Clocking in at just under 29 minutes, Weezer's latest disc is about the length of a sitcom, which is fitting, since the group made its name with the campy Happy Days-inspired video for its 1994 nostalgia tune "Buddy Holly." That single led the way to triple-platinum sales for their debut (titled Weezer but referred to as The Blue Album), but their more introspective follow-up, 1996's Pinkerton, had about the commercial impact of Joanie Loves Chachi. Already aloof front man Rivers Cuomo then effectively went into hiding at Harvard. Five years and a cult following later, the band takes up where they left off on the first disc. With their hook-laden pop and geek-rock attitude, the L.A. quartet plays off deadpan lyrics on deceptively sunny anthems like "Photograph," with its measured rhymes and classic "Oh baby" chorus, and the thrashing "Hash Pipe." The simple honesty of the standout "Smile" recalls the finest song on the first album, "Say It Ain't So."
Bottom Line: Still a little Blue
Paul McCartney (Capitol)
Album of the week
John Adams, Grease 2, Wings: Put them all in history's file marked Had a Tough Act to Follow. But just as Grease 2 gave us Michelle Pfeiffer, Wings brought us the purest pop of pop's purest decade, that brief period after music stopped selling revolution and before it began selling navel rings. And Wings was huge: In the '70s McCartney's various bands on the make had more No. 1 singles—six—than the Eagles, the Stones or the three other ex-Beatles combined. Much of the sharpshooting by Wings haters was directed against McCartney's bandmate and missus, but if Linda was a poor musician there is no evidence of it in the band's studio work.
This two-disc compilation—one for hits, one mostly for songs that McCartney believes were unjustly ignored—revisits many tracks that hold up well against his very finest Beatles compositions: the pocket operas "Band on the Run" and "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey," the full-on rocker "Junior's Farm" and the graceful "Maybe I'm Amazed." There are also such lesser-known classics as "Junk," a love song doomed to history's dustbin by its title, not its gorgeous melody, which was memorably used in the date scene in Jerry Maguire. "Every Night" is another heartfelt, simple (and non-silly) love song. Make fun of McCartney's lyrics all you want, but is "All You Need Is Love" so profound?
Bottom Line: That '70s band rocks
Cowboy Junkies
(Latent Recordings/Zoë/Rounder)
If ghosts could sing, they'd probably sound like Margo Timmins, who could make "You Are My Sunshine" sound like a dirge. But together with bassist Alan Anton and her brothers Michael (on guitar) and Peter (drums), she is taking a few steps away from the haunted prairie sound on her prolific band's 11th album since their 1986 debut.
Though the country-rockers revisit the themes that make them the perfect mood-setters for a serial-killer movie—murder in "I Did It All for You," cheating in "Bread and "Wine," depression in "Dark Hole Again"—they move slightly up-tempo on the album's brightest (a relative term) tunes, the 10,000 Maniacs-sounding "Small Swift Birds" and "Close My Eyes."
But the Junkies are not likely to be invited on Live with Regis and Kelly anytime soon. Michael's languorous, lingering guitar still echoes ever so slowly and sadly throughout the aching acid rocker "Dragging Hooks (River Song Trilogy: Part III)," a reflection on lost years and lost love, and takes a Jimi Hendrix turn in "Upon Still Waters." "1000 Year Prayer" apologizes to God for ruining the world but adds, "You've got Jimi Hendrix so let's call it an even split."
Bottom Line: Back in the sad saddle again
Billy Gilman (Epic Nashville)
Many recording artists need a skillful producer, but that goes double for a sprout like Gilman, who needs to team up with someone in possession of a valid driver's license to get from place to place. At 13, Gilman lacks the moves of the young Michael Jackson or the pipes of LeAnn Rimes, so he must rely on a low-key, ordinary-boy charm. But on this album it is successfully exploited only on "The Woman in My Life," an affecting tune about a boy's devotion to his mother. Even that track cries out for the presence of a bigger voice to play the mom—Emmylou Harris, say. On the rest of the album Gilman plays macho, trying with varying success to put over such romance-oriented tunes as "She's My Girl," "Our First Kiss" and "Almost Love." But he's not convincing at all on such adult angst trips as "My Time on Earth" and "Some Things I Know."
Bottom Line: Dare to act your age
Tortoise (Thrill Jockey)
Just because you don't know their name doesn't mean you haven't heard this Chicago quintet's instrumental jazz-rock. Tortoise's electronic harmony has backed up TV ads for Calvin Klein and Levi's with a mix of electronic, acoustic and synthesized sounds that recalls jazz improvisation. But with its weird pulsing beats and spacey guitars, Tortoise sounds a bit like Charlie Parker meets Radiohead.
Standards is full of twists and turns that create a pleasing whirl of textures and moods. Take the opener, "Seneca," which begins with a rocking take on our national anthem but morphs into syncopated percussion. Cacophony never sounded so melodic.
Bottom Line: Bursting out of its shell
Jessica Simpson (Columbia)
Poor Jessica Simpson. She sold a mere 2 million copies of her 1999 debut, Sweet Kisses, was romanced by chiseled heartthrob Nick Lachey of 98° and scored major brownie points with parents across America by pledging to remain a virgin until marriage. And yet the 20-year-old is still playing catch-up with those other two fair-haired pop princesses: Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.
But there's nothing on her sophomore disc that is quite as irresistible as Spears's "Oops!...I Did It Again" or Aguilera's "What a Girl Wants." And while Simpson is a more robust singer than Spears and a less showy one than Aguilera, her vocals still aren't as distinctive. Even so, Irresistible has its moments: "Imagination," "I Never" and the peppy title track. At least Simpson's ballad with Latin singer Marc Anthony, "There You Were," bests Aguilera's recent duet with Ricky Martin, "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely."
Bottom Line: A diva still in training
TOMB RAIDER Various Artists (Elektra) A raucous blend of hip-hop and electronica, the soundtrack to the live-action version of the cult video game features Missy Elliott and Nelly Furtado on "Get Ur Freak On" and a rockin' remix of U2's "Elevation."
MI SON Rick Treviño (Vanguard) A member of the all-star group Los Super Seven, this one-time country singer mines his Mexican roots to make Tejano magic on this disc, which features bandmates Cesar Rosas on guitars and David Hidalgo on drums.
STRANGER THAN FICTION Ultra Naté (Strictly Rhythm) This longtime club queen is no stranger to the dance charts, but rousing house tracks such as "Desire" and "Get It Up (The Feeling)" work just about as well at home as under the disco ball.
- Contributors:
- Sona Charaipotra,
- Kyle Smith,
- Ralph Novak,
- Barbara Kligman,
- Chuck Arnold.
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!
