If someone told you that "The Joker," Steve Miller's '70s romp, could be turned into a slyly humorous, sexy torch song, you might well scoff. But on the deceptively smart Drag, k.d. lang extracts unexpected beauty from it and other unlikely tunes. Drag is a dreamy collection of covers that range from camp ("Theme from the Valley of the Dolls") to obscure ("My Last Cigarette"). Besides offering further evidence that lang is one of our best interpretive singers, Drag also showcases the talents of producer Craig Street. He wraps lang's already evocative voice in an atmospheric, understated haze. Together they create mysterious, mesmerizing pop as seductive as the addictions lang explores. (Warner Bros.)
Tim McGraw
With his latest album's first single "It's Your Love" (which he sings with his wife, Faith Hill) on Billboard's Top 10 pop chart, McGraw becomes the first country singer to execute that neat crossover step since Billy Ray Cyrus scored with "Achy Breaky Heart" in 1992. If only McGraw's treacly ballad were as memorable as that novelty hit. In a genre in which too many artists depend on the same producers, musicians and songwriters, it's hard to tell most records apart. Although McGraw has a distinctive voice, his performances on these state-of-the-heart trifles are so polished that he winds up sounding like just another handsome, hat-happy hunk. (Curb)
Various Artists
Let's hope the title's "inspired by" means much of this joyless stuff didn't make the movie's final cut. The album functions primarily as a sampler of music by unknowns—the electro-pop duo Moloko and neo-soul man Eric Benét—and superstars alike. So we have Smashing Pumpkins dabbling in gothic electronica on "The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning," R.E.M. aping Sonic Youth's garage-band ethic with a noisy "Revolution" and Jewel theatrically sulking on the dirgelike "Foolish Games." R. Kelly's "Gotham City," an acoustic call for peace and unity, will make fans wish the formerly oversexed star gets back to bumping and grinding real soon. (Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.)
John Hiatt
One of a dying breed—the prolific song craftsman—Hiatt gets neither the radio play nor the retail sales enjoyed by many of the artists who have covered his tunes. While he is best known for writing Bonnie Raitt's career resuscitator, "Thing Called Love," he has turned out songs for the likes of Ricky Nelson, Dave Edmunds and Three Dog Night as well during his nearly 25-year recording career. But Hiatt is also a funky, soulful singer who consistently generates solid, good-time, bass-drums-and-guitar-driven pop as well as searing ballads that—depending on your age—are either timeless or Jurassic.
Hiatt here serves up a new batch of tuneful chronicles about liars, babes and other passions. Peppered with horn blasts and sitar strains, as well as lewd puns and goofy rhymes ("...red sweater...Eddie Vedder"), Little Head, his 14th album, brims with great pleasures. (Capitol)
Wyclef Jean
At the same time everyone from John Mellencamp to Jon Bon Jovi is embracing the hip-hop sound, many veterans seem to be rapping by rote. Now comes Wyclef Jean to restore some of the genre's vibrancy. One third of the Fugees, the Haiti-born Jean has assembled friends and bandmates to create a wildly eclectic and exhilarating excursion. From the Creole folk of "Yelé" (already a hit in Haiti) to the Havana meets Harlem vibe of "Guantanamera" (featuring the great queen of Afro-Cuban music Celia Cruz), Jean gleefully incorporates a myriad of styles, all tied together by rap's relentless rhythm. Filled with humor, smarts and a true sense of playfulness, The Carnival is what hip hop should be all about, (Ruffhouse/Columbia)
Toad the Wet Sprocket
This Santa Barbara, Calif., quartet is the alternative rock equivalent of a college applicant's "safety" school: not the pulse-quickening, everything-I-ever-hoped-for favorite, but a solid runner-up that you'll learn to enjoy, and perhaps even love. Toad's pleasing 1994 release Dulcinea won fans with the MTV hit "Fall Down." But the nine-year-old group has yet to achieve rock stardom—unlike Hootie & the Blowfish, who once opened concerts for Toad. Perhaps Coil, the band's fifth studio album, will do the trick. It's loaded with upbeat, riff-roaring tunes like "Crazy Life" and "Come Down" that you'll find yourself humming. (Columbia)
>George Harrison and Ravi Shankar
NEW DELHI TAKE OUT
Beatle George Harrison introduced fans to Indian sitar music on "Norwegian Wood" in 1965. Before long he introduced them to its greatest practitioner, Ravi Shankar. Now, thanks to Brit pop groups Oasis and Kula Shaker, interest in Indian music is resurgent. Harrison and Shankar recently released Chants of India (Angel), a collection performed by Shankar, 77, and produced by his old sitar student Harrison, 54. The two spoke with senior writer Peter Castro in New York City.
How good a sitar player is George?
RAVI: He would have been very good, but unfortunately, he couldn't give it much time.
GEORGE: I'm not good. I was born in the wrong place to be a sitar player. It's a torturous thing. Even to sit and hold it is difficult. But I enjoyed it, even the punishing side, because I never really had any discipline before. The sitar playing [on "Norwegian Wood"] was horrible. I didn't know how to tune it or play it.
George, what music do you listen to?
I still prefer the music I liked as a teenager—Little Richard, Larry Williams and Buddy Holly. That's classic music to me. But I like all kinds of music, Hawaiian, Spanish, Cab Calloway, Jorge Negrete. No, not Michael Bolton. I like music that is not ego music. Real music doesn't make you think of cash registers. It should transport you to somewhere nice.
- Contributors:
- Amy Linden,
- Jeremy Helligar,
- David Handelman,
- Mark Bautz.
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!
