The concept behind the record doesn't matter to me. The music is just dull.
What Scott Yanow describes as a source of triumph is, to me, a perfect summation of why the record's so dull:https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-new-standard-mw0000645371
On first glance this record would not seem to have much promise from a jazz standpoint. Herbie Hancock performs a set of tunes which include numbers from the likes of Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder, Sade, Paul Simon, Prince, the Beatles ("Norwegian Wood") and Kurt Cobain. However by adding vamps, reharmonizing the chord structures, sometimes quickly discarding the melodies and utilizing an all-star band, Hancock was able to transform the potentially unrewarding music into creative jazz.
Yeah, see, that's not jazz musicians trying to get popular audiences to listen to jazz, that's trying to get jazz fans to listen to pop songs. If you do it already, keep doing it, but if you don'...just don't. Train done left the station, and there ain't no train coming back, at least not on these tracks.Jazz musicians playing pop songs to relate to the public...yeah, whatever.
Possibilities is a much more fun/less dull record than this one.