As with 2003’s One Quiet Night and 2011’s What’s It All About, Pat Metheny’s new album features the Lee’s Summit native working unaccompanied on baritone guitar. MoonDial is as rapturously beautiful, unflaggingly elegant and wonderfully restorative as its antecedents.
Metheny characterizes MoonDial as “a dusk-to-sunrise record, hard-core mellow.” Yet MoonDial isn’t altogether sedate. “Shōga” possesses the forward momentum of Metheny’s most popular compositions. And Metheny’s interpretations of Beatles songs- in this instance “Here, There and Everywhere”- are invariably arresting.
Devotees of Pat Metheny greet every release as additions to their extended families. Due to the artist’s admirable unpredictability, a bit of trepidation accompanies the arrival of a new album. The curative MoonDial will be hailed as an immediate favorite that’s likely to remain in the permanent rotations of fans.