narenmusic

By Narendra Kusnur Album: Silver Landings Artiste: Mandy Moore Genre: Pop Label: Verve Forecast Rating: **** At the turn of the century, plenty of expectations were pinned on American teenager Mandy Moore, with the industry placing her on a platform similar to Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson and Christina Aguilera. Her career had a promising start, with ‘Candy’ becoming a chartbuster, and Moore tried her hand in acting too. But somewhere things fizzled out, and an abusive relationship with singer Ryan Adams made matters worse. Just when the world felt she was a forgotten dream, Moore has bounced back. Coming after a decade of oblivion, her album Silver Landings  also proves her maturity as a singer, as the 35-year-old expresses emotions that may be pent-up though not blatantly resentful. The sound has been influenced by Californian pop and soft rock, with some country elements thrown in. At times, one senses a Fleetwood Mac flavour, or more specifically a Stevie Nic...

By Narendra Kusnur Concert: Generations Quartet Artistes: Kirk MacDonald, Virginia MacDonald Genre: Jazz Details: Experimental Theatre, NCPA, March 8 Rating: **** Barring a few instances, one hasn’t seen the clarinet played much too often in a jazz show in Mumbai. While old-timers would have heard records of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Jimmy Giuffre, one clarinettist one remembers watching live in the past two decades is the brilliant Eddie Daniels. More recently, Dallas Smith performed on flute and clarinet, but this blogger missed the gig. Naturally, the combination of tenor saxophone and clarinet was the major attraction at Kirk MacDonald’s Generations Quartet show at NCPA’s Experimental Theatre on Sunday. With Canadian star MacDonald on saxophone and his 25-year-old daughter Virginia on clarinet, the mood was just right for a fabulous evening. With the experienced Neil Swainson on double bass and the effervescent Morgan Childs on drums, the quartet played a mix of...

By Narendra Kusnur Album:  The Slow Rush Artiste: Tame Impala Genre: Psychedelic pop/ electronica Label: Universal Australia Rating: **** Australian multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker, who goes by the name Tame Impala, is known for his abstract blending of genres and innovative creation of layered sounds. While his earlier work angled towards the progressive rock space, he moved on to more electronica-tinged dancehall material with strong doses of psychedelia. The fourth Tame Impala album The Slow Rush  comes five years after his successful Currents , which had drawn him to a wider audience. The path here is similar though the sounds are edgier and the synths sound snazzier. He occasionally uses a falsetto, somewhat reminiscent of the late 1970s and early 1980s funk and disco eras. Though Tame Impala blends pop, rock, funk, electronica, psychedelia and dance music effortlessly, the songs on the album are essentially pop in nature. There’s a recurrent theme i...