Steady, reliable Clint Black is country music's Harrison Ford. Cool as a Creamsicle and good-looking to boot, he brings a homegrown touch of class to even the most run-of-the-mall project (to wit, his dapper "Desperado" on Nashville's otherwise desperate Eagles tribute, Common Thread). And unlike the now-gargantuan Garth Brooks, Black rarely forfeits texture or tradition for the sake of sales. On Taillights, Clint's seventh studio disc, standouts like the rough-edged title track and "Our Kind of Love," featuring bluegrass bigwigs Alison Krauss and Union Station, prove that there are more ways than playing the President in Air Force One to win both fans and respect. (RCA)
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
Cleveland's premier rap group follows its multiplatinum, 1995 full-length debut (E. 1999 Eternal) with a double CD that is bound to frustrate as many listeners as it satisfies. Having previously distinguished themselves on singles like "Tha Crossroads" as gangsta rap's answer to Liberace, with a rococo mix of glitter and gunplay, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony takes the logical next step: a sprawling concept album. Too bad their unique blend of bullet-fast rhymes and smooth R&B crooning, best showcased here on "Look into My Eyes" and the gunshot-punctuated "Thug Luv" (with a chilling guest turn by the late Tupac Shakur), quickly runs out of ammo. Blame it on the near-parodic solemnity of their streetwise psalms or on their plodding, profanity-laced perspective. Either way, despite a flurry of rave reviews and a No. 1 debut on the pop charts, The Art of War is an uphill battle. (Ruthless/Relativity)
Various Artists
Intermingling disparate musical genres is not not a new idea. In 1993 rap and grunge bonded on the Judgment Night soundtrack; then the worlds of country and R&B collided on the Rhythm, Country & Blues album. Now modern rock and electronica have united on the soundtrack for the comic-strip flick Spawn. The potentially cacophonous match works because the genres complement each other rather than clash and burn. The hard-rocking likes of Metallica and Henry Rollins bring musical muscle to their proceedings, while their respective techno collaborators, DJ Spooky and Goldie, provide fierce backbeat grooves. The satanic rituals of Marilyn Manson and the sleazy trip-hop ambience of Sneaker Pimps may be no match made in heaven, but it's one hell of an inspired union. (Immortal/Epic)
Luther Allison
This should have been a triumphant milestone for Luther Allison, the album that reestablished the veteran performer some 15 years after he emigrated to Paris and became a European sensation. Sadly it will serve as a kind of epitaph: Allison, 57, died on Aug. 12, months after the album's release, shortly after canceling a U.S. tour due to lung and brain cancer.
The domestic comeback, which began with the 1994 release of Soul Fixin' Man, reaches its height on Reckless, which spotlights Allison's intense, focused guitar work and gravelly, soulful vocals. From uptempo rockers to contemplative acoustic blues, and from bouncy, horn-driven soul tunes to organ-fueled, gospel-style ballads, Allison performed with the fiery energy of a teenager and the grizzled soul of a veteran. He also revealed a strong songwriting hand, largely avoiding standard shuffles while intelligently tackling discrimination, inner-city decay and welfare reform along with more typical blues topics such as heartbreak, longing and adultery. Occasionally, Allison's exuberance got the best of him, and he veered into overkill, but he generally remained reckless in the best sense of the word, and Reckless provides countless reminders of just how much he will be missed. (Alligator)
Save Ferris
Generation X found its bleak outlook mirrored in the dissonant wail of grunge. Now Generation Next needs a style to capture the sound of opportunity knocking, and Save Ferris, an Orange County, Calif., ska-pop-swing band, seems ready to fill the bill. In two years the hardworking septet has gone from garage band to studio darling, and here, on their upbeat, full-length, major-label debut album, the plucky musicians show just what a can-do attitude can do. Brassy frontwoman Monique Powell, formally trained in opera and jazz, lends her winning show-tune-style vocals to a host of poppy songs ranging from the laughably silly lunch-meat anthem "Spam" ("Spam/ It's pink and it's oval...Spam/ It's made in Chernobyl"), to "Under 21," a rousing rendition of the frustration experienced by an underage concertgoer. But don't brand the album a sugary kidfest just yet. Lyrical meditations like "Goodbye," "Lies" and "Everything I Want to Be" show there's plenty here for the adult in you too. (Epic)
Jen Trynin
Her 1994 debut, Cockamamie, showed admirable grrrlish spunk and a few knockout songs, but promising as that release was, it barely hinted at the giant leap forward this 33-year-old Bostonian takes on her dazzling follow-up. Gun Shy Trigger Happy is a musical tour de force—13 meticulously produced cuts that feature Trynin's hypnotic vocals, gritty guitar playing and grown-up lyrics about faltering relationships and lost innocence—with the kind of mixed emotions her album title cleverly captures.
Propulsive trip-hop beats and Trynin's throaty singing on such selections as "Writing Notes" recall the Eurythmics' Annie Lennox, smartly updated for the late '90s. In contrast, "Go Ahead" is one of several guitar-drenched blasts that indie rock queen Liz Phair could envy. In this year that is ruled by Lilith, Trynin has matched her better-known peers by delivering one of 1997's strongest and most mature discs. (Warner Bros./Squint)
Lee "Scratch" Perry
Although the current fascination with drum-and-bass in dance-club music may be trendy, it's far from new. More than 20 years ago, working on an antiquated four-track, Jamaican producer Lee "Scratch" Perry, 61, stripped reggae down to its drum-and-bass essence, filtered it through a weed-stoked psychedelic sensibility and beefed it up with thundering reverb. Perry's creation was called dub, and just as Phil Spector changed pop with his Wall of Sound, Perry's hazy, hallucinatory rhythms altered reggae and its offshoots.
This long-overdue three-CD collection (the title refers to Perry's Black Ark Studio) focuses on his late-'70s production work and includes tracks by the Congoes, Augustus Pablo, the Heptones, Max Romeo ("War in a Babylon") and Junior Murvin's "Police and Thieves." Brimming with previously unreleased material, B sides, hits and, of course, dub remixes, Arkology is a must for hard-core fans and rhythm neophytes alike. (Island Jamaica/Chronicles)
>Ray Charles
A HALF CENTURY OF SOUL
After a career that has redefined the possibilities of American music, Ray Charles is getting a nice present for his 67th birthday this month: a 101-song, 5-CD box set, Genius & Soul: The 50th Anniversary Collection (Rhino), with hits from "What'd I Say" to "Georgia on My Mind." The divorced father of nine—who has been blind since age 7—lives in L.A.
Your nickname is the Genius. Whom do you consider to be a genius?
Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Rich, Louis Bellson. But for piano, Art Tatum is the greatest man that ever lived. He was God on the piano keys.
Did learning by Braille affect your music?
Yeah, it helped it. Because in Braille music, you can only read so many bars at a time. You can't play it and see it at the same time, so your memory and understanding expand.
Do you still love playing?
Oh, sure. Music is my life, my bloodstream, my breathing. I'm gonna make music until the good Lord says to me, "Ray, you've been a good horse. It's time to put you out to pasture."
- Contributors:
- Alec Foege,
- Jeremy Helligar,
- Alan Paul,
- Alison Michelle Rosen,
- Mark Bautz,
- 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!
