Van Morrison, Lonnie Donegan, Chris Barber (Pointblank/Virgin)
Best known as a footnote to Beatles lore, Scotland-born banjo-plucker Donegan created a sensation in 1956 with his skiffle version of "Rock Island Line." A tinny hybrid of Appalachian jug-band music, Dixieland and early rock performed on washboard and broom-handle bass, Donegan's style inspired John Lennon, Paul McCartney and countless British teens to form their own skiffle groups. Across the Irish Sea, Belfast schoolboy Morrison was also smitten. The memory of his first band, the Sputniks, and the joyful, homemade abandon of skiffle led him back to his musical roots and this delicious collaboration with the now-68-year-old Donegan. The pair resurrect 15 long-lost skiffle wonders, with Morrison's weighty vocals providing a nice counterpoint to Donegan's thin but hearty wail. With titles like "Don't You Rock Me Daddio" and "Alabamy Bound," this may seem quaint. It ain't.
Bottom Line: Belfast blast
D'Angelo (Virgin)
Album of the week
By virtue of his fluttering falsetto and the raft of seductive, impassioned songs that filled his 1995 debut album, Brown Sugar, neo-soul man Michael D'Angelo Archer was hailed as the second coming of Motown legend Marvin Gaye. Avoiding the studio gimmicks and macho posing of his contemporaries, the 26-year-old Richmond, Va., native forged a vibe that embraced jazz, blues and West African rhythms. On this five-years-in-the-making follow-up he again channels the sounds and styles of his forebears, from the obvious (Curtis Mayfield) to the subtle (Jimi Hendrix). On such songs as Roberta Flack's "Feel Like Making Love" and "Untitled (How Does It Feel)," he obsesses over love and its vagaries. The only jarring note is a gruff collaboration with rappers Redman and Method Man ("Left & Right").
Bottom Line: Mining the golden age of R&B
Tracy Chapman (Elektra)
With her rich contralto, Chapman is always a pleasure to listen to. But here she lets her lovely instrument rise and fall in cadences that vary little from track to track. Backed by electric guitar, bass, drums and organ, she fills this, her fifth disc, with fine sonic textures that create an atmosphere so stately and hushed you wish she would scream and maybe even smash a few antiques. Missing are the topical songs that defined her electrifying 1988 debut album. These are more meditations than stories, and they mostly lack narrative and emotional thrust. On even the most compelling, such as "Less than Strangers," about a passion gone dry, Chapman sounds more wistful than anguished. On "Unsung Psalm" she imagines a better world in which "I'd be at peace and I'd have no desire." And, as here, not much to sing about.
Bottom Line: May cause drowsiness
The Cure (Fiction/Elektra)
Read this and weep: Robert Smith, the floppy-haired maestro of mope, is back, and—happily—he's miserable. Since their 1980s heyday, songwriter Smith and company have strummed, hummed and moaned through a string of international hits, all pretty much focusing on lost opportunities in love and other small agonies. And though the British band's lineup has changed over the years, they have always kept the quality of their lush, dark music uniformly high, with the exception of 1996's unsatisfying search for a new sonic identity on Wild Mood Swings. Fans of the Cure's signature echoey guitar-in-a-bathroom sound—a major influence on younger bands like the Cranberries—will enjoy hearing Smith again confidently bleat lines like "It used to be so easy/But the last day of summer never felt so cold." With more than 27 million records sold, how unhappy can he be?
Bottom Line: Sad rockers cry again
>THE RUX REVUE Carl Hancock Rux (Epic/550) Merging poetry, hip hop and ambient beats with old-time R&B, this debut album is hypnotic, intense and thought-provoking.
A MAP OF THE WORLD Pat Metheny (Warner Bros.) The genre-jumping guitarist fills this soundtrack album with a mesmerizing stew of jazz, classical, folk and rock instrumentals.
CARAVANA CUBANA: LATE NIGHT SESSIONS Various Artists (Dreamer/Rhino) An all-star jam of Cuban (and yanqui) greats proves the Buena Vista Social Club is not an exclusive franchise.
- Contributors:
- Steve Dougherty,
- Nick Charles,
- 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!
