SOUND CHECK.MOBY (jargon) moby - /moh'bee/ (From MIT, seems to have been in use among model railroad fans years ago. Derived from Melville's "Moby Dick", some say from "Moby Pickle") 1. Large, immense, complex, impressive. "A Saturn V rocket is a truly moby frob. : ``Hotel'' (V2) - One and one half stars Not a grand inn, certainly - more a dour lodge located a few towns over from Catatonia. The problem, Moby watchers: Our hero has apparently been dipping into the nation's melatonin melatonin: see pineal gland. melatonin Hormone secreted by the pineal gland of most vertebrates. It appears to be important in regulating sleeping cycles; more is produced at night, and test subjects injected with it become sleepy. supply. ``Hotel,'' which shuns the witty sampling that gave the best-selling ``Play'' so much resonance six years ago, simply never achieves liftoff. Tempos drag, slight synth synth n. 1. Informal A synthesizer. 2. A style of light popular music made with synthesizers. Also called synth-pop. melodies come out of the ether, and Moby's singing suggests a fusion of the words ``damp'' and ``monotone mon·o·tone n. 1. A succession of sounds or words uttered in a single tone of voice. 2. Music a. A single tone repeated with different words or time values, especially in a rendering of a liturgical text. .'' The disc's turgid turgid /tur·gid/ (ter´jid) swollen and congested. tur·gid adj. Swollen or distended, as from a fluid; bloated; tumid. turgid swollen and congested. pre-``Play'' terrain appears to pay tribute to the headliner's hero and onetime touring partner David Bowie. The tracks ``Raining Again'' and ``Beautiful,'' for example, plainly mimic the Bowster's glam-rock incarnation even down to a guitar that replicates Mick Ronson's Les Paul. But little ground is broken in the melody department. Despite layers of augmentation, attempted arena anthem ``Lift Me Up'' evokes the sense of having already been heard a thousand times. And a snail-like cover of New Order's ``Temptation'' achieves the impossible and had us longing for the original. Moby's new album arrives in stores Tuesday as two CDs, the first being the relatively straightforward ``Hotel'' and the second a far more useful set of moody instrumentals titled ``Hotel: Ambient.'' - Fred Shuster JACK JOHNSON: ``In Between Dreams'' (Brushfire brush·fire also brush fire n. 1. A fire in low-growing, scrubby trees and brush. 2. A relatively minor crisis. adj. ) - Four stars Johnson's delicate, near-whispering vocals croon croon v. crooned, croon·ing, croons v.intr. 1. To hum or sing softly. 2. To sing popular songs in a soft, sentimental manner. 3. Scots To roar or bellow. love, ``Banana Pancakes'' and goodbyes over breezy folk guitars like the kind we heard on his first two releases. Only, he's perfected it here. He rolls with the punches on the funky ``Staple It Together,'' recites the lovely ``Better Together'' to his wife and vents frustrations about war on the soulful ``Crying Shame.'' Standouts also include ``Breakdown,'' a stripped-down version of his collaboration with Handsome Boy Modeling School Handsome Boy Modeling School is a hip-hop collaboration between Dan the Automator and Prince Paul, producer of influential rap trio De La Soul. History Handsome Boy Modeling School is a conceptual hip-hop duo that parodied and acted as a commentary on vain, crass, without the Handsome Boys or the electronic beats. - Sandra Barrera PEDRO LUIS FERRER: ``Rustico'' (Escondida) - Three and one half stars Cuban troubadour Ferrer wasn't on board the Buena Vista Social Club The Buena Vista Social Club was a members club in Havana, Cuba that held dances and musical activities, becoming a popular location for musicians to meet and play during the 1940s. bandwagon, which is good news for anyone looking to hear some different sounds from the island. On this effort, he mixes and matches several styles of Cuban music with a small group of musicians, including his daughter, Lena, on vocals and percussion. The richly melodic songs use a wide variety of cool-sounding, little-used instruments, including Peruvian percussion (the cajon) and the marimbula, a large African thumb piano. The CD booklet translates Ferrer's songs into English, and the social commentary packs a wallop. ``I paid for a watermelon watermelon, plant (Citrullus vulgaris) of the family Curcurbitaceae (gourd family) native to Africa and introduced to America by Africans transported as slaves. Watermelons are now extensively cultivated in the United States and are popular also in S Russia. with a two-month salary/That's why my heart sometimes bursts,'' he sings in ``Fundamento.'' The man is square in the tradition, but he's talking the revolutionary blues. - Glenn Whipp KATHLEEN EDWARDS: ``Back to Me'' (Rounder/Zoe) - Three and one half stars Some have complained that this follow-up to the singer-songwriter's acclaimed debut ``Failer'' takes too sharp a commercial turn into Sheryl Crow territory. Maybe so, but it sounds better than the last four Crow albums put together. Vigorous classic rock orchestrations hardly betray the love-worn Edwards' signature theme of existential homelessness (a Canadian diplomat's daughter, she moved around a lot as a child), and they only sound right when she's trenchantly singing about those noncommittal, irresponsible and downright criminal guys she seems so attracted to. If ``Back to Me'' has a few more songs the radio might play, it also shows a good deal of artistic growth. Edwards, incidentally, provided one of the highlights of last summer's Gram Parsons tribute concerts (just issued on DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. ) in duet with John Doe on ``We'll Sweep Out the Ashes in the Morning.'' - Bob Strauss JUDY WEXLER: ``Easy on the Heart'' (Jazzopolis) - Three and one half stars Wexler doesn't play the debut-disc game of most jazz vocalists by packing the playlist A file that contains an index to a selected group of music files on the computer. Using digital jukebox software such as iTunes and Winamp, playlists are created by the user by dragging and dropping titles from a master index. The software may be able to create a playlist automatically. with ringers. Instead, this subtly powerful Glendale singer offers a satisfyingly challenging program of lesser-known gems by Berlin, Mancini and Kern/Hammerstein - even tacking on Lalo Schifrin's ``Down Here on the Ground'' (from ``Cool Hand Luke'') and items from Bob Dylan and the Beatles. Wexler also proves she can handle bebop bebop or bop Jazz characterized by harmonic complexity, convoluted melodic lines, and frequent shifting of rhythmic accent. In the mid-1940s, a group of musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker, rejected the conventions of (Meredith D'Ambrosio's ``Beautiful Love'') and deliver the blues (with an Oscar Brown Jr. cover, no less). The one constant: a spot-on, expressive voice. Adding to her credibility is the flawless support of Alan Pasqua (piano), Derek Oles (bass) and Tim Pleasant (drums), plus Bob Sheppard (reeds) and Steven Campos (trumpet). - Steven Rosenberg CAPTION(S): 6 photos Photo: (1) no caption (Moby) Frank Micelotta/Getty Images Entertainment (2 -- 6) no caption (CD covers) |
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