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The album opens with the vocal-led ‘maybe as his skies are wide’, featuring subtle instrumentation and electronic drums, while the immediately proceeding ‘Herr Und Kneckt’ offers us a taste of something heavier, complete with Mehldau on the Moog synth and an unexpected breakdown lifted straight out of something more akin to heavy metal. But as you might’ve guessed by its influences, Jacob’s Ladder is not some tame Christianised piano album – amidst dense choral arrangements and blistering piano-led prog, Mehldau’s latest recording finds him in aggressive and angular territory, laden with synthesisers and electronic percussion, that blends surprisingly tastefully with his more chamber-jazz tendencies. Mehldau recounts classic progressive rock acts like Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Gentle Giant, as being some of his earliest musical inspirations (even predating his love of jazz) and this appreciation is very evident here, especially with an unorthodox song choice like ‘Racecar’ by modern metallers Periphery.Ī similarly personal topic for Mehldau is religion – much like 2019’s Finding Gabriel, in true prog fashion Jacob’s Ladder is heavily conceptual, detailing mankind’s fall from grace, and the journey to return to Heaven.

While Art of the Trio featured material ranging from The Beatles, through folk singer-songwriter Nick Drake’s ‘River Man’, to Radiohead’s ‘Exit Music (For a Film)’, alongside more traditional jazz standards, Jacob’s Ladder sees Mehldau delving deep into his appreciation for one specific style, and unearths some incredibly diverse music along the way.

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$ īrad Mehldau is no stranger to incorporating music outside the realm of standard jazz – in fact, he’s quite well known for doing so, with series like the five-volume Art of the Trio being excellent examples of this – and for this most recent project he’s diving head-first into the heavy, oddly-timed sounds of progressive rock.

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