New Music Releases: The Smile, Ty Segall, Philip Glass, More

Our picks this week. Click the links to order items from Amazon (and help support Pop Culture Safari!) 

The Smile - Wall of Eyes

The Smile’s new album was recorded between Oxford and Abbey Road Studios, and is produced and mixed Sam Petts-Davies. It features string arrangements by the London Contemporary Orchestra. 

Philip Glass Solo

A collection of Glass performing some of his most enduring and beloved piano works. 

Recorded during the outset of the pandemic, the storied musician dedicated his new found time to revisiting some of his older piano music, occasionally reacquainting himself with these old friends, playing them for an audience of one in his home studio in New York.

Ben Webster - Soulville (Verve Acoustic Sounds Series)

Soulville is quintessential Ben Webster: intimate, tender, endlessly expressive. 

Webster was internationally recognized as one of jazz's elder statesman when he recorded this album in 1957, but the youthful fire that had marked his playing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra two decades earlier was undiminished. 

Soulville is easily the best of his albums for Verve, with Webster's breathy tones given a fitting accompaniment by Oscar Peterson and his group, then including bassist Ray Brown, guitarist Herb Ellis, and understated drummer Stan Levy. 

Leading this stellar combo through a program consisting mostly of vintage pop tunes, the great tenor saxophonist is at his peak. Versions of "Lover Come Back To Me" and "Makin' Whoopee" sound excellent, but bluesy originals such as "Last Date" and the title track are truly outstanding. 

A quality set from start to finish. Seeking to offer definitive audiophile grade versions of some of the most historic and best jazz records ever recorded, Verve Label Group and Universal Music Enterprises' audiophile Acoustic Sounds vinyl reissue series utilizes the skills of top mastering engineers and the unsurpassed production craft of Quality Record Pressings.

Ty Segall - Three Bells

A 15-song cycle that takes a journey to the center of the self. Ty’s been on this kind of trip before, so he’s souped up a vehicle that’s all his own – a sophisticated machine – to take us there this time. 

The conception of Three Bells arcs, rainbow-like, into a land nearly beyond songs – but inside of them, Ty relentlessly pushes the walls further and further in his writing and playing to cast light into the most opaque depths.