The Bad Plus is a fearsome contemporary jazz trio often noted for its covers of rock and pop artists like Nirvana and Blondie, though my initial exposure to the group was an original track from Prog<\/i>, \u201cGiant.\u201d Maybe the song is too long and doesn\u2019t evoke anything, but it was enough for me to notice and eventually buy this record. <\/p>\n
At their best, bassist Reid Anderson, pianist Ethan Iverson, and drummer David King can twist your feelings with a barrage of notes after playing the quiet game. That what\u2019s they do on their cover of \u201cEverybody Wants To Rule The World,\u201d the opening track of Prog<\/i>. I\u2019ve always liked that song, but Tears For Fears more or less cemented a melody in my brain, whereas The Bad Plus bring pathos along with that. There is an insightful vulnerability to King\u2019s frantic drum line and Iverson\u2019s insistent piano riff before the conclusion. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPhysical Cities,\u201d the second track, has a promising start, but there\u2019s too much banging. It\u2019s almost as if King really wants you to know that he likes John Bonham. The band pounds and pounds, hoping they\u2019ll get to you. Maybe they will, but the damn song is like getting plugged on the ears while boxing. <\/p>\n
Speaking of pounding, King is a fine drummer, but his playing is too loud on this album. The production isn\u2019t quite as annoying as Lars Ulrich\u2019s playing on \u201cNothing Else Matters,\u201d but I pictured myself as King\u2019s father \u2013 very unhealthy, I know \u2013 sitting in the den: \u201cI don\u2019t care how good you are, keep it down!\u201d <\/p>\n
Prog <\/i>features three other covers. David Bowie\u2019s \u201cLife On Mars\u201d is duly deconstructed and takes off toward the end, much like \u201cEverybody Wants To Rule The World.\u201d Sadly, the cover of Rush\u2019s \u201cTom Sawyer\u201d is mostly a simple and boring nod. Finally, the band brings more energy to \u201cThis Guy\u2019s In Love With You,\u201d written by Burt Bacharach\/Hal David and originally performed by Herb Alpert. Three out of four ain\u2019t bad. <\/p>\n
The originals don\u2019t fare as well. There\u2019s nothing wrong with \u201cMint,\u201d but I can\u2019t name an impressive thing about it. I\u2019m ambivalent toward \u201cThriftstore Jewelry,\u201d but King throws in an unneeded drum solo, so I should probably hate it. \u201cThe World Is The Same\u201d is avant-garde nonsense. I enjoyed the fun \u201c1980 World Champion\u201d more than the other originals and recently found it\u2019s a continuation of two previous Bad Plus tunes, \u201c1972 Bronze Medalist\u201d and \u201c1979 Semi-Finalist\u201d (haven\u2019t listened to either song). <\/p>\n
Prog <\/i>isn\u2019t a bad introduction to the capabilities of The Bad Plus, but judging only by this album, the band doesn\u2019t write as well as it interprets. This might not be true on earlier releases. Despite the occasional obnoxious or boring moment, I like Prog<\/i>. But it\u2019s not a solid record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":29976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8431],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-41601","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-bad-plus","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41601","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\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41601"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41601"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}