Raise it up again
Josh Groban Bridges Warner
WHEN Josh Groban unexpectedly debuted in 2001, the then-20-year-old, baby-faced, bigvoiced opera singer had a musical lane all to himself.
The idea of positioning a young artist to attract older adults with ballads and standards was new. And Groban essentially cornered that market, with his chart-topping, multi-platinum albums Josh Groban and Closer.
These days, though, the Adult Music Highway is mighty crowded with Adele and Sam Smith and all the artists who want to follow them. Groban, who exited for a bit to make his Tony-nominated Broadway debut in Natasha Pierre & The Great Comet Of 1812 and to make the impressive 2015 album of show tunes Stages, has returned to find himself in the middle of an adult-pop traffic jam.
And his new album, Bridges, sounds like he isn’t quite sure how to get out.
Groban offers a little bit of everything here that made him a superstar. He is still hard to beat when he tackles an operatic piece in full voice, even on We Will Meet Once Again, a duet with Andrea Bocelli. And his approach on the gorgeous Musica Del Corazon is fiery enough to keep up with classical guitar virtuoso Vicente Amigo.
However, he comes up a little short on the more straightforward pop songs. The piano ballad River aims for Adele cool, but is slightly off the mark, though he fares better on the Sam Smith-sy first single Granted.
His picks for covers seem a bit predictable, especially on Bridge Over Troubled Water. (The deluxe edition of Bridges includes a version of Billy Joel’s She’s Always A Woman.) Even Sarah McLachlan’s appearance can’t stop the bludgeoning of Snow Patrol’s Run.
It helps make Bridges sound like a wrong turn. The charming Groban, who will certainly make new fans with his Netflix series The Good Cop, needs to loosen up and just head wherever he wants. – Glenn Gamboa/ Newsday/Tribune News Service
Macy Gray Ruby
Artistry Music
MACY Gray sounds mainly joyful and enthusiastic on Ruby and the zest evident across her 10th album, even when the theme is misfortune or heartbreak, is infectious.
Her trademark jazzy soul and R&B foundations are accounted for but the arrangements have a deceptively light touch and let Gray’s vocals and effervescent personality shine through.
Opener Buddha features a guitar solo by Gary Clark Jr. and background vocals with a gospel feel, alternating an uplifting refrain of being “alright now” with the knowing “our days are numbered”.
The ultra-romantic Over You – “I haven’t had a drink since my last one/No clouds in my sky but I’m on one” – has a dynamic horn arrangement and a catchy refrain and sounds most like her early hits. It’s followed by White Man – no extra credit for guessing who Gray is singing about – whose hatred, judgment and offensive chatter may end up hurting him.
Sugar Daddy is a bubbly collaboration with Meghan Trainor, whose influence is evident already on the piano introduction and cooing backing vocals, while When It Ends is all drama underpinned by a slinky bass line.
But He Loves Me is such a plausible description of when our instinct for self-preservation fails us that it sounds almost like a parody, while reggae-tinged closer Witness is among the album’s musical peaks.
Producers Johan Carlsson, Tommy Brown and Tommy (Lumpkins) Parker may have helped boost Gray’s confidence and Ruby isa sure-footed album set in a mischievous heart of gold. – Pablo Gorondi/AP
Willie Nelson My Way Sony
WILLIE Nelson is country music personified, but he’s no red-headed stranger to the Great American Songbook, either. On My Way ,the prolific Texan swings and croons through 11 songs associated with Frank Sinatra, with whom he formed an unlikely and undeniable mutual admiration society.
Nelson has been releasing albums at a pace rarely seen these days among major stars, much less 85-year-olds who’ve been on the road forever. My Way, second of the year after the reflective Last Man Standing ,isa joy from start to finish.
With Stardust, his smash 1978 LP, Nelson became an early adherent to the now-ubiquitous crossover interpretation of pop standards and though he’s recorded some of these songs before – including opener Fly Me To The Moon and one of Sinatra’s greatest performances, One for My Baby (And One More for the Road) – the right-sized string and horn arrangements led here by Matt Rollings accommodate both Ol’ Blue Eyes’ world and Nelson’s own idiosyncratic interpretations.
Fly Me To The Moon gains a slightly more spirited pace than on Nelson’s 2009 American Classic, while Summer Wind includes a lyrical Nelson solo on Trigger, that nylon-string Martin guitar of his with an extra hole resulting from years of use.
The backing really shines on One For My Baby and Nelson’s vocals show how he is indeed a “kind of poet” even when the song is not his own composition.
Nelson’s experience lends a special grace to It Was A Very Good Year and Young At Heart, while on My Way his phrasing and Mickey Raphael’s harmonica (a treat elsewhere, too) provide the album closer with a bluesy intimacy that may make some of those who don’t care much for Sinatra’s braggadocio and bombast on his own version give the song another chance.
Later this month, Nelson will be headlining Farm Aid again and he hardly seems to have a day off. To paraphrase a popular Keith Richards meme, it’s time to start worrying about what kind of world we’re leaving for Willie Nelson.