The Napster Blog

Billie Holiday, The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters

What a truly excellent compilation! The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters covers Billie Holiday's recordings from the late 1930s to the late 1940s and includes some of her biggest hits and best-known songs. "Strange Fruit" is here, as are "Fine and Mellow," "Billie's Blues," "What Is This Thing Called Love," "God Bless the Child," and so many other incredible cuts.

Prior to recording for Commodore Records, Holiday was a Columbia artist. Columbia's unease over "Strange Fruit" led Holiday to jump to Commodore (and then to Decca, through Commodore owner Milt Gabler's connection with that label). Holiday's last years were spent recording for Verve; thus The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters represents her mid-period recordings.

The magnitude of Holiday's artistry and her contribution to music (and culture in general) is difficult to quantify. She changed everything. Her voice was unlike any that had come before her and cut the template for generations of jazz, blues, pop, and rock singers to come. The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters contains some of the best music ever recorded and is, plain and simple, essential listening.

Michael Bublé, Crazy Love

It's safe to say that Michael Bublé's large-scale fanbase loves his new album, given that it just spent a couple of weeks sitting atop the U.S. album charts and has sold several hundred-thousand copies since its release Oct. 9. It wasn't a given, however, that the critics would react as favorably as they have to an album that represents a creative stepping-out of sorts for its maker. Bublé has admitted to being "terrified" of recording his previous album ("...because I knew that it had to be better than the first two," he said, "that it had to show growth without alienating anyone, and that’s a tough line"), and while we don't know about his state of mind this time out, what we can say is that he sounds utterly confident, as if he has grown into his outsized musical personality and is now, perhaps, a bit more comfortable exploring a wider range of material. And that may be why Bublé is receiving extra props for Crazy Love: He has taken his early neo-crooner persona and bent it to his maturing will, resulting in greater depth and continuity across both standards and latter-day pop. We got a taste of this on the Bob Rock-produced (!) single "Haven't Met You Yet," and the rest of the album bears it out from the get-go: Three standards (including the great Basie-style swing of "All of Me") bridged toward the future by a take on the Van Morrison classic "Crazy Love." There are multiple high points—Billy Vera's "At This Moment" is an unexpected pleasure, for example—but two of the highest are even more disarming: a hard-shuffle big-band romp through The Eagles' "Heartache Tonight" that arguably out-rocks the original, and a duet with singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith on the latter's "Whatever It Takes" recast as a bossa nova. Bublé owns them both, and it would seem from this point on, his musical destiny as well.

Carpenters, 40/40

Nearly 40 years ago now, The Carpenters (okay, okay, just "Carpenters," no "the") rose to become the biggest recording stars of the 1970s. And just over 40 years ago, on April 22, 1969, they first signed with Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss's A&M Records—an association that put both parties on the map. And earlier this year, on April 22 2009, a new compilation of Carpenters music, 40/40 The Best Selection, was released on CD in Japan to celebrate that anniversary. It promptly rose to #3 on the Japanese charts, and was #1 within a month. (Richard Carpenter discussed this event and reminisced about his and sister Karen's career in a May interview with writer Mike Ragogna.) Now, 40/40 has been released online in the U.S. for a wider audience to enjoy. It's a glorious collection, including their first single, a very mellow cover of The Beatles' "Ticket to Ride" (released in October 1969), as well as their second, 1970's "Close to You," after which all bets were off. There are, as you might guess, 40 tracks in all, about half of them their biggest hits, and each flows by effortlessly, bringing an instant smile to those who remember them coming out of the AM car-radio speakers, and no doubt a sense of wonder to those who weren't so fortunate; Karen Carpenter's voice has always been a magical thing, and all the intervening years have done nothing to dampen its power to charm.

Andy Williams, Moon River: The Very Best of Andy Williams

When it comes to traditional pop vocals, or the kind of music that probably couldn't exist without the influence of traditional pop, it's all about Michael Bublé, whose excellent new album Crazy Love has just enjoyed a second week at #1 on the album charts. But we're fortunate, in this digital-music universe of ours, to have an environment where the old can be new again and remind us what that tradition is all about. Such is the case with Moon River: The Very Best of Andy Williams, which Sony's always-elegant Legacy imprint has just released. Andy Williams was (and remains) a consummate crooner and showman, perhaps not as wildly popular as Sinatra and his Rat Pack, but he did host his own variety show on TV for years and enjoyed a level of stardom few would sneeze at. And here's the proof: "Moon River" (Williams' theme song), "Love Story," "Born Free," "Days of Wine and Roses," "Can't Take My Eyes off You"—they're all here, all still sounding like the major hits they were. There's even a version of the theme to The Godfather, with lyrics that are not to be missed. Young Mr. Bublé is making creative strides these days taking him beyond the "neo-crooner" pigeonhole, but he's also done his homework, and Andy Williams' legacy of beautiful music and understated style has no doubt been part of the curriculum.

Bebel Gilberto, All in One

Bebel Gilberto, daughter of bossa nova icon João Gilberto, is considered musical royalty in her native Brazil. But her fame and appeal extend far beyond those borders, as the alluring stylist has won fans of varying musical tastes all over the world with her multifaceted approach to music. Bebel has been successful at both faithfully covering bossa nova classics and creating new music that borrows from earlier traditions while at the same time expanding on them.

Gilberto brings this approach to her latest album, All in One, which features an older composition by her father ("Bim Bom"), a track produced by Mark Ronson ("The Real Thing"), and several originals ("Ela", "Port Antonio"). The album features a smooth, breezy flow, with enough energy to keep it from getting too mellow and lulluing the listener to sleep. If her new label, Verve, follows the example of her previous label, Six Degrees, then it shouldn't be long before hot-shot producers try their hands at remixing tracks from All in One, as they did with many songs on her previous albums (resulting in the remix-only albums Tanto Tempo Remixes and Bebel Gilberto Remixed.)

Norah Jones, “Chasing Pirates”

Welcome to a new Norah Jones. You can tell it's going to be different from the image at left: The somewhat less-than-understated scenario, with dogs and big dress, even the shorter hair. Jones has indicated that she wanted to do something different, and here it is. More drums, with a bigger backbeat. A rock-inspired groove. There's even a touch of distortion (gasp!) on her electric piano solo. But now that we've covered what's different, here's what's the same: Jones' beautifully soothing voice, which comes through even on this raucous (for her) track. This new outing is convincing evidence that it truly is her singing that has been responsible for all those platinum sales awards—her voice is almost ethereal in its ability to put one in a relaxed and happy frame of mind. Still not quite sure what she's talking about in the lyrics, but this is an interesting and (dare we say) good move for an artist who may have been feeling a little pigeonholed after several albums of hushed jazz- and country-inflected mood pop. We're looking forward to hearing the rest of The Fall, which comes out Nov. 17.

Easy Stevie, Vol. 2: Napster Playlist

As we said before when we introduced our first "Easy Stevie" playlist, Stevie Wonder sure has written a lot of good songs. And when you narrow it down to just the mellow ones, there's still just a huge amount of material to choose from. Thus we humbly present a second installment, "Easy Stevie, Vol. 2." Leading off with "Isn't She Lovely" and "As" from the legendary Songs in the Key of Life and onward from there, the songs invite quiet reflection and relaxation, and because they're Stevie Wonder songs, a sense of love and humanity. What could be wrong with that?

Vera Lynn Remembers, and So Does England

The height of her fame having passed well over 60 years ago, we could easily be excused for not recalling or even having heard of singer Vera Lynn. But her role as a focal point of hope and a general morale-booster has not been forgotten in her native England, where she cheered soldiers and citizens experiencing the throes of World War II with songs including "We'll Meet Again." That might be expected, given the horrors of the war and how much those who went through them seem to still recall about the small things that got them through. But what's unexpected is how mad the general population still is for her: As Time reported recently, at 92 she has once more topped the UK charts, this time with the English release of We'll Meet Again—The Very Best of Vera Lynn. While we don't have that particular album in the States, there's still plenty of Vera Lynn to go around: Vera Lynn Remembers—The Songs That Won World War 2 is a fine compilation well worth digging into, whether to remember or to discover her for the very first time.

Barbra Streisand, Love Is the Answer

We recently noted the imminent arrival of this beautiful new album of standards by the one and only Barbra Streisand, with her tantalizingly nuanced interpretation of "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" as our point of departure. Well, here it is—one of the first true superstar releases of the upcoming holiday season, and as we've already said, it's a gorgeous affair, impeccably produced by Diana Krall and Tommy LiPuma and showcasing Streisand at her subtle best. And here's a little twist that makes it even better: There are two versions of the album available on Napster: The standard 13-track edition (including bonus track "You Must Believe in Spring") and the deluxe edition, which includes the whole original album, including Johnny Mandel's fine orchestra arrangements, and a second, pared-down version with just Streisand and quartet. Both are truly wonderful, but listeners are likely to be wowed by how extraordinarily intimate the quartet versions sound. It's striking. ("Turn up the quiet," Columbia A&R man Jay Landers writes, not hyperbolically, in his album notes.) And that intimacy, it turns out, appears not to have been the product of recording precision alone, as both Krall and Streisand reveal a bit about their creative bond in their own notes: "Finally, during those brief interludes in which technical mysteries must be solved," Krall writes, "we play a few hands of gin rummy on a small table in the control room, just two women, sharing a joke and waiting to go back to work." Writes Streisand, "Diana is a wonderful recording artist...I appreciate that she took the time from her own touring schedule to work with me on this album. She's also a pretty good card player!" Lucky for us they both played their cards so right.

Fink, Sort of Revolution

Fink was originally signed to London-based Ninja Tune as a producer specializing in downtempo electronic music, but after releasing Fresh Produce in 2000, he shifted his approach to songwriting and stripped back the beats in favor of an acoustic guitar. Sort of Revolution is his third full-length album in this vein, which will appeal to fans of Jose Gonzalez, Iron & Wine, Tim Hardin, and Nick Drake. Defined by a subtle mix of soul, blues and folk influences, the album never rises above a quiet, understated intensity, even when augmented by the star power of John Legend on "Move on Me." It's a compelling combination though, proving that restrained playing and economical arrangements can convey emotional depth as well as, and sometimes maybe even better than, bombast and histrionics.