- Music Critic
James Reed
|
- subscribe
Eric Martin discusses the Neats
Among the footnotes in Boston’s rock ’n’ roll history, the Neats didn’t really look or sound like their hometown contemporaries in the early 1980s. Clean-cut and playing even cleaner guitar lines, the jangly rock quartet was our answer to New Jersey’s the Feelies and Athens, Ga.’s R.E.M., with whom the Neats toured early on.
2009 in pop music, when listeners could get that old feeling
What does it say about pop music that we ended the decade engulfed in nostalgia? This summer the artist we couldn’t get enough of was the one who died unexpectedly, shooting his back catalog to the top of the charts and memories of “Thriller’’ to the forefront of our minds. And the ballyhooed albums we clamored to buy were the ...
James Reed’s top 10 concerts of 2009
LEONARD COHEN
Sound Off
Can you really stand to hear Andrea Bocelli purr his way through “White Christmas’’ yet again? Or perhaps an umpteenth listen has dampened the glow of Vince Guaraldi’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas’’?
James Reed's top albums of 2009
SHARON VAN ETTEN “Because I Was in Love’’ Opening to the slack strum of acoustic guitar, the spare and hypnotic debut from this Brooklyn singer-songwriter left this listener nearly (OK, almost always) in tears on more than one late night.
Globe critics outline the best CDs of 2009
It was the year Susan Boyle steamrolled her fresh-faced competitors three weeks straight with her debut, “I Dreamed a Dream.’’ Heritage acts U2, Mariah Carey, and Pearl Jam appeased fans with solid if not redefining new albums, while Whitney Houston made a long-awaited comeback with “I Look to You.’’ But 2009 really belonged to Lady Gaga, the willfully eccentric pop ...
Sarah Siskind has music behind her words
It’s tempting to call Sarah Siskind Nashville’s best-kept secret, but that would belie her reputation as a preeminent songwriter covered by the likes of Alison Krauss (who had a hit with Siskind’s “Simple Love’’) and Justin Vernon, the Bon Iver frontman who often ends a show with her “Lovin’s for Fools.’’
Alicia Keys is visceral and compelling in her new ‘Element’
Three studio albums into her Teflon career, Alicia Keys has presented her talent in many splendors: tasteful piano prodigy, paragon of self-empowerment, measured soul singer, and, most recently, streetwise confidante to Jay-Z on their radio hit “Empire State of Mind.’’
Pops toast season with glee, tradition
Half the fun of the Holiday Pops’ fantastical rendering of “The Twelve Days of Christmas’’ is the inevitable parlor game it ignites. Not your standard and staid rendition, the Pops version reimagines the classic - day by day, partridge by partridge - in a mashup of melodies from other songs.
Models turned musicians
Lissy Trullie is quick to point out that she was not a model first and a musician second. But, if she had been, she would’ve been in some good company. These other singers were more than just another pretty face, too.
Music - not modeling - came first for indie rocker Lissy Trullie
She once called it a ‘‘plague’’ and coolly dismisses it as ‘‘just a summer thing I did in college,’’ yet the same misconception pops up in almost every story about her. Meet Lissy Trullie: model turned musician.
Pops toast the season with glee, tradition
Half the fun of the Holiday Pops’ fantastical rendering of “The Twelve Days of Christmas’’ is the inevitable parlor game it ignites. Not your standard and staid rendition, the Pops version reimagines the classic - day by day, partridge by partridge - in a mashup of melodies from other songs.
Antonino D’Ambrosio spotlights Cash’s lost treasure
In 1963, with the blare of Mariachi-style horns over that signature locomotive guitar part, Johnny Cash had the biggest hit of his career with “Ring of Fire.’’ But then he followed it up the next year with what remains his most controversial release, “Bitter Tears,’’ a concept album about the struggles of Native Americans at a time when they were ...
Phoenix, Spoon, Passion Pit play the Orpheum Friday
Especially when belated, it’s always a thrill to see a band finally become as popular as it deserves to be. For at least the past five years, the dance-rock outfit Phoenix fit that mold: hyped and talented, but essentially this close to a big breakthrough outside its native France.
London trio the xx makes spare and slinky music
After 38 cool and collected minutes, the xx’s eponymous debut album is over, leaving in its wake a little trail of sonic smoke rings. The music is so languorous and spatial, it’s hard to decipher what just happened.
Lady Gaga delivers attitude, powerhouse moments
Lady Gaga issued an ultimatum to her fans - “my little monsters’’ she calls them - in advance of her ambitious new tour. “ ‘The Fame Monster’ (her new album) will come out four days before the first live show,’’ she wrote on her website. “You have exactly 96 hours to learn all of the lyrics so you can sing ...
Lady Gaga delivers attitude, powerhouse moments
Lady Gaga issued an ultimatum to her fans - “my little monsters’’ she calls them - in advance of her ambitious new tour. “ ‘The Fame Monster’ (her new album) will come out four days before the first live show,’’ she wrote on her website. “You have exactly 96 hours to learn all of the lyrics so you can sing ...
John Fogerty’s revival in full throttle
John Fogerty knows exactly how to puff up a sold-out house. He could do it a number of ways, from the opening guitar riffs of “Bad Moon Rising’’ to the simple utterance of “Left a good job in the city.’’
Shakira takes some subtle risks in her gritty new dance album, “She Wolf’’
From the outrageous video, in which she writhes around in a cage in a flesh-colored leotard, it seemed a very blond Shakira had gone deliciously lowbrow.
Lady Gaga’s got a lot riding on ‘The Fame Monster’
You have to hand it to Lady Gaga: She wasn’t really a superstar until she started acting (and dressing) like one. Of course, it helped that you couldn’t turn on the radio this year without hearing “Just Dance’’ and “Poker Face’’ every half-hour. She named her first album “The Fame’’ long before she had any, which makes her follow-up all ...
Is their music as hot as their buzz?
Can a first impression be trusted anymore? That was the prevailing question in pop music in 2009, which could very well go down as the year we fabricated superstars out of entertainers who had little to warrant the wave of hype they rode right into our living rooms and into our hearts.
Sound off: Old is new again
Amid the clamor for new releases from John Mayer and Norah Jones this week came good news for a pair of old-timers, too. Wanda Jackson, the 1950s firebrand who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, revealed she’ll record her next album with the White Stripes’ Jack White. More surprising, though, was the announcement that ...
Devendra Banhart eschews spotlight as he brings new meaning to New Age music
Early on in the new film “The Family Jams,’’ the camera zooms in on Devendra Banhart’s face, a thick tangle of dark hair, darker eyes, and a beard straight out of the Book of Exodus. The interviewer wants to know what kind of music Banhart makes, trotting out the tired labels that Banhart and his kindred spirits would never use ...
iPod Shuffle: Thurston Moore
“You’re lucky,’’ says Sonic Youth guitarist-singer Thurston Moore , “because just a few weeks ago and for a long time, my iPod only consisted of underground black-metal recordings.’’ But he’s since mixed it up to include everything from early punk to seminal jazz. We spoke with Moore this week ahead of Sonic Youth’s shows at the Wilbur Theatre Sunday (which ...
Norah Jones takes a fresh, cool turn on fourth album, ‘The Fall,’
As the millennium’s first decade wraps up, the time is ripe to reflect on its influential pop musicians, regardless of whether you like their music. Norah Jones springs to mind as an emblematic artist who divided folks into two camps: “This is the soundtrack of my life!’’ versus “This makes me want to take my own life.’’
Dylan presents rollicking, charged up show at Wang
Set lists aside, Bob Dylan’s concerts are rarely carbon copies. What you see and hear on a Friday is probably not what you’ll get the next night. For his latest tour, the only thing you can count on is that Dylan will probably wind down with “All Along the Watchtower.’’
Amanda Blank raps with a speed that just comes naturally to her
When Amanda Blank opened for her pal Santigold at the House of Blues back in June, no one knew what to expect. Statuesque with long auburn hair, Blank hadn’t released her debut album yet. When she bound on stage, prancing like a ’60s go-go dancer in what looked like a short black nightgown, she was giddy, almost awkward, and all ...
Cyrus rocks TD Garden but keeps it in check
Miley Cyrus rippled the waters last week when she essentially disowned her current radio hit, a tasty slice of dance pop called “Party in the USA.’’ Asked in a video interview what her favorite Jay-Z song is, because “Party in the USA’’ mentions the radio playing it, Cyrus admitted she didn’t know anything by the hip-hop titan.
Seasoned songs, classic Prine
The showstopping line, at once classic and familiar, came toward the end of John Prine’s show at the Citi Wang Theatre Friday night: “You know that old trees just grow stronger.’’
James Reed learns to play banjo from a master - all online
I’ve admired Tony Trischka in the best possible way - from afar. I’ve listened to his albums at home and marveled at how someone learns to play banjo like that, which is to say like a total rock star. I’ve stayed up late and watched him hold his own alongside Béla Fleck and Steve Martin on David Letterman’s show. I’ve ...
With instrument - and computer - in hand, music students learn from experts online
Tony Trischka, a seasoned banjo virtuoso often ranked alongside masters such as Earl Scruggs and Béla Fleck, was checking in on his latest crop of students the other day. Well, it was actually around midnight, and he was nowhere near a classroom with the usual chalkboard and cluster of desks.
On our minds and on our playlists
Please complete the following sentence: During my lunch hour, I am _________. (A) Out at a restaurant having nachos and a beer.
Monsters unleash a collective chemistry built of folk and rock
They call themselves Monsters of Folk, but that’s a tongue-in-cheek handle for a group of guys who couldn’t be more serious about their cosmic approximations of rock, country-blues, and folk so heartfelt it made the Orpheum Theatre feel like a shoebox Tuesday night.