Metal with melody? Hoobastank delivers on its surprisingly tuneful major-label debut. Ignoring the deejay scratching and heavy synth play of rap-metal acts like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, this Agoura Hills, Calif., quartet sticks to rock and roll basics on this self-titled disc. Frontman Doug Robb blends anguished vocals—alternately hushed and raging—into a wall of thrashing guitars, bass and drums on radio-friendly rockers like the crunching first single, "Crawling in the Dark," which has also become a big hit at MTV.
Unfortunately, the band—which supposedly takes its name from bassist Markku Lappalainen's middle name, which he claims is Hoo-bustank—often lapses into clichés, recycling familiar riffs and generic lyrics about alienation and unrequited romance. On "To Be with You," a 40-watt power ballad, Robb whines, "Make me feel again/ Slide across my skin again/Let me uncover you/ To rediscover you." Lyrics like these are best left undiscovered.
Bottom Line: Middleweight metal
Kylie Minogue (Capitol)
Since her 1988 debut, Kylie Minogue has given Madonna a run for her money in Europe and Australia. Like Madonna, she is a videogenic diva whose dance-pop ditties have consistently ruled the charts while her personal life has kept tabloid reporters working overtime (she has been linked to Lenny Kravitz and the late INXS singer Michael Hutchence, among others). Aside from her 1988 hit "The Loco-Motion," though, similar success in the States has eluded the Australian with her previous two U.S. albums. That may change with this disc's frothy first single, "Can't Get You Out of My Head," a club-ready confection that sounds like a lost Madonna track from her "Like a Virgin" years.
Although Minogue's nostalgic approach works nicely on "Head," a couple of discofied house tracks and the sweet girl-group throwback "Your Love," there's not much in the way of creativity on Fever. Don't get us wrong: Cheesy keyboards, breathless vocals and mindless lyrics are wonderful—indeed, the building blocks of pop—but they don't make a meal. Even if you can prance and preen like a Victoria's Secret model while lip-synching to it.
Bottom Line: Should come with a mirrored ball
Brandy (Atlantic)
She isn't Moesha anymore. At 23, Brandy is grown-up, married (to music producer Robert Smith) and taking no trash on a new album that swaps teen pop-R&B for electronicalaced funk. Last heard in puppy-love mode on her 1998 duet with Monica, "The Boy is Mine," Brandy, this time, is interested in men, but she'd rather kick them to the curb than fight another woman over them. This disc's startling first single, "What About Us?," rips a trifling boyfriend for his misdeeds: "Now what about bills that were past due, paid for you/ And all you said to me is baby, I owe you/ Forget about the brand-new life that I gave you." The radical new outlook of the lyrics is matched by the song's innovative production, which finds an almost unrecognizable Brandy surfing through a cyber-spacey sonic collage.
Unfortunately, the rest of Full Moon can't sustain the bizarre brilliance of "What About Us?" While much of the CD brandishes a similar edge, with electronic wizardry made for headphone listening, it showcases the producing team (longtime collaborator Rodney Jerkins, primarily) more than its singer. Brandy has one of the more distinctive voices around, so it's a shame that she so often gets lost in the beat-heavy mix. On the ballads, at least, Brandy's husky timbre stands out; her sultry, soulful vocals on the jazzy slow jam "He Is" show her maturity as a singer—and as a woman.
Bottom Line: Full Moon, half Brandy
Natalie Imbruglia (RCA)
Album of the week
Natalie Imbruglia's global hit "Torn" ripped through radio and led to three Grammy nominations and double-platinum sales for her 1998 debut album, Left of the Middle. Then the Australian singer-songwriter became harder to find than Dick Cheney. The break seems to have done her good. Imbruglia has returned with a well-crafted collection of tuneful pop rock on White Lilies Island.
Sounding like a cross between Sheryl Crow and Sarah McLachlan, Imbruglia is still finding her own voice—something not easy to do with four different producers and four cowriters—but she sings appealingly, and her songs have strong melodic hooks. Most of this rewarding CD consists of breezy guitar-based tracks such as the single "Wrong Impression," but Imbruglia also rocks out on "That Day," spitting out its stream-of-consciousness lyrics. She is at her most ethereal on the bittersweet ballad "Goodbye."
Bottom Line: Back in bloom
- Contributors:
- Sona Charaipotra,
- Chuck Arnold.
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