A song on Alicia Keys’ new album, Alicia, strikes me as a tonic for this dismal year.
“Authors of Forever”, with light, propulsive and percussive rhythm and her assertive, optimistic vocals, expresses a relaxed yet steadfast sense of unity.
The tune is upbeat. Lyrics, rhyming shadow with rainbow, speak of harmony.
We are born on our own
And we die on our own
And we’re here to make meaning
Of what happens in between
We could hate, we could love
We could doubt, we could trust
But we’re here to make meaning
For as long as we’re breathing
The song’s theme, honoring the individual creator, is in the title, really. It’s featherweight pop music to lift one’s mood, one of several songs on a new album which I’m thoroughly enjoying.
Pink’s Grammy-nominated 2017 single from her album Beautiful Trauma, “What About Us”, captures both the highly charged disunity of our times and a call for empathy and unity in a poignant and simple rhythmic melody. The dance anthem starts with a nursery tune-like la la la, which gives the song a childlike introduction.
Then, comes a faintly audible yet distinctive Gregorian or African background chant, which alternately strikes me as a chorus of hardy sailors singing as they set out for sea. You can barely hear it, but this intermittent background provides an ethereal or ghostly dimension to the tune, which then bursts into a vocal by Pink demanding to know the title’s status. Lyrics are explicitly pro-human while the authority being scrutinized might as well be God or some supernatural notion or government or religious institutional authority. When a rousing bridge abruptly comes in, the main theme shifts its multiple challenges — “what about love?” “What about trust?” “enough is enough” — from God to ourselves. It’s effective.
Written by Pink (Alecia B. Moore), John McDaid and Steve Mac, “What About Us” will to some sound too tidy. Its beats per minute, range and chord progression are all well calculated for dance floors without compromising musicality, however, and Pink’s vocals of the intelligent lyrics are clear, pointed and insistent. There’s a sense that some value’s at stake — the shared purpose of a community, team or partnership; some sort of social relationship — and the song’s last three words end with an emphasis which puts the phrase with its many meanings to the listener to think about.
The compelling music video depicts Pink and an array of young urban types connecting, conflicting and agonizing during strife in slow motion, modern or pantomime movement in downtown Los Angeles.
From their album with a long-winded title, Shiny and Oh So Bright Vol. 1/LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. with eight songs comes a compactly urgent tune in power pop from the Smashing Pumpkins, “Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)”.
The poetic song by songwriter, singer and band founder William Patrick Corgan, Jr., known as Billy Corgan, captures the same sense of a moment in time as the band’s “1979”. I like “Ghosts” better, however, for getting at the here and now. With a soft skip within a propulsive rhythm against Corgan’s distinctively nasal vocals, the reflective tune revolves around the question: “How long can this go on?”
Buy the Album
That’s a legitimate question. Examining this theme of finiteness, Corgan’s “Ghosts” coasts with assurance in accounting for the cost of dodging contradictions. It glides without sneering.
“Ghosts” can be emotional, combining Smashing Pumpkins’ signature distortional guitar, invoked this time as part of a blaring call and response, with biting and thoughtful metaphors of tyrants, convicts, kingdoms, sirens and valentines. “Ghosts” ties into a kind of cry against the irrational — the halfway, the purgatory, the mixed — which speaks to these times. Corgan observes as if to himself that it’s mixed “signals that hurts me most … we’re in the middle / we’re in the middle, ghosts”. Like a middle-aged man, he notes that, when “someone dies tonight / it’s tragic / but at least it’s not you”.
To me, “Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)” amounts to an explicit recognition of the ghoulish consequences of today’s prevalent evasion. In other words, it’s two minutes of pop rock which is perfect for right now.
Conductor Arturo Toscanini’s BBC records for EMI were collected some years ago as a six-CD recording set which I bought to become better acquainted with the art form and its highly touted orchestral master. My goal was to immerse myself in properly performed, quality classical music. Knowing that Toscanini, whose reputation is legendary, was noted for seeking to create the objective musical performance of a composer’s work, I thought this product would be a good starting point.
While I’m clearly not an expert on classical music, I think I made the right choice. The series leaves this pop, dance and rock fan enchanted and wanting more.
I had known that Toscanini (1867-1957) is best known for authoritative accounts of standard pieces of music in opera and orchestral music, though most seem to know his NBC recordings for the broadcasting network’s symphony orchestra, which NBC created for him in 1937. Toscanini also recorded music with the BBC Symphony, New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Most of his BBC records are available on Arturo Toscanini: The HMV Recordings, a single boxed set which is part of EMI’s Icons series. The collection features compositions by Beethoven, Debussy and Brahms, as well as Toscanini’s conduction of music by Wagner, Mendelssohn and Mozart, among others.
Buy the Music
The energetic performances are detailed and enunciated. How familiar classical music pieces are uniquely framed and delivered is striking both in terms of quality and distinctiveness. Many of these records are almost 90 years old.
Brahms is a favorite. I have enjoyed listening to various recordings of his music for years. However, under Toscanini’s direction, his symphonies and overtures are faster, more urgent and, sometimes, more powerful. The conductor’s passion is evident in these live concert recordings. Works by Beethoven, Mozart and other masters are irresistible here, too. Even if a prelude or piece of music is not to my personal preference, the performance under Arturo Toscanini, who died at the age of 89 after retiring in the 1950s, is always compelling. The Italian immigrant, who refused to sanction authoritarianism, conducts composer Richard Wagner’s overture from Faust with vigor.
These recordings are old, so don’t expect perfection (or liner notes; the box contains only six discs and six sleeves). Expect imperfection in the audio quality. But I was surprised at how well preserved they are given the context and my adaptation to today’s superior technology. I am thoroughly enjoying discovering the joys of Arturo Toscanini. I feel like I’m just getting started and newly motivated to listen to classical music with deeper appreciation from a master’s perspective. In short, Toscanini leaves me greedy for more of his remarkably studied, practiced and expertly performed work.
Sam Smith’s plain, new album is a pop gospel reflection, as soulful as (and more seasoned than) his haunting In the Lonely Hour. “Too Good at Goodbyes” is short and breezy. “Say it First” sets Smith’s gentle, lilting falsetto to the electronic melody and heartbeat rhythm for another good love song. “One Last Song” is an old-fashioned, Motown-style pleaser, “Midnight Train” is searching and “Burning” provides a piano-inflected introspection.
Songs go together in sequence. They draw the listener into The Thrill of It All. Then, comes “HIM”.
This tune is, simply put, a masterpiece, though it might take a few listens to shake off the hype if you’re like I am and need mental clarity to immerse yourself in a song. “HIM”, fittingly in all caps, builds and builds into a chorus as Smith’s vocals dovetail into hand-clapping dare to God. “HIM” ends as a solemn declaration of love as, yes, a hymn. It’s inspired, inspiring music which captures the glory of achieving certainty in rejecting religion.
Buy the CD
“Baby, You Make Me Crazy” is an uptempo toe-tapper and “No Peace” features a recording artist named Yebba on another memorable, piano-looping tune. “Palace” is the type of song you might listen to over and over as you sit by the fire in solitude at Christmastime after everyone’s been cleared out, contemplating promises to yourself for the new year. Lyrics for all these songs, generally at least co-written by Smith, are thoughtful and passionate but also considered and, as before, accessible. The Thrill of It All is in this sense a breakthrough album about the Herculean effort to pull yourself through life’s heartbreak, occasionally with bottles and cigarettes, but foremost with introspection, thought and kindness for one’s honest, gravest mistakes. Sam Smith sings again with sincerity and conviction, this time in reconciliation of whatever debt he might expect himself to pay.
As with the redemptive In the Lonely Hour, the tenth of the ten songs on the regular album, “Pray”, is an affirmation of one who wants to believe in the world.
An additional four songs on the special edition include “Nothing Left for You”, “Scars”, “One Day at a Time” and the album’s title, “The Thrill of It All”. This title track neatly wraps around these 14 songs with a sweeping, which is not to say melodramatic, self-assessment which at once takes stock of life as it is and anticipates working around whatever trouble lies ahead to reach out for the good. For example, “Scars” is a lovely, really touching and soulful tribute to one’s divorced parents. If it is laced with melancholy, and it is (isn’t breaking up?), it is also coated with guitar-laden dreaminess. Words and music suggest an acquired knowledge, confidence and acceptance of the searing pain that comes from the irreconcilability of romantic separation. “One Day at a Time” is an optimistic ode which echoes Smith’s brilliant first album, In the Lonely Hour.
The Thrill of It All is a strong and satiating driving album, especially when you have a reason to believe that what’s around the bend may be bad road conditions…and every reason to believe that, as long as you’re in charge, “it’s never too late” to get past life’s obstacles.
I write fiction and non-fiction. Read my blog at left for informal posts on news, ideas and the culture. I am available for contracting, so if you're interested, please start here.
I welcome feedback. To let me know your thoughts, please feel free to contact me.
“Authors of Forever”, with light, propulsive and percussive rhythm and her assertive, optimistic vocals, expresses a relaxed yet steadfast sense of unity. 
Then, comes a faintly audible yet distinctive Gregorian or African background chant, which alternately strikes me as a chorus of hardy sailors singing as they set out for sea. You can barely hear it, but this intermittent background provides an ethereal or ghostly dimension to the tune, which then bursts into a vocal by Pink demanding to know the title’s status. Lyrics are explicitly pro-human while the authority being scrutinized might as well be God or some supernatural notion or government or religious institutional authority. When a rousing bridge abruptly comes in, the main theme shifts its multiple challenges — “what about love?” “What about trust?” “enough is enough” — from God to ourselves. It’s effective.
