SOUND CHECK.JIMMY EAT WORLD: ``Futures'' (Interscope) - Three and one half stars This band from the swing state of Arizona is anything but undecided about the upcoming presidential elections, judging by its explosive opener. ``I always believed in futures/I hope for better in November,'' Jim Adkins Jim Adkins (born November 10, 1975) is the lead singer and guitarist in the American band Jimmy Eat World. Born in Mesa, Arizona, Jim was a member of the regional band "Dream" while still in high school, before forming Jimmy Eat World with childhood friends Tom Linton, Mitch sings over a chugging metal guitar riff on the title track, a guitar-based rocker about voting Bush out of office. That song gets this 11-track set off to a dynamic start, from politics to problems caused by drug dependency, as in the punk-inspired single ``Pain,'' or the quiet ``Drugs or Me.'' Especially nice is ``Kill,'' an emo-drenched ballad about loving somebody from afar. Yes - heartbreak and other dramas associated with relationships also pop up on the album, which fans are sure to love. - Sandra Barrera ELLIOTT SMITH: ``From a Basement on the Hill'' (Anti/Epitaph) - Three stars In five previous albums, Smith provided the perfect antidote for anyone who felt Kurt Cobain was just too cheerful. This bleak, often beautiful posthumous set, coming a year after Smith took his own life, won't change anyone's opinion of the troubled singer-songwriter. The production is artfully raw and carefully crafted, framing Smith's sweetly resigned, fragile vocals and chords strummed like death knells - elements displayed to the world after his 1998 Academy Award nomination for ``Miss Misery,'' a song used in ``Good Will Hunting.'' Like equally powerful music from Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley Jeff Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), born Jeffrey Scott Buckley and raised as Scotty Moorhead,[1] was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. , much of ``From a Basement on the Hill'' is difficult to swallow, considering the way things turned out. Of the 15 tracks, a few are instant hits: the challenging, atmospheric ``King's Crossing Summary King's Crossing was a short lived television series starring Mary Frann and Linda Hamilton. It was a revamped version of another short-lived series, Secrets Of Midland Heights. External links ,'' the lovely Beatles-inspired pop song ``Pretty (Ugly Before),'' and the equally pretty ballad ``A Fond Farewell.'' Fond, perhaps, but never happy. - Fred Shuster CHARLIE ROBISON Charlie Robison (born September 1 1964, Houston, Texas) is an American singer/songwriter, who was raised in Bandera, Texas. His brother is singer/songwriter Bruce Robison. He married Emily Erwin of The Dixie Chicks in 1999. : ``Good Times'' (Dualtone) - Three and one half stars Though there's plenty of ranch and raunch on Robison's latest slab of Texas country, there's a more mature, experienced and sometimes wiser subtext sub·text n. 1. The implicit meaning or theme of a literary text. 2. The underlying personality of a dramatic character as implied or indicated by a script or text and interpreted by an actor in performance. to this one than his earlier, ``Life of the Party'' release. Married for awhile to one Dixie Chick and working with another's father, producer Lloyd Maines, Robison tackles family and nostalgic themes with the same passion and intelligence he lavishes on high livin' and hell-raisin'. And he somehow manages to combine it all in the R-rated ode to a certain kind of marital satisfaction, ``Love Means Never Having to Say You're Hungry.'' - Bob Strauss ROKIA TRAORE: ``Bowmboi'' (Nonesuch none·such also non·such n. 1. A person or thing without equal. 2. See black medic. none ) - Three stars She sings in her native Bamanan, but Malian singer Traore warbles warbles the disease caused by hypoderma. Includes damage to the hides where the larvae emerge, some cases of choke caused by periesophagitis, posterior paresis or paralysis in a small percentage of infested cattle due to a reaction to dead H. universal themes. With her third album, the 29-year-old chanteuse chan·teuse n. A woman singer, especially a nightclub singer. [French, feminine of chanteur, singer, from chanter, to sing; see chant.] tackles status quo [Latin, The existing state of things at any given date.] Status quo ante bellum means the state of things before the war. The status quo to be preserved by a preliminary injunction is the last actual, peaceable, uncontested status which preceded the pending controversy. gender roles (``Kote Don''), love (``M'bifo'') and poverty (``Manian'') utilizing a variety of traditional instruments including African lute lute, musical instrument that has a half-pear-shaped body, a fretted neck, and a variable number of strings, which are plucked with the fingers. The long lute, with its neck much longer than its body, seems to have been older than the short lute, existing very early . Helping push the boundaries of world music, Traore reaches out to the West for musical direction and inspiration; ``Manian,'' one of the disc's standouts, calls forth the eloquent strings of the Kronos Quartet. The results are never less than impressive. Traore performs Monday at the Knitting Factory Hollywood. - Phillip Zonkel VARIOUS: ``Broadway: The American Musical'' (Columbia/Legacy) - Three stars The five-disc companion set to this week's PBS PBS in full Public Broadcasting Service Private, nonprofit U.S. corporation of public television stations. PBS provides its member stations, which are supported by public funds and private contributions rather than by commercials, with educational, cultural, series on Broadway musicals hits all the right notes, even if the first couple of discs are more interesting as historical documents than musical entertainment. Having original versions of ``Bewitched be·witch tr.v. be·witched, be·witch·ing, be·witch·es 1. To place under one's power by or as if by magic; cast a spell over. 2. To captivate completely; entrance. See Synonyms at charm. , Bothered and Bewildered'' (from ``Pal Joey'') and ``It Never Entered My Mind'' (from ``Higher and Higher'') is OK, but because the popular singers of the day mined Broadway musicals for material, most of the set's early songs have been done better by artists like Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. By the time we reach the modern era, such overlap is less of a problem since today's pop stars A) can't sing and B) usually don't look to the Great White Way for inspiration. Unarguably, this is a nice, one-stop compilation that's thorough, wide-ranging and frequently witty (love the first disc's pairing of Irving Berlin's ``Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning'' and ``Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' '' from ``Oklahoma!''). It's easy to put on a happy face about this one. - Glenn Whipp CAPTION(S): 6 photos Photo: (1) JIMMY EAT WORLD (2 -- 6) no caption (CD covers) |
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