Aurora

Set in the 1970s and loosely inspired by Fleetwood Mac, Taylor Jenkins Reids best-selling novel Daisy Jones & the Six is the fictional account of the rise and fall of a prominent blues-rock band as revealed through interviews. An Amazon Studios miniseries adaptation was already underway by the time the book was published in 2019, with producers enlisting Blake Mills to construct the bands sound. To write the songs (25 in all appear in the series), Mills enlisted help from none other than Jackson Browne as well as figures like Phoebe Bridgers, Marcus Mumford, Madison Cunningham, and Roger Manning, among many others. The emerging 11-song soundtrack album doubles as the groups imagined debut, Aurora. It was performed by the shows band-camp-trained cast, led by Riley Keough as Daisy and Sam Claflin as Billy Dunne. (Suki Waterhouse, Josh Whitehouse, Will Harrison, and Sebastian Chacon round out the groups TV lineup, which diverges slightly from the book in number and by instrument.) Together with Mills production, the star-studded writing team manage to settle into a dual-vocal-heavy MOR sound thats credible as the output of a single band at the same time that it touches on Laurel Canyon, Nashville, and, if fleetingly, Fleetwood Mac itself, as on the chorus of soft rock standout "Let Me Down Easy," a descendent of "Dreams." Another highlight is the rousing "Regret Me," which almost evokes the Heartbreakers with its efficient hooks, gritty guitar tones, organ, live energy, and slight affectation by Claflin. They let loose again with the bluesy garage rock of the Keough-led "More Fun to Miss," while quasi-acoustic ballads like "Two Against Three" and "No Words" can seem more like sentimental, narrative-serving fare -- not that thats necessarily a bad thing, considering their purposes. In the end, while Aurora plays out more like a cast album than unearthed period vinyl, it does hover on the spectrum, and the actor/musicians come to play. ~ Marcy Donelson

話題のドラマ『デイジー・ジョーンズ&ザ・シックスがマジで最高だった頃』内でバンドが人気絶頂時にリリースしたアルバムという設定。舞台は70年代の西海岸で当時のシーンを風靡したバンドの軌跡を辿っていく。音楽を手掛けたのはDaisy Jones & The Six。Blake MillsやPhoebe Bridgers、Jackson Browneも参加している。バンドの成功を夢見る若者たちの情熱、脆さがリアルに伝わり、まるで実在するバンドの物語をみているように感じるのはキャストの歌唱力の高さや全身全霊での演技にほかならない。往年のロックが好きなら勿論、普遍的な魅力のある作品で推薦したい一枚だ。
intoxicate (C)石田真生

70年代のUS西海岸シーンを舞台にした架空のバンドの物語を当時のメンバーや関係者の回想や証言で辿る……という内容のベストセラー小説「デイジー・ジョーンズ・アンド・ザ・シックスがマジで最高だった頃」。これはそのドラマ化に伴って制作された同バンドのアルバムという体裁のサウンドトラックだ。デイジーを演じるのはエルヴィス・プレスリーの孫娘であるライリー・キーオで、彼女やサム・クラフリン、スキ・ウォーターハウスらキャストが歌唱を担当。ブレイク・ミルズが制作、マーカス・マムフォードやフィービー・ブリジャーズ、ジャクソン・ブラウンが楽曲提供……というだけで聴きたくなるでしょ!
bounce (C)轟ひろみ