Brad Mehldau's Album About "Visionary Depressives" Offers Inspiration and Solace
Plays the music of Elliott Smith
One needn't be an Elliott Smith fan or even know who he was to appreciate Brad Mehldau's rich musical examination of emotional light and darkness using the late singer/songwriter's creativity as a guide to understanding "visionary depressives" generally, and specifically Smith and his often sad and dark, but simultaneously uplifting music.
Smith fans are legion, intense, and like Nick Drake, another "visionary depressive", even in death, reaches across the generational divide to touch souls attracted to what Mehldau writes in his annotation is Smith's "...siren call because we hear love and darkness combining in it."
Mehldau acknowledges the Nick Drake pull, whose presence he writes, "...hovers over this record" in some of its orchestrated arrangements generally and specifically in a cover of Drake's dreamy instrumental "Sunday" from his second album Bryter Layter, released in 1971, that the pianist segues into Smith's "Color Bars" (named here "Colorbars") the defiant song from Figure 8, a line from which is this album's title. It's one of the few songs with a vocal, sung by mandolinist Chris Thile who plays as well, with a small combo of bass, drums, guitar and of course piano.
Mehldau in the notes goes beyond the emotional connections and delves into the musical ones. as he tries to explain his own attraction to Smith's music and Drake's as well, which he says he discovered in the 1990s when he lived in Los Angeles. Along with a dozen or so Smith tunes there's a lovely cover of Big Star's "Thirteen" (Alex Chilton and Chris Bell), a sweet melancholic song about adolescence that fits neatly within the musical and thematic program as well as a trio of Mehldau originals that draw from Smith songs.
A double LP act of love. Mehldau composed and performed "Sky Turning Gray (for Elliott Smith)" on his 2010 album Highway Rider. In the notes he writes he'd seen Smith perform live at club Largo, the title of another Mehldau album, so the connections run deep.
Late night musical and sonic pleasures await listeners, Smith fans and otherwise. The recorded sound is as true and sweet as the sentiments expressed. That will be apparent on the opener "Better Be Quiet Now", which is full of sonic twists, turns and dynamic orchestral surprises.
One funny note: the one sheet includes a photo that shows The Bunker's 24 track R2R recorder heaped tall with what looks like a pile of cables. Not a commentary I'm sure on either tape recording or cables, but this digital recording makes one and it says "digital in now an excellent storage medium". No one reading this will hear anything other than a superb sounding recording Chris Muth did a superb job cutting to lacquer.
