Monday, February 2, 1998
Soundbites
Various Artists "Great Expectations: The Album" (Atlantic) Just
by watching those trailers on TV, you know that this seemingly
angsty flick has got "alternative pop soundtrack" written all over
it. This can be a good thing ("Reality Bites," "A Life Less
Ordinary") or a bad thing ("An American Werewolf in Paris"). In the
case of this Charles Dickens adaptation, it’s the latter.
"Great Expectations: The Album" finds its strengths in its
eclecticness, its variety and its quality. Usually, random artists
are called upon to offer one of their album rejects in the
compiling process of making a soundtrack. Somehow, the producers
and music supervisors for this record got lucky and found
themselves with some standout tracks.
Starting the soundtrack off on the right foot is Tori Amos,
first with her lush instrumental, "Finn" and then the A-quality
"Siren," which is classic, "Little Earthquakes"-era Tori.
From there, random styles and moods are represented, all
connected by the troubled romance theme. The sexy, hypnotic tracks
"Life in Mono" (the trailer’s pleasantly pulsing song, by Mono) and
catchy, Madonna-esque "Walk This Earth Alone" (by Lauren Christy)
heighten the lust factor wonderfully. Two other top-notch
contributions include Pulp’s disco-glam "Like a Friend" and
ex-Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell’s moving ballad,
"Sunshower."
And the hits keep on coming. Scott Weiland, lead singer of Stone
Temple Pilots, debuts his new lounge-Goth style with the quirky,
haunting "Lady, Your Roof Brings Me Down." David Garza gives his
best "D’Yer Mak’er" (Led Zeppelin) impression with the upbeat and
fun "Slave." Iggy Pop lays on the Bowie glam with the ultracool
"Success" (you know, Iggy’s quite the soundtrack contributor these
days). The Grateful Dead shows up with their acoustic "Uncle John’s
Band." Even the adult alternative/ Star 98.7 front is present, with
Duncan Sheik’s "Wishful Thinking" and Poe’s alt-pop "Today."
"Great Expectations: The Album" makes for not only a great
soundtrack, but also for an enjoyable, multi-mood experience that
gives you a bit of everything. Mike Prevatt B+
Chris Stills "100 Year Thing" (Atlantic Records) The title track
on this debut album by the son of ’60s folkie Stephen Stills (of
Crosby, Stills and Nash) is bluesy in the way people consider
Aerosmith to be bluesy.
It reveals Chris Stills as a man with a weak voice that he
occasionally employs in odd, interesting ways. The second song
"Lucifer and Jane," features lyrics so oblique that they’re somehow
intriguingly paranoid and help the listener get past the song’s
leaden arrangement.
These are small pleasures and they dry up soon. After this, one
remembers only the truly awful moments, like the embarrassing
convergence of mawkish lyrics and earnest falsetto on "Last Stop"
and the idiotic, Bon Jovi-esque lyrics of "God Won’t Make You a
Man."
What these songs reveal is a very undeveloped artist who hasn’t
listened to or written enough music. Religious imagery in these
songs are meant to be equated with depth and cliches with emotion
in the type of "Rocking by Numbers" fashion that generally doesn’t
escape clubland.
More Julian Lennon than Jakob Dylan, anyone interested in owning
this dismal product of nepotism at its worst is advised to wait the
two weeks it will take for it to hit the $3.99 bins. Michael
Gillette D
Deep Forest III "Comparsa" (550 Music) Mix a tender amount of
drum machine beats with tribal African sounds and what do you get?
The third Deep Forest album to hit stores in recent years.
Somehow, since the initial sounds of this musical fusion of
modern synthesizers and ancient, flute and foreign vocalizations
came into existence, the combination no longer seems so
implausible. Many techno acts, such as BT and the Chemical
Brothers, have meshed the old world with the new since Deep
Forest’s formation.
However, the group still manages to please and intrigue with the
bopping, danceable notes so spiritually spewing forth from every
corner of the album’s multi-layered melodies. Yet it resides
somewhere between restaurant-friendly, yuppy-flavored, Yanni
drippiness and intensely moving, other-dimensional meatiness. The
way the album offers up soft, mechanized versions of African voices
leaves the songs dry, while the clarinet backups could be
incarnations of the dreaded Michael Bolton.
Yet there remains something real inside the majority of songs
which the typical rock band could never hope to achieve. The human
quality of age-old tradition echoing through the centuries onto a
current musical production feels right, though it may never become
a party classic advertised in one of Time Life Classics’ late-night
music anthologies. Perhaps the best way to get into Deep Forest
would be to check out a previous album, and experience the more
recent infusions of "uncivilized" sounds with current sounds via
the next decent DJ anthology to come your way. Vanessa VanderZanden
B
Naked, "Naked" (Red Ant) There are still a few bands that can
achieve anthematic success in a genre filled with angst. Although
their name has an absurdly amusing ring, Naked taps into the core
of emotional realism. In their debut album, Naked not only creates
hard-rockin’ beats but also blends soft, romance-filled ballads and
direction in a great album.
The Eddie Vedder-esque vocals behind the alt-rock hit "Mann’s
Chinese" combined with its great guitar-crunching chords pull off
the perfect theme of stark urban reality. The best song of the
album, "The Color Decays," has gentle sensitive acoustics, touching
the listener through delicate lyrics such as "I see an open road
where life is slow and free/And into a distant hope we’ll drive
eternally." It’s the soft romance in ballads such as "Raining On
The Sky" and "Love Supreme" that make the album a must have when in
the mood for something truly touching but gush-free.
Naked, however, demonstrate that they can go either way and
still do it right. Their edgier "What About You" and the
inspirational "The Road Home" prove that they are a versatile band
with talent not to be taken for granted. See? You don’t have to be
pissed off to create great rock. Michelle Zubiate A-
Atlantic
Various artists,
"Great Expectations"