The Times - UK (2022-04-08)

the times | Friday April 8 2022 9

music reviews

C

lassical recordings released

around Easter generally

include Bach’s Passion

settings, but other options

are always available. One

of the most striking alternatives is

Handel’s oratorio La resurrezione,

written in 1708 during four years spent

in Italy. Indeed, its qualities leap out

and bite you in this recording of the

second of Linn’s Handel series, in

which Harry Bicket directs the

musicians of the English Concert.

Witness the orchestra’s lively

precision, rhythmic bounce and

variegated colours: ideal tools for

a proper display of the endless

imaginative subtleties woven into the

instrumental score. As for the vocal

forces — numbering five, with no

Evangelist’s narration or choral

commentary threaded through —

I couldn’t detect a weak link. The icing

on the cake is the glow and vitality

of Philip Hobbs’s sound recording,

achieved at Sage Gateshead.

Everything has the effect of pulling

the listener right inside the human

drama of the Easter story crafted by

Handel and his Italian librettist. This

is not directly Jesus’s story, more the

story of his effect on others, such as

Sophie Bevan’s lyrically grieving Mary

Magdalene and Iestyn Davies’s equally

eloquent Mary Cleophas (Jesus’s aunt,

by some accounts), or Lucy Crowe’s

encouraging Angel and the sweetened

firebrand of Hugo Hymas’s St John.

That just leaves the bile and foul

breath of Ashley Riches’s Lucifer, the

only participant not to benefit from

what Bicket calls the oratorio’s

“journey from grief, through hope, to

love”. Aside from one engineering

Leaning into

her position

as the next

potential

superstar

of Latin

music, the

Cuba-born,

Florida-

raised

Cabello draws

on her heritage for

her second album, from the mariachi

trumpets of Familia to the acoustic

fiesta of La Buena Vida.

Lacking, though, are the moments

of eccentricity and character that

made her debut album shine. Instead

we get straightforward attempts at

pop ubiquity such as Bam Bam, a light

duet with the inescapable Ed Sheeran,

and Psychofreak, a slight if catchy slice

of clubby pop with a guest spot from

Willow (daughter of Will) Smith.

Occasional moments of personal

revelation come through, but for the

most part this is a formulaic Latin/pop

crossover that doesn’t make the most

of Cabello’s clear talents.

quirk — slightly dawdling pauses

between each track — this is an

exemplary recording of Handel’s

vibrant Easter surprise.

If secular listening is needed, I’d

highly recommend a new recording of

Vivaldi’s serenata La Senna festeggiante

(“The Festive Seine”), written in

Venice nearly 20 years after La

resurrezione. Scholars quibble over

the circumstances behind this lavish

tribute to Louis XV. But who cares

when Vivaldi is being so tuneful, and

Diego Fasolis’s musicians, gathered

together at the Royal Opera of

Versailles, are merry and bright?

Gwendoline Blondeel and Lucile

Richardot’s allegorical figures worship

France’s king with panache, and Luigi

De Donato is very memorable as the

robust bass voice of the River Seine.

Geoff Brown

Jack White has

made one of his

most bracing

records yet, says

Will Hodgkinson

I

f you are feeling bad about your

lack of productivity, it is probably

best not to look too closely at

the life and career of Jack White.

Since reigniting an interest in

brutal garage rock in the 2000s

with his pretend sibling, actually

husband-wife duo the White

Stripes, the former furniture

upholsterer from Detroit has,

alongside playing in various bands,

holding down a prolific solo career and

writing a Bond theme, built an empire.

Third Man Records is a label, studio,

album-pressing plant and shop with

a distinctive colour code and design

aesthetic that operates out of

Nashville and Detroit. In September

White marked the opening of Third

Man’s central London outlet by

playing a blisteringly loud rooftop

concert in homage to the Beatles’

final appearance. Listening to White’s

frenetic, endlessly inventive new

album (the first of two to be released

this year, naturally), you begin to

realise where his drive comes from.

Everything about White’s world is

defined and self-limited, from the

simplicity of the White Stripes’

guitar-drums set-up to his

commitment to culture encased within

old-fashioned craftsmanship, to the

black and yellow uniform Third Man’s

employees are called upon to wear. He

is imposing order on a chaotic world.

Or, more obviously after listening to

this album, his chaotic mind.

There is a manic energy running

through Fear of the Dawn. The

screaming, fuzzed-out guitar on

Taking Me Back, set against pounding

drums and strangulated organ, sounds

like the musical equivalent of taking

off all your clothes and running

screaming into the street. Into the

Twilight may begin with a sweet

There is a catchy love song called

Morning, Noon and Night, and even

a touch of melodic jazz rock on

Shedding My Velvet. For the most part,

though, this sounds like a man with

too many thoughts, obsessing over

every last detail, and dealing with

it all through a kind of musical

exorcism.

The lyrical theme seems to be about

the confessions of a vampire, but

whether this is a metaphor or a

straightforward tale of the undead is

unclear. In any case there is brilliance

here, and a sense that we are getting

the unfettered outpourings of a

tangled mind. “This is the real me,”

White sings on Shedding My Velvet.

There is no reason not to believe him.

sample of the nostalgic jazz vocal

group the Manhattan Transfer, but it

quickly descends into a nerve-

shredding melange of industrial noise,

tinkling piano and White’s

strangulated voice. “Here in the night,

everything’s right,” he sings, as if

everything has become too much

for him.

There is a sense on this intense,

unsettling album that White has

allowed the floodgates to open, to let

the information flood into his brain,

and it has driven him mad. Sometimes

he heads back to the 1960s garage

punk immediacy of the White Stripes,

such as on What’s the Trick; on the

reverberating Eosophobia he goes

towards spacious dub.

Forget Bach, try Handel’s Easter surprise

As hard as it is to take the former

Fleet Foxes drummer Josh Tillman

seriously in his guise as the louche LA

lounge lizard Father John Misty, you

cannot argue with the music.

Here he jumps between orchestral

glamour and intimate soft rock,

putting a tale about dreams of fame

to soporific balladry on Buddy’s

Rendezvous and aping Harry Nilsson’s

Everybody’s Talkin’ on Goodbye Mr

Blue. Tillman has a gift for making

past styles relevant — even if he goes

too far on The Next 20th Century, a

love song referencing Val Kilmer

and Nazi wedding bands. Sitting in the

tradition of Randy Newman, this is a

real Hollywood album — overblown,

emotional and intoxicating.

PAIGE SARA

A manic hit from rock’s busiest man

o

n

aws

tage for

album from themariachi

Jazz album

Highland flings and

Norwegian blues from

two pianists reviewed

at the times.co.uk/arts

Father John Misty

Chloë and the Next

20th Century

Bella Union

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Having popped out of the pandemic

with Chaise Longue, a song of such

wicked charm it has been streamed

12 million times, Wet Leg have just the

right blend of singalong tunes and

insouciant wit to make guitar music

exciting all over again.

The Isle of Wight band’s debut

recalls the Strokes’ Is This It: short,

tight songs, and the impression that

they are having a total laugh. Led by

Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers,

they have an irreverence (“I don’t

want to listen to your band” —

Angelica) that doesn’t overstay its

welcome. Who knows how long it will

last? Who cares? Wet Leg are having

their moment and it’s very exciting.

Wet Leg

Wet Leg

Domino

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Camila Cabello

Familia

Sony

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Jack White

Fear of the

Dawn

Third Man

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pop

Harry Bicket

Handel: La

Resurrezione

Linn

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Diego Fasolis

Vivaldi: La

Senna

Festeggiante

Château de Versailles

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classical