Great Conductors of the 20th Century: Pierre Monteux
EMI 75474
Format: CD

Musical Performance
Recording Quality
Overall Enjoyment

This is one of the best releases in this hit-or-miss series. Monteux’s repertory is well represented, and all the performances, most of which were taped when the conductor was in his late 80s, convey the French maestro’s seemingly eternal youth. The crown jewel in this set is the near-50-minute suite of music from Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty, a performance so buoyant and idiomatic that one might prefer it to recordings of the entire ballet. For the series, EMI managed to license recordings from many sources. Thus the Beethoven Second Symphony, Wagner Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, and Hindemith Mathis der Maler are from smaller companies and sound like good radio broadcasts. Disc two, however, has superlative sound, with the Debussy Nocturnes, which first appeared on RCA (one of that company’s earliest stereo recordings), and the Tchaikovsky from Decca (appearing first in the U.S. on RCA vinyl). The notes are interesting and there are good photographs. The modest price is worth it for the lyrical, spirited, elegant The Sleeping Beauty alone.

The L.A. 4: Just Friends
Groove Note 1016
Format: Hybrid Stereo SACD

Musical Performance
Recording Quality
Overall Enjoyment

The enterprising indie-label Groove Note has licensed several titles from Concord for release on Hybrid SACD. If this title is representative of the quality that can be achieved, I would be happy to see the whole Concord catalog re-done. This is a hybrid disc, so anyone can buy it now and enjoy the clean and clear CD layer. But pop it into an SACD player and those advanced-resolution tracks really sing with incredible freedom and presence. Just listen to the interplay of Almeida’s high-plucked notes with Hamilton’s drums as they underpin Brown’s focused bass solo in "Nouveau Bach." I do not care how many channels you have, the sound does not get much better than this. My only complaint: the album is only just over 30 minutes long. Two short albums could have been easily contained on this SACD, which would have satisfied one's appetite to hear more, because that is exactly what you are going to want to do after you hear this one.

Evanescence: Fallen
Wind Up 13063
Format: CD

Musical Performance
Recording Quality
Overall Enjoyment

There are literally hundreds of alternative rock bands out there. As a result of the sheer numbers, many good bands live in relative obscurity. But if they get lucky, a Hollywood producer might just like one of their songs enough to put it in a film. In Evanescence’s case that song was "Bring Me to Life" and the film was the highly publicized Daredevil. Like the bands Type O Negative and older Delerium, Evanescence mixes heavy guitar sounds with ethereal female vocals. What they do isn’t new, but after listening to Fallen repeatedly, I’ve found myself falling for a number of cuts including "Tourniquet," "Bring Me to Life," and "My Immortal." Hollywood-composer Graeme Revell’s ambient-like string arrangements add tension and epic scale that lift each song above the mundane. Production quality for this well-balanced mix is crisp and clean with judicious use of compression that doesn’t kill the energy.

Iris: Awakening
Diffusion Records 00062
Format: CD

Musical Performance
Recording Quality
Overall Enjoyment

The quality of a song has little to do with the type of instruments used by the artists. Whether it is a more traditional instrument like a guitar, or the often-maligned synthesizer, what differentiates good music from bad boils down to composition. Without solid arrangements even a Stradivarius can sound like an out-of-tune cello. Iris may not have the absolute compositional prowess of Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, or Depeche Mode, but they certainly know how to craft catchy, dense, and melodic synth-pop. Awakening is a bit less dancy than the band’s debut effort Disconnected. Still, it has enough infectious hooks and layered vocal harmonies to grab the ear of anyone who loves the genre. I could not get enough of the power ballad "When I’m Not Around" and the beautifully desperate "Vacant." Sound quality is good, though not up to the pristinely produced soundscapes of Massive Attack’s Mezzanine or Erasure’s Loveboat.

Angels of Light: Everything is Good Here/Please Come Home
Young God 22
Format: CD

Musical Performance
Recording Quality
Overall Enjoyment

There is one quality I consider absolutely necessary for a song to work: the presence of melody. A band named Angels of Light gives the impression that melody is pretty much a guarantee. But lead-man Michael Gira has never been a melodic musician. Gira’s previous band, the Swans, composed music I affectionately refer to as "Music for Cuisinart." About the only melodic arrangement in the Swans' repertoire was a beautiful cover of Joy Division’s "Love Will Tear Us Apart." With Angels of Light, Gira takes a couple of chords, and beats the daylights out of them. So while I can appreciate the experimental nature of this effort, it isn’t what I would sit back and relax with, or bang my head against the wall to. By comparison Gira’s previously released Good Mother is a much more enjoyable effort. To its credit Everything is Good Here/Please Come Home is beautifully recorded with open and detailed sound.