Bands Music

Boring, choppy songs which are nearly indistinguishable from one another. If you are looking for something fresh and new, this is not it. Instead of buying this album... go buy Hot Rocks.

Choppy? Wanna be's? Boy, no wonder your just a local legend and not an international one like Teenage Frames. Firstly, if you want people to go buy HOT ROCKS insted, fine. But TF sound nothing like that. Sure, it's got the stones swagger, but the songs are pure, cool post modern rock n roll with a slightly unique bent. This is NOT some copy, this is it's own thing. It may take ten more years for the rest of the world to "get" it, but they will. I got it now, and you should too if you like well written, hook filled rock n roll...BUY IT NOW!

The Teenage Frames have simple ideals about their music. Tour, play live, be realistic, and rock. Theyre good at it too. Their newest release '1% Faster' is a showcase of quality rock and roll with classic riffs, pop hooks, punk power, and catchy lyrics. These Chicagoians write songs about life in the city, and being human. '1% Faster' consists of 14 songs with various influences ranging from the Rolling Stones to the Clash. Most of the songs are shorter than three minutes, but the album does not sound choppy. Just about anyone can relate to their lyrics, and anyone can get into their sound. Take my family for example. I like it, my dad likes it. Im 20, my dad is 55. I like punk, dad likes oldies. The Teenage Frames can appeal to such a wide variety of people, so almost anyone who likes music should check out this cd. It holds everything that rock and roll should have, but rarely does anymore. This is the way rock should be.

I have a slightly different view than with the previous review, as well as the Davis review. If you are a fan of Ives (you probably are if you are interested in this cd), then you may not need to bother with half of this cd. Messo Susan Graham is quite out of touch with the character studies of these wonderful songs. When she isn't yodelling many times louder than she ought to on some high notes to demonstrate her vocal command, she becomes the epitomy of boredom and banality. I imagine Ben Stein could give a more lifelike reading of 'The Circus Band'. The jovial cheer "hear the trombones!" sounds more akin to a yawn on this version. Since when did shear vocal power and sonic richness take such high precedence over interpretive skills? Have you really forgotten Jan de Gaetani's wonderous versions? I feel Graham has done a disservice to this music, and should probably go back to singing French arias which apparently she is quite good at.

The Concord Sonata is definetly the reason you may want to own this disc. Aimard is outstanding as per usual. Emerson does really come alive here, as does Hawthorne with it's dramtic tempo shifts. My main concern lies in the 3rd movement 'the Alcotts'. It is clearly a pastorale movement with a touch of sweet nostalgia. Aimard plays a little too deliberately here- not loose enough with the tempo or lively enough with the rhythms. That really is the only disadvantage. I don't think Aimard played the folk elements strongly enough.
I guess the main question is: if I own the Kalish recording of the Sonata, do I need this one too? Probably again, you are an Ives believer and this version has great insights- why not. Like the Kalish version, this one includes the optional viola line on Emerson and the flute part of Thoreau. They appear better realised with more dramatic impact on the Kalish recording- a minor point. Movement for movement Aimard has the first and seccond, but I prefer 3 and 4 on the Kalish. The 3rd mentioned above, and the fourth seems to have more gravity with Kalish, bringing more of a closure to the tempestuous nature of the work. Aimard shows a more whispy, impressionistic take as he also does at the start of Hawthorne, reminding of Debussy. Not inappropriate stylistically speaking, but definetly a matter of taste. Aimard is a winner and I love what he does for Ligeti and Messiaen. Overall a very successful Ives sonata, and a questionably performed set of songs, well-chosen as they might be. If you are new to Ives this should be enough to get you into further explorations.

The uniquely atypical music of Charles Ives continues to mature and embed itself in the minds of larger and larger audiences every year. Practically every major orchestra in this country (and in Europe) now includes at least his symphonies in the standard repertoire. His music is probably as 'American' as any composed, so conjoined with literature and history and folksongs and all manner of Americana. This superb recording takes us one step further in appreciating Ives' gifts: his breathtaking Concord Sonata is coupled with one of the finest selections of his many songs and both sonata and songs are performed with consummate skill by pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard and mezzo soprano Susan Graham.

Aimard's approach to this big piano work is one of direct approach to the complexities of line and mood and in that approach he doesn't allow his own personality to blur Ives' message. Aimard can tackle the impossibly difficult passages and keep them transparent: he can also find the inner quiet beauty as well as any other pianist. The result is a Concord Sonata of majesty and honest simplicity.

Susan Graham has long included Ives' songs in her recitals and that experience shows in her approach to this varied selection. Graham is an immensely intelligent musician, one who can find the meaning of even a brief song in an instant. She is in fine vocal form here, and her collaboration with Aimard completes a presentation that will be difficult to match. This is a fine recording and an excellent entry point for music lovers who may have been wary of Ives' challenges. Relax and enjoy this recital. Grady Harp, August 05

The "Concord Sonata" of Charles Ives has been described as "the greatest work written by an American." It's a big sprawling, glorious mess of a thing, inspired by the Transcendental writers Emerson, Hawthorne, Alcott and Thoreau. I first heard the ground-breaking version by John Kirkpatrick, and have long cherished the powerful account by Gilbert Kalish (recorded in the '70s). But hearing Pierre-Laurent Aimard play this piece makes me forget all about those earlier recordings. A specialist in Messian and Ligeti, Aimard plays Ives like one to the manner born. Forget any preconceived notions of what it means to be a "French pianist," and let this astonishing performance carry you away. The Alcotts movement has never felt so tender, and the Thoreau movement is likewise exquisitely balanced. Perhaps most enthralling is how he manages to give shape and sense to Emerson, and Hawthorne, the fiendishly hard scherzo, has never had a reading like this. I'd have been content with the sonata, but the disk also holds the gorgeous mezzo Susan Graham singing 17 Ives songs, with Aimard's brilliant accompaniments. A fabulous recording no serious American music collection should be without!

Chalres Ives was 46 when he published his "Concord"Sonata, and as the liner notes tell us, its sprawling shape and diverse styles are the result of gathering a lot of music previously composed (none of it for solo piano) and needing a single dwelling. Ives always had his own ideas about how music is held together or flies apart. He wasn't afraid to have it fly apart, and often his notion of coherence was so private, rooted in personal memories, that an outside listener can't be expected to penetrate the associations.

Aimard goes a long way in erasing the ecdentricity, privacy, and quirkiness of Ives's idiom bydrawing the sonata into the mainstream of European modernism, giving it the same clean, detailed, accurate, and impressionistic style that he might give to other individualists like Ligeti and Messiaen. (It's also nice to have the viola addition to the first movement and the flute in the fourth.) The "Concord" Sonata becomes a virtuosic event in his hands, no longer a purely "American" sport. I do find that listening to this vast work is better in concert, where its appearance is always a special occasion. But one has to be grateful for Aimard's quantum leap in execution compared to earlier recordings.

Ives gathered his huge output of 114 songs into a collection two years after the sonata. Susan Graham picks 15 of them, adding two more that folowed after 1922. These songs ask for a vocal chameleon who can shift instantly from Victorian parlor style to patriotic exuberance, folk song, whimsy, rapt nostaliga, and more. No one to date has been able to encompass this enormous range of expression, but Susan Graham comes as close as any. I would rank her with Jan De Gaetani, Thomas Hampson, and William Sharp among the singers I know who excel in Ives, and above the too-classical, somewhat congested renditions by Marilyn Horne and Jennifer Lamore. Aimard's accompaniment misses the Yankee flavor of the marches and patriotic snatches, but in its modernist way his style is as effective as in the sonata. Highly recommended for lovers of this music.

First off this is an Ives cornocopia of songs, all sung here with the reserve that is needed, I've heard too many American art Songs, Copland, Rorem and Ives with that wrongheaded "sing-songin" delivery, it is arrogant if nothing else, and the "cutsy-ness" of it does reach the audience,unless you simply want to be entertained and you checked your brain with your cash at the box office. Straightforward Ives is I think to most effective way of playing his music,that's why I still prefer the Kalish, he brings a gritti-ness to the Concord. Aimard (and all of us) has had time since the Seventies to think and re-think this piece, and there something should be said for the way music grows, transforms itself for different time periods, isn't that why music develops itself it is striongly constituted in the first place, it is well thought through, et cetra, construction all the obvious, Copland's "Piano Variations" is a similar example, the music simply changes with time, well we change, the music is fixed.So I guess there are simply different readings.

Aimard does bring some nice clarity,like to "Hawthorne", the blazing quickness searching until the "forearm" clusters stop the flow, the onward rush of the imagination, words can change the meaning of themselves this quickly which I think is what Ives saw in Hawthorne the writer.

For the "Alcotts" any kind of nostalgia is OK with me,the simple Bb triad timbres capturing the informed naivtivitee of the little home with Bronson Alcott the speaker public man of speaking (there is a difference between public speaking and lecturer,someone who teaches as opposed to simply speaking something Bush II knows quite well.Better simply to speak without saying anything.) This is not here however for Ives loved the Utopian aspect of Danbury existential renderings, the reflections back and forth of the lifeworld, the richness of culture of the complexity of the word,place, song, timbre,all in forms of strength all mixed blending together. Aimard simply brings things out I;ve never heard before, but then that is his approach always to clarify,and that is not always the best approach in Ives where his music does ask questions, his music we have learned should be opaque, and unexplanable,terse yet convoluted; it should not lead you by the nose at each and every moment.And Aimard I;m afraid does want to lead here. I think he thinks the opaqueness will happen by itself, its already in the music, he lets this occur in the fast sections,making it a pure texture,like Debussy, I guess Ives was an existential impressionist with transcendental content.

I just love, love, love the CD I have with 13 songs on it. Much to my chagrin, I've found out that there is a really beautiful and soulful song that's not on that CD I bought! Is this song on the DVD version of the concert? (...)

WELL I BOUGHT IT SINCE I FIRST ASKED THIS QUESTION!!--

AND I'M SO HAPPY I DID! :}

There are 4 different songs on the DVD, including the one I wanted so much. So I say, if you bought the CD, love it, and think you have most of the concert already: WRONG! It's worth buying the DVD too, for the thrill of watching the live concert, AND to listen to those 4 extra really beautiful songs!

This is an exciting and wondeful dvd to honor Rai music and its' superstars. Only if I could have been at the concert. If you like the music, seeing them sing with the wild crowd is even more exciting. All the hits that you like are on it!

For those who listened to, or familiar with, the [1, 2, 3 Soleils: Taha, Khaled, Faudel] concert, this DVD offers you the opportunity to witness that concert; maybe not physically, but virtually. I personally wish that some day I can attend similar concerts, and hope that the Rai music will reach great heights in the USA, just like it did in France and Europe; regardless of the language barrier. This concert is definitely one of the most successful concerts in the whole world without exaggeration. Many top-of-the-line musicians and producers from around the globe have participated in making this one great concert, such as Steve Hillage. The "1, 2, 3 Soleils: Taha, Khaled, Faudel" CD is an entry-level to rai, but the DVD definitely is one that you have to add to your collections. It basically shows exactly what was going on in the concert. It also have a bonus titles for after and during the concert chit-chats of the King of Rai, Khaled, and Faudel and Rachid Taha. One surprising guest to these chit-chats is Sting. You'll see him greeting and complimenting Khaled. I now believe that this might have been the same time in which Sting was looking for a Middle Eastern debut in his last Album, Brand New Day. In those days, I think that's how came across Cheb Mami. The only drawback to this DVD, as opposed to what I've anticipated, is that it didn't include all the songs that were song during this concert. However, it included the majority of them.