Over his 20-year critic-proof career, soprano saxman Kenny G has sold more than 70 million records worldwide despite reviews deriding his work as "secondhand soul." Featuring the light R&B grooves and mildly ethnic percussive accents that have defined his smooth jazz sound, Kenny's latest is predictable and prosaic. There are moments in his perfunctory instrumentals—on the song "Peace," for instance—when the bass plays softly and synthesized strings swell that are so Muzak-esque that one expects the sustained high note the G-man is blowing will be interrupted by intercom hiss and a perky voice chirping, "Attention, shoppers..." Two duets, however, stand out. "One More Time," a beguiling ballad featuring singer Chanté Moore, is radio-ready, as is the facile slow jam "All the Way," on which Brian McKnight pleads, "It took a little time for me to see/ That I could fall for you so easily." The same, unfortunately, won't be said of this disc.
Bottom Line: Low sax appeal
LeAnn Rimes (Curb)
Not since Michael Jordan decided to play baseball has there been such a misguided career choice as this attempt by Rimes to explore adventures in Britneyland. Armed with a sexy new haircut and a self-consciously suggestive vocal style, Rimes kicks country to the curb on 13 overproduced, drum machine-laden cuts distinguished mostly by her willingness to say "damn" and sing about "kissing you all over."
Now 20 and married (to former dancer Dean Sheremet), Rimes, who made her debut at 13, works hard to prove she is all grown up. She cowrote four songs, including the banal pop-rocker "Life Goes On," which wallows in pretentious philosophizing. With her rich timbre and precise pitch, Rimes could be a first-rate pop singer, but she's clearly watched way too many VH1 Divas shows, given how often she lapses into the melodramatic phrasing favored by Celine and Whitney. At least, though, that's better than the pinched diction she uses to convey sensuousness on tracks such as the techno-ish dance number "Tic Toe," a far cry from her early work in which Rimes appeared to be the next Patsy Cline.
Bottom Line: A fallen Angel
Blind Boys of Alabama (Real World)
Album of the week
Gospel and R&B, long intertwined, file into the same pew on this often inspired disc. Since their origins over 60 years ago at the Talladega (Ala.) Institute for the Deaf and Blind, the Blind Boys have frequently branched out from their spiritual roots into secular music. Here they team up with folk-funkster Ben Harper as well as pedal-steel guitar virtuoso Robert Randolph to perform a mix of devotionals and songs by such soul greats as Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Prince, George Clinton and Curtis Mayfield. Their glorious cover of Mayfield's "People Get Ready" is the highlight, although the three remaining members of the original lineup—Jimmy Carter, Clarence Fountain and George Scott—also elevate Franklin's "Spirit in the Dark" and Prince's "The Cross." Randolph's electric guitar and John Ginty's organ nicely complement the Blind Boys' vigorous jubilee-style gospel, creating a sound that will indeed take you Higher.—R.N.
Bottom Line: Soul-stirring
Ryan Adams (Lost Highway)
He may look like a slacker, but Ryan Adams is proving to be one of the hardest-working men in music. Even as he goes back into the studio to record the proper follow-up to last September's Gold, one of PEOPLE'S 10 best discs of 2001, the alt-country poster boy returns with this collection of 13 previously unreleased demo recordings made from December 2000 to October 2001. While Demolition doesn't have anywhere near the luster of Gold, it effectively captures a raw talent in the rough: Each track was recorded live in the studio with no retouching. With their brooding beauty, the folky ballads (including three acoustic-guitar gems that didn't make the cut for Gold) far outshine the tossed-off country rockers. The aching "Desire," with its bluesy harmonica, will surely leave listeners wanting more of Adams.
Bottom Line: Demo dynamo
Gerald Levert (Elektra)
On his standout sixth solo album, Levert harks back to the soulful Sound of Philadelphia that his father, founding O'Jays member Eddie Levert, helped popularize in the '70s. To capture that classic Philly vibe, Levert recorded the entire disc in the City of Brotherly Love, using mostly live instrumentation, including lots of real strings and a vintage Wurlitzer keyboard that his dad gave him more than 20 years ago. The singer also gives props to Pop on the midtempo bopper "All That Matters," which interpolates from the O'Jays' 1975 hit "Family Reunion." Another track, "Your Smile," borrows from the 1967 Nickolas Ashford-Valerie Simpson tune "Your Precious Love." Levert even keeps it retro when he brings in rapper Mystikal for a James Brownish turn on the funky "Too Much Room." But it's emotive ballads like "Closure"—on which the normally gruff-voiced Levert shows off his silky upper register—that really hit the spot.
Bottom Line: All herald Gerald
Thicke (NuAmerica/Interscope)
Following in the blue-eyed soul tradition of Hall & Oates, Boz Scaggs and George Michael, Thicke (full name: Robin Thicke) sets out to prove that he's pretty fly for a white guy on his debut disc. And he does just that on his ultrafunky first single, "When I Get You Alone," which samples Walter Murphy's 1976 disco hit "A Fifth of Beethoven." It's the basis for an old-school party groove where retro-'70s R&B meets Beastie Boys-style hip-hop. Injecting his hyper, falsetto-tinged vocal with just the right amount of humor, Thicke makes the track a fun, wink-wink nod to his obvious heroes: Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield and Sly Stone.
Unfortunately Thicke—the 25-year-old son of Growing Pains star Alan Thicke and his ex-wife actress-singer Gloria Loring—can't sustain that juicy flavor for the rest of Cherry Blue Skies. Despite a few other infectious up-tempo numbers such as the piano-driven jam "Brand New Jones," the CD suffers from Thicke's thin vocals and often slight songs. "Oh Shooter," a slinky but slack recounting of the singer-songwriter's real-life encounter with a bank robber, fires blanks emotionally, while the title tune, with its unconvincing psychedelia, doesn't do much to make listeners swallow its Utopian lyric pleading for everyone to "get on the same side."
Bottom Line: Partly cloudy Skies
Elvis Costello may not be an angry young man anymore, but he isn't ready to be Tony Bennett either. "For reasons I still cannot understand, I played Monte Carlo on my birthday," Costello, 48, says of the Aug. 25 gig. "It was black tie. Even my roadies had to be lent jackets. I think a lot of people who had come off the yachts were horrified. I don't know what they thought they were going to hear, but it wasn't what we were playing."
American fans, though, know what to expect on his just-launched 30-city U.S. tour to promote his latest disc, When I Was Cruel. It's a raucous return to form after such departures as Costello's sophisto-pop collaboration with Burt Bacharach. "It is essential to follow what you feel strongest about," explains Costello of his musical wanderings, "rather than feel you are a brand."
Costello—married for 16 years to former Pogues bassist Cait O'Riordan—takes that road-less-traveled approach to leisure as well. "We [vacationed] in the sub-Antarctic last year, and this year we're going to round Antarctica in an icebreaker," says Costello. "It's rugged seas down there, but it's great. It's a remarkable thing to lie on a black volcanic sand beach surrounded by 70,000 king penguins." Ah, 70,000 tuxedos, and no jacket required.
Pete Norman
- Contributors:
- V.R. Peterson,
- Ralph Novak,
- 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!
