Here Is What Is - Daniel Lanois Album Review

Album Review

So this is the 9th outing by acclaimed producer Daniel Lanois, as a solo recording artist in his own right. Expectedly, the album prides itself of all the qualities essential to a good record: it is written, composed, arranged and mixed to perfection -basically, it is a producer’s production, condensed in 18 tracks and the ideally exact duration of 1 hour.

Musically, Lanois is deeply immersed in sounds he produced and/or inspired for others - think U2’s bouts of ambient and Emmylou Harris’ typically country-folk steel guitars… And to create these atmospherics, Lanois surrounded himself by his now trademark team of collaborators: Garth Hudson on keyboard and Brian Blade on drums.

Lanois’s vocal delivery is a blend of Bob Dylan’s (for whom he produced 'Oh Mercy' and 'Time Out of Mind') nasal delivery and Leonard Cohen’s (equally meriting talent made in Quebec) lyrical melancholy. Vocals which ‘do the job’ as witnessed on the title track ‘Here Is What Is’, as well as ‘Where Will I Be, Harry’ and ‘I Like That’. Still, Lanois also calls onto a couple of soulful vocalists (brought together by Brian Blade’s father and his Zion Baptist Church in Shreveport, Louisiana) to deliver on what seems to me the most captivating and engaging tracks off this record: ‘Lovechild’ and ‘This May Be My Last Time’.

Overall, the album could serve as the poetic soundtrack for a Wim Wenders’s film, but Lanois having been there/done that (composing the entire soundtrack for Wenders’ 2000 film, “The Million Dollar Hotel”), has dedicated this album to the eponymous and autobiographical documentary, about him and his outlook on life as an artist. The album is punctuated by conversation snippets (with longtime collaborator Brian Eno) off the documentary ('Chest of Drawer' and 'Beauty') on the matter.

Well, here is what is: there are artists whose work goes beyond critique and whose talent should never be questioned: Lanois is one of them.

Solange Moffi