Jang Yi-jeong shines alone on History’s 4th EP

By Won Ho-jung

History
“Beyond the HISTORY”
LOEN Entertainment


Boy band History continues the dark, melodramatic mood of their previous song “Psycho” on their 4th EP, “Beyond the HISTORY,” but the only standout voice is that of member Jang Yi-jeong.
The album opens with loose vocals over a strong bass line in “Mind Game,” a groovy, medium-tempo song. The intensity shoots up with the title track “Might Just Die,” which wastes no time in bringing in the dramatic strings. It’s easy to see why the song is appropriate for a strong stage performance, but it is not an exciting listen on record; the song gets tired in the latter half, with the words “Might just die” being drilled over and over.
The EP then swaps drama for eeriness in “Ghost,” and rhythmic catchiness in the smooth track “Slow Down.”
Then comes the best song on the album -- Jang Yi-jeong’s solo track “1Century,” a fast-moving rap in which Jang shows off both his singing and rapping skills. The lyrics even explicitly say “In History, even the main vocal can kill you with his rap.” The entire EP seems to be an ode to Jang’s personal musical growth, not only with his solo but also with his lyrics and music included in three out of the five tracks.
“Beyond the HISTORY” is respectable, with some notable turns of phrase and stylish arrangements. But rather than showing History’s growth as a group, it lifts only Jang, leaving the other members trailing behind.
(hjwon@heraldcorp.com)


Faith No More screams back to life

Faith No More
“Sol Invictus”
(Reclamation Recordings/Ipecac Recordings)


Eighteen years after releasing their last studio album, Faith No More returns in rude, crude health.
“Sol Invictus” kicks off in menacing fashion with the album‘s eponymous, piano-led track, before exploding into life with single “Superhero” that -- thanks to a repetitive vocal line -- outstays its welcome despite a blistering start.
Thankfully, it’s all uphill from there.
From “Sunny Side Up” -- a pop-rock ode to positivity (complete with tongue-in-cheek lyrics: “Rainbows will bend for me (curvy)/ Honey bees will sting for me (stingy)” -- to the album‘s closing track, “From the Dead,” Faith No More 2.0 doesn’t set a foot wrong over the course of the next 30 minutes.
As ever, the band’s not-so-secret weapon is frontman Mike Patton, whose voice is capable of flipping from touching falsetto to larynx-ripping raw screams within a single line.
In the stunning “Cone of Shame,” Patton begins the track crooning over a spaghetti Western-influenced guitar line before morphing into a Tom Waits-ian, smoke-addled narrator, shape-shifting, finally, into a demonic presence -- multitracking a series of guttural wails as the song reaches its crushing conclusion.
“Sol Invictus” shimmers to a glorious, harmonic close with the lines: “Back from the dead/ I can see the end -- welcome home my friend” -- and it’s good to have them back. (AP)


Jarrett marks 70th birthday with simultaneous releases

Keith Jarrett
“Creation” (ECM) and
“Barber/Bartok/Jarrett” (ECM)


Keith Jarrett is celebrating his 70th birthday this month by simultaneously releasing two albums on the ECM label that show why he is in a league of his own as both a jazz and classical pianist.
“Creation” -- his first new solo recording in four years -- marks a further evolution in Jarrett‘s spontaneously improvised solo piano recordings. He created the genre in the ’70s with such albums as the multiplatinum “The Koln Concert.”
After recovering from chronic fatigue syndrome in the late ’90s, Jarrett changed his solo concert format by linking together a series of shorter improvisations. But on “Creation,” rather than offering a single concert, Jarrett has selected “the most revelatory moments” from six solo concerts in four cities from April-July 2014.
The highlights include “Part IV,” in which Jarrett references Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez,” the inspiration for Miles Davis’ “Sketches of Spain,” and the poignantly romantic “Part V,” which occasionally hints at Antonio Carlos Jobim’s bossa nova “Waters of March.”
On the classical side, Jarrett’s other birthday release, “Barber/Bartok/Jarrett,” offers previously unreleased recordings of 1984-85 concerts in Germany and Japan in which he interprets two technically challenging 20th-century works -- Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto Op. 38 and Bela Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 3.
What links these two releases is Jarrett’s virtuosity, rhythmic command and melodic sensitivity that serve him well as both an interpreter of notated music and a spontaneous improviser. (AP)