Soulchild doubles down on love – Martin packs love, humor in Album

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Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, “The Long-Awaited Album” (Rounder Records).

There’s a lot of excellent music on Steve Martin’s new bluegrass album with the Steep Canyon Rangers, which is good news considering five of the collection’s 14 tracks are instrumentals.

Sometimes, though, to quote Gloria Estefan, words get in the way.

Take “Caroline”, the first single from “The Long-Awaited Album”. It has a cracking, virile refrain calling out for the object of the protagonist’s affection, who has left him “in the middle of a third-floor parking structure”, but the verses are clunky and break down long before the end.

Several degrees closer to comedy, “Strangest Christmas Yet” lengthily describes a family gathering/traumatic experience and, perhaps understandably, reaches a “can’t wait ‘til next year” conclusion despite all the mishaps and embarrassments.

Lyrically sharper are “Girl From River Run”, a sweet and fairly straightforward tale of romance with a happy end, and “On the Water”, about a boat trip and the importance of spending time with friends. “This type of song is rare in bluegrass, as there’s not much sailing in Kentucky”, Martin says.

Opener “Santa Fe” winningly combines bluegrass with Mariachi horns and Martin’s lyrics reach an accomplished balance between humorous and touching.

Of the instrumentals, shining brightest are the oddly-named “Office Supplies” and “So Familiar”, the latter written with Edie Brickell, Martin’s other recent musical partner.

The Steep Canyon Rangers prove their worth throughout on their second studio album with Martin. The band formed in 2000 by students at the University of North Carolina more than hold their own and Woody Platts’ lead vocals carry the best songs.

You could say “The Long-Awaited Album” reflects Martin’s tally of Grammy Awards — three for music and two in the late 1970s for comedy records — and that feels just right.

Musiq Soulchild, “Feel the Real” (eOne Music)

Besides its double-album length, the most ear-catching aspect of Musiq Soulchild’s “Feel the Real” is the chance to hear the Philadelphia-born artist during nearly every moment of his eighth album.

“Feelt the Real” is long, dense and mostly fulfilling, but Musiq’s omnipresence also requires commitment to get through its more than 97 minutes at once.

Doubling down on varied aspects of love and romance, from the popular theme of friends with “Benefits” and the insistent-but-not-in-a-stalking-kind-of-way persistence of “Sooner or Later”, to the Stevie Wonder-sounding “Like the Weather” and its determination to outlast the forecast, to the head-over-heels passionate abandon of the title track, the man born Taalib Johnson has crafted an often truly spectacular set.

As with many, if not most, double albums, quality control seems to slip a bit on the second disc, despite its highlights.

There are alluring sonic details spread along the two discs — a nearly prog-rock guitar at the start of “Test Drive”, big band drums launching “Sooner or Later”, an Isaac Hayes-like soul feel on “Start Over” and a guitar-piano combination that screams Radiohead on “Hard Liquor” — but sometimes they taper off deeper into the songs, dissolving some of their appeal.

Album closer “Simple Things” contains a few elements some of the other songs could have benefited from in larger doses — an instrumental solo and about 20 seconds of stripped-down vocals which charm with their beauty and, duh, simplicity.

Clearly, there’s a lot of music in Musiq Soulchild these days — he also released an album in 2016 — and, despite some excesses, “Feel the Real” reaffirms him as a dependable source of quality R&B, hip-hop, soul or whatever category he’s into or placed in at this moment.

 

Three songs into his four-song set at the iHeartRadio Music Festival’s Daytime Village in Las Vegas on Saturday afternoon (Sept 23), One Direction star Niall Horan took a moment to acknowledge radio listeners with the news that his second single, “Slow Hands”, had reached the top of charts, showing no sign of, er, slowing down. “I’m very proud to be a part of this lineup”, Horan told the crowd. “It’s been an unbelievable summer for me. Thank you guys for listening to the radio and asking for the song. I really appreciate it”.

A diverse lineup of artists took the stage at the Daytime Village, each of whom have radio at least partly to thank for launching their careers. Highlights included red-hot sets by Halsey, Bleachers, Kelsea Ballerini, Migos, Khalid, Bebe Rexha (with a surprise appearance by Louis Tomlinson for their hit, “Back to You”), French Montana (with surprise guest Juicy J), Noah Cyrus, Little Mix, All Time Low, Hey Violet, and Cheat Codes.

Collaboration

Other standout moments included a hot set by Halsey, who kicked off her performance with “Strangers”, her collaboration with Fifth Harmony’s Lauren Jaregui, and continued with her hit, “Now or Never” and her Chainsmokers’ collaboration, “Closer”, with “my part, because it’s better”, she cracked. Halsey later promised the Vegas crowd that she’ll return for an all-ages New Year’s Eve show to make up for a recently cancelled date.

Khalid lit up the stage with a smile and a tight band as the young audience sang every word of his set, including the show closer “Young, Dumb and Broke”. Bleachers also worked the crowd into a sweaty frenzy as singer Jack Antonoff demanded fans get on their friends shoulders so it would, “Feel more like a festival”. The band amped things up with the Springsteen-esque “Rollercoaster” and anthemic “I Want to Get Better”.

Little Mix caused a commotion with an a capella rendition of their song “Wings”. Unfortunately, member Perrie Edwards — or “our little Periwinkle”, as Jade Thrilwall billed her — was “under the weather” and unable to group her groupmates.

The excitement of the day crackled onstage and off. Simon Cowell discovery PrettyMuch introduced Bebe Rexha with a brief song and ABC “Boy Band” winners In Real Life — on hand to welcome All Time Low — all mingled backstage, getting handshakes and guidance from seasoned vets Horan and Tomlinson.

“Bachelor” Nation was thrilled by the appearance of Ben Higgins, Dean Ungert (whose podcast, “Help! I Suck at Dating”, is being promoted by iHeart) and Peter Kraus. Higgins arrived shortly after Cyrus, just missing his moment in the spotlight as she declared her love for the star and dedicated her song, “I’m Stuck”, to him from the stage. The other stars of the festival? Puppies. Every performer stopped in to check out the puppy adoptions in the backstage area —including Cyrus, the Impractical Jokers and Casey Moreta from Hey Violet, who all took home a precious pooch.

Indeed, it was a Cyrus family affair at the show, with sister Noah performing earlier in the day and Brandy delivering a guitar to Miley onstage later, when Cyrus played a potent set of hits that included “Malibu”, “We Can’t Stop”, a cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots are Made for Walking” and an incredible reinventing of the song “Party in the USA” with messages on the screen touting education, equality, opportunity, and even healthcare.

Backstage, Cyrus told syndicated radio host Elvis Duran that she wants to influence fans to “stand up to discrimination”, and made the song “more of a message for people”.

Referencing her infamous Video Music Awards appearance with Robin Thicke in 2014 “when everyone was me for Halloween”, she said she would rather have a positive social impact in these times. “If people are going to talk about me I want them to have something to say”, she added.

The music continued into the night at the T-Mobile Arena with high wattage bows by Kesha, Miley Cyrus (in thigh-high “walking”-ready boots, Kings of Leon, Lorde, Big Sean (the MVP of the night, who flew in from the Global Citizen Festival in New York to keep the party going and “end my night right here in Vegas”), Thomas Rhett, Tomlinson and Horan, and DJ Khaled, who loaded his set with surprise appearances by Chance the Rapper; Travis Scott (recently announced pregnant girlfriend Kylie Jenner supported from backstage), for “Butterfly Effect” and “Goosebumps”; French Montana on “Unforgettable”; and Demi Lovato, who hopped onstage for “Sorry, Not Sorry”.

Other surprise appearances included Macklemore, who joined Kesha onstage at the T-Mobile arena for their brand new collaboration “Good Old Days”. The singer then took an emotional turn with her hit, “Praying”. Fellow Nashville natives Kings of Leon, meanwhile, represented for the rock format, opening their set with “Use Somebody” and killer versions of “Sex on Fire” and “Waste a Moment”.

Self-described “young goth” Lorde, introduced by actor Taylor Lautner, who promptly went straight out into the audience to groove to her set, lamented that she wasn’t old enough to gamble in Sin City, but delivered a grown up and explosive show that had two surprise performers: rising star Khalid on “Homemade Dynamite” and producer Jack Antonoff who sat at the piano to perform “Liability”, a song they wrote together. (Agencies)

By Pablo Gorondi

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