• April 11, 2005
• Vol. 63
• No. 14

Picks and Pans: Music

POP-ROCK

Now What

    

Give Lisa Marie Presley credit: She probably could have made a King's ransom simply by covering one of Elvis's classics or, better yet, doing a virtual duet with her father, much as Natalie Cole did on her Grammy-winning 1991 version of "Unforgettable" with her deceased dad, Nat. Instead, for Presley's first remake—and the lead-off single from her sophomore disc, Now What—she has dipped into Don Henley's catalog and smartly dusted off his 1982 hit "Dirty Laundry." The media-bashing anthem takes on an added bite from the woman who grew up as Elvis's little girl and married Michael Jackson, with a role-reversing Presley snarling, "We got our dirty little fingers in everybody's pie/We love to cut you down to size." It's such a perfect song for Presley to redo, it's almost as if Henley and Danny Korthchmar wrote it just for her. Unfortunately, the rest of Now What doesn't pack that same personal punch. Although Presley wrote all the lyrics (save for "Dirty Laundry" and the bonus track "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow," a Ramones cover), she offers few real glimpses into what makes her tick. With angry rockers like the bass-rumbling "I'll Figure It Out" and the caustic kiss-off "Idiot" ("I guess I'm about as happy for you as I would be a cockroach in my food"), the album casts Presley as the missing link between Pat Benatar and Pink. In fact, Pink provides softly hued harmony vocals for the husky-voiced Presley on "Shine," a Bic-waving ballad that is one of six tunes cowritten by frequent Pink collaborator and former 4 Non Blondes member Linda Perry. While they're all solid stuff, it's doubtful that any of those songs—or anything else on Now What—will be remade 23 years later, like "Dirty Laundry."

•DOWNLOAD THIS: "Dirty Laundry"

BLUEGRASS

Ragin' Live

[CRITIC'S CHOICE]

    

Vincent isn't letting much grass, blue or otherwise, grow under her feet. Already as established a bluegrass performer as Ricky Skaggs or Alison Krauss, Vincent uses this high-spirited live album (recorded at the Sheldon Hall in St. Louis last August) to showcase the extraordinary talents of her band the Rage. Vincent herself plays a mean mandolin, guitar and fiddle, as well as singing in a beautifully pitched, emotive style that reflects the tangled Celtic-blues-gospel-jazz roots of bluegrass. But at this concert she goes to pains to display her dexterous fiddler Hunter Berry, banjo virtuoso Kenny Ingram and guitarist Josh Williams, who are all given plenty of chances to solo as well as demonstrate their ensemble skills. The material is nicely varied, from Dolly Parton's mournful "Jolene" to the fancy-fingered "Heartbreakin', Old Achin' Blues." Whether on the cautionary ballad "You Can't Take It with You When You Go" or the gospel-flavored "The Last Best Place," Vincent and her band are dazzling from start to finish.

•DOWNLOAD THIS: "Heartbreakin', Old Achin' Blues"

The First Lady

    

Despite her fourth CD's title, Evans has always played second-string diva to the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul, Mary J. Blige, and there won't be any changing of the ghetto-fabulous guard with this serviceable but unspectacular effort. Evans tones down the hip-hop (rappers only appear on two songs) to emphasize the soul on cuts like the midtempo testimonial "Again" as well as the usual slow jams. A couple of jazzy house numbers pump things up, but too few tracks—the gospel-powered "Mesmerized" being one—are truly first-rate.

•DOWNLOAD THIS: "Mesmerized"

HARD ROCK

Lullabies to Paralyze

    

There's a difference between sounding coolly retro (think the Killers) and hopelessly dated. Unfortunately the Queens of the Stone Age fall into the latter category on their fourth CD, on which their brand of post-grunge headbanging can seem practically prehistoric. Unlike on 2002's hit Songs for the Deaf, the Queens are operating without Nick Oliveri on bass and Foo Fighter Dave Grohl on drums, leaving frontman Josh Homme to carry on putting the pedal to the metal. But the gleam is off the requisite riffs and rants.

•DOWNLOAD THIS: "Little Sister"

Strange & Beautiful

    

Drenched in melancholy, Aqualung's American debut—which consists of songs compiled from the British artist's first two U.K. releases—may be a few nuggets short of a Happy Meal. But there is plenty here to nosh on for those craving the next Coldplay album. Aqualung (which is the stage name for singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Matt Hales) breathes a strange beauty into these atmospheric, keyboard-driven tracks with his choirboy tenor and sumptuous arrangements that at times achieve an almost classical grandeur. All the brooding, though, can be a bit of a bummer. Even at his most upbeat, on the sweeping romantic declaration "Brighter Than Sunshine," Aqualung won't crack a smile.

•DOWNLOAD THIS: "Brighter Than Sunshine"

Coolio After finding "Gangsta's Paradise" with his Grammy-winning 1995 hit, rapper Coolio, 41, a divorced dad of five, dabbled in movies and reality TV. He plans to release his first U.S. CD in five years later in 2005.

ON "GANGSTA'S PARADISE"
I was expecting it to be something that my homies really liked, but it turns out it was something that my grandmother really liked too—and white kids in suburbia.

ON HIS ABSENCE FROM RECORDING
I put a record out in Europe two years ago. It was called El Cool Magnifico. But it was never released in the U.S. because nobody wanted to let me own my master.

ON HIS REALITY-TV APPEARANCES
I've done Celebrity Boot Camp and Fear Factor. [On Fear Factor] I had to sit in this box and they poured bugs on my head. But before I did the show, I said to the producers, "I don't eat stuff." I was asked to do The Surreal Life but I turned it down. That's just a little bit too much for me.

ON HIS TRADEMARK BRAIDS They're in a mohawk now. I'm going to keep them until the end of the year, then I'm going to cut them off and auction them for charity.

For information on where to find our Download This picks, go to www.people.com/downloadthis or AOL (Keyword: People)

• Contributors:
• Chuck Arnold,
• Ralph Novak,
• Saryn Chorney.