Laura Nyro
A blurring of boundaries—between male and female and among humanity, nature and God—seems to have inspired Nyro in her ninth album. But her pantheism and feminism don't serve her music well. With the exception of To a Child...(Nyro herself has a young son), the songs blur into one another, lacking any distinct voice or identity. Her invertebrate melodies are little more than mood riffs lifted from the stockrooms of jazz, blues and soul. Like Joni Mitchell and Rickie Lee Jones, Nyro is a searching individualist with a sensuous, one-of-a-kind voice. She has often succeeded, as they have, in creating a fluid, mystical music that transcends the many genres it draws from. But Mother's Spiritual, the 36-year-old's first album in five years, is flaccid even in its lyrics. Tiresome sex-role preaching is not enlivened by such solutions as: "And you may help me/pretty daddy/but you can never lead me/'cause you don't seem to hear me/gonna talk to a green tree." She sings the song absolutely straight too. Similarly: "They say a woman's place/is to wait and serve/ under the veil/ submissive and dear/but I think my place/is in a ship from space/to carry me/the hell out of here." If you insist on leaving, Laura, take this album with you. (Columbia)
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