Like Michael Bolton, Richard Marx is a Teflon pop star. Despite the poor-to-mixed reviews that have flecked his career, Marx's last three albums have sold a defiant 15 million copies. Marx shouldn't be fazed, then, to hear that his latest effort probably won't improve his reputation among music critics. Like his other albums, Paid Vacation is packed with well-sung songs (Marx can belt them out) that are painfully short on substance.
With the exception of two standouts, "Nothing Left Behind Us" and "Silent Scream," the album is laden with a mix of power rock and ballads that feature Marx's Top 40 voice and his accomplished band, but little else in the way of memorable compositions. The 1989 hit "Satisfied" proved there's a great songwriter in Marx itching to break out. Perhaps he should take a paid vacation and find him. (Capitol)
Celine Dion
It's getting tough to tell today's pop ingenues apart. The third U.S. release from French-Canadian songbird Dion could be the latest from Marian Carey. Same power pipes. Same department-store song selection: spotless ballads on the ground floor, a few dance tunes upstairs and a midtempo toe-tapper or two riding the escalator.
Dion perfects her romantic pitch with The Colour of My Love. While vocal somersaults bog down Carey's work, Dion quietly makes mushy blather sound like gospel. The hyperbole of "No Living Without Loving You" becomes almost believable, and the empty platitudes espoused in "Love Doesn't Ask Why" resonate like glorious epiphanies. Dion still needs to find her niche, and taking any musical risk would be welcome. But with her current single "The Power of Love" riding the charts, she can probably coast through a few more albums. (Epic)
Ace of Base
Even after Ace of Base top-tenned with their first U.S. single, "All That She Wants," detractors dismissed the four photogenic Swedes as a sugar-pop sequel to fellow Scandinavians ABBA. But the quartet's debut album, The Sign, is a clear signal that more hits are on the way.
Though nowhere near high art, tunes like "Happy Nation" and the title song prove Ace of Base to be more substantive than a mere ABBA clone. Instead of reheating moldy white-bread pop, siblings Jenny, Linn, Jonas "Joker" Berggren and their pal Ulf "Buddha" Ekberg blend reggae syncopation, strobe-light grooves and a jejune point of view, cooking up 45 minutes of delirious fun. (Arista)
John Michael Montgomery
Montgomery seems to be goosing his career in the general direction of the achy-breaky, turkey-lurkey crowd with an uptempo second album. There are few traces of the romantic Montgomery who made his debut last year. Instead a honky-tonker ambles through tunes that sound like Jerry Reed rejects, minus the trucks. Most of the album's musicality comes from pedal-steel player Paul Franklin. While Montgomery sounds a lot like the quietly ingratiating Randy Travis, he lacks Travis's ability to keep the richness and warmth in his voice when he gets out of ballad mode.
The songs too are sterile, though the title track, "Friday at Five," and "She Don't Need a Band to Dance" generate honest carousing feelings.
The line-dance crowd may well kick up their heels over this album, but the sit-down-and-listen gang will probably think twice about listening twice. (Atlantic)
Various artists
In the summer of 1990, Curtis May-field was hit by a lighting cable and left paralyzed from the neck down. While it ended his performing career, it could not diminish his artistic impact. This album is a soulful testimony to Mayfield's continuing importance. Whether it was the gospel-filtered harmonies of the Impressions or the solo years, when he brought social relevance to R&B with "Superfly" and "Freddie's Dead," Mayfield spoke to the head and to the heart.
Gathered here to interpret May-field's work are such talents as Phil Collins, Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder. Tevin Campbell singing "Keep On Pushin'," written before he was born, is a high point; ditto Whitney Houston's show-stopping "Look into Your Heart." The only missteps are "Let's Do It Again," which pairs Mayfield's sweet tenor with the lifeless Repercussions, and a sexless "Gypsy Woman" à la the Boss. With a portion of the proceeds going to spinal-injury charities, All Men Are Brothers has its heart in the right place. By paying tribute to Mayfield, its soul is there too. (Warner Brothers)
- Contributors:
- Peter Castro,
- Jeremy Helligar,
- Ralph Novak,
- Amy Linden.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
