At this point I guess I was still a stranger in the strange new land of Champaign-Urbana, beginning to find my footing as a first-year grad student. For all I know, I may have leafed through this issue on one of my occasional forays to the Champaign Public Library; if I had perhaps I took note of how some LPs under the SR microscope here had already been out quite a while. A few would wind up in my collection over the next couple of years--proud to say I have the Case, ashamed I never purchased that Smithereens. Can't win 'em all, I suppose.
Article
Ann Farrar Speaks with Talking Heads
True Stories, both the Byrne-directed film and the Heads album, had just come out, and we hear what the band thinks about all that (Jerry Harrison: "The movie freed David to write songs that perhaps would've seemed stupid for him to sing normally…(it) freed the band as musicians in the same way…we just played what fit in without worrying if it was 'deep' or 'ground-breaking.'"). We also are told about upcoming side projects from Harrison and Tom Tom Club (we learn working titles for what would ultimately be released as Casual Gods and Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom, respectively).
Best of the Month
--Van Morrison, No Guru, No Method, No Teacher (MP) "…something happens in the middle of side one that is arresting and wonderful: Morrison recalls his great masterpiece, Astral Weeks, the album that many feel is not only his greatest record but one of the five or ten greatest rock albums ever."
--The Smithereens, Especially for You (SS) "…the kind of band that wears its influences on its collective sleeve, and the basic sound here—a canny mixture of everything from rockabilly to Brill Building pop to California surf to Merseybeat—will doubtless be dismissed by professional cynics as hopelessly retro…the sense of craft here is so strong that the echoes of older records seem less an homage than simply a fact of life."
Featured Reviews
--Madonna, True Blue (MP) "On character alone, True Blue is a much more appealing album than last year's off-putting Like a Virgin. Instead of material girls and coy coquettes, True Blue finds Madonna playing the girl in trouble…but it's not that her appeal stems from playing the victim—she triumphs in every case."
--Steve Winwood, Back in the High Life (MP) "Winwood and lyricist Will Jennings tackle the big issues—religion, lifestyle, individualism and freedom, the inner self versus the public self—and manage to stay upbeat and optimistic about the whole thing."
Other Disks Reviewed
--Bananarama, True Confessions (MP) "I have the feeling a lot of people think Bananarama 'cheated,' or at least took the easy way out, by releasing 'Venus' as a single. But it's not only the best thing on True Confessions, it's better than the original…these three girls could become one of the greatest cover bands since Manfred Mann."
--Dave Brubeck, Reflections (CA) "…there was always a lyrical side to Brubeck, and that—as several selections here demonstrate—is an aspect of his music that time has enhanced."
--Peter Case, S/T (MP) "Case is too young to be as craggy and wise as he seems here, but the music doesn't lie. His folk- and blues-inspired tunes have a lean economy and urgency, his lyrics a flinty kind of smarts—skeptical but never jaundiced."
--The Cure, Standing on the Beach—The Singles (MP) "The Cure's music practically defines the last years of punk: simple, raw, peevish and adolescent, redolent of black jeans and white T-shirts, dark, sweaty, crowded clubs, stale cigarette smoke and pierced earrings swaying in rhythms under streaked mohawks."
--Bob Dylan, Knocked Out Loaded (SS) "The first thing you notice about Knocked Out Loaded is perhaps the ugliest cover art to have graced a major artist's LP since Van Morrison's Hard Nose the Highway. And if you can get past that and actually play the damn thing, you soon realize that the cover is, in many ways, the album's high point."
--Teena Marie, Emerald City (PG) "Teena Marie is so gifted that she is capable of doing just about anything she wants to, and with all its wildly veering directions, this set does hold your interest."
--Jeffrey Osborne, Emotional (PG) "The essential appeal of any record from Jeffrey Osborne lies in the exceptional quality of his voice…and this latest one comes close to total realization of his potential."
--Red Clay Ramblers, It Ain't Right (AN) "College educated and near-musicological in their approach to old-time music the five-piece band moves fluidly from blues to bluegrass to ragtime to gospel, with sojourns to straight country on command, and they play it all with uncommon, but never excessive, polish."
--Sparks, Music You Can Dance To (MP) "To their credit, Sparks can get some amazing sounds in the studio, but they also produce some amazingly ugly ones. If they could only learn to tell the difference."
--Rod Stewart, S/T (SS) "…more or less interchangeable with all the other Rod Stewart albums over the last few years, and the soul, wit, and humanity that characterized his early work remains barely a memory."
--38 Special, Strength in Numbers (SS) "The band's basic formula—ringing guitars, memorable tunes derived from various Brit-Pop models, a dash of Southern soul, and near Cinemascope production—is so likeable you almost don't mind that it is a formula…these days, however, there are lots of better bands working the same basic territory, and 38 Special sounds somewhat simple-minded in comparison."
--Rosie Vela, Zazu (AN) "Regrettably, the sum total of this package is a collection of New Wave ditties that emerge as fleshless as stray dogs, since none of the songs deliver what they promise up front."
--Weather Report, This Is This (CA) "Many people will disagree with me, but I believe that the fusion explosion ignited by Weather Report and Miles Davis is in large measure responsible for the stagnation of jazz, though perhaps they only expedited the process…yet another well-crafted entry form the masters of fusion. And that is that."
--The Whitehead Brothers, S/T (PG) They're the teenage sons of Philly soul singer-songwriter John Whitehead. "Their youthful sound is firmly rooted in the best rhythm-and-blues tradition, yet they remain true to the spirit and energy of their emerging generation."
--Neil Young, Landing on Water (SS) "Mostly, however, I'm reminded of a friend's comment on Neil Young some years ago: 'He may be a bozo, but he's such a great bozo.' On this album, unfortunately, he's just a bozo."
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