• August 04, 2003
• Vol. 60
• No. 5

Picks and Pans Main: Song

Kelly Clarkson's Favorite Summer Songs

Mýa (Interscope)
Critic's Choice

    

Since her last album, 2000's Fear of Flying, Mýa has vamped it up with Christina Aguilera, Pink and Lil' Kim on their smash remake of "Lady Marmalade" and hoofed it up with Catherine Zeta-Jones on Murderer's Row in Chicago. Which helps explain why the 24-year-old singer (full name: Mýa Harrison) is in a naughty mood on her sparkling third CD. On the frisky first single, "My Love Is Like...Wo," she teases and tantalizes a prospective lover over a slinky groove produced by the ubiquitous Missy Elliott: "Better love me strong/ 'Cause I want this love to last all night long." Later, on the deeply funky "Why You Gotta Look So Good?" she details why her desire is making it hard to kick a man to the curb: "Boy I wish you wasn't quite so big." At times Moodring, with its trip-hop beats and sensual slow jams, is reminiscent of Aaliyah; other times the disc's pop-R&B sheen brings to mind a younger Janet Jackson. Like both of those singers, Mýa has developed a feathery sexiness to go along with the natural sweetness of her soprano, which nevertheless wouldn't scare the competition on American Idol. Still, this is the stuff that real pop idols are made of.

BOTTOM LINE: Sterling Moodring

Dwight Yoakam (Audium/Electrodisc)

Rueful and wittily cynical, this is a splendid album about the travails of romantic disappointment. The King of Regret himself, Willie Nelson, even joins Yoakam for a duet on "If Teardrops Were Diamonds." Yoakam wrote that easygoing lament, as he did six other of the disc's 10 tunes, including the cleverly titled "Fair to Midland" (a pun on "fair to middling"). The best of the non-Yoakam compositions is the sprightly "The Back of Your Hand": "You take a guess where I stand/ Pick a number from one to two/ Take a look at the back of your hand/Just like you know it, you know me, too."

The catch in Yoakam's voice makes him an ideal candidate to sing for the lovelorn. And the musical arrangements stick close to the singer's Bakersfield rockabilly roots. One odd choice, though, is the Burt Bacharach-Hal David number "Trains and Boats and Planes," a mundane pop tune if ever there was one.

BOTTOM LINE: Get the Dwight stuff

Cheap Trick (Big 3)

Close your eyes and you'd swear that's Roger Daltrey belting out "Scent of a Woman," this album's bombastic rock-anthem opener. But no, it's Cheap Trick singer Robin Zander, of course, and that's guitarist Rick Nielsen, not Pete Townshend, windmilling the power chords. Why these veterans chose to channel The Who when they're perfectly capable of rocking the cheap seats in their own right is anyone's guess. Zander, especially, seems bent on keeping his own wonderfully self-conscious vocal style under a bucket. He imitates Wilco's rasping folkie Jeff Tweedy and screams like Steven Tyler, but at his best here (on "Pop Drone") he sounds like a "Live and Let Die "-era Paul McCartney. At worst, on the lyrically lame title song ("My life will be hell without you my belle"), he makes Cheap Trick sound like Whitesnake. While "Scent" appeals to the Bicwielding arena rat in all of us and "Low Life in High Heels" shows the band's trademark humor, this One really isn't all that special.

BOTTOM LINE: No way to treat Trick fans

Ashanti (Murder Inc.)

When it was announced that Ashanti would be given the Aretha Franklin Entertainer of the Year accolade at last year's Lady of Soul Awards, over 30,000 people signed an online petition saying that she didn't deserve the honor. The singer's sophomore CD, though, proves wrong those who thought she would be a one-hit-album wonder. Chapter II, which continues the same hip-hop soul theme as her self-titled debut, is the equivalent of a good beach read: It's easy, breezy listening that doesn't require much brainpower. While songs like the shimmery single "Rock Wit U (Awww Baby)" will' sound great pumping from your boom box, these mostly midtempo and ballad tracks all start to sound the same midway through the disc. She could use more dance cuts like her cover of the '80s club classic "I Found Lovin'."

BOTTOM LINE: Agreeable Ashanti

Tracy Byrd (RCA)

The self-mocking title cut is macho fun: "Don't like to go out shoppin'/Don't care what's on sale/Just wanna sit with a bag full of chips/Watchin' the NFL." And Byrd's hearty delivery is vigorously backed with guest vocals by Andy Griggs, Montgomery Gentry and Blake Shelton. "Drinkin' Bone" is also well-suited to Byrd's rugged persona. Byrd falters when he attempts to get warm and fuzzy on "You Feel Good," and "How'dl Wind Up in Jamaica" sounds as if it belongs elsewhere—maybe on a Jimmy Buffett album.

BOTTOM LINE: Half wheat, half chaff

Her platinum debut album, Thankful, Is sizzling on the charts. But what tunes does Clarkson turn on to heat up the season?

•"I Come from the Water" by Toadies "Great song for going out on the lake with your friends."

•"School's Out" by Alice Cooper "It was a ritual to play that song every year on the last day of school."

•"I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)" by Jay-Z and "Hot in Herre" by Nelly "These are two definite summer party songs."

•"Oh, Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison "It's the ultimate girls'-day-out song."

•"Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot "It's the best song for big booties."

• Contributors:
• Chuck Arnold,
• Ralph Novak,
• Steve Dougherty.