SOUND CHECK.R. KELLY & JAY-Z: ``Unfinished Business'' (Jive/Def Jam) - Two stars For once, an album title practices truth in advertising. But even before a tour featuring these two hip-hop superstars unraveled a few days ago in a cloud of suspicion, threats and lawsuits, the concept was doomed. Though they've successfully collaborated before, ``Unfinished Business'' is no championship season but a case of Kelly and Jay-Z keeping their best stuff under wraps for their own projects. The problem is an obvious lack of chemistry and a jarring shortage of production ideas from the big-bucks Trackmasters outfit (Spanish guitar? Again?). The 10 tracks sound like retreads, formula pieces where Kelly sings a number and Jay-Z raps something scattershot scat·ter·shot adj. Covering a wide range in a random way; indiscriminate: "his habit of scattershot comment on whatever issue catches his eye" Howell Raines. . Were these guys ever actually in the studio at the same time? The recipe works at times - ``The Return'' is a winner (an album-closing remix with Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh is not) and the reflective ``Don't Let Me Die'' is almost worthy of Jay-Z's ``The Black Album.'' Ultimately, nobody involved seems very inspired here. ``Unfinished Business'' is all about the business. - Fred Shuster SPLIT LIP RAYFIELD Split Lip Rayfield is a vocal and (acoustic) instrumental group from Wichita, Kansas. Though they are sometimes classified as a bluegrass or alt-country band, their music draws on a wide array of influences. : ``Should Have Seen It Coming'' (Bloodshot blood·shot adj. Red and inflamed as a result of locally congested blood vessels, as of the eyes. bloodshot Vox populi adjective ) - Three and one half stars On this wild-hair string band's latest album, traditional bluegrass bluegrass, any species of the large and widely distributed genus Poa, chiefly range and pasture grasses of economic importance in temperate and cool regions. In general, bluegrasses are perennial with fine-leaved foliage that is bluish green in some species. , scary psychobilly and redneck Methedrine energy chemically react and come out sounding both more refined and less stable than their constituent elements. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Jeff Eaton's one-string stand-up stand·up or stand-up adj. 1. Standing erect; upright: a standup collar. 2. Taken, done, or used while standing: a standup supper; a standup bar. bass is built from a '60s Mercury gas tank. Whatever, SLR (1) (Scalable Linear Recording) A line of magnetic tape drives from Tandberg Data that evolved from the QIC Data Cartridge format. See QIC. (2) (Single Lens Reflex) A camera that uses the same lens for viewing and shooting. makes funny, scary, sonically assaultive as·saul·tive adj. Inclined to or suggestive of violent attack: "The reduction of cinema to assaultive images ... has produced a disincarnated, lightweight cinema that doesn't demand anyone's full attention" acoustic songs that, despite an emphasis on bad drugs, dumb violence and crazy sex, pass the Appalachian authenticity sound test while simultaneously evoking Anthrax unplugged. Impressive harmonies, too. - Bob Strauss DAN ZANES: ``Parades and Panoramas'' (Festival Five) - Three and one half stars For his latest, Zanes dusts off Carl Sandburg's 1927 ``The American Songbag'' and finds there's still plenty of life left in the great American poet's tales of immigration immigration, entrance of a person (an alien) into a new country for the purpose of establishing permanent residence. Motives for immigration, like those for migration generally, are often economic, although religious or political factors may be very important. , celebration and, yes, occasional inebriation inebriation /in·e·bri·a·tion/ (in-e?bre-a´shun) drunkenness; intoxication with, or as if with, alcohol. in·e·bri·a·tion n. The condition of being intoxicated, as with alcohol. . Like Zanes' all-ages (or as he puts it, ``age desegregated'') albums, the songs were recorded in the basement of his Brooklyn home with regular collaborators, including singer-guitarist Barbara Brousal, bassist Yoshi Waki and brother-in-law/singer Donald Saaf. It's modern folk that should appeal to just about everyone. The tuba-driven, high-spirited ``Roll the Chariot,'' originally used for religious fund-raising, could be the theme song for just about any movement, including Zanes' own quest to make music like this an integral part of people's everyday lives. Zanes and friends play UCLA's Royce Hall on Nov. 21. - Glenn Whipp KOKOMO: ``To Be Cool'' (Hux import) - Four stars Standing in front of this '70s Brit-soul revue at North London clubs like the Hope & Anchor and Dingwalls was the most exquisite place on earth. Consisting of the U.K.'s top rock and r&b studio players (bassist Alan Spenner and guitarist Neil Hubbard had played Woodstock with Joe Cocker; saxophonist Mel Collins was out of King Crimson; percussionist Jody Linscott would tour with the Who and Dido; Jim Mullen today is Britain's top jazz guitarist), the 10-piece ensemble knocked out American soul music thoroughly marinated in draught Guinness, patchouli patchouli or patchouly (both: păch`  lē, pəch oil and five varieties of hashish hashish (hăsh`ēsh, –ĭsh), resin extracted from the flower clusters and top leaves of the hemp plant, Cannabis sativa, and C. indica. . Despite three fine albums for Columbia, the 10-track ``To Be Cool,'' taped at the band's rehearsal room in '74 and miraculously just discovered and released, truly captures the band's feel, wit and casual brilliance. Plucking obscure gems from albums by Joe Tex, Allen Toussaint and Funk Inc., Kokomo opened gigs with a jaw-dropping 10-minute reading of Herbie Hancock's ``Chameleon,'' before the group's three singers arrived on stage. That instrumental, in which Mullen illustrates the proper use of a Fender Telecaster, is a standout here, along with the late Spenner's tour de force reading of Bob Dylan's ``New Morning'' and Tex's ``Mother's Prayer.'' Sweet, sweet sounds. - F.S. CAPTION(S): 5 photos Photo: (1) R. KELLY & JAY-Z Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com (2 -- 5) no caption (CD covers) |
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