What's it all about Nonesuch***

Pat Metheny won a Grammy in 2001 for his solo outing, One Quiet Night, so it's an even bet that this new solo effort, performed with the customary skill and attention to detail befitting an 18-times winner of the award, may figure in this year's Grammy nominations.Its pervasive after-hours feel, reinforced by the deeper timbre of the specially tuned baritone guitar Methany uses on seven of the 10 tracks, fills the lyrical beauty of his work on Alfie, Slow Hot Wind,Carly Simon's That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Beand the simplicity of Lennon/McCartney's And I Love Her.

But on this generally reflective, intimate album, the sense of self-referential delight – the deliberation over Methany's 42-string guitar's resonant overtones on The Sound of Silence, for example – at times edges things close to superior background music. See nonesuch.com