ALBUM REVIEWS
Willie Nelson
Last Man Standing Legacy Recordings
Does a lifetime of smoking weed produce chronic bad breath by the time you’re 85?
Willie’s been joking about death for a while — better to keep it at bay, perhaps — and the wisdom he offers on Last Man Standing is memorable: “Bad breath is better than no breath at all.”
A more serious approach colours the title song, which opens this 11-song collection, cowritten with longtime producer Buddy Cannon.
“I don’t want to be the last man standing,” he sings, lamenting the loss of so many of his closest friends. Then there’s a pause — considering the alternative, as the old chestnut goes — before adding, “Well, then maybe I do.”
Perhaps the strongest tune is the final one — Very Far to Crawl — which deals with heartbreak on bluesy terms.
A couple of the tunes sound lifeless and soppy, but there’s plenty here to enjoy.
Foreigner
Foreigner With The 21st Century Symphony Orchestra & Chorus ear music
Foreigner, the jukebox heroes who dominated FM radio in the 1970s and ’80s have made something of a cottage industry of performing and packaging their greatest hits in varying arrangements. The latest is a CD with a 60-piece orchestra and 70-member choir that shows why these songs remain so popular.
Only founding guitarist Mick Jones remains from the original lineup. Singer Kelly Hansen inherited vocal duties from original singer Lou Gramm and does a creditable job keeping these songs alive, while including elements of his own style.
That Was Yesterday, Starrider and Urgent never sounded better. A large string section doubles and triples the iconic keyboard riff in Double Vision. And I Want to Know What Love Is, which already had its own choir on the studio recording, is even more grandiose here.
Leon Bridges Good Thing Columbia Records
Leon Bridges explores new musical dimensions on Good Thing, updating the retro soul of his acclaimed debut with a fresher approach and more personal lyrics, without eroding the smoothness of his sounds.
With its string section and impassioned vocals, ’70s-style opening ballad Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand allows for a smooth transition from Coming Home, his Grammy-nominated first album, which musically placed Bridges somewhere in the mid’ 60s. Bad Bad News, the first single, gracefully picks up the pace and comes rhythmically even closer to the present. It offers a booster shoot to his confidence — “I made a good, good thing/Out of bad, bad news” — as well as the source of the album title.
Bridges displays his strongest passion and fire on the album’s closing tracks. His voice remains his greatest strength but Good Thing is proof the rest of his artistry is fast catching up.