The mix here is a Cole Porter cocktail, a dry martini but with a touch of jalapeno instead of olive. And while there are strains of melancholy, as Barber says in the notes: "Cole Porter never wrote a song that said 'I'm miserable.'" That jalapeno heat comes from the evocative jazz arrangements and solos, especially those of guest tenor saxophonist Chris Potter (on five of the 13 tracks) and acoustic and electric guitarist Neal Alger, as well as the singer's incisive piano. It's also a literal mix, as Barber stirs in three of her own songs, ones consciously influenced by the sophisticated Porter oeuvre.

A prime example is the title track, where Barber paints the end of a love affair with subtly stated allusions to destruction: the erosion of edifices; a bloody road accident. The lines are more akin to poetry than conventional song lyrics, as she depicts “the crumbling of tall castles built / on kisses and blood / and dreams so like sand.” The song’s reprise compares “the sound of a heart breaking” to “the sound of / the red on the road” – a devastatingly effective mélange of synesthetic imagery. Aided by a raw, forceful guitar solo, the performance illuminates a counter-intuitive realization about loss:
“It just struck me, as it does everyone who experiences great loss, that on the outside, no one can tell,” Barber explains. “You go to the grocery store, and everything’s the same, which is shocking. It struck me that this is the sound of a heart breaking: silence. You’re alone. And I felt that this was an interesting juxtaposition, since the sound of a heart breaking should be the loudest, screamiest, shriekiest combination of sounds there could be.”

On Smash, her January 22, 2013 debut on Concord Jazz, Patricia Barber reiterates her unique position in modern music as a jazz triple-threat – imaginative pianist, startling vocalist, and innovative composer (international release dates may vary). With a new band and a dozen new compositions, she also continues her two-decade crusade to retrieve the ground that jazz musicians long ago ceded to pop and rock: the realm of the intelligent and committed singer-songwriter, tackling even familiar subjects (like love and loss) with a nuance and depth beyond the limits of the Great American Songbook.

The album was the band's first release of new material since Balance of Power, released in 1986. Although billed as a return to the classic ELO sound, the album sales were relatively poor and a planned North American concert tour was cancelled. Upon release, the album charted at number 34 in the UK Albums Chart, and at number 94 in the US Billboard 200. The album also peaked at number 14 on Billboard Top Internet Albums chart, number 51 on Austria's Ö3 Austria Top 40 Longplay chart, and number 16 on Germany's Media Control Album Chart. "Alright" peaked at number 87 on the Dutch Top 40 chart in the Netherlands.

"Xanadu" is the title song from the soundtrack of the 1980 musical film of the same name. Written by Jeff Lynne of the English rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), the song is performed by British and Australian singer, songwriter and actress Olivia Newton-John, with Lynne adding parenthetic vocals in the style of his other songs on the Xanadu soundtrack, and ELO providing the instrumentation. It was Lynne's least favourite of his own songs.

Time is a work of synth-pop that combines elements from 1950s music, new wave, reggae, rockabilly, the Beatles, Phil Spector and the Shadows. The album signalled a departure from the band's sound by emphasising electronics over its usual orchestra. It is also the band's second concept album, the first being Eldorado in 1974. The music video created for its lead single, "Hold On Tight", was the most expensive made at that point, with a budget of approximately £40,000. Four more singles followed the album's release: "Twilight", "Ticket to the Moon" (backed with "Here Is the News"), "Rain Is Falling" and "The Way Life's Meant to Be".

Time is the ninth studio album by the English rock band Electric Light Orchestra (credited as ELO), released in July 1981 on Jet Records. It is a concept album about a man from the 1980s who is taken to the year 2095, where he is confronted by the dichotomy between technological advancement and a longing for past romance. The record topped the UK Albums Chart for two weeks, though it attracted mixed reviews for its heavy use of synthesizers and stylistic shift away from the orchestral rock of previous ELO albums. It has since gained a cult following, particularly among retrofuturist enthusiasts.

Sir Thomas Jones Woodward is a Welsh singer. His career began with a string of top 10 hits in the 1960s and he has since toured regularly, with appearances in Las Vegas from 1967 to 2011. His voice has been described by AllMusic as a "full-throated, robust baritone".
Jones's performing range has included pop, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, soul, and gospel. In 2008, the New York Times called him a "musical shapeshifter [who could] slide from soulful rasp to pop croon, with a voice as husky as it was pretty". He has sold over 100 million records, with 36 Top 40 hits in the UK and 19 in the US, including "It's Not Unusual", "What's New Pussycat?", the theme song for the James Bond film Thunderball (1965), "Green, Green Grass of Home", "Delilah", "She's a Lady", "Sex Bomb", and a cover of Prince's "Kiss".

Fausto Papetti was an Italian alto saxophone player. A jazz musician by formation, Papetti became widely known for producing instrumental covers of some of the most famous pop and jazz songs.

e² is a greatest hits album by the Italian singer Eros Ramazzotti, released in Europe and Latin America on 26 October 2007. This is his fourteenth album (including live and compilation albums), and his second greatest hits album after Eros in 1997. The first single released from the album was "Non siamo soli", a vocal duet with the Latin singer Ricky Martin.

Das Café del Mar ist ein am Meeresufer gelegenes Café in Sant Antoni de Portmany in der Bucht Cala des Moro auf Ibiza. Es wurde nach zwei Jahren Bauzeit am 20. Juni 1980 eröffnet. Die Architektur und die Innenausstattung übernahm der katalanische Architekt Lluis Güell. Bekannt wurde es durch seine gleichnamigen Soul-House- und Chill-Out-Compilations, die bis 1997 vom damaligen Resident-DJ José Padilla aufgenommen und später dann durch seinen Nachfolger Bruno Lepetre weitergeführt wurden, sowie durch einen Trance-Clubhit 1993 von Energy 52. Die Rechte für die Benutzung des Namens Café del Mar für ihre Tonträger erwarb die 1998 in Sant Antoni de Portmany gegründete Plattengesellschaft Café del Mar Music.

Size Isn't Everything is the twentieth studio album by the Bee Gees, released in the UK on 13 September 1993, and the US on 2 November of the same year. The brothers abandoned the contemporary dance feel of the previous album High Civilization and went for what they would describe as "A return to our sound before Saturday Night Fever".