Photograph

Despite its moments of inspired songcraft, Julian Lennon's fourth album, Help Yourself, didn't find an audience in 1991. Shortly after its release, Lennon parted ways with Atlantic and entered a period of seclusion. By the time he returned to recording in 1998, the Beatles had already undergone one of their periodic "hip" phases, thanks to the hook-crazy Brit-pop crew. In many ways, bands like Oasis and Blur gave Lennon the go-ahead to return to the Beatlesque songcraft of his debut, Valotte, and that's exactly what he does on Photograph Smile, his first album in seven years. Much of the record is devoted to piano ballads similar to his big hit, "Valotte," with a couple of guitar pop numbers thrown in for good measure. There's not much range on the album, but all the music is well crafted and melodic – the kind of music that would receive greater praise if it weren't made by the son of a Beatle.

In late 2020, Kevin Morby holed up in the then-quiet Peabody hotel in Memphis to escape a pandemic-burdened winter in his hometown of Kansas City. There, he wrote This Is a Photograph, a folky, left-of-the-dial rock album and a particularly reflective entry in his catalog. Its sound is sometimes earthy and gospel-inflected, sometimes lush and symphonic, with lyrics tinted by existential reflection and the specter of death. The sinewy title track was inspired by family photos that Morby and his mother went through after thinking they’d just seen his father die following an accidental double dose of heart medication. The lived-in duet “Bittersweet, TN,” about the loss of a friend, features vocals by Erin Rae and floats along on its banjo lines. And the sparse but upbeat “Goodbye To Good Times” doesn’t offer any resolution, but instead presents a eulogy for better days as the songwriter strums his acoustic guitar, simultaneously nostalgic and grounded in the difficult present.

Hard as it is to believe but there has not been a proper Ringo Starr hits collection since the first, 1975's Blast from Your Past – that's not counting 1989's Starr Struck: Best of Ringo Starr, Vol. 2, which was designed as a companion to that earlier set – until 2007's Photograph: The Very Best of Ringo Starr…

Lear, previously known as a Roxy Music album cover model and a protégé of Salvador Dali, appears here as a cabaret countess. She enunciates sexually naughty suggestions in a smoke-and-velvet rasp. Her best subversions hit a dancer's most salacious fantasies dead on. Most of these songs support their studied lewdness with absurdly different music, creating tangible friction (e.g., "Alligator" – funk bottom, frothy violins on top) that makes Lear's tape-loop voice feel even naughtier. All of Lear's tempos assault disco norms, either as sleaze or ultra-fast high-energy. An album not to be missed…

Dennis Gonzalez - No Photograph Available (2006) {Clean Feed ‎CF056CD}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 355 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 152 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 10 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2006 Clean Feed / Trem Azul ‎| CF056CD
Jazz / Post Bop / Modern Creative / Trumpet

From someone who was absent from the jazz scene for ten years, trumpeter Dennis Gonzalez’s recent hyper-activity put his name in focus, as if he had always been active and simply became more and more famous. The Boston concert documented in “No Photograph Available” was one of those things that only happens thanks to the Internet. On his way to New York, where the Texan had a gig the following day, he wanted to stop in Boston and play there with local musicians, so he sent some messages through his chat list asking for contacts of people he didn’t already know and for availability of the ones he did. Soon the group formed itself, with Nate McBride and Joe Morris playing the two double basses, Charlie Kohlhase on the saxophones and Croix Galipault, a stunning 19 year old drummer, and a student of Morris’s, keeping the sticks.