• September 02, 2002
• Vol. 58
• No. 10

Picks and Pans Main: Song

Worth a Listen

Duncan Sheik (Atlantic)
Album of the week

    

Since his 1996 breakthrough hit, "Barely Breathing," Duncan Sheik's pop career has been in desperate need of resuscitation. "On a High," the first single off the singer-songwriter's fourth album, should do the trick. It's a radio-ready, drive-with-the-top-down ditty with a buoyant beat to match its ebullient lyric ("I'm on a high, on a high/ There's nothing more to it/ You're the sea and the sky/ And the blue that runs through it"). The rest of Daylight isn't quite as bright as "On a High," but the disc still shines brilliantly throughout. Sheik, whose last CD, Phantom Moon, was a conceptual collaboration with poet-playwright Steven Sater, has returned to making more straight-ahead pop-rock that is, at the same time, uncompromisingly literate and lyrical Think of him as John Mayer's older, wiser brother. Sheik remains at his intellectual best on meditative moments such as "On Her Mind," cowritten with Foreigner's Mick Jones, and "For You," an acoustic-guitar ballad with a quiet beauty that speaks volumes.

Bottom Line: One of the year's best

Dixie Chicks (Open Wide/Columbia)

Few artists were as prepared to jump on the bluegrass bandwagon as the Dixie Chicks, what with Martie Maguire's fiddle, her sister Emily Robison's banjo and their down-home harmonies with lead singer Natalie Maines. On this, the Chicks' follow-up to 1999's 10-million-seller Fly, their traditional picking and singing add a rootsy authenticity to numbers such as "Truth No. 2," a Patty Griffin song that boasts a twangy vocal by Maines and nimble banjo playing from Robison. The composing credits also include such bluegrass stalwarts as Marty Stuart, Radney Foster and Natalie's father, Lloyd Maines, who also coproduced the CD.

Not that this is a clichéd bluegrass project. In fact, the disc is noteworthy for its variety. One of the highlights is the Chicks' introspective version of the 1975 Fleetwood Mac tune "Landslide," complete with Maines's Nicksian vibrato. Another striking track is the eloquent, touching "Travelin' Soldier," a Vietnam-theme song cowritten by splendid singer-composer Bruce Robison, Emily's brother-in-law. And "More Love," a straightforward '60s-style plea for affection, helps enhance the album's warm, personal vibe, making it feel just like Home.

Bottom Line: Chicks still rule the roost

BBMak (Hollywood)

Forget 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys—BBMak is the best boy band around (and not just because they actually play their own instruments). The British trio—which is comprised of Christian Burns, Stephen "Ste" McNally and Mark Barry—follow up 2000's jolly good debut Sooner or Later with another collection of shiny guitar-pop ditties that are guaranteed to stick in your head.

Of the 10 tracks on this disc—all of which Burns, McNally and Barry cowrote—there is not one bad song in the bunch. This is the rare CD that can be played from start to finish without hitting the skip button. With instantly catchy choruses, sunny harmonies and charmingly retro arrangements, BBMak updates the tuneful Brit-pop tradition of the Beatles for the TRL generation. On '60s-inspired songs such as the psychedelic-tinged "Staring into Space" and the symphonic "Sympathy," close your eyes and you can almost imagine them wearing mop tops.-C.A.

Bottom Line: BBMak shoots a bull's-eye

Aimee Mann (SuperEgo)

With her blonde hair and icy, brittle words, Aimee Mann is like Janeane Garofalo disguised as Uma Thurman. Her effortlessly piercing, seen-it-all delivery could convey sarcasm or pain. Despite her cotton-candy-haired new-wave beginnings in the '80s band Til Tuesday, Mann has the introspection of a coffeehouse poet without the wimp factor. Backing her otherworldly vocals with muscular electric guitars and spare keyboards, she's a Jewel in the rough. "All the perfect drugs/ And superheroes/ Wouldn't be enough/ To bring me up to zero," she sings on one track; on another, "Hate the sinner but love the sin/ Let me be your heroin."

Continuing on the odd comeback path that began with the 1999 soundtrack to Magnolia, for which she wrote and performed nine songs of exceptional grace, Mann is releasing this CD on her own label; don't let its hypelessness make you miss it.

Bottom Line: Super Mann

X Def Leppard (Island) The '80s metalheads have adjusted their once bone-rattling histrionics on a surprisingly melodic rocker, the band's 10th album. Warning to diehards who never stopped wearing ripped jeans: Contains heartfelt love songs.

DIRTY CHILD Rosey (Island) Placing her throaty alto over slinky jazz rhythms and eclectic world beats on her debut effort, this blue-eyed soul Child is part Macy Gray (the funky "Love") and part Fiona Apple (the eerie "Beautiful"), yet uniquely Rosey.

FASHIONABLY LATE Linda Thompson (Rounder) Bedeviled for years by a rare psychological condition that prevented her from singing, Thompson returns with a quietly powerful, traditional country-folk disc that should appeal to fans of Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris.

• Contributors:
• Chuck Arnold,
• Ralph Novak,
• Kyle Smith.