2 musicians’ albums earn critics’ lauds

SPRING MUSICAL NOTES

A pair of Arkansas-connected musicians made news late last month.

Evanescence, the rock band co-founded in Little Rock in the mid-’90s by singer Amy Lee and former lead guitarist Ben Moody, released “The Bitter Truth,” its first album in almost 10 years, on March 26.

It features 12 songs written or co-written by Lee, including “Use My Voice,” which was inspired by Chanel Miller, formerly known as Emily Doe, the victim of a sexual assault outside a 2015 Stanford University fraternity party.

Lee has been in the spotlight since “Fallen,” the band’s wildly successful 2003 debut, which has sold more than 17 million copies.

“‘Fallen’ came out when I was 21 years old, and it was all really new,” she told NPR last week. “I was still learning how to write a song, and each album has a slightly different lineup and I always have wanted that to show.

I want each person’s personality to be able to shine on the album and to come through.”

In a review at Consequence of Sound, Collette Claire writes: “‘The Bitter Truth’ is reminiscent of the band’s older material but also entirely fresh. It does not feel like a band going through the motions. Lee [said] that time away and perspective on the band’s career added to the ‘fire and passionate energy’ on ‘The Bitter Truth,’ and that sentiment is clearly evident throughout the album.”

Legendary saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, who was born in Little Rock in 1940, is being praised for “Promises,” his first new album in nearly two decades. The work is a collaboration with the London Symphony Orchestra and Englishman Sam Shepherd, who composes and produces electronic music under the moniker Floating Points.

The result is a 46-minute composition presented in nine atmospheric movements.

“You are carried along by the flickers of Sanders’s horn, the distant sound of a synthesizer, string crescendos suggesting a light just past the horizon,” writes Hua Hsu in The New Yorker.

Pitchfork.com gives it a 9 out of 10 rating, calling the album a “celestial event” and that it is “Sanders’ playing that holds it all together, a clear late-career masterpiece.”

SPA CITY SIGHTING

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and “Big Little Lies” actress Shailene Woodley had a private dinner together last week at Best Cafe and Bar in Hot Springs.

The couple, who are engaged, were shown in a photo that was shared March 30 on the restaurant’s Facebook page.

“Our team had the opportunity to cook for @aaronrodgers12 and his crew last night,” read the post. “Grateful for the opportunity.”

Elle.com says it’s just the second photo made public of the pair, following a paparazzi snap of them one day earlier in Mexico.

Happy Easter!