SECRET STORY

Pat Metheny's Secret Story hails from that light and breezy school of jazz fusion which feels like it could be music from a television soundtrack - specifically, the sort of thing that when it fails ends up sounding like fairly generic incidental music from a third-rate sitcom, but when it succeeds sounds like the music from some long-lost cult classic. Here, it generally succeeds, with Pat treating us to a diverse range of guitar, guitar-like, and keyboard performances backed by a large range of collaborators.

In fact, I was a little startled to see just what a revolving door of backing musicians this involved, because you'd expect a certain amount of disjointedness when you have so much variation in performers from track to track - but Pat does a fine job of keeping things cohesive and true to the approach he's taking here. It's essentially smooth jazz that's a bit more technically clever and adventurous than smooth jazz typically is. If that sounds good to you, then great - jump on that. If that sounds terrible to you... maybe try it out anyway, because smooth jazz isn't my usual cup of tea but Pat's injection of fusion by-products into the mix really spices things up.