Barn Backdrop

What sounds, except the dinner bell, could be as exhilarating as a baroque cantata for soprano and trumpet? Bach's solo Cantata #51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, is deservedly one of his most popular and oft-performed, not only because its rousing strains could wake a congregation of beefy Bürghers any Sunday of the year but also because it's brilliantly constructed, a composition so refined that every phrase is crucial. The performance of it on this CD is as polished as any I've ever heard, and that would be enough to justify five-times-five stars, but the other soprano/trumpet pieces.

Perhaps Tom Waits' most cohesive album, Bone Machine is a morbid, sinister nightmare, one that applied the quirks of his experimental '80s classics to stunningly evocative - and often harrowing - effect. In keeping with the title's grotesque image of the human body, Bone Machine is obsessed with decay and mortality, the ease with which earthly existence can be destroyed. The arrangements are accordingly stripped of all excess flesh; the very few, often non-traditional instruments float in distinct separation over the clanking junkyard percussion that dominates the record. It's a chilling, primal sound made all the more otherworldly (or, perhaps, underworldly) by Waits' raspy falsetto and often-distorted roars and growls. Matching that evocative power is Waits' songwriting, which is arguably the most consistently focused it's ever been…