New Albums: Todd Rundgren, Best Coast, Chris Stapleton
---- Excellent, --- Good, -- Fair, - Poor
Todd Rundgren
Global
(Esoteric Antenna/MVD Audio ***1/2)
nolead ends nolead begins Todd Rundgren/Emil Nikolaisen/Hans Peter Lindstrøm
nolead ends nolead begins Runddans
nolead ends nolead begins (Smalltown Supersound ***1/2)
nolead ends Upper Darby's Todd Rundgren has made countless brilliant (and not so great) moves in his 50-year career. Among the brilliants is his 1973 classic album A Wizard, A True Star. And now, all at once, he gives us two gems inspired by Wizard's blue-eyed soul and electro-scapes. Yet these new albums are themselves alone, singular in Rundgren's oeuvre.
On Global, Rundgren, although always characteristically sarcastic, is also unusually sunny, even cheerleaderish, with the exception of "Holyland" and its hard-line humor at the expense of religious belief systems. The album also displays his brashest self-production in eons. "Earth Mother" both makes light of and cheers for female empowerment, while the gospel/new wave "Ev'rybody" lets Todd croon about everything from Miley Cyrus' twerking to a life of plenty without sounding like an old crank.
On Runddans, Todd finds sonic soul mates in Norwegian neo-house producer Lindstrøm and his alterna-electro pal Nikolaisen. They are empathetic partners who understand his psychedelic leanings (as in the Nazz) and his cosmic stop-gaps (as in Utopia) and happily roll them into one big ball of ambient joy, death disco, and operatic techno-rock. "Put Your Arms Around Me" is deliciously warm and romantic, and "T.H.E. Golden Triangle" is a glorious goof-off of Tolkienesque proportions.
Collect the set.
- A.D. Amorosi
IN STORES TUESDAY
Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell, The Traveling Kind; Leonard Cohen, Can't Forget: A Souvenir of the Grand Tour; Rhett Miller, The Traveler
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nolead begins Best Coast
nolead ends nolead begins California Nights
nolead ends nolead begins (Harvest ***)
nolead ends A large part of the charm of Best Coast's 2010 debut, Crazy for You, came from its lo-fi simplicity. The duo of Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno combined hook-happy girl-group melodies and riff-happy guitars for songs that sounded like they were reaching for something bigger than they could achieve. On 2012's The Only Place, they refined their approach by adding a bit more twang, a bit more Beach Boys, and a bit more gloss to their compact, catchy songs. California Nights is different again. It's loud and electric, and it rocks. There's more garage rock and new-wave punk to such songs as "Feeling OK," "Heaven Sent," and "When Will I Change." It makes sense that Cosentino has cited the Go-Go's as inspirations this time around. The melodies, and Cosentino's reverb-soaked and multitracked vocals, still recall early-'60s girl groups. Best Coast is one of those bands that sound as if they keep rewriting the same great songs, but they still sound fresh on California Nights.
- Steve Klinge
nolead begins Chris Stapleton
nolead ends nolead begins Traveller
nolead ends nolead begins (Mercury Nashville ***1/2)
nolead ends Anyone paying attention to country and Americana over the last decade and a half is familiar with the name Chris Stapleton. He's written hits for stars such as George Strait and Luke Bryan, become a favored harmony vocalist on big-name releases, and performed with the edgy bluegrass band the Steeldrivers. Now comes this stunner of a solo debut.
Traveller is not close to being a typical major-label Nashville production. It's no coincidence that one song is titled "Outlaw State of Mind." Working with his own small band, augmented by Waylon Jennings' steel player (Robby Turner) and Willie Nelson's harmonica man (Mickey Raphael), Stapleton goes for a lean, raw sound that underscores the blunt honesty of his songs.
The singer-guitarist cranks it up for the rocking urgency of "Parachute," and the twangy chip-kicking of "Nobody to Blame." Most of the time, though, Stapleton is not afraid to let the songs unfold at an unhurried pace. Among the highlights: He transforms the old "Tennessee Whiskey," one of two non-originals on the album, into a transcendent soul ballad, and he strips "Whiskey and You," previously cut by Tim McGraw and others, down to just acoustic guitar and voice, for a devastating version that reclaims the song for himself.
- Nick Cristiano