Harmonium
Vanessa Carlton should have taken a lesson from J.Lo: Creative collaborations with your significant other can produce Gigli-like results. While Carlton's work with boyfriend Stephan Jenkins, the Third Eye Blind frontman who produced this disc and cowrote four songs, isn't as bad as that Bennifer bomb, it fails to live up to the expectations set by her 2002 debut, Be Not Nobody. That CD went platinum and won the singer-songwriter-pianist three Grammy nominations thanks to the hit "A Thousand Miles," the kind of great song that sometimes comes around only once in a career. Indeed, there is nothing on Harmonium (an instrument that is a cross between a flute and a piano) that can touch "A Thousand Miles." Carlton, 24, comes closest with the album's first single, "White Houses," which paints a vivid picture of a girl losing her virginity, with classically tinged piano, lush orchestration and a rush of stream-of-consciousness lyrics: "My first time, hard to explain/Rush of blood, and a little bit of pain/On a cloudy day, it's more common than you'd think/He's my first mistake." Too often, though, Carlton and Jenkins don't make beautiful music together. Jenkins allows too many arty indulgences, and he and Carlton don't fully flesh out the ideas of some of these songs. Tracks such as "C'est La Vie" and "Papa," both less than three minutes long, feel unfinished. And the disc, despite some evocative soundscapes and lyrics, lacks memorable melodies. Hopefully, next time Carlton will work with a producer with whom she has better harmony.DOWNLOAD THIS: "White Houses"
POP
Peachtree Road
"Fortune and fame is so fleeting/These days I'm happy to say/I'm amazed that I'm still around," sings Sir Elton John on "The Weight of the World," the leadoff track on his new disc. Indeed, it is amazing that after 35 years, 43 albums and thousands of pairs of glasses, Captain Fantastic is still standing. After getting the has-been monkey off his back with 2001's resurgent Songs from the West Coast, which reunited him with longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin, John, 57, continues to enjoy his artistic renaissance here, sounding "happy today, happy to play," as he sings on "Weight." Peachtree Road—which takes its title from a street in Atlanta, where the British piano man recorded this CD and has a home—plays like Songs from the Southern Belt. Once again teamed with Taupin, John references southern locales from Jacksonville, Fla., to Tupelo, Miss. (on the gospel-tinged "Porch Swing in Tupelo"). And he brings a real down-home flavor to tunes like "Turn the Lights Out When You Leave," a break-up ballad with a classic country motif. Meanwhile, "They Call Her the Cat" is a honky-tonker in the spirit of John's 1972 hit "Honky Cat." —C.A. DOWNLOAD THIS: "Turn the Lights Out When You Leave"
ALT-ROCK
ALT-ROCK
Antics
It's easy to hear why Interpol was the first band picked by the Cure to open for the goth godfathers during last summer's Curiosa Festival. On their sophomore disc, the downtown New York hipsters wallow in gloom and doom in a manner that must bring a reluctant smile to Robert Smith's face. With their coolly moody Antics, these alt-rockers also evoke such '80s mopes as the Smiths, Echo & the Bunnymen and, most of all, Joy Division. Indeed, lead singer Paul Banks's baritone eerily recalls the monotone delivery of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, who committed suicide in 1980. And the quartet's neo new-wave sound on tracks like the deceptively upbeat first single, "Slow Hands," with Banks droning. "Can you see what you've done to my heart and soul?/This is a wasteland now," will make you want to break out your old skinny ties. On the album's best cut, the weirdly romantic "Evil," Banks pledges his devotion to a woman named Rosemary over a shuffling beat from drummer Sam Fogarino and a thumping bass line courtesy of Carlos D. With only so many different shades of black for Interpol to explore, the band steers out of pitch-dark waters with the trippy "Take You on a Cruise," on which Banks promises his lady "we sail today to drown in your wake of delight." —C.A. •DOWNLOAD THIS: "Evil" DOWNLOAD THIS: "Evil"
R&B/RAP
R&B/RAP
Unfinished Business
When R&B star R. Kelly and hip-hop heavyweight Jay-Z united to make 2002's The Best of Both Worlds, it failed to bring out the best in either artist. The titans, who are currently sharing the stage on the Best of Both Worlds Tour, seemed to be coasting on their multiplatinum reps rather than pushing each other to bring the real heat. On Unfinished Business, their second full-length collaboration, the two are once again on cruise control. You can almost imagine them in the studio comparing their bling-bling and passing the Cristal between takes—that is, if they were even in the studio at the same time for some of these cuts. A couple of these tracks just rehash songs from The Best of Both Worlds: "She's Coming Home with Me" simply reworks "Somebody's Girl," and "Mo'Money" (featuring guest emcee Twista) is a remix of "Get This Money." Still, there is a ghetto-fabulous party vibe to the disc, with tracks like the club come-on "Pretty Girls" and "Big Chips," a lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous jam that feels like a sequel to Jay-Z's 2000 player anthem "Big Pimpin'." —C.A.
•DOWNLOAD THIS: "Big Chips" DOWNLOAD THIS: "Big Chips"
COUNTRY
Lucky Ones
Playing the outlaw, Texan Pat Green vows to get back at some enemies on "Sweet Revenge," singing that he wants to "kill their horses and steal their boots." This disc could use more such reminders of Green's Lone Star State roots. But after last year's gold Wave on Wave, it seems as if success is spoiling Green. Although Green's basic bluesy style is still intact, songs like the almost fluffy "College," cowritten with Brad Paisley, sound out of place. Another collaboration, the jaunty "Baby Doll," cowritten with Rob Thomas of matchbox twenty, seems more suited to Green, as does the western-sounding "Somewhere Between Texas and Mexico."
•DOWNLOAD THIS: "Somewhere Between Texas and Mexico" DOWNLOAD THIS: "Somewhere Between Texas and Mexico"
- Contributors:
- Chuck Arnold,
- Ralph Novak.
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!
