Because Tillis isn't a great vocal stylist, she is much more dependent on her material than bigger-voiced singers like Faith Hill or Tanya Tucker. Tillis, however, has demonstrated an astute ear for clever, contagious country pop tunes. She and coproducer Billy Joe Walker Jr. display that ability again on this CD, which includes two infectiously downbeat songs by Leslie Satcher, "You Put the Lonely on Me" and "Whiskey on the Wound." Those, along with titles like "Hurt Myself" and "A Whisper and a Scream," add up to enough grief on this album to make even Alanis Morissette happy. So what if she isn't Joan Sutherland or Mariah Carey in the pipes department; Tillis can be most entertaining in her travails.
Bottom Line: Sweet suffering, country-style
William Topley (Mercury)
On most of the tracks here, Topley sings with such a deep-fried Southern drawl it is hard to believe that he was raised not on corn pone but crumpets. A 34-year-old Londoner, he is the ex-leader of the Blessing, a British soul band that broke up in 1994. On this collection of sometimes brooding, sometimes celebratory songs, Topley gives us four new tunes as well as seven previously recorded with the Blessing. Singing on some cuts in a gravelly growl reminiscent of Tom Waits, and on others in a more lyric, and pleasing, style, he borrows from the Southern black experience in nicely crafted numbers about mean women—"Wake Up (Your Dream Sounds So Sad)"—bad habits—"(I Don't Wanna Go) Uptown"—and life on the Mississippi Delta.
Bottom Line: A British soul man finds his voice in American blues
BR5-49 (Arista)
Album of the week
Often decked out in overalls, the five members of this country-rockabilly band look like they stepped off the set of Hee Haw, the show that gave them their odd moniker—the phone number in a sketch about a dimwitted used-car salesman. But despite their campy look, the band's music, honed by years of performing in Robert's Western World, a Nashville store that doubles as a nightclub, is a refreshing blast from country music's past. Besides the sort of vigorous country and early rock covers ("There Goes My Love," "Wild One") that spark their club dates, Backyard includes nine originals that would sound at home in an old WSM Opry radio broadcast. The rhythm section is anchored by drummer "Hawk" Shaw Wilson and bassist "Smilin' " Jay McDowell, and guitarist-songwriters Gary Bennett and Chuck Mead provide vocals. The album also features the stellar play of Don Herron (fiddle, cello, mandolin, Dobro), who helps make BR5-49 more than a country throwback by imbuing their sound with a sense of timelessness.
Bottom Line: Lively bar band bellies up to the big time
Various Artists (1500/A&M)
Despite their growing popularity, many tribute albums come off as cheesy and passionless—but not this surprisingly energetic tribute to Depeche Mode by mostly younger bands. Ironically, even in their 1980s heyday the four members of this British synth-pop group were themselves guilty of churning out some of the cheesiest and most passionless music around. But shorn of its original tinny-sounding arrangement, a song like "Never Let Me Down Again," lushly reinterpreted here by Smashing Pumpkins, is transformed from a cool brush-off into a paean to friendship. Thanks to earthier-sounding American bands, like the currently in vogue Deftones—as well as cutting-edge international acts—this compilation highlights Depeche Mode's secret strength: alluring melodies. The group may have lost its widespread appeal by the late 1990s, but the best moments here suggest it ought to demand a recount.
Bottom Line: A warm homage to icy icons from the '80s
Parlor James (Sire)
In the early '80s, guitarist Ryan Hedgecock teamed with honky-tonk angel Maria McKee to found the pioneering alternative country group Lone Justice. While McKee would establish herself as one of the decade's premiere vocalists on a string of mostly winning solo albums after the group broke up in 1987, Hedgecock's career languished. Collaborating now with singer-songwriter Amy Allison, with whom he released a well-praised six-song EP, Dreadful Sorry, two years ago, he has switched gears from creating rocking honky-tonk to an engaging brand of techno-flavored pop music. Underpinning the computer-generated wall of synthetic sounds created by Hedgecock and producer Malcolm Burn are driving rhythms contributed by two living, breathing drummer-percussionists (including original Lone Justice member Don Heffington). Unfortunately, Allison, the daughter of jazzman Mose, can't quite muster vocals to match the music's rolling lilt. A creator of catchy, pop-bright loved-and-lost songs, Allison wrote or cowrote 6 of these 11 tunes. But the album's melodic sway is marred by high, nasal vocals that make her sound at times like a Spice Girl on helium.
Bottom Line: Frothy pop that could use more vocal fizz
- Contributors:
- Ralph Novak,
- Steve Dougherty,
- Alec Foege.
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!
