On her first album of original songs since 1992's Fat City, this feisty folkie comes out swinging with a restless, occasionally angry and sometimes bittersweet set. For Colvin, Repairs is a nice rebound after her tepid recording of cover tunes two years ago. Colvin's sound has evolved from the quiet power of her sparkling, Grammy-winning 1989 major-label debut, Steady On. This more brawny, rootsy recording opens with "Sunny Came Home," in which the narrator imagines setting fire to a bundle of bad memories, consisting mainly of (what else?) lousy romances: "Count the years, you always knew it/ Strike a match, go on and do it." Colvin displays her gift for spinning delicious melodies out of empty air on the lush "You and the Mona Lisa." The stunner, though, comes with the subdued acoustic beauty of "Wichita Skyline," a lonesome traveling ode in which the breathless plaintiveness of her voice soars above a simple guitar strum and John Leventhal's twangy lead guitar lines. Even amid the swelling ranks of female artists in pop, Colvin is a vibrant original. (Columbia)
Graham Parker
Give him a drum and some floppy ears, and you'd swear Parker was the rock world's answer to the Energizer Bunny. Nothing stops this guy. He was doing his angry young rocker act back when the kids of Green Day were still in preschool. Twenty years and some 18 albums after his raucous first album, Howlin' Wind, Parker sounds as lively and irritated as ever.
From the opening punk-pop kick of "Turn It into Hate" to the funky bump of "Obsessed with Aretha," he shows that there's no such thing as being too old to rock and roll. Parker's last few albums have found him in a mellower mood, but Acid Bubblegum is as powerful and timely as any of the 45-year-old rocker's early releases. He has aged like fine scotch but still manages to tear your guts out like cheap whiskey. (Razor & Tie)
Leon Parker
Jazz-trained but hewing to no genre, drummer Parker, 31, is blessed with a rare gift: originality. He starts with the simplest elements, a finger-tap on a conga drum or a woodblock's rich clop, and builds beautifully complex grooves. As a composer (he wrote or cowrote six of these nine pieces), Parker dreams up spare but catchy melodies that float above the symphony of rhythm. The superb Tom Harrell (trumpet) and Steve Wilson (alto saxophone) each solo beautifully on the slinky "Ray of Light" and on the title song, a funky blues. Another highlight is a track that begins as a lilting Afro-Brazilian tune before you realize that it's actually Ellington's "In a Sentimental Mood," stripped down and reconfigured into something mysterious, compulsively listenable and new. (Columbia)
Crash Test Dummies
Most folks look at a boy playing with a loose tooth, or a fork sitting by a toaster and think nothing of it. The Dummies see these same mundane sights and turn them into wonderfully crafted pop songs like "He Likes to Feel It" and "Many Dangers." This effort seems a little more moody and less Top 40-ready than the group's previous albums (1991's The Ghosts That Haunt Me and 1993's God Shuffled His Feet), with songs rarely speeding beyond mid-tempo. Yet the Dummies continue to create startling, stimulating tunes. That's due in large part to lead singer-songwriter Brad Roberts's croaking bass vocals and to his funny, simple world view. A sample lyric from "My Enemies": "I sit and concentrate and try hard not to hate my enemies/I try to picture them dressed up as furry little bunnies." Picture Forrest Gump with a guitar and you get the idea. (Arista).
>Donovan
RETURN OF THE HURDY GURDY MAN
For those too young to have vintage bell-bottoms in their attics, he's best known as the father of model-turned-Nancyboy-singer Donovan Leitch Jr., 29, and actress lone Skye, 25, his children by American ex-model Enid Karl. But Donovan was an icon of the 1960s, that alternately terrible and goofy decade that brought us both Charles Manson and the Monkees. With his fey voice and trippy manner, the Scotland-born balladeer could slither from apocalyptic ("Season of the Witch") to hippy-dippy ("Mellow Yellow") to simply beautiful ("Catch the Wind"). Now, after several decades of relative quiet—he lives in County Cork, Ireland, with his wife of 26 years, Linda—Donovan, 50, is back with a new album, Sutras (American Recordings).
Was it odd being back in the studio?
It's a strange thing, but [producer] Rick Rubin likes to record the way we did in the '60s. He's not into synthesizers or special effects. We recorded on equipment that was from the '60s and '70s, on microphones that were 35 years old. He's rebelling against the cold techno sound of modern records. For me it was extremely comfortable.
How do you like your son's music?
I only got to know my American son when he was about 18. His mother brought him up in Los Angeles. Dono's music is glam rock and so different from my own. It's not my kind of thing.
Do you enjoy covers of your songs?
"Hurdy Gurdy Man" was covered by a young band called the Butthole Surfers. It was a wild, grunge version that went to No. 1 on the indie charts in London. But there is another version that I think has it beat, by Eartha Kitt. Her vibrato is five times the speed of mine. It was great—a very unusual version. Lou Rawls has done "Season of the Witch," which is really funky. Even Glen Campbell recorded some of my songs.
Why do some '60s acts endure?
I was at a Rolling Stones concert, and the new songs you could count on one hand. Most of the show was history. Those who aren't around didn't have many hits. The ones that write their own material can go on forever.
- Contributors:
- Andrew Abrahams,
- Craig Tomashoff,
- Tony Scherman,
- Lisa Kay Greissinger.
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!
