Patricia Barber - Smash - Hybrid Stereo SACD

Barber's first new studio album in more than four years masterfully unites harmony and melody

An instant audiophile classic: Whisper-soft transients, acoustic dimensions, and imaging in utmost detail

Accessible and complicated, alluring and challenging, sensuous and liberating, Patricia Barber's Smash once-and-for-all confirms the pianist/singer exists in an elevated artistic plane reached by none of her generational peers. Four years in the making, and the beloved musician's first studio record since 2008, her Concord Records debut defies expectations and crystallizes her status as a preeminent songwriter.

Informed by personal episodes of significant loss and yearning, the album masterfully unites harmony and melody via uncommon delicacy, tonal intimacy, and ethereal surrealism. It will likely stand as 2013's finest jazz effort, an instant classic.

Mastered from the original master tapes, Mobile Fidelity's Hybrid SACD possesses audiophile-quality fidelity and dynamic transparency unmatched. Akin to the reissue label's previous Barber releases, many of which are long out-of-print and command huge sums on the collector's market, Smash brings the singer and her band into your listening room, converting it into a recreation of the stage at Chicago's Green Mill, Barber's home base. Sonic characteristics crucial to Barber's sophisticated compositions — atmospherics, decay, whisper-soft transients, mood, acoustic dimensions, precise imaging-are rendered with utmost detail, balance, and accuracy. All else that's required for your trip to the Green Mill is a stereo and glass of chardonnay.