Jamie Cullum
CRITIC'S CHOICE
British piano man Jamie Cullum's U.S. debut is really something to get keyed up about. Alternately bringing to mind a male Norah Jones, Harry Connick Jr. with attitude or the second coming of Billy Joel, the 24-year-old cabaret-style crooner, who hails from Wiltshire, England, will be around for years to come. Catch this rising star now. Twentysomething, which was released to triple-platinum success in the U.K. last October, smartly mixes smoky standards (Cole Porter's "I Get a Kick out of You") and other torched-up remakes (Jimi Hendrix's "Wind Cries Mary") with original jazz-pop tunes. The result is a disc that sounds at once classic and oh-so-cool. Cullum kicks things off with the easy-shuffling "These Are the Days," one of two songs written by his older brother Ben. That number, which recalls early Joel, is among many where Cullum's soulful, swaggering vocals sound eerily like the original Piano Man. The best new tunes, though, are the three cuts written by Cullum himself, which reveal his decidedly twentysomething perspective. First single "All at Sea" ponders the desire to escape from life's responsibilities, while "Next Year, Baby" cheekily lists his New Year's resolutions: "Gonna read more books/ Gonna keep up with the news/ Gonna learn how to cook/ And spend less money on shoes." Elsewhere, the swinging title track, with its witty wordplay and Cullum's snappy keyboard work, sounds like it could be the theme song for this newcomer's generation: "Maybe go to the gym so I don't get fat/ Aren't things more easy with a tight sixpack?" The well-varied remakes fit in right alongside the originals, with highlights including a funked-up spin on "I Could Have Danced All Night," a quietly affecting cover of Radiohead's "High and Dry" and a beautifully sung version of "Blame It on My Youth" that displays an artistic maturity far beyond Cullum's years.
Pop
Caetano Veloso
There is a moment on A Foreign Sound, a collection of covers of American pop songs that is the first all-English album Brazil's Caetano Veloso has recorded in his acclaimed career, at which you know that you are listening to something special. He transforms the Nirvana Nevermind track "Come As You Are" into a samba-spiced soft-rocker with such adroit grace that somewhere Kurt Cobain must be smiling. Then Veloso follows that up by rescuing the much-mauled "Feelings" from lounge-lizard hell with his lithe, aching tenor.
Whether Veloso, 61, is breathing new life into much-covered classics such as "Summertime" or unearthing a for gotten gem like Stevie Wonder's "If It's Magic," he makes these songs his own with his imaginative interpretations and artful arrangements ranging from a cappella (a poignant take on Cole Porter's "Love for Sale") to orchestral (a lullaby like reading of Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender"). Lyrically, his most interesting choice is not to flip the gender on his bossa-nova rendition of "The Man I Love."
COUNTRY
Blue County
Following in the cowboy-booted footsteps of Brooks & Dunn and Montgomery Gentry, Blue County is another male duo to hit Nashville. On their self-titled debut, Aaron Benward and former The Young and the Restless actor Scott Reeves have their ingratiating moments, with a lively country-rock style and some authentic down-home proclivities. (Benward grew up in Houston and Nashville, while Reeves was born in Delight, Ark.) Although the pair wrote only four of the album's 12 songs, that's just as well. Their smug "That's Cool," for instance, is basically a laundry list of putatively enjoyable activities like "drivin' home at midnight" and "having coffee with your folks." Blue County is better off drawing upon some skilled Nashville tunesmiths. Best are Troy Seals and Brett Jones's "Good Little Girls" and Billy Aerts and Alan Levy's "Sunday Driver," a good-natured complaint about being stuck behind someone doing 30 in a 55-mph zone, "held hostage by the double yellow line." As singers, Benward and Reeves are journeymen, tuneful and rhythmic but not remarkable. For a better new country duo, check out Big & Rich.
Teena Marie
Back in the days before MTV and BET put a face on new artists, many R&B fans were surprised to find out that Teena Marie was white. Her Rick James-produced first album, 1979's Wild and Peaceful, didn't feature her photo on the cover, so listeners just assumed that, given her authentically soulful sound, she must have been black. Her first disc in 10 years shows why Lady T successfully crossed the color lines and was long ago embraced as an honorary sister. With her signature style, a mix of jazz, funk and classic R&B complemented by a poetic lyrical sensibility, Marie, 48, demonstrates how she laid the musical groundwork for such contemporary female artists as Alicia Keys and Jill Scott. That's why La Doña's old-school vibe sounds so fresh in 2004. The multitalented Marie, who sings, writes, produces and plays guitar and keyboards here, shines on midtempo jams like the breezy single "Still in Love" and trademark ballads like "High Yellow Girl," a moving tribute to her 12-year-old daughter Alia Rose, whose father is black. But Marie stumbles when she incorporates reggae on "Hate to Love" and rap on "The Mackin Game," the latter featuring MC Lyte. She's better off reuniting with old partner James for the funky duet "I Got You.
Ben Kweller
Singer-songwriter Ben Kweller wears his influences on his sleeve throughout his third disc. There are shades of Bob Dylan on the folky title track, the Rolling Stones on the country-tinged ballad "Believer" and Paul Westerberg on the ragged garage-rocker "Ann Disaster." But while Kweller, 22, may not score many points for originality, he has learned well from those masters and displays an appealing affection for their retro sounds. Indeed, there is a lo-fi quality to the production of On My Way that sweetly evokes an era gone by. And with Kweller's solid songcraft, there's not a bad tune in the bunch. He reveals a playful wit on the quirky, tempo-shifting "Hospital Bed," slyly singing, "I wish I was sleeping in your hospital bed/ Give me some time to get on your mind." Meanwhile, the charming, chugging "My Apartment," a Ryan Adamsesque alt-country ditty, is an open love letter to Kweller's Brooklyn home: "I like it here in my small space/ New York's the place where the sidewalks know my face."
R&B
Mario Winans
Mario Winans brings a lot of musical credibility to this, his second CD. As a producer and songwriter, he has worked with the likes of Mary J. Blige, Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez. And he comes from the first family of gospel, the Winanses. Unlike mom Vickie, uncle BeBe and aunt CeCe, however, Winans, 29, steers clear of Sunday-morning material on this R&B release. The hit first single, "I Don't Wanna Know," is about a cheating girlfriend whose creeping Winans would rather ignore. "I don't wanna know/ If you're playing me, keep it on the low," he sings against a hypnotic hip-hop backdrop built around a sample from Enya's "Boadicea." Add in an unusually understated rap from P. Diddy, who signed Winans to his Bad Boy Records, and you have one of the best songs on the radio right now. Unfortunately, there is nothing else here that measures up to "I Don't Wanna Know." While Winans continues to show refreshing vulnerability on tracks like "Disbelief," a few formulaic hip-hop numbers (featuring the obligatory guest rappers) and some sound-alike slow jams hurt this disc. Still, his smooth vocals, lush production and sensitive lyrics on cuts such as the ballad "3 Days Ago" and the sensual midtempo "I Got You Babe" (not a remake of the Sonny & Cher hit) make for good mood music.
COUNTRY
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Country music certainly has a long history of sad songs. But since Mary Chapin Carpenter's most attractive quality is her vivacious spirit, this follow-up to 2001's Time*Sex*Love*, sung mostly in the lower parts of her vocal register and the dour regions of her demeanor, comes across as markedly downbeat. It's not as grim as the work of her more self-flagellating contemporaries, but you could play its 12 tracks without once lifting a foot from the floor. Even the relatively lively "What Would You Say to Me"—which, as with the rest of the songs, the singer wrote—pales in comparison with the élan of Carpenter's previous work. The lyrics to "Goodnight America" are uncharacteristically murky ("I'm from somewhere else/ Isn't everybody?") and the ponderous "Girls Like Me" evokes Alanis Morissette or Courtney Love more than Carpenter. At 46, Carpenter doesn't have to kick up her heels every time she turns around, but a few signs of life would have gone a long way.
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