Here Is What Is

You would be hard pressed to escape the far reaching influence of Daniel Lanois. The man has been producing peerless records for the biggest artists in music for over 20 years, writing and recording his own critically acclaimed work all the while keeping his artistic ego in check. The man is responsible for five U2 albums (and not all the shitty ones either, I'm talking Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby.... yeah that's right!), Peter Gabriel So and Us, a couple Bob Dylan albums, Luscious Jackson, Emmylou Harris, etc.

Yeah.   

Here Is What Is comes as a companion album to his recent foray into the world of cinema with a film by the same name about the making of an album, a subject Daniel is intimate with to say the least.  The record swings to and fro from Lanois'  weeping lap steel guitar (his personal favorite instrument), to the weaving piano lines of Garth Hudson (formerly of The Band) to the impossible touch and feel of Brian Blade's drums, with surprising ease.

This record doesn't quite capture a time and place like Belladonna did, nor does it have all the flowing soul and energy of Shine but what it does exude is raw (albeit well produced) emotion and more than any other of his records allows you to experience what it's like (or what I can only imagine) in Dan's world. I was very lucky to have witnessed two shows Dan staged at The Great Hall (Queen and Ossington) back in September in conjunction with the release of his film at the Toronto International Film Festival and looking back on them, it was a  perfect representation of what this album brings to the table now, an amalgamation of his intimacy as artist and producer shown in emotion and honest, down-to-earth soulfulness.

I'd highly recommend this album to anyone that likes music.

MP3:  Where Will I Be?

MP3: Duo Glide