but again it doesn’t move me much.
And yet persevering, the cover of Billy Joel’s hymn like ‘And So It Goes’ seems like a reset. And the cover of Tori Amos’ ‘Cloud on my Tongue’ is even better. There’s practically no jazz on the album despite both players’ pedigree. It feels more pop and like a ballads, easy listening singer-songwriter statement instead.
The heavy thumping keyboards of Karlzon’s ‘The Great Escape’ is too much of a jolt. And the album seems to be restlessly pursuing a number of options at the same time that don’t necessarily all quite sit together enough given that ‘Off-White’ immediately afterwards is a very soft ballad. Among the originals the lyrics aren’t memorable. ‘Trigger Warning’ seems to belong to another record entirely and could have happily been left out.
Overall the song I am most convinced by is ‘Stay’ even if the lyrics are a bit clunky. And I wonder if it was a good idea to cover Radiohead’s ‘True Love Waits’. It could have been a lot starker.
Some details and thoughts on John Taylor’s The Bauer Session
Italian label Cam Jazz tantalise once more with a John Taylor solo piano recording made not long before the pianist died.
Ulysses Owens Jr. and Generation Y, Around The World With U, Cellar Music **** recommended
These old and not so old sweet songs in Gen Y’s hands conjure so ably dear dead days beyond recall.
Biréli Lagrène, Elegant People, PeeWee! ****
Swinging French guitar icon Biréli Lagrène does not disappoint with his best album in simply years. Its sentimental insouciance and savoir faire are something of a revelation that may cure any lingering feeling, dear reader, you might possess of jadedness. Listening shakes off such torpor.
