Usually, when I’ve had a rotten day, there’s two types of music
\nI gravitate to. The first is full-throttle heavy metal – hey,
\nbetter doing damage to my ears than punching out drywall. The
\nsecond is on the opposite side of the musical spectrum – soft,
\ninstrumental music, usually featuring solo guitar or piano. It
\nallows me to try and find my “happy place” – which, on any given
\nday, is occupied by someone along the lines of Kathy Ireland.<\/p>\n
In the case of
\nBy Heart<\/i>, the sophomore release from new-age pianist Jim
\nBrickman, there’s something fundamentally different about this disc
\nfrom his debut effort
\nNo Words<\/i>. Sure, there’s a little more instrumentation now
\nthan just solo piano, but that’s not what I mean. Sure, there’s the
\nintroduction of vocals on one track, but that’s not what I mean.
\nThere’s even a shift in the style of instrumental work from
\nmourning reflection to light-hearted reminiscing, but even
\nthat’s<\/i> not what I mean.<\/p>\n
No, what I mean is that
\nBy Heart<\/i> is a pretty enough album, but it doesn’t quite grab
\nat the heartstrings like
\nNo Words<\/i> does. Whether this is an intentional shift on
\nBrickman’s part or not, I don’t know… but the album loses a
\nlittle bit of an edge as a result.<\/p>\n
Whereas many of the songs on
\nNo Words<\/i> almost had the feel to them like they were the sad
\nmemories of looking back at a time past,
\nBy Heart<\/i> almost challenges itself to be the polar opposite.
\nFrom the opening notes of “Angel Eyes,” this disc feels like
\nBrickman is trying to hit a different emotional note with the
\nlistener. There’s the slight hints of Beethoven’s “Moonlight
\nSonata” on “In A Lover’s Eyes”. There’s even the daring move of
\ntaking a children’s song and trying to give it relevance in
\nadulthood with “Little Star”.<\/p>\n
And there is absolutely no denying that Brickman’s performances
\nand arrangements are beautiful. But where
\nNo Words<\/i> almost locks you into the musical trip and dares
\nyou to travel with Brickman as he paints pictures with his piano
\nwork,
\nBy Heart<\/i> doesn’t evoke the same response on many levels. It
\nwould be wrong to say that Brickman failed, and it would be wrong
\nto classify this as a bad album. It would be correct, though, to
\nsay that Brickman tries to take the listener on a journey, only
\nneither musician nor outsider quite seems to know where it’s
\ndestination is.<\/p>\n
At first, the introduction of background instrumentation
\nbothered me a little – but it never tries to overtake the power of
\nBrickman’s piano work, and eventually becomes a welcomed part of
\nthe voyage. The title track, the only song featuring vocals, does
\ncatch me off guard – is it me, or does the cover say “piano
\nsolos<\/i>“? – but it serves two purposes in retrospect. First,
\nit alerts the listener that Brickman is willing to go into the
\nbackground to let his musical message be heard. Second, it
\npositions him in the running for one of the genre’s best-known love
\nballadeers. In truth, it’s a pretty song, though not the best
\nvocal-oriented number Brickman’s come up with. (Then again, we’ll
\nget to my favorites later in the week…)<\/p>\n
\nBy Heart<\/i> is still a musical trip worth taking, and is a
\nworthy follow-up disc, if not completely fulfilling. Maybe it’s
\njust that I’ve come to know Brickman’s music to the point that I
\nset the bar of expectations higher than I would a typical disc.
\nThen again, Brickman is an artist who knows he can clear that bar
\nwhenever he pleases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6407],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37173","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jim-brickman","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37173"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37173"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}