This was my second winter in Champaign-Urbana, the one spent in the apartment on Elm St., just a stone's throw from downtown Urbana and the Lincoln Square Mall. Sinéad O'Connor's The Lion and the Cobra was the album I was spinning more often than any other in the moment. By this time, I wasn't driving over to the public library in Champaign to leaf through the pages of SR anymore; what did I miss as 1988 dawned?
Articles
--Hit List, by Ian G. Masters
In which the author comes to grips with how to use a Mac to catalog the pop/rock songs in his collection (which come from 78s, 45s, LPs, and CDs). Masters goes into excruciating detail about the process; it sounds as if he used a word processing program (as opposed to using a spreadsheet or database) to attack the problem.
--Alanna Nash Interviews Holly Near
Known to this point for her activist work and protest music, Near changes gears to record and release Don't Look Back, "a sparkling, upbeat set of original love songs with a bold musical framework" that Nash calls "Near's most cohesive and consistently satisfying record to date."
This month's reviewers are the skeleton crew of Chris Albertson, Phyl Garland, Alanna Nash, Mark Peel, and Steve Simels, along with a future staffer adding a few free-lance pieces.
Best of the Month
--Bruce Springsteen, Tunnel of Love (SS) "…may not be the stuff that arena rock shows are made of, but it cuts a lot closer to the bone than anything the man has done before…"
--Sting, …Nothing Like the Sun (MP) "Sting has shed the mantle of the artiste. He has turned over much of the album to his band, and the players respond with intensity and expressiveness…(i)f it is less monumental than we expected, it is also less controlled and calculated." Among the first couple dozen or so CDs I purchased, straight from Columbia House.
Other Disks Reviewed
--Atlantic Jazz (CA) Twelve compilation disks (a few are double-LPs) taken from the label's archives, thematically grouped: New Orleans, Kansas City, Bebop, West Coast, Mainstream, Post Bop, Singers, Piano, Soul, The Avant-Garde, Introspection, and Fusion.
--Beat Farmers, The Pursuit of Happiness (SS) "Neither the presence of legendary keyboardist Nicky Hopkins nor the one good song, Tom Waits's 'Rosie,' can alleviate the aura of uninspired competence that is the album's principal distinguishing characteristic."
--Bee Gees, ESP (MP) "The important thing is that the group chose to forge ahead in the record business, and they made a pretty good pop album in the process."
--Carousel (Roy Hemming) "…may not displace the original-Broadway-cast or movie-soundtrack albums, but it does offer more of Carousel's great score than any earlier version, plus clearly superior sonics…"
--Terence Trent D'Arby, Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby (MP) "But as this debut album demonstrates, he isn't content to work the soul fields; he is determined to wed that voice to music that is tough and uncompromising. Trouble is, he misses about as often as he hits."
--Rosie Flores, S/T (AN) "...isn't the heralding debut that, say, Emmylou Harris's was a decade ago. But Flores brings enough of the right elements together, and somewhere down the line she just may prove herself a contender."
--Jennifer Holliday, Get Close to My Love (PG) "Her treatment (of 'Givin' Up') is rooted in the Aretha Franklin tradition, with a gospel-style piano for support, but the awesome intensity of the interpretation is entirely her own. This cut, at least, is Holliday at her best."
--Lynyrd Skynyrd, Legend (MP) "But even second-class Lynyrd Skynyrd will sound good to that big Southern contingent that's badly underrepresented on the rock charts these days."
--John Cougar Mellencamp, The Lonesome Jubilee (SS) "…the overall sense of quiet desperation sometimes verges on affectation. But strictly as music, this is an impressive piece of work, especially from a guy who used to bill himself, with commendable candor, as an American Fool."
--Liza Minnelli, At Carnegie Hall (Roy Hemming) "At times Minnelli strives too hard to fulfill her audience's expectations…(b)ut these momentary lapses can easily be forgiven when the music making is as sizzlingly exciting as it is here."
--My Fair Lady (Roy Hemming) "Though none of the new cast surpasses Andrews, Harrison, Holloway, and the rest of the original company, this is a loverly version of a great show."
--New Grass Revival, Hold to a Dream (AN) "Whether the band can fully conform to the constraints of commercial radio and still meet its standards of excellence and invention remains to be seen. Meanwhile (this album)…strikes a beautiful balance between innovation and tradition."
--Diane Schuur, And the Count Basie Orchestra (CA) "I hope Schuur eventually finds the way from her current overheated delivery to a more personal style…(b)ut the band sounds good, and there is much to like on this album."
--The Smiths, Strangeways, Here We Come (MP) "I imagine Marr spinning out these wonderful guitar arpeggios and twisting, odd chord progressions—and all the time nervously watching Morrissey out of the corner of his eye, hoping that the Smiths' tormented singer doesn't come at him with an axe."
--10000 Maniacs, In My Tribe (SS) "Although lead singer Natalie Merchant makes haunting vocal noises, and the band's playing retains the right kind of rough edges, you keep waiting for something concrete to connect with." Well, we'll just agree to disagree on this one, which is easily one of my five favorite albums of 1987.
--Tom Verlaine, Flash Light (SS) "This latest has all the requisite virtues and vices: superbly sympathetic back-up playing, maddening oblique lyrics, totally unpredictable song structures, and gorgeous layered guitar work by the star."
--Jesse Colin Young, The Highway Is for Heroes (AN) "Mainly, however, this is a predictable progression from Young as California hippie to Young as displaced, disillusioned dreamer, Eighties style—a man desperate to make a connection in his life and in his music, and pathetically unsure of how he got so far astray."
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