Stereo Review In Review: July 1987

Wm.

Jul 28

There are fewer reviews on offer in this issue than sometimes; you're getting snippets from a very high percentage of them. Both Best of the Month selections already had a home in my collection by the time this went to press, though only the first wound up being re-purchased on CD.

Articles
--It's a tape deck extravaganza. The editors provide specs of current analog decks on offer in the latest installment of their Buying Guides, and Julian Hirsch gives a thorough overview of two digital audio tape decks currently available in Japan.
--They don't ignore CDs, though. Richard Freed compiles Mozart: The Basic Repertoire on Compact Disc.

This month's reviewers are Chris Albertson, Phyl Garland, Alanna Nash, Mark Peel, and Steve Simels.

Best of the Month
--Crowded House, S/T (MP) "You can't buy luck, but you can buy a sympathetic producer, which is exactly what Crowded House did. (Mitchell) Froom took (Neil) Finn's bright, slightly eccentric pop sound, which some call New Zealand's answer to the Beatles, mixed in a little chaos…and turned the band from nice, Rubber Soul pop to edgy, White Album hysterics."
--Fleetwood Mac, Tango in the Night (SS) "…the lion's share of the credit must go to Lindsey Buckingham, who wrote most of the album's best material and co-produced all of it. Buckingham is that rarest of rare birds in rock, an accessible eccentric, and while his work on Tango does not come near his almost dangerously off-the-wall solo albums, he remains as unpredictable as ever."

Featured Reviews
--The Breakfast Club, S/T (MP) "…blends two musical strains: Stephen Bray's Detroit funk and Dan Gilroy's New York art-school rock…Although Art is not what the Breakfast Club is about, Gilroy's art-rock background makes for lyrics that are considerably smarter than your average dance music's."
--Courtney Pine, Journey to the Urge Within (CA) "The annotator of Pine's latest album… refers to the 'Wynton Marsalis Factor.' The truth is that Wynton Marsalis has quite a way to go before he will become the jazz player Courtney Pine already is."
--Dwight Yoakam, Hillbilly Deluxe (AN) "…should manage to thrill his following and calm the nerves of those who liked what they originally heard but feared Yoakam was just a trendy Rhinestone Cowboy—more concerned with flash and faux Nudie suits than substance."

Other Disks Reviewed
--Gregory Abbott, Shake You Down (PG) "This is his set all the way, since he wrote all the songs and arrangements, served as producer, and played keyboard while doing the lead vocals. It's a very impressive achievement, indicating depth as well as polish."
--Lou Ann Barton, Forbidden Tones (SS) "…she's come up with a first-rate, slightly bluesier version of Marti Jones's recent, similarly excellent Match Game. Barton sings the pants off a nicely chosen set of top-drawer pop and soul tunes, including one of the better Beatles covers in memory ('Every Little Thing')…"
--Benny Goodman, The RCA Victor Years (CA) Sixteen disks, 252 tunes, "containing everything the famous bandleader recorded for the company between 1935 and 1939…(t)he music, as one might expect from a collection of this scope, is of mixed quality, ranging from slightly-above-average pop fare of the Thirties to certified jazz masterpieces."
--The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Live at Winterland (SS) "A forgotten 1968 concert that had been moldering in the vaults, the set features the Experience just before boredom, personality clashes, and drug abuse snuffed out the collective fire. The music really sounds like they meant it."
--Chris Isaak, S/T (SS) "A collection of edgy love songs that suggest the emotional universe encountered on old Roy Orbison records, it's a beautifully crafted re-creation of the emotional paranoia underlying a lot of genuine rockabilly."
--Grace Jones, Inside Story (PG) "Indeed, there is something odd about most of these melodies, but they are beautifully arranged and meticulously delivered. I'm still not certain what Inside Story is about, but with Grace Jones it's often better not to question what's happening."
--Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Trio (AN) "…not the masterpiece we expected. It is, however, a gorgeous sampler of female harmony singing and thrilling instrumental solos…as well as a monument to perseverance and a celebration of enduring friendship."
--Patty Smyth, Never Enough (SS) "Not a note rings true, not an emotion is expressed that isn't thoroughly canned, not a cliché overlooked. And several good songs are thoroughly mangled…"