Here Is What Is

1	Chest of Drawers 0:24
2	Where Will I Be 4:03
3	Here Is What Is 2:50
4	Not Fighting Anymore 3:32
5	Beauty 1:57
6	Blue Bus 2:17
7	Lovechild 8:36
8	Harry 4:35
9	Bells of Oaxaca 1:04
10	This May Be the Last Time 2:28
11	Smoke #6 2:45
12	I Like That 4:14
13	Duo Glide 6:29
14	Bladesteel 3:50
15	Moondog 3:45
16	Sacred and Secular 4:33
17	Joy 2:47
18	Luna Samba 3:23

Barnes & Noble

The majority of significant music producers have been behind-the-scenes craftsmen, content to express themselves by way of the featured artists they collaborate with. Daniel Lanois doesn’t fit that mold. A world-class studio wizard, he’s helped guide to fruition such iconic albums as Peter Gabriel’s So and Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind, as well as The Joshua Tree by U2, a band he’s continued to work with 20 years on. But Lanois is also his own man: an exceptionally talented multi-instrumentalist, composer, and recording artist. His new Here Is What Is arrives as both an album and a filmed documentary (both separately available). Lanois’s songs, as suggestively poetic as they might be, seem inseparable from his signature studio craft. Constructing a sonic environment that's equally rootsy and ethereal, Lanois conjures up spooky music that’s hard to shake off. His guitar playing -- particularly his exquisite work on the pedal steel guitar -- speaks more eloquently and effectively than his somewhat limited vocalizing. Interspersed spoken comments (drawn from the film) from frequent Lanois cohort Brian Eno act mainly as come-ons to the worthy documentary. Here Is What Is, the film, traces Lanois’s international wanderings as he constructs the album and squires projects with U2 and Sinéad O’Connor. Refreshingly free of self-aggrandizement, the documentary may be most intriguing for its focus on Lanois’s trusted collaborators, particularly the accomplished drummer Brian Blade and Eno, in his role as roving philosopher. And each time the camera settles on the studio savant and his pedal steel, cinematic and musical joy are guaranteed. Steve Futterman

All Music Guide

Here Is What Is is the soundtrack to a documentary film of the same name that basically follows artist Daniel Lanois around the world for a year. The album was originally released in late 2007 from Lanois Red Floor records website in DRM-free download versions -- the same price was charged for both the MP3 and FLAC lossless versions. The street date for the CD was March 17, 2008, along with the DVD and a few select screenings of the actual film. The CD comes alone, or in a deluxe, numbered, 3,000-copy "Goldtop Edition" which contains both the CD and an extended cut of the film -- more than an hour of extra footage, a Moleskine Cahier notebook embossed with the title, and three of 12 collectible 5x7 photographs (one signed by Lanois) for $59.99. Ultimately, while packages are nice for the sake of the collector and super fan, and the download concept is great -- offering two different resolutions for the same price (DRM-free of course, take that iTunes) -- it's the music that matters. There are 18 cuts here, some new tracks, and some different versions of old ones. There are a slew of familiar names in the "band" here including Brian and Brady Blade, Garth Hudson, and Daryl Johnson, among others. After a brief and strange opening narration by Brian Eno ("Chest of Drawers") -- who is perhaps the aural cousin of filmmaker Wim Wenders when it comes to ponderous nonsense -- Lanois offers an alternate version of "Where Will I Be." The song was first recorded by Emmylou Harris on Wrecking Ball, which he produced as well as wrote. It's a beautiful song, but this version pales in comparison to Harris', and one wonders why he even bothered.

There are more dialogues between Lanois and Eno, and the songs feel more like afterthoughts. While the title cut and "Not Fighting Anymore" are interesting, they are far from compelling. Supposedly this is a film about beauty, but the music here, while pleasant, certainly doesn't come across as the intimate creation that the demos that made up Acadie is, or the harsher yet melodic, blasted rock and rhythm soundscapes appearing on For the Beauty of Wynona are. This is drift-along-in-the-background music. Lanois feels less and less like a songwriter, and more like someone who has sketches of ideas for them but which no longer come off as such. "Harry" has moments where it might become a real song, but then it jumbles itself up in its rambling bridge. "Lovechild" is a mess that can't make up its mind what it wants to be -- an ambient piece, a country ballad, a soft rock song, a psychedelic sound world -- and it goes on for over eight-and-a-half minutes. "Duo Glide" is the limpest attempt ever at offering a portrait (albeit a willfully impressionist one) of a Harley Davidson motorcycle in song, and "Bladesteel" resembles anything but its title as it shimmers along a set of less than colorful pedal steel country clichés, albeit with some admittedly compelling drum work by Brian Blade. The bottom line in all of this is that Here Is What Is can only be for the truly hardcore Lanois fan. These 18 tracks are merely that; not an album that stands on its own. They don't hold together as a listening experience, and what's worse is the set feels like it goes on for eternity. This is a disappointment; it doesn't feel like art so much as simply over-indulgence. If you like having that pillowy cluster of warm sounds that don't really go anywhere on and have no particular purpose in your ear, then this might be for you. If you still hold Lanois' earlier recordings to a high ideal, this may indeed frustrate you because it offers considerably more evidence that Lanois has lost his way as a musician. Thom Jurek