šµ I bought the new John Coltrane album on release day, but havenāt given it a critical listen until today. This review feels accurate to me:
Whatever reticence a listener might experience with the new album isnāt musicological but emotional: the spiritual temperature of the music is lower, its moments of glorious invention have a logical and inviting air that never quite matches the self-exploring, self-transcending volatility of Coltraneās very best recordings, whether made in concert or in the studio. āBoth Directions at Onceā is a marker of Coltraneās work at the time rather than the very best of it. Itās as if the band were displaying what it is that they do when they do it, without quite doing it.
It is still, in my opinion, an essential Coltrane album. But itās not his best.