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October 27-November 2, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27
Idina Menzel doesn’t hold back by David-Elijah Nahmod
wondering what might have been? “I can feel you breathe,” she sings on “Everybody Knows,” the following track. “I found my piece, the missing part, I found my hands to heal this broken heart.” Is she remembering Diggs, or looking forward to a new love? Menzel, who has a cult following among gay men, has a voice that hearkens back to other singers who have been idolized by gays such as Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland. Like her predecessors, Menzel is blessed with a unique gift: the ability to weep with her voice. She shares her feelings when she sings. She knows how to make her audience feel what she feels. Since Menzel paid her dues on Broadway, you know the voice is real. There’s no faking it. There’s no need to electronically enhance her voice. There’s power in her pipes. The album ends on a lovely note. In the down-tempo acoustic number “Nothing in This World,” Menzel looks to the future. “Nothing in this world is gonna keep me from you,” she sings. “After all is said and done, baby you’re my setting sun.” Menzel is ready to move forward and find a new love. She invites you to join her on that journey.t
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hanks to her performances in Rent and Wicked, Idina Menzel has become one of Broadway’s biggest names. The multifaceted entertainer, who sings, dances and acts, went on to achieve worldwide acclaim for her appearances in the film version of Rent (2005) and for her recurring role as Rachel’s mom on Glee. Menzel also provided the voice of Elsa in Disney’s Frozen. As her star continues to rise, Menzel has released a new, self-titled CD. With Idina, Menzel proves herself to be a “raging storm” of talent. “I’m not holding back anymore,” she sings. “I’m slaying like the Queen of Swords.” And slay it she does. Menzel knocks it out of the park in this collection of 12 emotionally heartfelt songs, some of which may be taken from her own life. In 2014 Menzel was divorced from her Rent co-star Taye Diggs after 10 years of marriage. “I lie awake, looking back,” she sings on “I See You,” the album’s fourth cut. “Here’s to the lonely, to the broken-hearted, I want you to know I feel your pain.” It’s a gutwrenching song, and the chanteuse belts it out from a place deep within her soul. Was she looking back upon her marriage,
Tea dance dudes by Gregg Shapiro
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or the longest time, dance music was the domain of the gay community. Sure, there were straight artists, including disco divas, producers and musicians, who dared to work in the genre, especially in the years following the famous “disco demolition” led by schlock shock jock Steve Dahl. Today, dance music is bigger than ever, especially the kind made by straight men. Meanwhile, Dahl is merely an unfortunate footnote. Remember how exciting it was when British blue-eyed soul singersongwriter David Gray added electronic beats to his music on his groundbreaking 1999 album White Ladder? Tom Odell gets similar results on his marvelous new album Wrong Crowd (RCA). Opening the disc, the title tune has almost everything you could ask for: fantastic lyrics, a persuasive beat, Odell’s exceptional vocals, the right balance of guitar and keyboards, and whistling. The album’s mesmerizing first single “Magnetised” will also pull you towards the dance-floor, so don’t fight it. Ditto for “Silhouette” and “She Don’t Belong to Me.” Like Odell, Mike Posner is intent on proving that he can exist in both the electronic and acoustic music worlds. He does a good job of verifying that on his second album At Night, Alone (Island). The first 10 tracks feature the cocky Posner in more traditional musical settings. The six bonus remix tracks are where the album reaches its eventual peak. Not that the initial versions of “I Took a Pill in Ibiza,” “Not That Simple” and “In the Arms of a Stranger” (Posner sings “she smelled like Michigan”) don’t have their merits. The thing is that Posner is at his most effectual when backed up by awesome beats. iii (Atlantic), the third album by Swedish dance threesome Miike Snow, is a fitting follow-up to the band’s previous releases. Danceoriented tunes “For U” (featuring Charli XCX), “My Trigger” and
“Over and Over” give listeners reasons and room to move. The Air-y “I Feel the Weight” and the Stockholm soul of “Heart Is Full” offer good examples of the trio’s diversity. Kygo plays well with others, as is evident on the 14 tracks on Cloud Nine (Ultra/RCA). Collaborating with a fascinating cross-section of artists, including Tom Odell (the fantastic “Fiction”), John Legend (“Happy Birthday”), Foxes (“Oasis,” co-written by Sia), Kodaline (“Raging”), and hit songwriter Julia Michaels (“Carry Me,” co-written by gay songwriter Justin Tranter), Kygo transports listeners to the title place. Working under his own name, William Phillips scored a Grammy
“INTENSELY MOVING... DESIRE BEGINS!” Award for “Stay With Me,” the song he co-wrote with gay performer Sam Smith. Making music as Tourist on his debut disc U (Monday), Phillips exhibits an even more exhilarating side of his talents. U is one of those rare dance music albums that can be enjoyed as a source of movement and dance-floor expression, and as a set of innovative and agreeable tunes. From the garage-y “To Have You Back” and propulsive “Run” through the gently crashing “Waves” and the rapid time-step of “Too Late,” U marks the arrival of a welcome visitor. With its eponymous new album on Elektra, Fitz and The Tantrums’ third full-length album in six years, the band completes its evolution from retro soul slingers to a full-fledged dance band. The hipshaking first single “Handclap” is a good indication of what’s to follow on dance-oriented numbers “Run It,” the loping “Tricky” and the hot “Burn It Down.” It might have seemed like the brother quartet Kongos (sons of one-hit wonder John Kongos) appeared out of nowhere when its inescapable hit single “Come with Me Now” dominated the airwaves in 2014-15, including use in TV commercials. But the bros had been at it for a while, and the song itself was actually a few years old at the time it broke. On the heels of that unexpected success, Kongos returns with Egomaniac (Epic), which expands on its Soweto-style brand of dance music, complete with accordion. Opportunities for dancing abound, especially on “Autocorrect” and “Repeat After Me.” “A story that starts where it ended,” 401 Days (401days.com) took New York via Israel electro musician j. views (aka Jonathan Dagan) that length of time to create the interactive and collaborative project that became this artistically-packaged album. Dance-floor-destined selections include “We Move” and “Turned to the Sun (So Low).” Don’t just sit there, find a dude and dance!t
– Justin Chang, LOS ANGELES TIMES
“A REVELATION!”
“VIBRANT!”
– Peter Debruge, VARIETY
– Bilge Ebiri, THE VILLAGE VOICE
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