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Elvis Costello & The Roots, 'Wise Up Ghost'
I'd more or less forgotten about Elvis after "When I was Cruel", which I sort of liked. Looks like he's back and the stream sounds pretty good.
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From NPR (link)
"Out Sept. 17, Wise Up Ghost is Costello's collaboration with , hip-hop's most admired live act and a recording venture as conceptually adventurous as Costello himself. Recorded in a year's worth of experimental sessions after the 59-year-old bard met the band as a guest in its television home, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, the album sounds like the best of Costello's stuff, and like nothing he's done before. Working with musicians who've figured out how to apply hip-hop principles to a band dynamic, Costello locates himself within that framework to produce some of the most focused and visionary work of his later career."
Maybe not perfect synergy but mostly good nonetheless. I'm not familiar with The Roots. They sound like a group I should be looking up (recommendations anyone?). There's a nice, welcome fluidity to Elvis' delivery here. Wish that the band amped up and pushed a little more.
Worth a listen if you're an Elvis fan.
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Mazzy Star: Seasons of Your Day
There might be some interest here for this one, now up for streaming.
Mazzy Star: Seasons of Your Day
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From NPR (link)
"Seasons of Your Day (out Sept. 24) is the first Mazzy Star record in 17 years, and it comes as the group's sound is being echoed by younger artists — see Baltimore's shadowy and the mutable glam-pop of . It's a lovely, intoxicating record, but the group's sound has also evolved. "It's so far, far away," Sandoval sings in "California," a largely acoustic song with an echo of Led Zeppelin's Joni Mitchell mash note "." The line could reference a place, but Sandoval could also be addressing the pop-music profile she'd left behind."
...more
I confess to being unaware of Mazzy Star until recently so can't really make any then and now comments. Just plugged in and so far sounds lovely. Less gauzy/murky than what I've heard of them before.