In November 2018, Jeff Tweedy (singer and guitarist of the legendary band Wilco) released 'WARM' to much critical acclaim. 'WARMER' was recorded during the same studio sessions, and this release features both albums. Tweedy himself comments: 'At some point I separated the songs from the 'WARM/WARMER' session into two records with individual character, but still tried to keep the overall tone and texture of the combined session consistent. In a lot of ways these two records could have been released as a double LP'. Jeffrey Scot Tweedy is an American songwriter, musician, author, and record producer best known as the singer and guitarist of the band Wilco.
Jeff Lynne revived Electric Light Orchestra in 2015 – due to legal reasons, they were now called Jeff Lynne's ELO – releasing a comeback album called Alone in the Universe and steadily mounting a return to the road. Several dates happened in 2016, but the tour reached its apex in June 2017, when the group played in front of 60,000 people at London's Wembley Stadium. Released five months after that June 24 gig, Wembley or Bust – which was accompanied by a concert film – features the entirety of the gig, and if it's not heard too closely, it could sometimes be mistaken for an ELO greatest-hits album.
Alone in the Universe isn't the first Jeff Lynne album of the 21st century, nor is it the first Electric Light Orchestra of the 21st century. That honor belongs to Zoom, a 2001 comeback that faded quickly into history books, its lack of success blamed in some quarters on Lynne's reluctance to tour. If Jeff didn't want to hit the road, his old bandmate Bev Bevan had no problem constituting a lineup and touring under the name ELO Part II, whose presence somewhat explains why Alone in the Universe is credited to the somewhat convoluted Jeff Lynne's ELO – a truncation of the band's full name that also assigns credit where it's due, as most listeners associate this majestic post-Abbey Road pop with Lynne alone.
Georg Philipp Telemann was the most famous of all German composers during his lifetime and a master of all musical genres. Every piece in this album dates from his triumphant years in Hamburg, where he was the city’s music director. They are heard in exciting new arrangements reflecting Telemann’s own practice in transcribing his works for various instruments. The two Sonatinas come from the collection Neue Sonatinen of 1730–31, a rich source of material, while the Fantasias derive from the Fantasias for viola da gamba, with much polyphonic writing cast in galant style.
Richard Marx's self-titled debut album was a finely crafted record of mainstream pop/rock. Marx understood how the melodies of up-tempo rockers like "Don't Mean Nothin'" are driven by thick power chords, and how arrangements are as important as melody in ballads like "Hold On to the Nights." Filled with carefully constructed radio-ready tracks, it was no surprise that the album became a huge hit.
Dvořák, a most personal symphonist: David Patrick Stearns assesses how Dvořák’s greatness was bound up with the way he saw the world.
Limitless is the twelveth studio album (36th overall) by American singer/songwriter and record producer/arranger Richard Marx, released on February 7, 2020. It his first studio album since 2014. It was the first time Marx had recorded an album without the conscious thought of making an album. Marx usually produces his albums by himself but this time, he worked with several different producers, all of whom also co-wrote a majority of the songs on the album as well. His son Lucas was one of the producers who also co-wrote two of the tracks, including the single "Another One Down". "I wasn't really sure what making a new album meant for an artist like me," Marx said of the creative process behind Limitless. "All I knew was that I still write songs all the time and I realised I had a collection of songs I really liked. In my past, my only criteria were to write and record songs that pleased me, and hopefully other people would like them, too. So I returned to that ideology and dismissed any concerns of stylistic consistency and the next thing I knew, I had recorded a diverse album I really liked." The album was dedicated to his wife Daisy Fuentes.