MAMA ROSA BY BRIAN BLADE

Mama Rosa by Brian Blade

What kind of "drum album" would you expect to get from a drummer who has made a career out of playing drums for everyone from Bob Dylan, Joshua Redman, Joni Mitchell and Iron & Wine? The answer is not a drum album at all! In fact, if there's one thing that drummer Brian Blade's percussion resume tells you, it's why such songwriters chose to work with him.  It's because, like them, he's a songwriter with a gift for writing and singing rich, incandescent songs.  And on 2009's Mama Rosa, Brian Blade—who plays guitar, bass and piano—performs his own original music with a moving delicacy. 

I'm not holding Brian Blade to a different standard because his "melodicism" belies his "rhythm-only" past.  Mama Rosasimply drifts on one beautiful, ethereal song after the next.  It's essentially folk/singer/songwriter music.  But there is a jazz-element worth mentioning and that is Blade's brilliant jazz chord progressions, which are strange and unpredictable.   Never once do his compositions feel remotely derivative.  In this way, his music is most analagous to Joni Mitchell and Daniel Lanois—the latter plays guitar and multiple other instruments throughout the record.  

I'd be lying if I suggested that Brian Blade is a hitmaker.  His music sort of exists in a land of lazy rivers and empty beaches.  It doesn't make you want to sing—it makes you want to close your eyes.

No, there's no "Help Me" "California" or "Free Man In Paris" on Mama Rosa.  And there are a couple throwaway tracks, which tarnish Rosa's overall effectiveness.  The dull and ordinary six minute ballad "All That Was Yesterday" is about three minutes too long.  The same goes with "Her Song," which is also quite unmemorable.  But Blade takes many risks, as evidenced by the two slow, ambient tracks which close his album.  These instrumentals fit perfectly and may be evidence that Mama Rosa was a fully-realized project.  

Mama Rosa may be too mellow and esoteric for some, but many will find Brian Blade's sensitivity and musicality to be very beautiful.  I definitely do.

Mama Rosa by Brian Blade

FIDLAR

Fidlar

Thanks to a recommendation from my old roommate Louis, I checked out Fidlar.  If punk is your poison, then this will be essential listening.  It is, without a doubt, the best punk music I've heard in years.  This self-titled debut from this Los Angeles quartet is absolutely filled with short, extremely listenable gems.  The sound is raw like a scraping nail filer, but these So-Calers are very musical.  That musicality distniguishes them from their punk peers who may know how to rock but have no idea how to write a song.  Fidlar knows how to write and such consistentcy makes this album an absolutely joy to listen to from start to finish. Highlights include "White On White," "Max Can't Surf," "Paycheck" and "Cocaine"—Fidlar's epic, druggy magnum opus which closes out their album (but not before concluding with a Replacements-like coda). 

Fidlar

SONGS FROM ANOTHER LOVE BY TOM ODELL

Songs From Another Love by Tom Odell

Forget the Jeff Buckley comparisons.  Tom Odell is no Jeff Buckley and any music critic who insists on leading readers to that conclusion ought to have their head examined for severe cases of overeagerness and sensationalism.  There isabsolutely a vocal resemblance, but Buckley's range and expressiveness was otherworldly and Odell's is great—one full step below amazing.  He's somewhere in the class of Marcus Mumford, Taylor Goldsmith, Chris Martin and James Blunt.  But, there I go making comparisons.  In the end, 22 year-old Tom Odell is Tom Odell and he's doing a more than fine job at being him.  

Songs From Another Love proves that this singer/songwriter from Chichester, England is already a fully developed talent.  His songwriting arsenal is diverse and sophisticated.  "Hold Me" and "Can't Pretend" aren't quite hits, but they are impressive singles.  On the other hand, "Sense" is a genuine songwriter's songwriter track—performed with brilliant and appropriate sensitivity, I might add.  

Tom Odell still needs to develop that extra little something to be a force on the charts.  But if he writes a seriously kick-ass hook, he may be unstoppable.   If he doesn't, he'll have a career playing small to medium-sized rock clubs.  There is a lot of promise here, so let's see if delivers the goods later on.  

Tom Odell is currently on tour in support of his full-length debut Long Way Down.  Unfortunately, it is not on Spotify as of yet. 

Songs From Another Love by Tom Odell