Sarah Maria Sun - Killer Instincts (2020)

Sarah Maria Sun’s “Killer Instincts” is an incredibly creative and colorful collection of songs about bad people doing bad things. Perhaps no longer “hip” thing to do, it is a concept album — pleasurable journey in bad people’s shoes. To assemble the collection, Sarah brought together songs from a wide range of genres — classical art song and melodrama, opera, Broadway, movie soundtracks, and classic rock and pop. How can this work? In these songs, Sarah inhabits a wide range of characters, at the same displaying her amazing abilities in disparate styles. The arrangements, by Max Renne and Sarah, are as clever as the repertoire. Bernstein’s virtuoso “Glitter and Be Gay” arranged for an ensemble of banjos and guitar, and his “There’s a Law About Men” sung to an electronic background of the orchestral accompaniment chopped and minced with filters. Joe Walsh’s rock classic “Life’s Been Good” sung accompanied by just bass guitar. Tom Waits’ “Just the Right Bullets” in a wild west meets surf music arrangement. Others are sung basically straight: the Schubert melodrama “Abschied von der Erde” and the first recording of Stefan Wolpe’s harrowing “Hitler.” And on and on. Keep an open mind and enjoy the ride!