Album reviews: Tyler Ballgame | Labrinth | Beverly Glenn-Copeland
Tyler Ballgame’s ballpark is classic 70s songwriting, and his debut album makes for perfect comfort listening, writes Fiona Shepherd
Tyler Ballgame: For The First Time, Again (Rough Trade Records) ★★★★
Labrinth: Cosmic Opera Act 1 (Columbia Records) ★★★
Beverly Glenn-Copeland: Laughter In Summer (Transgressive Records) ★★★★
As the title of his debut album suggests, hearing Tyler Ballgame for the first time is like getting a whole new outfit in a familiar style - novel yet perfect comfort listening for the new year. After years of studying, performing and grafting, this New England native has hit on just the right fit for his remarkable voice over the past year or so. A graduate of the prestigious Berklee College of Music, the man born Tyler Perry moved to California, soaked in that sunshine and immediately made an impact on the grassroots scene in Los Angeles. Now he arrives as a fully formed character, crooning soulful Americana.
He kicks off For the First Time, Again with the instant appeal of the title track, showcasing the soft husky soul quality of his vocals, then adding just a touch of rasp as he hits the falsetto chorus. Ballgame has a background in musical theatre and there is a flourish to his delivery, the odd growl or distended note, just enough to mark him out but not so much as to overshadow the blissful songs.
The whole record is suffused with analogue warmth, from the joyous burnished guitar surges of power pop number I Believe in Love to the gentle southern soul brass and backing vocals of Waiting So Long. Ballgame’s ballpark is classic, balmy 70s songwriting - more an evening stroll along the promenade than a euphoric beach party.
The desolate soul ache of You’re Not My Baby Tonight showcases his sweet spot but he also relishes the rollicking roots rock of Matter of Taste, applying a twist of melodrama to his performance before going full Roy Orbison on torch waltz Sing How I Feel and the luscious ballad Goodbye My Love.
Singer, songwriter, rapper and producer Labrinth is no stranger to sonic drama - consider the R&B shake of his 2012 hit single Earthquake. Now he goes for broke with Cosmic Opera Act 1 - half an hour of maximalist symphonic bass music with the promise of Act 2 to come.
His libretto, as it were, concerns the heartaches and abuses of the music industry but the music is so overwhelming that the message is subsumed by dramatic choral flourishes or muscular bassy brass.
The curt opera chorus backing on Debris only shifts when the beats come in. There is a classical precision to the lead vocal but this is ultimately a breathy, disconsolate R&B lamentation contrasting the “party over here and nothing over there”. It’s an impressive, if odd mash-up with strident strings and curt horns, like a show-and-tell in composer’s class.
Labrinth enhances the drama of the juddering bass drops in Implosion with deep martial brass tones, then breaks the tension in the last minute to go out on a lighter synth reverie. Elsewhere he ranges from the cleansing gospel a cappella of God Spoke to the Moog moods of Running a Red. Ironically, Orchestra is the least adulterated hip-hop track here, with swirling strings in the background until the valkyrie chorus gallops in over the horizon. Let’s hope there are some ideas left in reserve for Act 2.
Laughter In Summer is a far gentler chamber piece from singer/pianist/composer Beverly Glenn-Copeland in collaboration with his wife Elizabeth. Recorded in single takes, using simple piano arrangements, it’s the musical equivalent of a classic weepie movie - satisfying, cathartic and moving, particularly when Glenn-Copeland’s dementia is factored in. The couple reminisce on the title track, Elizabeth naming the memories, while Beverly evokes the contentment with a wordless vocal. Elsewhere, there are children’s hymns, a cappella folk laments with holistic humming, a devotional cover of the American folk standard Shenandoah and Glenn-Copeland’s own contribution to the classic canon, Prince Caspian’s Dream.
READ MORE: Jay Capperauld on Bruckner's Skull: 'this is my musical exploration of the composer's life'
CLASSICAL
Havergal Brian: Symphony No 1 ‘The Gothic’ (Heritage) ★★★★
Performances, let alone recordings, of Havergal Brian’s 1920s Symphony No 1 'The Gothic’ are scarce. Hardly surprising when such a colossally indulgent symphonic behemoth extends to almost two hours, using forces that - in this 1980 BBC live recording from the Royal Albert Hall - amount to multiple combined choirs (over 500 singers) and the vast London Symphony Orchestra. There’s a gauche, otherworldly flavour to this work that is simultaneously compelling and alienating, a euphoric ambivalence that conductor Ole Schmidt plays to full advantage. He marks well the rhapsodic flavouring of the opening instrumental movements, while negotiating convincingly Brian’s liberal stylistic exuberance. The later choral movements take time to gather heat, the Te Deum not always exuding the same forceful persuasion as the ensuing Judex crederis or wonderfully weird, riotously triumphant, but ultimately becalmed Te ergo quaesumus. Of the four vocal soloists, Jane Manning’s floating soprano is an ethereal tour de force. Ken Walton
JAZZ
Tom Ollendorff: Where In The World (Fresh Sound Records) ★★★★
Guitarist Tom Ollendorff’s third album sees him team up for the first time with Blue Note pianist Aaron Parks in what emerges as an inspired, equable partnership of lyrical players, well matched by bassist Conor Chaplin and drummer James Maddren and evident right from Past Lives, the elegantly paced opener of these nine Ollendorff compositions. There’s a catchy hook to Three Bridges before things open out with eloquently creative guitar and piano interludes, and dramatically shifting tempi in Meaningless Mirror, with its stealthy, stuttering riff on damped strings before Ollendorff cuts loose over flickering cymbals while Parks eases the pace, if just momentarily. In the gently dreaming title track, ringing guitar tone sounds alongside glistering piano and mellow bass; similarly the ruminative West Lake seems to paint pictures, guitar weaving traceries over gently lapping piano before the tune cruises to its satisfying resolution. Jim Gilchrist
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