Having been a band for twenty-five years, metal-proprietors Iron Maiden are getting a little long in the tooth, but that certainly doesn’t take away from the UK group’s unapologetic “A Matter of Life and Death,” the band’s best record since “Seventh Son of the Seventh Son.” While Bruce Dickinson’s voice seems a little weaker—he can’t quite convincingly hit those high notes anymore—the band doesn’t bat an eye and injects its trademark guitar solos and epic choruses into the long, long ten-song record (the shortest song clocks in at just over four minutes, the longest nearly ten). War themes run rampant—as they always have on Maiden’s records—as Dickinson questions the point of battle and authority, pays tribute to soldiers and eulogizes D-Day. It’s not a record that will attract new attention—this is made primarily for fans, and fans love it, for sure. (Tom Lynch)
For “Want” of a Change: A Preview of Rufus Wainwright at Ravinia Park Rufus Wainwright isn’t the first singer-songwriter to reinterpret earlier work through an orchestral lens. And much of Wainwright’s third and fourth albums, “Want One” and “Want Two”—whose twentieth anniversaries are the prompt for this new tour—is fully scored. But when Wainwright hits the Pavilion stage at Ravinia tonight, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will be behind him.
Cooling It: A Preview of Colleen Green at Cole’s Bar When Green strums power chords or chiming notes on top of her backing track, you might think you’re at Ramones karaoke night and Madonna is taking her turn.
Brutal Finesse: A Preview of King Crimson at Ravinia There have been few new compositions from King Crimson these past two decades, but the live arrangements of songs from its catalog are often strikingly different than the recorded versions.
