Inspired Bach: Music to Enhance Your Spirit

I like Bach more than I like Mozart, so I looked forward to this more than I did the last "Inspired", in the sense that one looks forward to a slap in the face than a kick in the ‘nads. The overcompression and slipshod, anti-contextual sequencing returns, as does the 2000s corpotate-optimistic graphic design.

The Goldberg Variations are fun (but Goldberg has no variations! it’s always spear into neck flex into jackhammer!). James Galway makes an unwelcome reappearance with an arrogant, overly rubatoed “Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring”. There are some weird guitar chorales on here that are thin and disgusting (not to mention anachronistic). A lot of Bach’s best known melodies and pieces don’t make it on here. Not a lot of complex or dark counterpoints. Too much choral and vocal music. Not a single organ anywhere. Yeah, even if the core songs are more to my taste, this record still reeks of a fundamental anti-art philosophy, on top of sounding like shit. In a word: uninspired.

Inspired Bach: Music to Enhance Your Spirit is a bad album, and I don’t like it.