Music Reviews: Dec. 18, 2017: G-Eazy, Lenka Lichtenberg and Justin Gray and Synthesis

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The Beautiful and Damned

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Music Reviews: Dec. 18, 2017: G-Eazy, Lenka Lichtenberg and Justin Gray and Synthesis Back to video

G-Eazy |Sony Music

The third studio outing from this Oakland rapper starts strong. The title track featuring Zoe Nash doing her best Macy Gray has single written all over it. The hook rides in on raspy vocals and warped strings while the MC drops a litany of verses about the duality of fame and being a Gemini (angel/devil, get it?). Then Pray For Me says almost exactly the same thing with less impact. Halsey drops by for Him & I, and it sounds familiar too. This guy really likes to talk about himself, which isn’t a new thing, it’s just he isn’t that interesting. However, some other highlights like Legend, with its warped groove, and That’s A Lot, with its fluid chorus loop, certainly lock in your head. Overall, it’s easy to see why G-Eazy keeps the guest list busy. He sounds better working with others.

Masaryk

Lenka Lichtenberg | ARC Music

Canadian singer, composer and songwriter Lichtenberg devotes her 15th album to the songbook of Czech musician, broadcaster and diplomat Jan Masaryk (1886-1948) and his 1942 RCA recording sessions with singer Jarmila Novotná. The songs featured were favourites of Lichtenberg’s late grandmother and she puts passion behind her renditions of all the material selected from the Czech, Slovak and Moravian traditions. The subtitle for the album is a Czech translation for “songs of the nation” and there is no question that tracks such as Ach, synku, synku (Oh my son, my son) was a favourite of the first Czechoslovakian president as well as the greater population. Of course, the Toronto singer has explored many different styles of music in her career and, along with noted Czech composer Tomás Reindl, the two employ everything from brass sections and cellos to tabla drums and bagpipes. It all works on this lovely album which should appeal across a wide listener base even without knowing the language.

New Horizons

Justin Gray and Synthesis | Synthesis Productions

Toronto bassist/composer Gray plays the heck out of his custom designed bass veena — a mix of multi-stringed fretless bass with Indian/Persian classical musical lute — on this recording with his tight fusion crew Synthesis. A dozen other players join him for this outing which showcases a host of musical styles paired together for great effect in driving, cinematic compositions. For the most part, these are kept fairly short, although you can easily imagine how any track could be turned into a lengthy jam at a moment’s notice in concert. This is very electrified and contemporary and may remind some of the spiritually derived nice music of such Indo-Western fusion artists as Jai Uttal more than a heavyweight crew like Shakti. This is in no way taking away from the considerable chops of all involved and the end result. This is the kind of group you could easily imagine winning over audiences with ease from the stage.

sderdeyn@postmedia.com

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