Bruce Hornsby

Everybody remembers “That’s Just The Way It Is”. It was a huge Pop hit, not the deepest musical composition perhaps, but a reasonably complex little tune with simple sounding, but relatively tricky piano lick. For all the years that followed, Hornsby kept at it, releasing new albums every few years but increasingly staying off the Pop radar.

Bruce Hornsby – Absolute Zero

In 2019 he released “Absolute Zero” and it has become my favorite album of the last 10 years. In a time when, at the same time Pop music has become more and more predictable and all bets are off on Youtube and the internet, here is a true work of art. The first time I listened to the whole thing on the way to my regular Friday Pip’s gig I had tears in my eyes for half the tunes! Seriously, the creativity and originality are off the charts on this one. If features all kinds of guests, from none other than Jack DeJohnette on drums to guys from Bon Iver. Sometimes it gets downright funky, then completely weird and wacky. The piano playing is wonderful, and highly complex sometimes, the singing full of character, the lyrics deep and meaningful, without being pretentious.

All in all, it’s not an album for everyone I guess, and sonically it’s not fantastic, but anyone looking for something truly creative and unique will NOT be disappointed.

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