The popular culture knows no higher achievement than the songs of George and Ira Gershwin, and this collection—honoring the 100th anniversary of George's birth—includes 20 memorable performances of those songs.
The project has some built-in shortcomings, limited as it is to artists who recorded on the Decca label (the songs here were cut between 1937 and 1960). That excludes many of the best Gershwin interpreters, including Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Linda Ronstadt and Bobby Short. This album does include, however, Sammy Davis Jr.'s swingy version of "I Got Plenty O' Nuttin' " from Porgy and Bess, Ella Fitzgerald's "My One and Only (What Am I Gonna Do?)"—recalling Ella's peerless Verve set of Gershwin tunes—and a definitive "Someone to Watch Over Me" by Jeri Southern. There's also "Soon" by the underappreciated Connie Boswell, "But Not for Me" by an especially mellow Bing Crosby and even an unexpectedly thoughtful "They Can't Take That Away from Me" by Teresa Brewer. Whatever isn't here, there's still plenty to enjoy.
Bottom Line: Awful nice, if not quite paradise
Hole (DGC)
Album of the week
Days before the release of her group's last, critically worshipped album, Live Through This, Hole vocalist, lyricist and lead hellcat Courtney Love suffered through a wrenching event: the 1994 shotgun suicide of her husband, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain. For Love, who wore Cobain's sweaters in mourning and toted around his ashes for a while, grieving was a public affair. Now, after temporarily shelving her music career to pursue movie stardom (The People Vs. Larry Flynt), the punk-rocker turned Vogue glamor queen abandons her old shock attack and opts for a surprisingly appealing pop-rock sound (with music composed mainly by herself, Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson and Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan). Still, Love crams these songs with imagery of death and anguish. She does some Hollywood bashing in "Awful" as well as in the title song ("Oh make me over/ I'm all I wanna be/A walking study/In demonology"), but it is Cobain whose ghost haunts tracks about the dark side of pop life and ungentle exits to eternity. On "Malibu," with its images of suicide by drowning, Love's pleading sounds as real as the urn she carried: "Oh come on be alive again/ Don't lay down and die."
Bottom Line: Former punk goes pop to winning effect
John Hiatt (Capitol)
You may not recognize his face nor, for that matter, his sandpaper growl. But when it comes to these 17 memorable songs, John Hiatt is easy to place. Bonnie Raitt and Suzy Bogguss have had giant hits with, respectively, "Thing Called Love" and "Drive South," both featured on this CD in all their rough-hewn glory. "Have a Little Faith in Me," reinterpreted here with a full gospel choir, has been covered by everyone from Joe Cocker to Jewel. What makes Hiatt's tunes so appealing is the way that they straddle rock, blues, country and R&B, all with a healthy dose of self-deprecating humor. With 15 albums to his credit since 1974, Hiatt can light Fourth of July firecrackers under even the most familiar three-chord vamp. At his best, the Nashville-based songwriter paints an authentic American portrait of Shangri-la. And with such down-home lyrics as "Put the cow horns back on the Cadillac/And change the message on the Code-a-Phone," he slyly puts it within reach.
Bottom Line: Snappy standards from a neglected American treasure
Canibus (Universal)
This debut album by Canibus (real name: Germaine Williams) has landed with a hailstorm of hype. After all, this is the newcomer who taunted longtime rap star LL Cool J on his very first single, "Second-Round KO" (which is contained here), and fired up an already smoldering feud between the two. Although the spatting became big news in rap circles, this disappointing album from Canibus suggests that he may not go the distance as the war of words continues. In short doses his brittle delivery grabs attention, but his venom—mostly against other rappers—soon wears thin, and his rhymes often seem wordy and shapeless, which is partially the fault of producer Wyclef Jean. On "I Honor You" he tries to transform himself from a pit bull into an attentive poodle, without luck. A love man Canibus ain't. Although he may have something to say, and some real rap skills, he also has a ways to go before he's a star.
Bottom Line: Would-be rap heavyweight only floats his first time out
>SEVERE TIRE DAMAGE They Might Be Giants (Restless) The quirk rockers are a kick in concert, as this hook-laden live album of old hits ("Birdhouse in Your Soul") and new tunes proves.
TREASURES LEFT BEHIND: REMEMBERING KATE WOLF (Red House) Kathy Mattea, Emmylou Harris and 12 others pay loving tribute to the singer-songwriter, who died in '86.
LA LLORONA Lhasa de Sela (Atlantic) A collection of haunting, passionate songs from the 25-year-old artist who was born in America, lives in Canada and sings in Spanish.
- Contributors:
- Ralph Novak,
- Steve Dougherty,
- Alec Foege,
- 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!
