As became clear during VH1's recent installment of its Divas Live! series, the already much-overused sobriquet can be an ill-fitting crown when plopped on the heads of thrushes still in or barely out of their teens. And so it seems puzzling that Cole, a larger-than-life pop presence who possesses the true diva's grandeur of talent and history, has not been included in the music network's celebrations. Now 49, the daughter of music great Nat King Cole was scoring Grammys, selling albums by the millions and rebounding from personal problems before some wannabe divas were, literally, a-Live! Her most stunning comeback occurred in 1992 when she walked off with seven Grammys for Unforgettable, with Love, a tribute to her late father. Now she returns with her 21st album, which, despite lavish orchestral productions by the likes of Phil Ramone and David Foster, keeps the bombast to a minimum, allowing Cole's artfully restrained vocals to shine on an unlikely mix of tunes by songwriters as diverse as Bob Dylan ("Gotta Serve Somebody") and Alan and Marilyn Bergman ("His Eyes, Her Eyes").
Bottom Line: Majestic sounds from a true pop royal
Little Richard (Peacock)
Album Of The Week
He was rock and roll's great evangelist, pounding his piano, whooping his exhilarating hits and exhorting audiences with revivalist fervor. But after bounding on the scene in 1956 and carving himself a permanent place on rock's Rushmore alongside Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry with hits like "Tutti Frutti" and "Good Golly Miss Molly," Richard renounced the devil's boogie that had made him a star. Quitting the music biz in 1959, he enrolled in an Alabama Bible college to become a pentecostal minister. Before returning to his secular calling (he continues to perform today, at age 66), Richard Wayne Penniman entered a New York City recording studio in the fall of '59 to cut these 10 classic, transcendent gospel tunes. Dropping the giddy falsetto with which he belted the wildly lascivious lyrics of his rockin' early gems, Richard sings in a deeper but no less ecstatic baritone. Backed by electric guitars, bass, drums, organ and his own percussive piano, as well as a choir of exuberant singers, he rips it up in the name of the Lord. The only fault with this album is its brevity: 29 minutes. But Richard proves he could tear the roof off a church as easily as he could a roadhouse full of sinners.
Bottom Line: Richard's spirit will move you
Kristin Hersh (4AD)
There's something about Kristin, and it's a bit disturbing. The images of her lyrics can be as frightening as they are fascinating, belying her soft appearance and sweet soprano. As singer, guitarist and chief songwriter for Throwing Muses, the pioneering 1980s femme-rock band she formed with her stepsister Tanya Donelly (late of Belly), Hersh helped craft albums like 1989's Hunkpapa. After the sisters parted in 1991, Hersh continued to lead the Muses until 1997. Now a one-woman band (she plays all the instruments—including guitars, bass and drums—save some programmed drum loops), Hersh creates a spare but sharp setting for her unsettling, vividly literate lyrics. On "Echo," which opens with a cool, jazz-pop bass groove, Hersh assumes the point of view of a woman suffering a serious personality disorder: "I'm scaring everybody/I'm wearing everybody down." And in "White Trash Moon," perhaps the first pop song to employ the word "fontanel" (an infant's soft spot), a "neighbor's gun" keeps a baby awake. Scary.
Bottom Line: Enthralling as it is unnerving
Barry White (Windham Hill)
Is there anything in creation quite as low-down, soothing and sexy as Barry White's elemental basso aphrodisia?
Reunited with his Love Unlimited Orchestra, the group with whom he scored a string of disco hits in the 1970s, White serves up another steamy collection of music to procreate by. With assists from duet partners Chaka Khan and Lisa Stansfield (on separate versions of "The Longer We Make Love"), as well as a cameo rap from guest Sean "Puffy" Combs (on a slow, funky cover of Sly and the Family Stone's "Thank You [Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin]"), White, now 54, essays the same sensuous theme (quick translation: he's good in the sack) that he purred in songs like "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby" and "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" a quarter century ago.
Warning: As you may have guessed, White is not speaking of his career longevity in the title song; nor is "Slow Your Roll" advice to a pilot experiencing too much yaw.
Bottom Line: Deep, slow and seductive
>LIVE AT WOODSTOCK Jimi Hendrix (MCA) And on the fourth day (Mon., Aug. 18, 1969), after most of the audience had dispersed at the scheduled end of the three-day Aquarian Exposition (daily admission: $6), the head-liner finally played. We're still listening.
BIG TRAIN Wynton Marsalis & the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (Columbia) Music is in the air. Marsalis bottles it. One of six CDs in his astounding Swinging into the 21st series of jazz and classical compositions set for release in 1999, this Train roars.
FIGHT SONGS Old 97's (Elektra) Pealing guitars, appealing vocals and surprisingly world-weary lyrics ("I've thought so much about suicide/ Parts of me have already died") animate a self-assured fourth album from a group of young Texas twangers.
- Contributors:
- Steve Dougherty.
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!
