With two albums and two films this fall, the Cajun Sinatra has got the world on a string. On one of those albums, Songs I Heard, Connick puts his trademark debonair stamp on a collection of classic children's songs. But the Dixieland jazz and big-band renditions of "Spoonful of Sugar" and songs from The Wizard of Oz are too quirky for tots. There's a cloying Fred Rogers quality, too, by the time Connick offers his sixth cute selection from cute Julie Andrews movies.
On a separate new album, 30, Connick (who released 20 at 20 and 25 at 25, but is now 34) returns to his just-playing-for-tips roots, riffing through 14 standards on solo piano. Six of them are instrumentals; "Chattanooga Choo Choo, " for instance, takes a wrong turn somewhere between Memphis and Knoxville. That smoky voice, though, will still turn knees to rubber on tracks like the moody "The Gypsy." Smelling salts manufacturers, note the tie-in opportunities.
Bottom Line: Heard is kid stuff; 30 acts its age
DMX (Bloodline/DefJam)
If any rapper has picked up the gangsta mantle of Tupac Shakur since his shooting death in 1996, it's DMX. Like Shakur, the Yonkers, N.Y., native (real name: Earl Simmons) is a multiplatinum MC whose hardcore skills have won him a hardcore following, even as his rap sheet grew while he lived the thug life he celebrated in his music. As with Shakur, DMX also earned big-screen credibility, costarring in this year's action film Exit Wounds. Lest anyone think Hollywood has softened him, the rough rhymer remains a street-fighting man on his new CD.
"I'm a dog from the hood/So I got to rap from the hood, " he proclaims on the rock-edged "Bloodline Anthem." On the gripping "Who We Be, " DMX, his guttural growl in full effect, spits out a litany of lyrics from the unglamorous side of gangsta land. His raw language on menacing tracks such as "School Street" will keep radio and MTV censors busy. But his harsh delivery is less effective when he tones down his act on "I Miss You, " a tribute to his late grandmother, and the prayerful "A Minute for Your Son." DMX a softie? Say it isn't so.
Bottom Line: A rugged rap-sody
The Cranberries (MCA)
Since 1991 Dolores O'Riordan's ethereal vocals have made it seem as if the Cranberries were stuck in a perpetual sonic dream—their haunting melodies evoking a pop-rock version of Enya's New-Age schtick. As the caffeinated title of its fifth album suggests, this Irish quartet—which is rounded out by guitarist Noel Hogan, his bassist-brother Mike and drummer Fergal Lawler—has, in part, finally emerged from its big sleep. Yes, the title track begins with the obligatory Cranberries atmospherics, but that quickly gives way to blaring guitars, a thumping bass line and a biting O'Riordan delivery that rivals that of her compatriot Sinéad O'Connor.
Not all the songs on Wake Up and Smell the Coffee pack quite the same wallop, however. In fact, hushed ballads such as "Chocolate Brown" and "Never Grow Old" make one wonder if this band really has changed its ways. Which isn't such a bad thing. The gorgeously textured "Pretty Eyes, " on which O'Riordan sings barely above a whisper, is an insomniac's elixir.
Bottom Line: Berry good
Incubus (Epic/Immortal)
Album of the week
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Their piercing guitar licks get Incubus lumped in with rap-metal acts like Limp Bizkit and Korn, but this Southern California quintet's sound is not just for head-bangers. Call it light metal.
Hard-edged guitars alternate with acoustic strumming, all underscored by an eclectic style and poetic lyrics that suggest Ozzy Osbourne on retreat in Santa Fe. This fourth CD picks up where the band left off on the double-platinum 1999 album Make Yourself, which spawned the hit single "Drive, " a fixture on the charts since last winter.
On the flowing "Aqueous Transmission, " soothing woodwinds and a Chinese kokyu back the gentle drawl of singer Brandon Boyd, who roars on the thrashing quarter-life-crisis lament "Warning." "Just a Phase" blends in the trip-hop and record-scratching that marked Incubus's early work as Boyd petulantly pronounces, "I am bottled, fizzy water/ And you are shaking me up."
Bottom Line: Captivating View
George Jones (BNA/Bandit)
Although he has given up alcohol, tobacco and even coffee since his horrific 1998 DUI car accident, George Jones, 70, still has plenty of good ol' boy left in him. On his new album, that is never more evident than when he teams up with Garth Brooks for the raucous duet "Beer Run" (although, given Jones's past drinking problems, some may find the tune in questionable taste). That track is one of many highlights on a disc that marks his 50th year in country music. He lends just the right touch of emotion to "50,000 Names, " songwriter Jamie O'Hara's heartbreaking tribute to the Vietnam Memorial. And like Frank Sinatra before him, Jones has aged gracefully enough not to sound ludicrous on such romantic tunes as "Half Over You." Jones may be a changed man, but thank goodness he remains the same singer.
Bottom Line: By George, he's still got it!
Chely Wright (MCA Nashville)
Chely Wright's voice is so warm, her style so casual and conversational that she is uniquely suited to singing story songs, but a whole album of them sounds like a set of rejected scripts for The Young and the Overwrought. Most prosaic is "One Night in Las Vegas, " a duet with Brad Paisley that works in a separation, a sick dad, real estate deals, job transfers—even lost baggage at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. "Horoscope" dabbles apologetically in astrology, and "Not as in Love" concedes, "I've seen Sleepless in Seattle way too many times."
This country singer has a flair for tossing in blink-and-you-missed-it details. Even the affecting "Her" crams in the "Dairy Queen and the 108 bus stop." You may feel as if you've tarried too long at Dairy Queen after listening.
Bottom Line: They're her stories, and, unfortunately, she's stickin' to 'em
Mark Wills (Mercury Nashville)
If you can't get enough of mewling, wispy-mustached boy bands, read no further. This country troubadour is a man's man who sings about the joys of holding women (not "girls"), baseball and spending time with children. Wills's latest is forceful, varied, energetic and always musical. The highlight is a romantic duet with Jamie O'Neal, "I'm Not Gonna Do Anything Without You." "I Hate Chicago" stands out, too, with Wills bashing that town because his girlfriend has moved there and fallen in love. But the treacly "The Balloon Song, " about a boy who sends a message to his dead mother by writing on a balloon he lets fly toward heaven, will make you long for a pin.
Bottom Line: Male-order music
Live (Radioactive/MCA)
Live likes to be known as the band that uses big guitars to chase big issues—birth, death, religion—in epic grunge-rockers like early hits "I Alone" and "Lightning Crashes, " to the tune of 17 million records sold. Booming intensity remains the point of the quartet's fifth outing, but it isn't 1994 anymore.
If Live's guitars have gotten even heavier, roaring to rival P.O.D. or Staind's, its lyrics are now in danger of wafting away in a stiff breeze: "Is that a Swatch watch?/Do you know what time it is?" growls singer Ed Kowalczyk on the shallow "Deep Enough." On the misguided "People Like You, " the lads from York, Pa., envision themselves in the ranks of Bono and Bruce Springsteen. Dream on, guys. The county-fair circuit beckons.
Bottom Line: Lifeless
>TODAY Raul Malo (Higher Octave) The former lead singer of the Mavericks strikes out on his own with this varied set on which the Cuban-American explores Latin sounds on four Spanish-language numbers, including the festive "Ya Tu Veras."
FOR THE LOVE... The O'Jays (MCA) If the Isley Brothers can make a comeback, maybe it's the O'Jays' turn. The veteran vocal group lets its soul glow on this collection of slow jams ("I'm Ready Now") and midtempo boppers ("Let's Ride").
ALESSANDRO SAFINA Alessandro Safina (Interscope) Andrea Bocelli, watch out! Safina is the latest Italian tenor hoping to hit a high note as a crossover act on his U.S. debut, which translates classical for pop ears on tunes like "Siena."
- Contributors:
- Kyle Smith,
- Chuck Arnold,
- Sona Charaipotra,
- Ralph Novak.
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!
