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Reviews of albums or artists.

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Lauren Desberg – Twenty First Century Problems

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desberg300-1Lauren Desberg – Twenty-First
Century Problems
Released – April 28, 2015

An ambitious debut from this 23-year-old Berklee student. It’s an admitted mashup of several styles – jazz, pop, R-and-B. She writes that today’s jazz leaves her cold, and she’s interested in updating the genre for today’s tastes – a sort of jazz for the post-modern era.

“I thought it was all inferior,” she writes. “But…I started hanging out with ‘pop kids.’ It was a different attitude and vibe and I really liked it.”

There’s no question but that Ms. Desberg is a talented young woman. My problem is much of her talent gets a bigfoot from the arrangements (by pianist Samora Pinderhughes) and the mix, presumably overseen by producer @DrewoftheDrew. It’s a wisp of a voice with a quiet power, but not enough to overcome a heavy hand on the knobs.

The backing band is tight – Walter Smith III on sax, Taylor Eigsti on piano, Chris Smith on bass and Corey Fonville on drums. Mr. Smith’s solos on “He Loves And She Loves” and “How Deep Is Your Love” are worthy of a solo album of his own.

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And that’s what it sounds like – a band session into which Ms. Desberg wandered. The quieter pieces are the best – a remake of The Whispers’ “Rock Steady” is one of the tracks being touted as a single. I also liked “Down With Love” and “How Deep Is Your Love.” I like all of them – but none are particularly new sounding – they simply put Ms. Desberg’s gifted voice into a better frame.

Go looking for her early EP “Sideways,” and you’ll find a better mix in slightly more standard arrangements. Don’t get me wrong – there’s plenty to like here, and Ms. Desberg’s voice tops that list. You just have to look for it a little. This set is recommended.

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Tracks in bold have been added to the playlist at 62ndStreet.com Radio.

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Callaghan – A History of Now

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Callaghan - A History of NowCallaghan – A History Of Now
(Green Town Music)
Released – April 7, 2015 (US)
Released – April 13, 2015 (UK)

Take a little bit of US country music – add just a little of that British anthemic pop, and mix in just a little of that mainstream Adult Contemporary “Light Rock, Less Talk” sound.

…and you’d have something approaching Georgina Callaghan.

British by birth, now living in Nashville by way of Atlanta, Ms. Callaghan (who performs under her last name alone) is a hard-workin’, “on the road again” musician – making a little progress now in making herself a household name.

Playing everything from living rooms to headlining in concert halls along the way. She writes, “Being an independent artist is challenging wherever you are and you definitely need a good sense of determination to keep motivating yourself and working at it.”

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And, if one is to believe the songs on “A History of Now,” mostly having fun doing it. If writing feel good music is a sin, this young woman is surely headed for…well, you know; but she’ll soon have old Satan himself tapping his foot and smiling. On the other hand, there’s no better road to musical heaven than a good hook – that phrase upon which everything else hangs – and the one that stays in your head.

Now – after four years in the colonies, she’s ready to return to the UK, with this album dropping and kicking off a brief tour this month before returning to the US for house shows that extend through June. “I’d always had it in my mind that I would come back to the UK. I wanted to get a good foundation built in the US so I had time to focus properly on touring in the UK again, and I’m so excited to finally be sharing my music with people back home.”

The two bookends to these dozen tracks are my favorites – “Crazy Beautiful Life,” and “We Don’t Have To Change The World.” But I’d also add the melancholy “When You Loved Me,” and the nearly-spiritual “Who Would I Be,” just for a change of pace.

When this young woman does become that household name, they’ll say it happened “overnight.”

But we’ll know better.

This set is very highly recommended.

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(Titles in bold added to the playlist at 62ndStreet.com Radio)

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Sarah Moule – Songs From the Floating World

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moule300-1Sarah Moule – Songs From
The Floating World (Red Ram)
Released – September, 2014

Fran Landesman was a lyricist, and what one might call a free spirit. In her 2011 obituary (She died at 83), the New York Times said she “made her life into an art form — not least because of the exuberantly public extramarital sex life she delighted in sharing with London tabloids.”

For years, BBC Radio has featured a program called “Desert Island Discs,” inviting guests to pick their favorite records, and the one luxury item with which they’d want to be stranded. In a 1996 episode, Ms. Landesman caused a bit of a stir when she said her luxury would be cannabis seeds.

The Times obit goes on to say, “…her lasting footprint was the mordant, biting, yet strangely tender lyrics she used to chronicle the world’s lovers, lunatics and losers.” Probably the two most-recorded from her body of work are “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most,” and “The Ballad Of The Sad Young Men.”

Lyrics by Ms. Landesman. Music by Simon Wallace. Unforgettable interpretation by Sarah Moule.

My introduction to Ms. Moule came in an email: “I am married to Simon Wallace and have been recording his and Fran’s songs since 2002….I wonder whether you would be interested in a CD of mainly Fran Landesman and Simon Wallace songs.”

The disc opens with echoes of St. Augustine in “Lord, I Want To Be Good,” one of six Landesman-Wallace tracks getting their recorded debut here, and this track hooked me for the rest, a very pleasant (if somewhat melancholy) trip through titles like “Don’t Fall In Love With Me,” along with “Did I Break Your Heart,” and “Scars,” which is more tender than the title would suggest:

Don’t be ashamed | Everybody’s got Scars,
From our various wars | On the way to the stars

Don’t try to hide | Everybody’s got scars,
From crash landing on Mars | With these egos of ours

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And yet, if I had to choose a single track, it would be Cole Porter’s “Under My Skin,” delivered with such longing that it took me a little while to exit my own reverie, remembering my own tales of little romantic infatuations. These songs aren’t for kids. Ms. Moule isn’t just technically perfect, she proves that one needs more than a few life experiences to instinctively deliver these lyrics the way they were written. She’s not only revealing her own soul – she seemed to be looking into mine.

It’s good that I don’t have to pick just one. Neither should you. Highest recommendation for this handcrafted set – this work of art.

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Tracks in bold have been added to the playlist at 62ndStreet.com.

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Miel de Botton – Magnetic

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Miel de Botton - MagneticMiel de Botton – Magnetic
(Miel Creations)
Released – March 9, 2015

Quite a woman, this Miel de Botton. Google the name, and you find that she’s a Swiss contemporary art collector and philanthropist; the daughter of a pioneer in contemporary asset management, and the sister of Alain de Botton, a philosopher and TV presenter. Dig deeper, and you find that she’s the former wife of banker turned film producer Angus Aynsley. From an article in the UK’s Evening Standard: “She studied law at Oxford, worked as a clinical psychologist and focused on bringing up her two children. But last year, at the age of 44, she began to make an album.”

The album drops in the US this week, with a sixties vibe, which Ms. de Botton acknowledges, “From the 60s, I adore Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin, Albert Hammond, Françoise Hardy, Serge Gainsbourg, the Beatles…These were some of the artists that my parents played to me, I feel that they have infiltrated my being.”

The eight tracks are lush and strikingly shiny in their execution – Ms. de Botton weaves her angelic alto through the entrancing arrangements – all originals, all big-girl stuff. She writes, “I write about emotions that I’ve had, difficult and joyful situations that I’ve been in. In my songs I often call for things I’m wishing for in my life. A true love, communion with others, an end to violence, joy…”

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“Bad Men” is the first single released from this set, a personal story, she says – telling that same Standard interviewer that it’s, “…a cry of having enough of people who seem to be close to you and then suddenly walk away. I wanted the song cathartically to make things change.” The other English single released is “Dazzle Me Diamond,” the story of a disillusioned bride: “After the party’s over | the wedding bed is cold.”

Rare is the first outing as polished as this. Ms. de Botton credits producer Andy Wright, who has worked with acts like Simply Red and the Eurythmics: “I feel I have entered a new world where I can fully express myself in exciting ways…”

Handcrafted songs, polished by the team she describes as “…wonderful people and so talented. It is often a really steep learning curve but I want to keep on learning and giving as much as I can.”

Very highly recommended.

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(Tracks in bold have been added to the playlist at 62ndStreet.com)

Here’s the “Bad Men” video, a witty mini-movie in itself.

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Amy Steinberg – Broken Open

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Amy Steinberg - Broken OpenAmy Steinberg – Broken Open
Released – February 2015

Performers are quick to tell you if they’re a “triple threat” – can sing, dance and act. A triple threat of a different bent, Amy Steinberg is a singer/songwriter, performer, choir director, and artist who works with acrylics.

A vocal artist who can channel Joni Mitchell one moment, Natalie Merchant the next, and Melissa Etheridge after that, although she names Bette Midler, Ani DiFranco, Christy Snow and George Carlin as influences. Blending spirituality and humor, or as she puts it, “…marrying the sacred and profane – fusing the dreamlike nature of spirit with the rooted realness of sexuality and humor.”

If every song tells a story, these are handcrafted and intense stories told by a gifted storyteller, who has been to dark places and back, lived to tell that story and find the positive things from the experience. Or as she puts it, “There is always a spark that the dark can’t deny.”

Favorites here include the opener, “Burning Into The High,” along with “Sawyer’s Song,” and “Letting Go,” and I’ll be adding these three at 62ndStreet.com.

That said, the stories are so personal, that’s it’s more than likely you’ll find your own favorites among this set, which is highly recommended.

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Uptown Vocal Jazz Quartet – Vocal Madness

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Uptown Vocal Jazz QuartetUptown Vocal Jazz Quartet –
Vocal Madness
Released – November 7, 2014

Dedicated to the late Tim Hauser, who founded the Manhattan Transfer – this east-coast based foursome joins with saxophonist Richie Cole (Lionel Hampton, Doc Severinsen, Eddie Jefferson) for a dozen cool tracks.

Ginny Carr leads the group. Her alto is joined by Andre Enceneat on Bass, soprano Holly Shockley, and tenor Robert McBride.

I’ve added Mr. Cole’s original “Bossa Nova Eyes,” along with “I Love Lucy” (yes, that Lucy), and Ms. Carr’s tribute to Eddie Jefferson, “He Was The Cat” to the playlist at 62ndStreet.com. But buy the album, and spring for the whole dozen. And forget the old standards. These tight harmonies and hand-crafted lyrics will have you believing they’ve been around for forever.

Highly recommended.