Steven Page’s Discipline record is a game-changer

STEVEN PAGE “DISCIPLINE: HEAL THYSELF PART II” (WARNER)

It took a brief, nationally televised Barenaked Ladies reunion to remind most people that former co-frontman Steven Page was an active solo artist. This new record will quite easily put to rest any notions that he needs his old band (who are doing quite well themselves, thank you): “Discipline” is perhaps the single strongest collection of songs Page has ever assembled.

He warned us that he was not messing around. Earlier this summer he dropped the single “White Noise,” and released a lyric video featuring footage of the Charlottesville neo-Nazi rally, over which we could hear an unusually punk rock Page singing, “I tell you, as an immigrant and a Jew / I’d be more than glad to replace you … Let’s have a Second Civil War! / That’s what the Second Amendment is for … Said the snowflake to the nationalist / ‘I won’t cease until you desist / You raise your flag, I’ll raise my fist / Resist! Resist! Resist!’” He wasn’t just interested in sloganeering, either: the song itself was a major-key pop song that would stand as one of his finest singles, regardless of what it was about. Fist, meet velvet glove.

The rest of the record isn’t pointed as directly at the jugular (with the exception of the brief interlude, “You F — ked Yourself ”), although opening track “Nothing Special” is a similarly political song, where it’s odd to hear a peppy pop song with the couplet, “Children starving in the desert sun / Look out, mama, junior’s got a gun!” Much of the genre-jumping song there is set to an “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” shuffle and similar synth sound. Page’s secret weapon throughout, as it was on 2016’s first instalment of “Heal Thyself,” is Craig Northey of the Odds, who also shares some cowriting credits.

What sets Page the solo artist far apart from his previous work is his embrace of lush orchestration — indeed, he’s performing several gigs this fall with local symphonies. The arrangements suit the range of his melodies; Page has always been somewhat underrated as a vocalist, but even a casual listen to this record would illustrate his obvious skill. Several tracks lean on a bossa nova beat, notably the satire of anti-science skeptics “Gravity” (“All I can see is what God tells me to see / And we live in a world that’s outlawed gravity”). Others echo Burt Bacharach (“What I Got From You”) or Broadway (“Done”), with a straight-up 6/8 R&B ballad for good measure (“Where Do You Stand?”).

It would take a game-changing, incredibly strong record to help Page shake the baggage of his former band. But this record is it.

Stream: “White Noise,” “Nothing Special,” “Gravity”

ERIC BACHMANN “NO RECOVER” (MERGE)

For the past two decades, Eric Bachmann has quietly been amassing one of the greatest songbooks in modern American music — with the emphasis on “quiet,” because barely anyone knows who he is, whether he’s performing as Crooked Fingers or, more recently, under his own name. That, despite the fact that “Mercy,” a song from his 2016 self-titled album, is an essential balm in crazy times that should be on the playlists of everyone who gets panic attacks when they read the news.

Earlier this year Bachmann’s friend — and occasional employer — Neko Case covered his 2005 duet “Sleep All Summer” on her new album “Hell-On” (St. Vincent also did a version with The National in 2009), which hopefully sent some people back to find out who her duet partner is.

“No Recover” is not going to be the album that suddenly changes Bachmann’s profile. It’s a gentle, lilting listen based on his fingerpicked acoustic guitar playing and atmospheric backing vocals. The title song closes with the refrain, “Ain’t it good to feel the sun on your skin,” which repeats like lapping waves on a shore at sunset — an image that also happens to be on the cover of the album. But the title phrase, “No Recover,” which alternates the aforementioned refrain, illustrates the dichotomy at the heart of so much of Bachmann’s work: Life is full of trauma that will scar you for life, and yet the precious moments of beauty are what make life worth living.

Nothing here is as heart-wrenching, however, as the closing track, on which Bachmann, who recently became a firsttime father, sings, “When your dreams fall through / I’ll be there for you … And when I’m dead and gone / as you carry on / when your dreams come true / you’ll know what to do.”

Stream: “Jaded Lover, Shady Drifter,” “Murmuration Song,” “Dead and Gone”