Lovers (Nels Cline album)

Last updated

Lovers
Lovers (Nels Cline album).jpg
Studio album by
Nels Cline
ReleasedAugust 9, 2016 (2016-08-09)
RecordedNovember / December 2013
Genre Jazz
Length89:15
Label Blue Note
Producer David Breskin
Nels Cline chronology
Accidental Sky
(2015)		Lovers
(2016)		 Currents, Constellations
(2018)

Lovers is an album by guitarist Nels Cline which was released in August 2016 on the Blue Note label. [1] [2] Cline stated " I hope Lovers offers something of an update of the 'mood music' idea and ideal, while celebrating and challenging our iconic notion of romance". [3]

Contents

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 84/100 [4]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [5]
All About Jazz Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [6]
Blurt Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [7]
Consequence of Sound B [8]
Exclaim! 8/10 [9]
The Independent Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [10]
Pitchfork 7.6/10 [11]
PopMatters 9/10 [12]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [13]
Uncut 9/10 [14]

In Rolling Stone Will Hermes wrote "An update of Fifties "mood music", this chilled-out instrumental soundtracks for breakfast in bed with mai-tais and late-night booty calls, Lovers is a departure for Wilco guitar swami Nels Cline, whose side projects generally involve free-jazz freakouts. That's not to say that this wordless double-disc set, featuring an all-star orchestra full of sharp improvisers, isn't wildly inventive in its water-colored way". [13] Pitchfork's Seth Colter Walls rated the album 7.6 out of 10, saying, "Cline has delivered a chamber-orchestra set that’s notable for relying on some “Great American Songbook” standards by the likes of Jerome Kern and Rodgers & Hammerstein... The only task he doesn’t quite pull off is the composition of original themes that stand with the classics he’s selected. Almost half of the first CD is made up of Cline originals, and these pale a bit in comparison with the surrounding material. Though thanks to its sly and measured embrace of the experimental, Lovers still has all the originality it needs to endear". [11] Blurt correspondent Adolph Alzuphar noted: "Nels Cline’s Blue Note debut Lovers is a musical bonanza: guitar, the lyrical and the experimental. And it’s monumental when the album’s band lets loose". [7] AllMusic reviewer Thom Jurek stated "Due to its extensive length and low-key demeanor, Lovers is demanding. That said, Cline's harmonic, textural, and timbral palettes deliver it as a compellingly engaging and original take on orchestral -- and by intent, conceptual -- jazz. He hears possibilities in the historical past and articulates them with timeless ardor. This may be Cline's quietest recording, but it is one of his finest". [5] They also selected it as one of their Favorite Jazz Albums of 2016. [15]

Track listing

All compositions by Nels Cline except where noted.

Disc one

  1. "Introduction/Diaphanous" - 4:21
  2. "Glad to Be Unhappy" (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) - 4:08
  3. "Beautiful Love" (Wayne King, Victor Young, Egbert Van Alstyne, Haven Gillespie) - 3:59
  4. "Hairpin & Hatbox" - 3:32
  5. "Cry, Want" (Jimmy Giuffre) - 6:54
  6. "Lady Gabor" (Gábor Szabó) - 8:27
  7. "The Bed We Made" - 3:25
  8. "You Noticed" - 4:01
  9. "Secret Love" (Sammy Fain, Paul Francis Webster) - 4:30
  10. "I Have Dreamed" (Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II) - 2:39

Disc two

  1. "Why Was I Born?" (Jerome Kern, Hammerstein) - 5:02
  2. "Invitation" (Bronisław Kaper, Webster) - 2:26
  3. "It Only Has to Happen Once" (Arto Lindsay, Peter Scherer) - 5:45
  4. "The Night Porter/Max, Mon Amour" (Daniele Paris/Michel Portal) - 8:14
  5. "Snare, Girl" (Sonic Youth) - 6:35
  6. "So Hard It Hurts/Touching" (Annette Peacock) - 6:54
  7. "The Search for Cat" (Henry Mancini) - 2:34
  8. "The Bond" - 5:49

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ nelscline.com album entry, accessed August 22, 2016
  2. ↑ Blue Note Records album entry, accessed August 22, 2016
  3. ↑ Adams, Gregory (June 8, 2016). "Nels Cline Details Orchestral 'Lovers' Album". exclaim.ca. Retrieved August 22, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Reviews for Lovers by Nels Cline". Metacritic . Retrieved August 17, 2025.
  5. 1 2 Jurek, Thom. Lovers – Review at AllMusic . Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  6. ↑ Sullivan, Mark (September 23, 2016). "Nels Cline: Lovers". All About Jazz . Retrieved August 17, 2025.
  7. 1 2 Alzuphar, Adolph. "Nels Cline- Lovers". blurtonline.com. Retrieved August 22, 2016.
  8. ↑ Ham, Robert (August 2, 2016). "Album Review: Nels Cline – Lovers". Consequence of Sound . Retrieved August 17, 2025.
  9. ↑ Choghri, Brandon. "Nels Cline - Lovers" . Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  10. ↑ Gill, Andy (August 18, 2016). "Album reviews round-up: Lisa Hannigan, Dolly Parton, Nels Cline and more". The Independent . Retrieved August 17, 2025.
  11. 1 2 Walls, Seth Colter. "Nels Cline Lovers". pitchfork.com. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  12. ↑ Ingalls, Chris (August 5, 2016). "Nels Cline: Lovers". PopMatters . Retrieved August 17, 2025.
  13. 1 2 Hermes, Will (July 4, 2016). "Review: Wilco Guitarist Nels Cline Crafts Big Band Jazz on Lovers". rollingstone.com. Retrieved August 22, 2016.
  14. ↑ [A] splendid debut for Blue Note. ... Backed by a brilliant ensemble of strings, wind and percussion, Cline's guitar creeps stealthily through arrangements elegant and enigmatic, lush and low. [Sep 2016, p.71]
  15. ↑ Allmusic Favorite Jazz Albums of 2016
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