Album Review: Miley Cyrus- Attention: Miley Live

Miley Cyrus is enormously talented and deeply problematic.  Not surprisingly, Attention: Miley Live, a bumpy 82-minute recording made when the former Hannah Montana opened for Green Day in Los Angeles two months ago, is loaded with provocative contradictions.

Cyrus applies her valkyrie-like voice to her signature pop hits “Wrecking Ball” and “Party in the U.S.A.” as well as to covers by the likes of the Pixies, Prince and Dolly Parton.  Joan Jett seems to be Cyrus’ lodestar, but she often winds up sounding like Wynonna Judd.  A brief interpolation of “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” suggests Cyrus might be the Nancy Sinatra of her generation.

Candidly assessing her career, Cyrus acknowledges she’s “been a lot of different things, a lot of different identities.” Much of Attention: Miley Live may not be “good,” but few albums released in 2022 are likely to be more interesting. Monitoring Cyrus’ ongoing evolution promises to be a lot of fun.

Album Review: Gerald Clayton- Bells On Sand

Bells on Sand probably wouldn’t have meant much to me had it been released five years ago. Gerald Clayton’s spare song cycle might have struck me as overly fragile. Yet my sonic world expanded during the pandemic. In addition to developing a taste for drones and noise, I grasped the previously elusive appeal of European composers such as Frédéric Chopin, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Clayton’s sensitive interpretations of Federico Mompou’s compositions- the second and third tracks on Bells On Sand- set the contemplative tone for Clayton’s new album for Blue Note Records. I’d been only vaguely familiar with the Spanish composer through recordings by the likes of pianist Daniil Trifinov. Some may call me soft, but I’m pleased with my enhanced sensibility.

March 2022 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

Original image of the curtain call of UMKC Conservatory’s Così fan tutte by There Stands the Glass.

Top Ten Albums (Released in March)

1. Rosalía- Motomami

Unparalleled pop.

2. Jóhann Jóhannsson- Drone Mass

Lethal minimalism.

3. Nigo- I Know Nigo!

Elite rappers (and Kid Cudi) collaborate with the polymath.

4. Brad Mehldau- Jacob's Ladder

My review.

5. Benny the Butcher- Tana Talk 4

Buffalo barbarity.

6. Drug Church- Hygiene

Unclean.

7. François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles- Claude Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande

A ravishing rendition of the mesmirizing opera.

8. Sélène Saint-Aimé- Potomitan

Expansive jazz from France.

9. Destroyer- ​​Labyrinthitis

A not entirely embarrassing form of yacht rock.

10. Cécile McLorin Salvant- Ghost Song

Spectral art music.

Top Ten Songs (Released in March)

1. Kae Tempest and Lianne La Havas- "No Prizes"

Gold.

2. Celeste- “To Love a Man”

Torched.

3. Fana Hues- "Bad Bad"

Wicked good.

4. Normani- "Fair"

Un-break my heart.

5. The Supremes- “Witchi-Tai-To”

Wut.

6. Your Old Droog- “Fela Kruti”

“Music for people who check their email in the club.”

7. Ibibio Sound Machine- “17 18 19”

Rock down to electric avenue.

8. Lous and the Yakuza- “Kisé”

Mosh pit? Mosh pit!

9. Megan Thee Stallion and Dua Lupa- “Sweetest Pie”

Irresistible empty calories.

10. Ho9909 featuring Bun B- "Slo Bread"

Inspired collaboration.

Top Ten Performances of March

1. Sparks- Crystal Ballroom

My review.

2. Godspeed You! Black Emperor- Roseland Theater

My review.

3. UMKC Conservatory’s Così fan tutte- White Recital Hall

My Instagram snapshot.

4. Ted Poor and Cuong Vu- Jack London Revue

My review.

5. Steve Cardenas- recordBar

My review.

6. Arnold Young and the RoughTet- The Ship

My review.

7. Vanessa Rubin- Lincoln Hall

My review.

8. Timber Rattle- 9th & State

My review.

9. Angela Ward Trio- Blue Room

Herbie Hancock endorsed my Instagram video.

10. Pat Metheny in Kansas City: The Genesis of Genius- Polsky Theatre

My review.

Last month’s survey is here.

Little Big Ears

Original image of Drekka at 9th & State by There Stands the Glass.

Attending the Big Ears festival in 2019 was revelatory.  I heard a score of monumental musicians for the first time in person.  Meredith Monk!  Evan Parker!  Caroline Shaw!  Leo Wadada Smith!  My wide-ranging taste in music makes me a freak in Kansas City, but in Knoxville I discovered I'm not alone.

Ambrose Akinmusire, Tomeka Reid and Patti Smith were among the luminaries who performed on the opening night of the 2022 edition of the forward-thinking music festival in the picturesque Tennessee college town on Thursday, March 24.  Marooned in Kansas City, I refused to pout.  A pair of uncommon shows allowed me to simulate the Big Ears experience in a minuscule way.

The longtime Kansas City jazz dissenter Arnold Young performed selections from his new album at The Ship.  (A Plastic Sax album review is in the works.)  Backed by his aptly named band The Roughtet, the drummer tossed out acerbic barbs as he introduced each wild and wooly selection.

A few blocks away in the West Bottoms, the Extemporaneous Music Society presented a pair of experimental touring artists at 9th & State.  Sitting at a low slung table, Timber Rattle created drone-like incantations that sounded like ritualistic pagan hymns to malevolent gods.

Small-scale application of fire and gymnastics made Drekka more visually provocative. Yet the New Age-ish evocation of earthly elements didn’t stir me. As a trio of Drekka devotees at a front table gave their hero a standing ovation, I exited the historic saloon into the lonesome Knoxvillian night.

Vengeful Eyes Wide Open

Screenshot of OperaVision’s trailer of Grand Théâtre de Genève’s production of Elektra by There Stands the Glass.

I regularly recall the spectacular production of Kanye West’s 2013-14 tour promoting his intentionally grating album Yeezus. The lascivious presentations of entertainers such as Doja Cat aside, it remains the most visually audacious show I’ve witnessed. I might feel differently had I been in Switzerland last month. The futuristic staging of Richard Strauss’ gory opera Elektra at Grand Théâtre de Genève is amazing. Opera critics hated it. (Representative bad reviews are here and here.) What do they know? I hope West steps away from social media for a couple hours to glean a more productive form of visual, auditory and thematic stimulation from the ingenious version of Elektra.

Album Review: Son House- Forever On My Mind

Listening to scratchy recordings of country bluesmen allowed me to bask in the ambience of a vastly different time and place when I was young. Forever On My Mind, a stellar batch of previously unreleased Son House recordings from 1964, obligated me to finally recognize that the messages conferred by extraordinary artists like House are universal. Now that I’ve survived more than half a century I’m finally able to receive meanings beyond ostensible subjects such as hell hounds, boll weevils and razor balls. I may not inhabit the same morgues, churches or street corners as House, but the worldview he shares on Forever On My Mind mirrors my awareness of the advancing specter of death and the corresponding sense of loss.

Album Review: Brad Mehldau- Jacob’s Ladder

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends.  My pals marveled at the preposterous size of Carl Palmer’s drum rig when we saw Emerson, Lake & Palmer perform at Kansas City’s Municipal Auditorium in 1977.  With the punk and reggae insurgencies on my radar, I wasn’t quite as gobsmacked as my peers.  Even so, I willingly submitted to the bombastic spectacle.

As I’ve periodically recalled at this site, progressive rock bands like Rush and jazz fusion ensembles including Return to Forever were the music of choice among boys in my neighborhood in the mid-’70s.  The free-thinking musician Brad Mehldau apparently heard a lot of the same stuff during his formative years.  He gives my guilty pleasures a breathtaking makeover on his latest release.

Like all proper prog-rock recordings, Jacob's Ladder is a concept album with a somewhat muddled theme. I suspect the biblical allegory will become clearer with repeated listening, but for now I’m entranced by Mehldau’s ability to tickle my repressed auditory pleasure centers without making me feel like a cheap date. Jacob’s Ladder is guaranteed to blow your head apart.

Concert Review: Sparks at the Crystal Ballroom

Original image by There Stands the Glass. The ticket’s comp label is misleading. I paid a pretty penny for it.

My earliest experiences with Sparks consisted of a series of disappointments.  The band’s albums were staples of record store cutout bins in the 1970s.  Intrigued by loopy cover art as a kid, I sporadically picked up much of their catalog at prices ranging from 25 to 99 cents.  I was let down every time.  Sparks’ lyrical and musical aesthetic was beyond my limited comprehension.

Knowing it was likely the only chance I’d have to witness a performance by the storied cult band, I splurged on a ticket to Sparks’ sold-out concert at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland on Sunday, March 13.  After a handful of Blurty Bobs amid the audience of 1,500 were shamed into silence by hardcore fans in the first ten minutes of the 80-minute show, I grasped what had previously eluded me.

Accustomed to radio-ready pop, I didn’t understand Sparks’ allusions to the droll work of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill when I was an uncultivated youth.  Seeing the Mael brothers and their excellent accompanists render their repertoire of Weimar Republic-style cabaret songs as an aged bookworm brought Sparks into focus.  My favorite new band is old.  And I’m beside myself at the prospect of finally catching up.

Concert Review: Ted Poor and Cuong Vu at Jack London Revue

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Jack DeJohnette’s Zebra startled jazz fans when the unorthodox album was released in 1989. Joined by the iconoclastic trumpeter Lester Bowie, the accomplished drummer experimented with electronic rhythms. An inventive performance by drummer Ted Poor and trumpeter Cuong Vu at Portland’s Jack London Revue on Saturday, March 12, reinforced the validity of the 33-year-old collaboration between DeJohnette and Bowie. About 60 people paid $12 to hear Poor and Vu supplement their primary instruments with keyboards and electronic effects. Still suspect in improvised music in 1989, the alliance of acoustic and synthetic sounds seems entirely natural now. Poor, an unrelenting groove machine, and Vu, one the planet’s most formidable trumpeters, validated their reputations as innovators of a different stripe.

Concert Review: Godspeed You! Black Emperor at Roseland Theater

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Could it be the beginning of the end?  I briefly lost my bearings during Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s performance at Roseland Theater on Wednesday, March 9.  Suddenly panicking after standing five feet from the center of the stage during the first hour of the octet’s rendering of its apocalyptic anthems, I was compelled to stagger through the tightly-packed audience of more than 1,000 to take refuge at the back of the room.  I avoided falling two or three times by clumsily grabbing the shoulders of cultish fans of the post-rock band.  

My hysteria may have been both physical and emotional. (The delirium certainly wasn’t chemically induced- among other factors, I’m abstaining during Lent.)  Taking full advantage of Portland’s spectacular park system in addition to walking across town to the venue might have worn me out.  The extreme volume- the concert was the loudest post-Covid event I’ve attended- heightened my fatigue.  

The harrowing visuals and extreme sonic attack were similarly overwhelming. Terrifyingly punishing, GY!BE delivers unadulterated doom. The calamitous sensibility forged by the collective nearly twenty years ago has proven lamentably prescient. The unrelenting representation of end times smothered my life force. After being invigorated by the sublime thirty-minute guitar drone performed by the opening act Humming Amps Trio, GY!BE obliterated my joyful innocence. Fifteen hours later, I fear the damage inflicted is permanent.