"We're going right back to Doris Day movies," one critic said of the post-Sept. 11 entertainment world. Maybe so. Charlotte Church—formerly a cute kid, now a lovely young lady of 15 and as ever a gorgeous soprano who sanctifies every note—feels just about perfect right now.
Romantic showtunes—South Pacific's "Bali Ha'i," Show Boat's "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man"—glow, as does a sleek flamenco take on "Habañera" from Carmen. Even better are the moving "The Flower Duet" (in case you're not up on the chart-toppers of 1883 French opera, you know it from a long-running British Airways commercial), Carousel's ageless "If I Loved You" and two West Side Story evergreens, "Tonight" and "Somewhere." On the latter, Stephen Sondheim's uncharacteristically sentimental lyrics have never been sung, or timed, better: "Somewhere/ We'll find a new way of living/ We'll find a way of forgiving."
Bottom Line: Like a prayer
John Mellencamp (Columbia)
Album of the week
Now that American flags are adorning every front porch, it's time to dust off the old John Mellencamp discs—mostly the ones where Cougar was still a part of his recording name. In the '80s he carried the banner for Americana, with a string of hit albums including American Fool, Uh-Huh, Scarecrow and The Lonesome Jubilee. So the moment couldn't be better for the release of Mellencamp's 15th studio album, Cuttin' Heads, on which this Hoosier shows that he is still very much the heart of the heartland.
"Well I'm not a preacher just a singer son/ But I can see more work to be done/ It's what you do and not what you say/ If you're not part of the future then get out of the way," he implores in "Peaceful World," a soulful duet with R&B folkie India Arie that was written before last month's terrorist attacks. On "Crazy Island," he hails America as "a place where dreams can grow." These songs' simple constructions bring to mind a simpler time, when Jack met Diane. And on catchy ditties such as the country-tinged "Women Seem" and the reggae-styled "Shy," Mellencamp, at 50, has effectively turned back the clock.
Bottom Line: A cut above
Music for Solo Piano
Billy Joel (Sony Classical/Columbia)
Sing us a song, you're the piano man. Instead, for his first classical album, Joel wrote 12 wordless compositions and hired pianist Richard Joo to play them. That's right: On his latest album Billy Joel does not sing or play a single note.
The new work will render most fans slack-jawed with bewilderment—especially when contrasted with Joel's heartfelt performance of his classic "New York State of Mind" on the America: A Tribute to Heroes fund-raiser. These noodlings make for nice dinner music, but their wifty titles—"Reverie (Villa D'Este)," "Innamorato," "Aria (Grand Canal)"—hint that Joel's Kubla-Khan-in-the-Hamptons lifestyle may be going to his head.
Bottom Line: We liked you just the way you were
Garbage (Almo/Interscope)
Even rock stars have to grow up sometime. Or do they? This is Scottish singer Shirley Manson's great dilemma on the unapologetic "Shut Your Mouth," on which she deliberates selling out and settling down. Which is not to say that her Madison, Wis., bandmates stagger under the burden of 35-year-old Manson's midlife crisis.
On Garbage's third disc, buzzing guitars and playful electronica power hook-heavy retro cuts like "Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)" and "Can't Cry These Tears." But the band's best work, as always, is on obsessive, self-deprecating love songs like "Cup of Coffee," which explores post-breakup friendship, and the powerful "Drive You Home."
Bottom Line: Collect this Garbage
Suzanne Vega (A & M)
Don't call it folk music: This New York City native has outgrown her Phoebe Buffay streak with this varied and artful CD, a pop gem that will surprise listeners who had her pigeonholed in the dusty aisles of low-key, vaguely political music. On her first album since 1996, Vega's voice remains as near-childlike as in her 1987 breakthrough single "Luka," but it sounds as if it has been working out at the gym in these 13 revved-up songs.
Rich with visual imagery and musical nuance, "Widow's Walk," the first single, builds a hypnotic guitar pattern into a symphonic vamp. It's a story told by a woman who uses her seafaring husband's absence as a chance to take emotional inventory. Another track, "Machine Ballerina," gracefully matches a creaky, pump-organ accompaniment with lyrics like "Am I your Mad Magazine/ Skin trampoline/ Pin-up pinball machine?" The result is a lush yet meaningful sonic collage.
Bottom Line: Viva La Vega!
Ja Rule (Murder Inc./Def Jam)
Who needs P. Diddy? When Jennifer Lopez wanted to team up with a relevant hitmaking rapper this year, she called on Ja Rule, who performed on the hip-hop remix of her latest single, "I'm Real," which promptly went to No. 1 on the singles chart. The song also appears on this, the follow-up to last year's triple-platinum Rule 3:36. But on Pain Is Love, the Queens native (real name: Jeff Atkins) proves that he is much more than just a great duet partner.
The strength of Rule's unmistakable rap style—a gravelly voice that he occasionally uses to sing as well as rap with (think a hip-hop Tom Waits)—keeps his pre-J.Lo gangsta reputation intact, whether he's freestyling a bit of Sade's "King of Sorrow" on the album's intro or riffing off Stevie Wonder's "Do I Do" on the lively first single, "Livin' It Up" (featuring R&B singer Case). In fact Rule is at his best on R&B-flavored cuts such as "Always On Time" and "Never Again." But on gritty tracks like "Dial M for Murder" and "Smokin and Ridin," he shows that no matter how many mainstream pop divas he may rub up against, he is still a thug at heart.
Bottom Line: Ja rules!
- Contributors:
- Kyle Smith,
- Chuck Arnold,
- Sona Charaipotra,
- 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!
