Last Update: March 16, 2000

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST REVIEWS

TORI AMOS - To Venus and Back (Atlantic/1-47:45, 2-75:26): It takes a while to warm up to Tori Amos' latest offering, a double-CD set featuring studio cuts on the first disc and live tracks from her "Plugged '98" tour on the second. But as you get deeper and deeper into the new songs, you discover a complex artistry at work, the kind that first showed up in an undeveloped form on her 1992 debut, Little Earthquakes, and found full voice on her last album, From the Choirgirl Hotel (1998). Most of the pieces are either piano-driven or conceived around a keyboard riff, but there's also a striking hip hop-derived rhythmic energy on tracks like Glory of the 80's and Riot Poof. Lyrically, Amos takes a highly allusive, occasionally elusive approach, but you can't ignore the power of such lines as "In an army's strength therein lies the denouement/From here you're haunting me/By the Seine so beautiful/Only not to be of use - impossible..." from Josephine, a song about Napoleon's wife, and "Is he real or a ghost-lie/She feels she isn't heard/And the veil tears and rages till her voices are/Remembered and his secrets can be told..." (Lust). And on the atmosphere-charged Datura and Spring Haze, Amos demonstrates her power to beguile with a mantric marriage of voice, message and music. The live disc features stirring, expanded versions of such torch pieces as Precious Things, Girl and Little Earthquakes. The performances are largely intense, inspired and spot-on, demonstrating the kind of perfectionist level Amos has reached with her art.

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE - The Battle of Los Angeles (Epic/45:13): Rage Against The Machine's self-titled 1992 Epic debut was one of the most compelling recordings ever to attempt a fusion of raw rap and hard rock. The Californian quartet's 1996 follow-up, Evil Empire, was pretty much in the same vein, though it didn't quite make the kind of lasting impression the first album did. Now, on its latest ride, RATM comes across angrier than it ever was, and it's this force of fury that makes mush of this album almost as absorbing as the debut. Some of guitarist Tom Morello's less interesting riffs may sound like retreads from old Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stones songs, and the lyrics may at times border on the crass ("An army of pigs try to silence my style/Off (sic) em all out that box it's my radio dial...", Guerrilla Radio) or be somewhat pretentious ("The lie is my expense/The scope of my desire/The Party blessed me with its future/And I protect it with fire/I am the Nina The Pinta The Santa Maria...", Sleep Now in the Fire). But there's something in the buzzsaw rhythmic propulsion and the way singer/lyricist Zack de la Rocha spits out the words that makes it all a mesmerizing swirl. And when message and medium reach a perfect pitch, as on Born as Ghosts, a powerful indictment of school violence ("One book and forty ghosts/Stuffed in a room/The school as a tomb/Where home is a wasteland..."), the effect is nothing short of stunning. Sometimes things get a bit too overbearing and relentlessly pessimistic, but The Battle of Los Angeles never lets you forget how spiritually blank and bleak urban life has become. The local version of the CD has actually been somewhat sanitized to stymie overreaction by our moral guardians, but despite the unnecessary clean-up, the songs still sound gloriously loud, gritty and rude. By the way, the long list of band credits includes "Dirt Control & Dirt Master", "Intense Cycles", "King Headset", "Ovalized Tubing", "SPD's", "the Heckler", "the XTR Bottom Bracket" and "Titanium Bolts". Don't know what these refer to? Then you're probably not a hardcore mountain biker!

JOHN PAUL JONES - Zooma (Discipline Global Mobile/49:05): A refreshingly rousing, adventurously hard-rocking instrumental album from the resourceful ex-Led Zeppelin bassist. On his first real full-length solo recording since the group's break-up, Jones has archly combined the propulsive power of Zeppelin at its most energized with a free-flowing avant-jazz sensibility. The tracks here are not only texturally rich and unpredictable but are also often rhythmically robust and stimulating. There's a bit of the moody introspection and folk atmosphere of such Zeppelin classics as No Quarter and Battle of Evermore on things like Snake Eyes and The Smile of Your Shadow. And pulse-driven workouts like Bass 'n' Drums, Nosumi Blues and Tidal, where Jones displays his soloing skills, especially on bass lap steel, are reminiscent of Led Zeppelin's finest grooves. Empathetic support from drummer Pete Thomas, who's a great Bonham-influenced stylist, and various guest musicians makes it all sound gloriously tight and together. At first you'll be somewhat disappointed that there are no vocal tracks here, but after a few hearings you'll realize that that is how it should be. Zeppelin fans looking for a logical extension of the band's music will find much to appreciate on Zooma. Now if only Jones and Thomas could be coaxed into joining forces with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant... that'd be a real new millennium-marking Zeppelinesque blast!

ALISON KRAUSS - Forget About It (Rounder/V2/40:04): Famed American folk label Rounder Records (www.rounder.com) finds a local distributor in a new Cheras-based company called V-Two, and this superb album by singer Alison Krauss is the first Rounder release here. A child prodigy steeped in the bluegrass tradition, Krauss began making a name as a fiddle virtuoso before establishing herself as singer with a nose for great material. This set features 11 reflective love ballads by such accomplished songwriters as Todd Rundgren, Michael McDonald, Hugh Prestwood and Allen Reynolds. You'd think that such a diverse lot would make the album something of a mixed bag, but actually the songs have a strikingly uniform feel and sound, thanks to the bluegrass-inflected arrangements and some lovely Dobro work by Jerry Douglas. Krauss' sweet, stirring vocals also add much to the emotional power of the tunes which are often exquisitely melancholy. Things may get a bit too mellow at times, but the music always has a richly atmospheric feel enhanced by the gloriously evocative ring of such acoustic instruments as lap steel guitar, accordion and slide mandolin.

STING - Brand New Day (A&M/48:56): On first hearing, Sting's seventh studio album doesn't sound all that impressive, even though the fluty synthesizer riff on the opener A Thousand Years is an immediate grabber. And the global music flavors -- from Algerian pop to country -- that most of the songs are infused with are interesting but not all that refreshing or remarkable. It's only after the third or fourth listening that you really begin to appreciate the power of the music. There are no weighty topics here. Sting has wisely chosen to concentrate on love in its different shades instead of darkly musing on the threat of nuclear destruction or the rapaciousness of politicians and preachers the way he did in his previous albums. Of course, being the literate and structure-conscious singer-songwriter he is, there's more to the tunes than just "moon/June" rhymes and catchy, throwaway rhythms and melodies. Things like the haunting and exotic Desert Rose, the bossa nova-ish ballad Big Lie Small World and the propulsive After The Rain Has Fallen are loaded with uneasy, unromantic images. Most of songs, featuring some of the best session musicians around, are rich in atmosphere, and while Sting sometimes takes the easy way out by quoting from his own work or just pandering by inserting a rap in French as he does on Perfect Love...Gone Wrong, he doesn't seem as pretentious as he sometimes did early in his solo career. And only someone with his inventive capacity could have come up with the ingenious country-choral-jazz combination on Fill Her Up.

INDIGO GIRLS - Come on Now Social (Epic/57:28/I): The Indigo Girls, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, are probably the most consistently intriguing of the singer-songwriter duos to have come out of the folk-rock revival of the late '80s. Here they are with album number seven for Epic, a musically exuberant and swirling, lyrically fresh and surging collection of songs that deal with the comforts and complications of life, feminist concerns and the uneasy relationship between mankind and the environment. Ray and Saliers harmonize through the songs so naturally and with such taut control that you'd think that's what they've been doing all they lives; and indeed they have. But while much of the album's charm lies in their voices soaring blissfully together, the contrast in their registers during the solo stretches also makes for a varied mood. Ray's gutsy alto is perfect for such rocking pieces as Go and Compromise while Saliers' delicate soprano is exquisitely evocative on the achingly beautiful ballad Soon Be to Nothing and the midtempo humdinger Peace Tonight. The songs just roll along with a natural swing, enhanced by lilting mandolins, guitars, accordions and banjos. At times it all gets so richly rustic that if you close your eyes, you'll be transported to the kind of green heaven that, thanks to mass-development advocates, now exists mainly in your imagination. Guests like Luscious Jackson, Me'Shell Ndegeocello, and Garth Hudson and Rick Danko of the Band support the Girls with a great generosity of spirit and inspiration. The closer, Faye Tucker, based on the true story of Karla Faye Tucker who upon her execution last year became the first woman to get undergo the death sentence in the state of Texas since the Civil War, is a real stirrer. With its Celtic martial rhythm and Ray's powerful rumination on mortality, the song just holds you mesmerized, and the wordless vocals of Natacha Atlas towards the end is seductively eerie. The two hidden tracks that come after that are also delicious, the first in a dark, haunting way, the second in a graceful, soothing manner. Come on Now Social is without a doubt one of the finest folk-rock recordings of the year, if not this decade.

JOHN MELLENCAMP - Rough Harvest (Mercury/49:48): A collection of songs made in the spirit of artistic reaffirmation and rediscovery. What Mellencamp and his band have done on these sessions, recorded around 1977 between tours and recording projects, is a perspective-refreshing return to material the singer-songwriter holds dear. Besides offering looser and leaner versions of originals like Love and Happiness, Between a Laugh and a Tear and Jackie Brown, Mellencamp also covers things like Bob Dylan's Farewell Angelina, the Drifters hit Under the Boardwalk and Van Morrison's Wild Night in a respectful homage-paying tone. As an archetypal American rocker, Mellencamp's best songs have focused on the heartland, where the exigencies of modern life are at odds with traditional values. It's this examination of the social landscape that makes songs like Human Wheels, Rain on the Scarecrow, Jackie Brown and The Full Catastrophe so compelling. And the songs, recast with an even more pronounced folk feel than the original album versions with Miriam Sturm's violin often giving them a haunting Wild West resonance, gain in substance. In itself, this is not a thematically unified, full-fleshed or important work, but in providing an insight into the artist's creative processes, Rough Harvest makes for a moving listening experience.

MICHAEL HEDGES - Torched (Windham Hill/62:39): An innovative acoustic guitar stylist who was as capable of heavenly melodicism as he was of breathless vigor, Michael Hedges, who died in a car crash in 1997, was a largely underappreciated artist, though he was one of Windham Hill's top and consistent sellers. His strength lay not only in his ability to make deceptively simple strummed or finger-picked progressions hypnotic and sublime, but also in the richly spiritual quality he endowed his music with. The tunes here, which were conceived as sketches for an album, were the last recordings Hedges made before his untimely death. And there's a deep poignancy and sadness in many of the songs that won't leave any serious listener unaffected. Even the image of Hedges on the CD inlay, where his face looks like that of a weather-beaten Tibetan monk, is stirring in its stark expressiveness. It's a one-man effort most of the way with Hedges playing an assortment of instruments. There are quite a few reflective vocal numbers here -- singing was not exactly Hedges' strong suit -- where he examines heartland themes (Phoenix Fire and Shell Shock Venus are the most accessible of these) in a laidback folk-rock style. But it's the guitar-based instrumentals which prove the most enduring. Fusion of the Five Elements is a classic Hedges acoustic-guitar workout, with his fluid fingers spinning out a mantra-like melody that's bracing and induces ecstasy on every hearing. And such things as the richly evocative Dream Beach and the playful Arrowhead, which features subtle guitar-picking, are simply marvellous. A fine work by an artist who lived for his craft to the last.

THE FLAMING LIPS - The Soft Bulletin (Warner Bros./58:30): You'd expect some amount of sonic mayhem from a band whose roots lie in the post-punk movement of the mid-'80s. But what you get from Oklahoma City's The Flaming Lips on The Soft Bulletin, the group's ninth album, is positively disarming -- a gorgeously tuneful symphonic-pop set somewhat reminiscent of the more melodic work of such '70s British prog-rock groups as Caravan and Yes and even the Beatles. The songs here may have an alternative-rock edge, but they are so alluringly strings-suffused and awash in keyboard atmospherics that they seem in a class of their own. It's hard to imagine such a change in style from a band that mainly purveyed psychedelic noise-pop on a half a dozen albums or so before moving off in a weird experimental direction, but then the assured way in which Wayne Coyne (vocals, guitars), Michael Ivins (bass, vocals, guitars) and Steven Drozd (drums, vocals, guitars) serve up these tunes, mostly prefaced by melancholy piano, suggests that it's all a natural evolution of craft. Besides fetching melodies that feature sophisticated if somewhat muddled arrangements, the songs tackle existential matters with heart and head. Things like The Spark That Bled, Feeling Yourself Disintegrate and Race for the Prize have a wonderfully sad feel to them, and Coyne's less-than-perfect vocals -- his voice breaks up in a whine from time to time -- add to the visceral power of the tunes. Aside from the edgy singing, the electronically treated drums and radical mixes are the only things that remind you that this is off-mainstream music. Otherwise, you'd think it's the kind of chamber pop the Beach Boys would have concocted had they stuck around a bit longer than they did the first time around. (Distributed by Warner Music in Malaysia/603-2485611)

VARIOUS ARTISTS - No Boundaries/A Benefit For The Kosovar Refugees (Epic/78:08): Rock may occasionally breed wild rebellion and mischief, as the chaotic end to the recent Woodstock festival would have attested to the joy of non-believers, but it also has the energy to inspire positive things, including great humanitarian efforts. Live Aid proved the power of the music and its most dedicated exponents to galvanize a massive relief effort, and this benefit album for refugees from war-ravaged Kosovo is further proof that rock still has a heart, even if it's only a small contribution towards helping war victims. The 18 tracks here represent the work of some of the finest rock performers, including Pearl Jam, Alanis Morissette, Rage Against The Machine, Neil Young, Indigo Girls, Ben Folds Five, Oasis, Peter Gabriel and Suede. Most of the recordings are new or newly remixed, and the music mainly has the kind of issue-inspired broodiness you'd not normally expect from an anthology of this nature. It's interesting to hear Pearl Jam's versions of old tunes like Last Kiss and Soldier of Fortune; there's a striking edginess in the way Eddie Vedder interprets these songs. Neil Young's live solo acoustic version of War of Man is stirring in its starkly pointed attack on human greed and folly. But the biggest surprise comes from Black Sabbath in a 1998 remixed version of Psycho Man that shows how astoundingly provocative a metal force the original lineup with Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi was. There're also equally rousing performances by Rage Against The Machine who resurrect Bruce Springsteen's The Ghost of Tom Joad as a metal-rap stomper, Ben Folds Five (Leather Jacket), the Wallflowers (Used Tt Be Lucky), Peter Gabriel (Black Paintings) and Tori Amos (Merman). Every self-respecting rock fan with a conscience should buy a copy of this. (Distributed by Sony Music in Malaysia/603-4523233

ALICE IN CHAINS - Nothing Safe (Columbia/62:29): The darkest and heaviest of the bands that emerged from the Seattle grunge explosion in the late '80s, Alice in Chains stood out from the start with a tough-edged sound that combined rhythmic fury with a subtle sense of dynamics. That, coupled with a bleak outlook on life -- many of the early songs dealt with death and other morbid themes -- ensured a large and loyal following that might have found the meaning of life in the band's music. This is a collection of previously unissued tracks and songs from various albums that serves as a fine introduction to the band, besides giving a foretaste of the kind of grungefest awaiting fans on a projected boxed set. Kicking off with the moody grinder Get Born Again, a new track recorded last year, the set takes you through rip-roaring metal pieces like We Die Young (unissued demo), Man in the Box and Angry Chair, all propelled by Jerry Cantrell's raging guitar. But it's not all slash-and-bang. Things like Down in the Hole, No Excuses and I Stay Away demonstrate a quieter side and Layne Staley's strengths as a singer. If you haven't discovered the band yet, this is a good place to start. (Distributed by Sony Music in Malaysia/603-4523233)

JEFF BECK - Who Else! (Epic/54:00): He may not be as prolific as some of today's much younger and flashier guitar virtuosos who've stolen a trick or two from him, but you can always count on Jeff Beck to deliver the goods whenever he comes out with a new album. Displaying yet again that mastery of tone matters as much as technique, the most resourceful of the guitar heroes to emerge from the British rock explosion of the late '60s gets into every groove from trip-hop to folk balladry with a stimulating verve only a consummate musician like him can muster. More an extension of the riff-and-rhythm experiment of 1989's Grammy-winning Guitar Shop than another Blow by Blow-style foray into fusion, Who Else! has Beck's customized Strat weeping and wailing in a way that's at once excitingly fresh and reassuringly familiar. Most of the tracks are defined more by atmosphere and texture than structure and melody, but Beck's command of rock-guitar vocabulary is so supreme that he doesn't really need a memorable melody line to entrance you. Of course, he can get soaringly lyrical if he wants to, as he demonstrates on Angel (Footsteps) and the exquisitely melancholy folk-flavored Declan. But it's when he's chasing down the possibilities of open-ended cadences, as on What Mama Said, Psycho Sam and Hip Notica, or trying to expand on an old form as on Brush With the Blues, that he holds you transfixed. Long-time collaborator keyboardist Tony Hymas helps Beck keep things in perspective here, and in guitarist Jennifer Batten, bassist Randy Hope-Taylor and drummer Steve Alexander, Beck has the tightest rhythm team he could wish for. Who Else! is not so much a work that redefines the role of the electric guitar in contemporary music as it is one that reinforces the instrument's power to excite in the hands of a true master. (Distributed by Sony Music in Malaysia/603-4523233)

DUNCAN SHEIK - Humming (Atlantic/62:53): Duncan Sheik is the kind of singer-songwriter who's become a rarity on the current rock scene. Sensitive and thoughtful, he makes music that's not only lushly melodic and lyrically sophisticated, but is also lovingly constructed with an attention to subtlety and dynamics that goes against the grain of assembly-line pop production. On his compelling 1996 self-titled debut album, he created an exquisitely melancholic world of romance where the bitterness of reality clashed with the sweetness of idealism. This follow-up deals very much with the same theme but there's a more objective outlook in the way it's handled. Working again with producer Rupert Hine, Sheik alternates between the elegantly moody chamber pop that made many of the ballads on his first album so absorbing and a lilting soft-rock style that offers a perfect contrast to the quiet moments on this set. Pieces like In Between, Alibi, House Full of Riches, Varying Degrees of Con-Artistry and Everyone, Everywhere have some alluringly evocative strings courtesy of the London Session Orchestra. And Sheik matches the grace of the music's arrangement with pointed lyrics and performance that simmers with emotion. And on such things as Bite Your Tongue and That Says It All, a tribute to rock icons like Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix which in some way indicates where Sheik is coming from, he lets the swing take over with a natural momentum. It's an album that keeps growing on you, revealing new pleasures (and a bare-boned acoustic ballad that's hidden at the end) in the structures and new meanings in the lines everytime you listen to it. Now, how many albums released in the last decade or so can you say the same thing about? (Distributed by Warner Music in Malaysia/603-2485611)

( These reviews were first published in the New Straits Times )

* 'Rock Solid'

CLICK HERE FOR MORE REVIEWS

FEEDBACK: Some Lines from Assenters and Dissenters

Connection to Rated RS (Jazz) - My Jazz (& Beyond) Album Reviews Page

Connection to Rated RS Too - My Video Reviews Page

Connection to Khabar Bike - Mountainbiking in Malaysia - My MTB Webzine

© 1998/1999/2000 stratslinger@yahoo.com

You are visitor number since July 15, 1998.