New Favorite

I bought the album for my girlfriend. A treat which goes up and down in tempo and style yet maintains its sheer quality throughout. Its one of those albums you end up showing off to all your friends because you discovered it first!

Everyone I've played it to have also loved it and have since asked me for its title...they want it!

I think you would have to be an individual of little heart or soul and lacking almost completely in personality to not like this record.
The ballads are instantly adorable whilst the harder edged bluegrass sounds are distinct growers.

One that will see the inside of my CD player for many years to come.

Firstly, performances. Ms Krauss was a virtuoso bluegrass fiddle player by her teens and on the strength of her current form she would by now be a legendary country musician even if she'd never sung a note - but amazingly her singing has surpassed even her instrumental virtuosity. Pure, tender and with perfect phrasing, she may now have the best living voice in any branch of country. Add to that the increasingly famous voice and guitar of Dan Tyminski (justly Grammied for his lead singing role on "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"). Stir in the ever-breathtaking slide dobro of Jerry Douglas and three-part harmonies to bring you out in goosebumps. . . and you have one of the best sounding albums of all time in any genre.

Secondly, compositions. Of the 13 songs on the album, only one fails to sound like an instant classic. Of the other 12, it is difficult to know which is best - my opinion changes from day to day. The lyrics are as good as the tunes, and the new arrangements of two traditional folk songs are as fresh and rivetting as the new material.

Thirdly, presentation. In one sense this is an album of two halves, one set of hushed introspective ballads and one set of traditional up-tempo bluegrass workouts. But the way the songs are sequenced, the album never gets set in an atmospheric rut - it remorselessly takes you up and down from the first note to the last. The end result is more than just a collection of 13 songs - it's a manifesto from the strongest country group act of this generation that bluegrass is going to break out into the mainstream (an agenda that "O Brother...", "Down From The Mountain" and so on are in on). This is high musical politics, and the fact that "New Favourite" earned three Grammies (best bluegrass album, and best country song/best group performance for "Lucky One") alongside the closely related awards for "O Brother..." (in which AKUS are of course heavily featured) is a sign that the strategy is working.

Fourthly, integrity. There's no relentless glitzy studio production, just beautifully crisp detailed sound. No toadying guest appearances to broaden the album's market artifically. No electronically sequenced break-beat percussion (in fact there's hardly any percussion at all, but the soft numbers don't need it and the fast numbers pound along like an express train without it).

Performance, composition, presentation, integrity. A vibrant cross-fertilisation of bluegrass and new country. Modern production with traditional values. An album like this is a one-off - we could have to wait a decade for anything else in the same class.