by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

The Lumineers co-founder Jeremiah Fraites has poured a great deal of his soul into Piano Piano 2 – which, as its name suggests, is his second piano album. Whereas its predecessor was a set of relatively minimal compositions, the sequel has added textures, including strings, guitar, percussion and widescreen textural effects.

Extra Life, one of the single releases, was released in the wake of Fraites losing his father Joel, and has taken on a great deal of personal significance.

What’s the music like?

Fraites certainly keeps the music flowing on this album, using a number of different pianos as he strives for different colours and effects. Perhaps as a result of that Piano Piano 2 does have a greater reliance on texture rather than melody, and it is an outpouring of emotions, a stripping away of layers to get to the core.

Yet ironically it is when Fraites reduces the textures that the music has greatest impact. Pluck is an effective and thoughtful meditation, while the descriptive Snow Falling gives that lovely impression of being indoors, nose pressed up to the window pane, while the snow falls outside.

Extra Life is indeed a powerful track, with a beautiful viola solo to counter the piano work. The album finishes with a guest vocal from Gregory Alan Isakov, a version of Radiohead’s No Surprises that adds a good deal of extra music to the simple dressing of the original. The gospel-like harmonies at the end do rather swamp the vocal, though Isakov does hold his poise.

Does it all work?

Largely – though on occasion it does feel as though too much is going on, the listener swimming against a particularly strong current. Fraites, however, digs deep emotionally in his piano playing, and that comes across to the listener.

Is it recommended?

If you liked the soundtrack Michael Nyman wrote for The Piano, Fraites’s music is a logical next step – for he plays with similar energy and feeling. Yet it is when he takes a step back that the listener can feel closer to his true musical soul.

For fans of… Michael Nyman, Erik Satie, Ludovico Einaudi

Listen and Buy

Published post no.2,149 – Monday 15 April 2024