MUSIC FOR LIVING: David Byrne and Fatboy Slim; Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson; Charlotte Gainsbourg; V.M. Bhatt and Matt Malley; Jakob Dylan; Peter Gabriel

 

David Byrne and Fatboy Slim
Here Lies Love
Nonesuch/Todo Mundo
www.herelieslove.net

 

  David Byrne is unstoppable, the protean artist of our time. This time out, the ever-morphing cultural visionary sets out to do nothing less than compose a song cycle telling the remarkable life stories of Imelda Marcos and her childhood nanny, Estrella Cumpas, mostly using the dance-pop genre of the 1970s and ’80s that Marcos favored when she was a denizen of nightclubs (a time coinciding with Byrne’s own not-inconsiderable dance-floor achievements with his band Talking Heads). The songs, all written by Byrne from the women’s points of view, are sung by an all-star cast of vocalists, including Tori Amos, Nellie McKay, Cyndi Lauper, Sharon Jones, Alice Russell, Kate Pierson (of the B-52s), Natalie Merchant, and only occasionally Byrne himself—although one can easily imagine Byrne singing all of them. As much as he wants you to listen to this two-CD set in order, to follow the progression of the story—it’s really a rock opera—Byrne has created a wild club album, a perfect soundtrack for a summer dance party.

 

 

Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson
Break Up
Atco
www.thebreakupalbum.com
 

  Singer-songwriter Pete Yorn hasn’t been shy about his intentions for this album—to make nothing less than a song cycle tracing the dissolution of a romantic relationship. If Yorn didn’t have the goods—the catchy, hook-ridden pop-rock tunes flecked with rootsy touches and lyrics that affectingly tell the story of the breakup (as so much great pop music has done over the years)—and if duet partner/co-vocalist Scarlett Johansson weren’t up to the challenge of playing Brigitte Bardot to Yorn’s Serge Gainsbourg (or Tammy Wynette to his George Jones), it wouldn’t have worked. But does it ever. Out of the depths of Yorn’s desperation comes his best collection of songs, and Johansson’s soulful, ethereal vocals are the perfect counterpart to Yorn’s gritty, urgent pleas.

 

 

 

Charlotte Gainsbourg
IRM
Elektra
www.charlottegainsbourg.com

 

  This is the best Beck album in years—perhaps his best since Guero. That it took him surrendering the spotlight to a singer—the daughter of famed French pop singer Serge Gainsbourg—is merely a tribute to his creative generosity (as producer and songwriter), as well as a remarkable melding of sensibilities. IRM is a meditation on mortality and death—the title is the French equivalent of MRI, a reference to Gainsbourg’s near-death experience a few years back due to a cerebral hemorrhage, and it even includes a song by that name that translates the claustrophobic experience of being inside a magnetic resonance imaging machine into music and words. But to their credit, the recording isn’t so much gloomy as it is haunting, with Gainsbourg’s wispy vocals and Beck’s eclectic song settings, which range from French chansons to electro-rock to contemporary minimalism to symphonic pop. A perfect pairing of two giant talents.

 

 

 

V.M. Bhatt and Matt Malley
Sleepless Nights
World Village

www.worldvillagemusic.com

  Indian ragas and rock music have coexisted swimmingly at least as far back as the musical meeting of the Beatles and Ravi Shankar in the 1960s. Many have explored the affinities between the genres ever since and to varying degrees of success. This acoustic trio effort unites Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, the creator of a unique instrument he calls the Mohan Veena—a modified and Easternized slide guitar—and Counting Crows bassist Matt Malley, with tabla and percussion duties handled by Subhen Chatterjee. While rooted in the raga scales, the resulting fusion transcends any single genre or tradition, with hints of blues, country, and Western melodies floating above the tabla rhythms. Even a Greek melody insinuates itself into Bhatt’s bouzouki-like guitar lines in “Rainbow in My Heart.” A lovely musical travelogue.
 

 

Jakob Dylan
Women + Country
Columbia
www.jakobdylan.com

 

  Producer T Bone Burnett is making the rounds, slowly building up a body of work that will one day be seen as much his own as that of other visionary producers including Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. As he recently did with Elvis Costello, Burnett works with Jakob Dylan to set his new body of songs in appropriately dark, rootsy arrangements, drawing on master musicians including guitarist Marc Ribot, pedal-steel guitarist Greg Leisz, drummer Jay Bellerose, bassist Dennis Crouch, and Burnett’s old Bob Dylan bandmate, David Mansfield, on fiddle and mandolin. The accents provided by harmony singers Neko Case and Kelly Hogan provide just the right sharp, tonal contrast to Dylan’s dusky vocals on these timeless, country-inflected ballads. Shades of dad included: “You would be blind if you only knew/It was eye for an eye and truth for truth.”
 

 

 

Peter Gabriel
Scratch My Back
Real World
www.petergabriel.com

 

  On his latest album, Peter Gabriel—who has written and sung some of rock’s most memorable anthems—turns his attention to the work of other songwriters, forefronting his artistry as a vocalist and conceptualist on stark piano and symphonic orchestral renditions of songs by peers and younger songwriters. To wit, Paul Simon’s “The Boy in the Bubble” is transformed from a bouncy pop tune to a moody piano ballad that highlights the song’s inherent pessimism; Gabriel brilliantly sets David Bowie’s “Heroes” to an arrangement that nods to contemporary minimalist composer Steve Reich, which makes total sense given that the song is co-written by Brian Eno, rock’s answer to Reich. Gabriel also tackles numbers by Talking Heads, making a melodic revelation of David Byrne’s “Listening Wind,” which builds to a cinematic climax; a touching rendition of Neil Young’s “Philadelphia”; and a straightforward reading of Randy Newman’s “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today.” Among the younger artists he covers are Bon Iver, Elbow, Arcade Fire, and Regina Spektor. [JUNE 2010]