The brightest light in the hip-hop galaxy is Claude M'Barali, AKA MC Solaar. The rapper was born in Senegal and raised in France, where he is the biggest thing since Mickey Rourke, and where this second album, his first to be released in the United States, is already gold. Solaar's flow is jazzy, fluid, playful, witty, free of misogyny, race bailing and violent imagery. And, oh yes, it's also in French. But you don't have to parlay that language to dig the background mosaic of turntable grooves laid down by DJ Jimmy Jay or to appreciate Solaar's rich, sexy voice, which is so evocative, you feel what he's expressing even if you can't understand what he's saying. (Cohiba)
Travis Tritt
Given the current crop of sensitive New Age cowboys trying to be politically correct, it's refreshing to hear unrepentant good ol' boy Travis Tritt still raucously strutting his stuff on his latest album. Whether singing about getting into T-R-O-U-B-L-E in the bedroom ("Wishful Thinking") or the barroom (the title track), Tritt's hard-driving, hard-drinking swagger seems to just plain be in his blood. Why else would he continue to up the ante on his feud with Billy Ray Cyrus, whom he disses on the country-rock stomper "Outlaws Like Us"? Then again, anyone who has duetted in the past year with Patti LaBelle and David Lee Roth, as Tritt has, is likely to do anything, PC or otherwise—bless his ornery little hide. (Warner Bros.)
Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News were an industrious, better-than-average bar band when they hit a lucky" streak in the mid-'80s, racking up punchy hits like "I Want a New Drug" and "The Heart of Rock & Roll." Missing in action for the past several years, the group has returned with covers of their favorite oldies.
Such "back-to-our-roots" albums are generally water-treading maneuvers from artists temporarily bereft of inspiration, but Four Chords is the rare—and welcome—exception. Lewis and the News may be recharging their batteries with these renditions of mostly familiar '50s and '60s rock and R&B classics (Fats Domino's "Blue Monday," Sonny Boy Williamson's "Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl"), but they plow through everything with such down-and-dirty fervor you can't help but grin and groove along. If you've been missing street corner harmonies, blaring saxes and greasy harmonica playing, Four Chords is just the fix you've been pining for. Even if it's not, you'll have a good lime. (Elektra)
Julio Iglesias
After 71 amorous albums, Iglesias has just about run out of moves. Aside from smartly understated vocals on "I Keep Telling Myself" and Beethoven's "Song of Joy," the Spanish crooner's latest offers little to grease the wheels of romance. A duet with Dolly Parton on "When You Tell Me That You Love Me" merely out-sweetens a 1991 version by Diana Ross, taking it to its all-time saccharine high. A cover of "Oye Como Va" would have provided a nice jolt were it not so reverential to Santana's 1971 hit. And the world certainly doesn't need his bel canto vibrato wimpily caressing "Fragile" when it has Sting's tear-jerking original. Perhaps Iglesias should take a cue from the title track and get a little crazier next time. (Columbia)
- Contributors:
- Amy Linden,
- Billy Altman,
- Tom Sinclair,
- Jeremy Helligar.
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!
