SOUND CHECK : WYCLEF JEAN/``THE CARNIVAL FEATURING REFUGEE ALLSTARS''.Blues Traveler/``Straight on Till Morning'' ``Straight on Till Morning'' codifies all the things that made Blues Traveler's last album, 1994's ``Four'' (the one with the hit ``Runaround''), so fresh: shuffling backbeats, vamps that slink slink v. slunk also slinked, slink·ing, slinks v.intr. To move in a quiet furtive manner; sneak: slunk away ashamed; a cat slinking through the grass toward its prey. and soar in the manner of the Allman Brothers, high-intensity exchanges between harmonica harmonica. 1 The simplest of the musical instruments employing free reeds, known also as the mouth organ or French harp. It was probably invented in 1829 by Friedrich Buschmann of Berlin, who called his instrument the Mundäoline. and guitar. But this time, these elements feel like songwriting shortcuts See Win Shortcuts. . Rarely does Blues Traveler pour its road-tested heart into genuinely interesting compositions. Instead, ``Straight on Till Morning'' is a festival of business as usual, a compendium of reliable verses and pleasant refrains that are as musically consequential as a Twinkie Twinkie® defense Forensic psychiatry A legal tack in which a defendant claims that a criminal act resulted from chemical imbalances induced by 'junk food,' and not criminal intent. is nutritional. Two stars ?13- Tom Moon Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire Built around a cheesy cheesy (che´ze) caseous. conceit of Haitian-American Wyclef (who often just goes by his first name) being put on trial, ``The Carnival'' stitches together autobiography with music that influenced Wyclef, from hip-hop to salsa, reggae and Caribbean kompas. The spoken-word trial skits are neither funny nor enlightening. In fact, one of these - the mistakenly titled ``Words of Wisdom'' - is distasteful in its assertion that women will cry rape for little or no reason. What makes these distractions all the more maddening is that the music they interrupt is often fascinating. Like the best Fugees material, the songs roll in a low, funky rumble, topped with subtle, soulful melodies. Here, Wyclef - with a brief appearance from salsa diva Celia Cruz Celia Cruz (October 21 1925 – July 15 2003) was an Afro-Cuban-American salsa singer who spent most of her career living in New Jersey, and working in the United States and several Latin American countries. - reinvents the Latin standard ``Guantanamera'' for the dreadlocked hip-hop heads of the '90s. ``Jaspora'' is hard-hitting, hypnotic reggae, while the French-language, acoustic ``Yele,'' a cry for justice in troubled Haiti, is reminiscent of Bob Marley's ``Redemption Song'' in its aching honesty. Two stars ?13- Cary Darling Orange County Register Ween/``The Mollusk'' ``The Mollusk'' is a welcome return to genre-hopping after last year's one-note ``12 Golden Country Greats,'' but it's not nearly as audacious as the 1994 masterwork mas·ter·work n. See masterpiece. ``Chocolate and Cheese.'' The good news is that these gifted guys aren't growing up; the bad news is they aren't growing. Two stars ?13- Dan DeLuca Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire Maggie Estep/``Love Is a Dog From Hell'' The problem here is mediocre music and Maggie Estep's unremarkable singing voice undercut her rapid-fire wit, bristling bristling see hackles. sarcasm, and overall force-of-nature style. ``Love Is a Dog,'' like 1994's ``No More Mr. Nice Girl,'' tries to make Estep into a rock star and fails. Her words are the main attraction, and they - and spoken word artist Estep - should be left alone and uncluttered. Two stars ?13- Sara Sherr Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire Old 97's/``Too Far to Care'' If Old 97's know where they come from, it doesn't stop them from moving on with hell-bent abandon. ``Too Far to Care'' is a big advance over the band's 1996 Bloodshot blood·shot adj. Red and inflamed as a result of locally congested blood vessels, as of the eyes. bloodshot Vox populi adjective release, ``Wreck Your Life,'' because singer Rhett Miller Rhett Miller, born Stewart Ransom Miller II in Austin, Texas on September 6, 1970, is the lead singer of the alt-country band Old 97's as well as a successful solo musician. He graduated from St. Mark's School of Texas in Dallas in 1989. has grown as a songwriter by leaps and bounds and producer Wally Gagel has captured and focused the raw force that the band creates on stage. Starting with the one-two opening of the galloping ``Timebomb'' and careening The careening of a sailing vessel is laying her up on a calm beach at high tide in order to expose one side or another of the ship's hull for maintenance below the water line when the tide goes out. ``Barrier Reef barrier reef n. A long, narrow ridge of coral or rock parallel to and relatively near a coastline, separated from the coastline by a lagoon too deep for coral growth. ,'' ``Too Far'' comes on with full-speed swagger and a self-flagellating sense of humor Noun 1. sense of humor - the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous; "she didn't appreciate my humor"; "you can't survive in the army without a sense of humor" sense of humour, humor, humour . Miller's catchy tales of the romantic disappointments of blessed fools stumbling through their 20s meld lost-and-lonely country tradition with a reckless and rocking emotionalism. Three stars ?13- Dan DeLuca Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire Cleo Laine/``The Very Best of Cleo Laine'' Celebrating her 70th birthday with a world tour, Cleo Laine Dame Cleo Laine DBE, (born Clementina Dinah Campbell on October 28 1927 in Southall, Middlesex, England) is a jazz singer and an actor, noted for her scat singing. She is the only female performer to have received Grammy nominations in the jazz, popular and classical music has released a two-CD set that showcases her diversity as well as her famous four-octave range. Laine, with longtime musical director and husband John Dankworth, includes hits from the '70s and more recent material. There's her famous scatting in ``Birdsong'' and a soulful rendering of ``He Was Beautiful.'' The illustrious guest list noincludes Gerry Mulligan, Joe Williams and James Galway. But perhaps the most touching moments are the duets with her daughter, Jacqui Dankworth. If the mother's higher register isn't what it used to be, she more than compensates with expression. Laine has never been easy to classify; she's been called both a jazz and a pop singer. But her genius is her intimate relationship with the listener. Yes, she's a cabaret diva. Three stars ?13- Chris Ledbetter Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire Kenickie/``At the Club'' The good news is the 18- and 19-year-olds in Kenickie (the name comes from a character in ``Grease'') know enough to write about what they know: boys, nightclubs, music, ``punka'' politics, fashion, dancing, teen insecurity/insolence and, of course, robots. And in doing so, Kenickie manages to avoid what so many teen acts (see: Jonny Lang, Fiona Apple) do these days, which is burying adolescent feelings and perspective with adult mannerisms and music. The bad news is that while the lyrics and vocals feel raw and immediate, the music is equally green, relying on formalistic '80s guitar-pop arrangements that suggest these three girls (and boy drummer) have not listened to much of their peers' records from this decade. But that is a small drawback, for in the end, ``At the Club'' is wonderfully imperfect, full of peaks, valleys, wonder, boredom, excitement, high anxiety and high arrogance. Just like puberty. Three stars ?13- Jim Walsh Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire Motley Crue/``Generation Swine'' On Motley Crue's first reunion effort with lead singer Vince Neil, with whom the band had a nasty split six years ago, the Crue ditches its distinctively fun and tasteless pop/metal brew for the merely tasteless - songs touting drugs and feeling rotten set to (get this) already dated '90s industrial sludge. Pathetic. And anyone who can listen with a straight face to drummer Tommy Lee's wobbly vocal debut on ``Brandon'' deserves a Purple Heart medal. Lee sings along to a weepy string sectionno and piano, ``Brandon I love you, I love her, she is your Mom,'' in tribute to his son and wife Pamela Lee. Ack! As for Neil, his thin voice is buried in the mix, and a stiff and unnecessary new reprise re·prise n. 1. Music a. A repetition of a phrase or verse. b. A return to an original theme. 2. A recurrence or resumption of an action. tr.v. of 1983's ``Shout at the Devil'' will likely shame old fans. Call it ``Generation Eccch'' and be done with it. One star CAPTION(S): 4 Photos Photo: (1) Motley Crue - Tommy Lee, left, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx - have put together a tasteless reunion album. (2) Blues Traveler's ``Straight on Till Morning'' lacks genuinely interesting compositions. Pictured are Brendan Hill, left, Bob Sheehan, Chan Kinchla and John Popper An early Unix POP server, which was written at the University of California at Berkeley. . (3) Dean Ween, left, and Gene Ween haven't shown much growth with ``The Mollusk mollusk: see Mollusca. mollusk or mollusc Any of some 75,000 species of soft-bodied invertebrate animals (phylum Mollusca), many of which are wholly or partly enclosed in a calcium carbonate shell secreted by the mantle, a soft .'' (4) Old 97's - Rhett Miller, left, Philip Peeples, Murray Hammond and Ken Bethea - re-create the raw force of their stage appearances on ``Too Far to Care.'' |
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