Pete Ham 7 Park Avenue (Rykodisc) The mere fact that Badfinger was originally signed to the Beatles’ Apple label unfairly stigmatized the British popsters as a surrogate Fab Four. But unlike their labelmates, Badfinger’s story did not include highlights like soldout shows at Shea Stadium. That story, chronicled in Dan…
NuYorican Soul NuYorican Soul (Giant Step/Blue Thumb) Never underestimate Puerto Rico. True, the island’s treasured salsa has been eclipsed by Dominican merengue and other rhythms. But the sonic highway that brought so much great music from Puerto Rico to New York in the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies has been well…
Meritocracy is not a word that leaps to mind when I think about the music biz. Merit, after all, has never counted for much in the face of balls-out profiteering. Which is just one of the reasons I joined the cult of Ani DiFranco about four years ago. In a…
Among those devoted to the preposterous notion that they can support themselves by making music, the recitation of day jobs is a hallowed form of commiseration. At its worst this ritual comes off as a kind of macho bellyaching, a self-pity sword fight. But the day-job comparison has more noble…
U2 Pop (Island) So this is the “next big thing” the music industry has been so desperately searching for? Hate to disappoint, but the U2 of Pop is emphatically still U2 — underneath the electronic trickery, you can hear Bono’s vocal idiosyncrasies, Edge’s ringing guitar, Adam Clayton’s prominent bass. Despite…
Tony Bennett Tony Bennett On Holiday: A Tribute to Billie Holiday (Columbia) Tony Bennett has nearly always been an anachronism. His career began just moments before his brand of sophisticated, Tin Pan Alley melody was bowled over by the passionate rhythms of rock and roll. A half-century later, with all…
Mandela Original Soundtrack (Island) This 26-track collection from the documentary of the same name blows its own horn too loudly by claiming to represent “the essential music of South Africa.” Its best moments, though, shed intriguing light on the development of the country’s music. From the Manhattan Brothers’ upbeat, urbane,…
The Pharaohs Awakening (Luv N’ Haight/Ubiquity) The Pharaohs In the Basement (Luv N’ Haight/Ubiquity) Like James Brown on a psych-jazz bender or Charles Mingus dabbling in avant-garde funk, the Pharaohs cut a singular path up the center of R&B, making room to further explore the sonic innovations introduced in the…
Graham Parker Acid Bubblegum (Razor & Tie) Acid Bubblegum is meant to be a return to form for Graham Parker, a reprise of his classic Seventies days as a bitter, punky pub-rocker. The album is certainly filled with bitterness, and for a while that’s okay. The opening track, “Turn It…
Various Artists Enzso (Epic) How to describe this record? Well, let’s begin with the basics. This is a compilation of songs by the Eighties New Zealand pop band Split Enz, original home to Crowded Houseniks Neil and Tim Finn. The songs, however, have been translated into orchestral arrangements by keyboardist…
Sun Ra The Singles (Evidence) Even in death space-traveling jazz man Sun Ra makes listeners choose sides. His admirers, whose numbers include Phish, Michael Ray’s Cosmic Krewe, and George Clinton’s P-Funk mob, remember him as a madcap entertainer and an eccentric, creative genius. Many avid jazz buffs give Ra his…
Snoop Doggy Dogg Tha Doggfather (Death Row/Interscope) Various Artists Dr. Dre Presents … The Aftermath (Aftermath/Interscope) Makaveli The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (Death Row/Interscope) In the wake of Tupac Shakur’s death, these three albums have little chance of being heard objectively. Certainly the conventional wisdom about each lacks…
Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise (RCA Records) The late rock critic Lester Bangs once wrote that he would pay almost any price to hear Aretha Franklin sing; he didn’t especially care what she sang. That’s how it is with certain singers. Marvin Gaye, John Lennon, and Janis…
El Vez G.I. Ay, Ay! Blues (Big Pop) The world’s most popular Hispanic Elvis impersonator uses his latest album G.I. Ay, Ay! Blues to attack current anti-immigrant fervor, adding his usual mingling of music cultures and a broad spectrum of rock history that begins with the King. From the resounding…
Eddie Palmieri Vortex (TropiJazz) Spike Lee’s new film Get on the Bus is the story of a bus full of men on their way to the Million Man March. But it has another very important character: an African drum that plays a key role as a link between generations living…
Boxing Gandhis Howard (Atlantic) Rock critics of the early Seventies did our best to banish all thought of eclecticism, since it was usually a key word denoting fraud of the art-rock or jazz-rock sort. No one ever called Bitches Brew eclectic, though it was; that term was reserved for the…
Nirvana From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah (DGC) I’d finally reached a point where I could listen to Nirvana and think only “This is a cool song,” rather than “This guy is dead.” And now, along comes more new “product” — an industry term that Kurt Cobain despised –…
White Zombie Supersexy Swingin’ Sounds (Geffen) Rob Zombie had this great idea for a party: Invite a bunch of dance-music and hip-hop hotshots to remix some tracks from White Zombie’s best-selling Astro-Creep: 2000. And, surprise, Supersexy Swingin’ Sounds throws down in mighty style. No Trent Reznor circle-jerk, this thing not…
Various Artists Sweet Relief II — Gravity of the Situation: Songs of Vic Chesnutt (Columbia) The second of what is sure to be a series, this star-studded, politically correct benefit/tribute album showcases the music of Athens-based songwriter Vic Chesnutt. Using a wheelchair as a result of a car accident, Chesnutt…
If you’re a long-suffering songwriter pondering how to get yourself one of them fancy-schmancy MTV concert specials, you might consider the Steve Earle plan. This plan consists of the following elements: 1. Write a whole shitload of killer songs 2. Take them to Nashville 3. Toil in undeserved obscurity long…
Patti Smith Gone Again (Arista) The most important artists don’t try to reach for universal truths. Instead, they bare their very individual souls, and we hear ourselves reflected in their voices. After removing herself from the musical limelight for more than fifteen years, surfacing only once for the 1988 offering…
Richard Thompson You? Me? Us? (Capitol) Linda Thompson Dreams Fly Away (Hannibal) This is certainly the first Richard Thompson album to carry a title that might fit a Meg Ryan movie, but don’t expect You? Me? Us? to do anywhere near the business that a celluloid puffball by America’s Sweetheart…
