Buy Now
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Jun 20, 2011Ultimately, What's It All About is an intimate work revealing Metheny's investigation of composition itself. The notion of song is inherent in everything he does, and he reveals that inspiration in spades here.
-
Jul 21, 2011We get a spare program recorded in the man's home--and something that ought to be curled up with when we're ready to pay attention to the small things that make music speak to us in a small but powerful voice.
-
MojoAug 26, 2011Metheny returns with a beautifully understated acoustic album whose virtue is its bare-boned simplicity. [Sept. 2011, p. 98]
-
Jun 30, 2011For those with open minds and without unfair expectations of artists, it will be another fascinating addition to a long and exceptional career.
-
Jun 20, 2011Metheny transforms balladic pop tunes into abnormally sophisticated easy listening.
-
Jun 24, 2011These flashes of stylistic innovation are rare. For the most part, it's all supremely controlled, sweetly inoffensive and velvety smooth.
-
Jul 8, 2011Those who liked One Quiet Night, especially those familiar with the pop material Metheny is recalling, should enjoy this record. But many non-jazz listeners will find this CD dreary and sleepy, and jazz purists probably won't like it a lot either.
-
Jul 1, 2011It's not the challenging listening experience that such recent albums as "Orchestrion" (2010) and "The Way Up" (2005) provided, but "What's It All About" is Metheny at his most genteel.
-
Jun 27, 2011Fusion fans might be confused but as a sentimental affirmation of melody it's Metheny to the core.