New Music
By: Staff Writer
Posted: 2/11/2010 3:16 AM

POP & ROCK

Taylor Swift / Speak Now (Big Machine/Open Road/Universal)

There is a lot of talk about how the whole music business is riding on the success of Taylor Swift's third album. Some speculate that if the four-time Grammy winner doesn't move huge numbers like she has before (her first two releases sold 13 million copies and Fearless was the No. 1 bestselling album in any genre in 2009) the music business, as we know it, is dead.

Talk about (peer) pressure.

Then again, does Swift have any "peers" as the biggest selling artist out there at the tender age of 20?

Swift is listed as sole writer on this collection and states she's been working on these songs/confessions for the past two years. In fact, Speak Now is like reading your sister's diary. Dear John is obviously about John Mayer. Innocent is Taylor forgiving Kanyé West ("Who you are is not what you did," she sings). The Paramore-esque sounding rocker Better Than Revenge is possibly about a boyfriend-stealing actress (The old Camilla Belle/Joe Jonas scandal, maybe?). Back to December is an apology to another ex, Twilight star Taylor Lautner. Mean is aimed at those who've called Swift's singing ability into question but serves as the most country sounding track here with some nice banjo, mandolin and acoustic guitar.

Overall, Speak Now is a well-produced (apparently with Swift's assistance) and well-played offering of homogenous pop and rock with a light dusting of country, although some songs are too long, clocking in around the six-minute mark (longer than some of her relationships).

When the tears clear, there's nothing we haven't heard before. If this is what decides the fate of the music biz, they should be worried. 'Ö'Ö'Ö

-- Bruce Leperre

Jim Bryson & the Weakerthans

The Falcon Lake Incident (MapleMusic)

Ottawa's Jim Bryson has been an occasional onstage player with the Weakerthans, and now the roles are reversed, as the Winnipeg band accompanies the singer-songwriter on his latest album. The Falcon Lake Incident, recorded over six winter days in a cabin, is a collection of rootsy pop with such a relaxed sense of ease that it sounds familiar on first listen.

Bryson's warm, husky voice is front and centre, and it's the perfect instrument for these lovely, laid-back tunes, whether it's the innocent jangle of the insidiously catchy Heavy Metal Girls, the propulsive Wild Folk with its entwined guitars, or the rueful, harmonious Constellation.

Fans of Bryson's brilliant 2007 album Where the Bungalows Roam may find something lacking here -- the songs are unimpeachable, but the approach is relatively straightforward and unsurprising, with the only occasional horn or dollop of pedal steel switching up the sound. Still, there's something to be said for the low-key joys of familiarity. 'Ö'Ö'Ö1/2

-- Jill Wilson

Bryan Ferry

Olympia (Virgin)

Whether fronting progressive glam-rockers Roxy Music in the '70s or during his long solo career, singer Bryan Ferry always portrayed himself as a something of debonair, thinking-man's scamp. Dressed to the nines and always with a skilled bunch of collaborators backing him, Ferry cut a unique and interesting path through his solo career and the brief reformation of Roxy.

Olympia places him as the elder statesman of his own genre. With a bevy of name players in tow (Phil Manzanera, Brian Eno, David Gilmour, Flea and Chris Spedding to name a few), Ferry delivers a luminous set of tracks. There is a detailed looseness to Ferry's reliable vibe that sets him apart from some of his contemporaries and he and the band create stylish and moving songs that rely on stellar playing without sounding overplayed or calculated.

Shameless thumps wonderfully, aching for dance floor attention while Heartache By Numbers is a classic, Roxy Music-esque boiler driven by the singers' familiar, detached and slightly fragile sounding high register croon. 'Ö'Ö'Ö'Ö

-- Jeff Monk

The Afterparty

Rain Can't Stop the Fire (Canadian Grass)

Judging by the results of their latest album, Winnipeg hippie-pop combo the Afterparty can't really decide what style of music they want to present -- so they pretty much do them all on the varied Rain.

The album opens with what can only be called the Pope's Hill groove, with bongos and didgeridoo in full flow. In between the octet plays around with more than a few current styles, from hip-shaking ska to quasi-heavy rock, all with the kind of musical skill that will keep fans more than happy. Singer/guitarist Scott Malcolmson does his job admirably, using his slightly rasping vocals to good effect on every track. With a hard-working horn section, the band can slide into some well-delivered jazzy asides with confidence, knowing the players can nail the charts without sounding average. Alan Nagelberg's rapid rain of electric guitar notes on some songs tosses a bit of water on the overall fire of this album, but not enough to completely extinguish the overall groovy vibe. 'Ö'Ö'Ö

-- Monk

Made of Metal

Halford (Metal God Entertainment)

Judas Priest frontman and metal deity Rob Halford doesn't disappoint with his side band Halford's fourth instalment, Made of Metal. The sound and feel at first don't seem to differ from anything Priest cranked out in the '80s, making it seem a bit dated. However, the cobwebs are effectively burnt off by the fusion of styles synonymous with metal itself, while making full use of Halford's signature pipes. Songs such as Till the Day I Die, Mower and the title track tap elements of blues, industrial and thrash, producing a musical elixir that washes down nicely with your current collection.

This album may still not appeal to today's growl-addicted metal listener, but to the adventurous and those that long for a more rooted sound, Halford should please the most discerning metalheads musical palate. 'Ö'Ö'Ö

-- Jarrod Bennett, Edmonton Journal

BLUES

Buddy Guy

Living Proof (Silvertone)

Tone, taste, tenacity.

Z.Z. Top's Billy Gibbons once used this triad to describe what exactly it was that allowed his band its longevity and popularity. Buddy Guy's new album Living Proof is exactly that, and at "74 years young" Guy can still shred the blues guitar like almost no one else.

The opening track starts mildly enough with Guy strumming acoustic guitar effortlessly, but as the second verse arrives he hammers his 1957 Stratocaster with kind of blistering tonal power usually owned by players half his age. Blues albums don't need to be complex. Guy knows this and with his guitar and still strong vocals forward in the mix he delivers a dozen tracks that leave no doubt that this venerable blues dude isn't going to lay back in the grass anytime soon.

His loud, stinging tone is still very much in evidence and this is honest, living proof of the positive results of hanging in there. 'Ö'Ö'Ö'Ö1/2

JAZZ

DAVE HOLLAND / PEPE HABICHUELA

Hands (Dare2Records)

So a jazz bassist and a flamenco guitarist walk into a recording studio in Madrid ...

This is no joke, however, as bassist extraordinaire Dave Holland steps outside his usual musical zone to perform with Spanish Gypsy guitar legend Pepe Habichuela on a 10-tune disc aptly named Hands.

Holland is best-known for his contemporary compositions and playing in small jazz groups and a big band, but his rich sound is ideal for the pairing with the fleet-fingered Habichuela. They are accompanied by two guitarists and two percussionists on a session that includes tango, rumba, taranta and two Holland compositions, The Whirling Dervish and Joyride.

Bailaor best combines the innovative aspects of jazz with the certainties of flamenco, but the entire disc is great. 'Ö'Ö'Ö'Ö

-- Chris Smith

CLASSICAL

André Previn

A Bridge Between Two Worlds (Unitel Classica)

André Previn has had such an extraordinarily diverse career -- film, concert, opera composer; classical and jazz, pianist; conductor; arranger -- that it seems an injustice to try to encapsulate everything in a 52-minute film. Yet that's what Lillian Birnbaum and Peter Stephan Jungk attempted in this 2008 DVD when Previn was 81. Naturally they just touch the bases, filming him on trains and in cabs, presumably alluding to his mobile artistic side. As well, we get moments with former wives Mia Farrow, looking radiant, plus the fiery and rather irritating violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. Comments from his exes and two of Previn's children add little, though playwright and collaborator Tom Stoppard has some interesting thoughts.

Given Previn's formidable achievements one feels shortchanged by the doc. But the bonus program makes up for lost ground with sparkling performances of two of Mozart's greatest chamber works, the Piano Quartets K. 478 and K. 493 filmed in 2000, catching Previn the pianist at his most engaging. 'Ö'Ö'Ö1/2

-- James Manishen

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 2, 2010 C4