50+ From Issue 37, 2010

It’s hard to be ambivalent about Zooey Deschanel. She’s a polarizing personality, one whose deadpan movie roles and big Bambi eyes are either charming or too cute for their own good. The same can be said for She & Him, a soft rock duo that features Deschanel doing what she does best as a film star: acting utterly adorable alongside a quiet, talented male character. Her co-star in this case is M. Ward, who produces the band's second album and frames Deschanel’s voice with a Spector-sized pile of instruments. Those who already take issue with Zooey’s acting will almost surely pick this record apart – it’s too reminiscent of her cutesy turns in movies like (500) Days of Summer to change many minds – but for fans of retro pop (and Deschanel in general), Volume 2 is a gem. Whether they’re copping the Brill Building sound or resurrecting ‘70s beach-pop, She & Him always seem to have nostalgia on the mind.

For those that prefer to hear these works on piano rather than harpsichord, you can hardly find more enjoyable, illuminating, and elegant performances than these. Andras Schiff has surely become one of the most prominent proponents of J.S. Bach on the piano and its hard to believe these particular discs were ever allowed to slip from commercial availability. Their re-issue here is reason to rejoice. It is with good reason that another chapter in the career of Andras Schiff has started recently with his new series of Beethoven Sonatas on ECM, and of course more Bach. He is a true master, and the Bach Concerto recordings with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, led by Schiff himself, exemplify this and count as essential listening.

Glyndebourne has wisely preserved the best of Melly Still's literal,cluttered and ugly 2009 staging; its world-class soundtrack;.Dvorak's operatic masterpiece is in Belohlavek's bones, and he gets a thrilling and luminous account of the ravishing score from the LPO on virtually flawless form. It is the most central European of london's symphonic bands, and certainly equals, if not surpasses, the idiomatic Czech Philharmonic on rival sets conducted by Vaclav Neumann (supraphon) and Charles Mackerras (Decca). Ana Maria Martinez's Rusalka-more warm -blooded than Gabriela Benackova , less self-indulgent then Renee Fleming-gives one of the most ecstatic acounts of the famous Song to the Moon on disc.

For English-speaking audiences who don't mind their Handel sung by sometimes heavily accented non-native speakers, this version of Judas Maccabaeus is hard to beat. Argentinean conductor Leonardo García Alarcón leads the exemplary ensembles Choeur de Chambre de Namur and Les Agrémens in an exceptionally spirited account of the score that effectively erases any taint of its reputation as starchy favorite of amateur Victorian choral societies. His rhythms are crisp and his tempos impetuous, as is appropriate for the martial subject matter, but his phrasing is also gorgeously shapely and the lyrical numbers are rendered with sumptuous sensuality and flexibility. The brilliance of the performance is amplified by the very resonant and richly ample sound quality, which allows the voices, both choral and solos, to be heard to their best advantage, bright yet warm, with a ringing, exhilarating clarity.

Madness - The Rise & Fall (1982) {2CD 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition SALVOMDCD10 rel 2010}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 759 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 244 Mb | Data -> 185 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 72 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1982, 2010 Union Square Music / Salvo | SALVOMDCD10
Rock / New Wave / Ska Revival / Reggae / Post Punk

MADNESS THE RISE & FALL (2010 issue UK 2-CD album set - Originally released in 1982, Following the magnificent ska-pop of their debut, One Step Beyond, and the developmental pop majesty of Absolutely and 7, The Rise & Fall shows a band at the very height of their songwriting powers; their maturity and depth of subject matter second to none among their peers.

This 15-track CD is a tribute to those days when the Big Apple proved to be a genuine crucible for a whole host of remarkable talents. From Joan Baez to Allen Ginsberg, from John Lee Hooker (with whom Dylan shared a bill in 61) to The Foc’sle Singers (featuring Bob's pals Dave Van Ronk and Paul Clayton), welcome to your soundtrack to this month's issue. Welcome to Dylan's Scene.

This box set containing the remastered, expanded editions of all five of Simon & Garfunkel's original LPs on five CDs just – but only just – misses a top rating, by virtue of its packaging. The sound is, as with the individual editions of each title, a significant improvement over any prior releases of this material and proves to be utterly impeccable, and the annotated booklet, containing the original credits and notes off the albums as well as the lyrics and all of the new annotation for each individual album by Bud Scoppa, is fairly handy…