SOUND CHECK.Hanson/``This Time Around'' (Island) Has it really been three years since ``MMMBop'' set the stage for today's teen-dominated pop landscape? With many of Hanson's biggest fans having switched allegiances to groups like the Backstreet backstreet Noun a street in a town far from the main roads Adjective denoting secret or illegal activities: a backstreet abortion backstreet n Boys and 'N Sync, the well-scrubbed tow-headed trio from Tulsa had to do something drastic in order to appeal to pop fans of all ages. ``This Time Around'' delivers the goods. Here, the brothers wrote all the songs and co-produced with the guy who helmed their multi-million-selling debut, ``Middle of Nowhere.'' Some of the infectious new material blends a strong pop sensibility with a harder, smarter sound while the title track is a midtempo rocker that has Taylor and Isaac trading off on lead vocals. Jonny Lang
Jonny Lang (born Jon Gordon Langseth, Jr. on January 29, 1981, in Fargo, North Dakota) is a Grammy-winning American blues guitarist and singer. (who plays on two other tracks) provides bluesy guitar licks. You won't have to wait long to hear other radio-friendly standouts, including the bubbly ``If Only'' and the savvy ``Runaway Run,'' which both feature irresistible harmonies Taylor- made for the airwaves. In stores Tuesday. Three and one half stars - Fred Shuster < Soundtrack/``Dinosaur'' (Walt Disney Noun 1. Walt Disney - United States film maker who pioneered animated cartoons and created such characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck; founded Disneyland (1901-1966) Disney, Walter Elias Disney ) Film composer James Newton James W. Newton (b. Los Angeles, California, May 1, 1953) is a prominent American jazz flautist, composer, and conductor. ''Life and career From his earliest years, James Newton grew up immersed in the sounds of African American music, including urban blues, rhythm Howard's appealing score for Disney's highly anticipated ``Dinosaur'' transports listeners from a serene opening to a predatory sonic world where migrating dinosaurs collide before the herd finds a safe nesting ground. At once exotic and familiar, the soundtrack utilizes the unique vocal arrangements of Lebo M, known for his award-winning work on ``The Lion King'' score. The vocalist takes the lead on the track ``The Courtship,'' which showcases a rhythmic choral effect that nearly transforms the piece into song. The ``Dinosaur'' soundtrack is a nice movie memento that holds up on its own. Three stars F.S. Claire Lynch, ``Lovelight'' (Rounder) Put together a dozen sweetly rustic tunes, relaxed but precise pickin' and sawin' by top-ranked players such as Alison Brown Alison Brown is an American banjo player and guitarist known for a soft nylon-string banjo sound. Brown learned to play guitar at eight and banjo at ten. When she was twelve, she met fiddler Stuart Duncan. , Jim Hurst and Glen Duncan, and a soprano suffused suf·fuse tr.v. suf·fused, suf·fus·ing, suf·fus·es To spread through or over, as with liquid, color, or light: "The sky above the roof is suffused with deep colors" with a gentle, nearly evangelical fervor and what have you got? Answer: This versatile, soulful, beautifully performed disc from one of Nashville's most quietly important performers. Assuming principal songwriting duties for the first time on record, Lynch has put together a disc whose emotional range and probing calm begs comparison with the best of Alison Krauss, Laurie Lewis or any of her better-known female 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. cohorts. An impressively unified, totally joyful listening experience, from the minor-key moodiness of ``I Don't Have to Dream'' to the rich pastoral timbres of ``Missionary Ridge,'' to the witty swing-jazz number ``Stranger Things Have Happened,'' which contains my favorite lyric from a bluegrass lovestruck ditty dit·ty n. pl. dit·ties A simple song. [Middle English dite, a literary composition, from Old French dite, from Latin dict penned so far this millennium: ``Who at first thought Patty Hearst would join the S.L.A.?'' Four stars - Reed Johnson Claudia Acuna/``Wind From the South'' (Verve) The proverbial title wind blew Acuna up from her native Santiago, Chile, several years ago. After spending some time working in the gift shop of New York's Blue Note, Acuna began singing in clubs, leading to her discovery and this album. It's very much a first-time effort, with the sunny singer doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that. There's a nod to the greats, Berlin (``What'll I Do''), Gershwin (``My Man's Gone Now''), Rodgers and Hart (``Bewitched'') and Ellington (``Prelude to a Kiss''). There's the requisite modern reinterpretation re·in·ter·pret tr.v. re·in·ter·pret·ed, re·in·ter·pret·ing, re·in·ter·prets To interpret again or anew. re (Stevie Wonder's ``Visions'') and several numbers in Acuna's native Spanish. Acuna's clarity as a singer is noteworthy and she shows promise as an arranger, too. These qualities, as well as her versatility, mark her as a vocalist to watch in coming years. Two and one half stars - Glenn Whipp Various/``Hollywood Swing & Jazz: Hot Numbers from Classic M-G-M, Warner Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) . and RKO RKO Radio Keith Orpheum (movie studio) RKO Randy Keith Orton (wrestling) RKO Relativistic Klystron Oscillator RKO Rural King Ohio (farm supply store) Films'' (Rhino) In the '30s and '40s, major jazz figures such as Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman appeared in almost as many movies as Clark Gable and Jimmy Durante. By the '50s and '60s, jazz was also turning up in the soundtracks of many mass-market films. This recommended two-disc set covering the years 1934-62 collects wonderful movie jazz from the likes of the Mills Brothers, Goodman, Armstrong, Artie Shaw, Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Carter, Stan Getz and more, setting the stage for a sequel that shows how jazz continues to thrive in Hollywood in the films of Clint Eastwood, Spike Lee and Woody Allen. Three and one half stars - F.S. Arturo Sandoval/``Ronnie Scott's Jazz House'' (DCC (1) (Direct Cable Connection) A Windows 95/98 feature that allows PCs to be cabled together for data transfer. DCC actually sets up a network connection between the two machines. Jazz) This performance taped at London's famed jazz and blues club should appeal primarily to diehard fans of Sandoval, whose set came in 1988 and featured the trumpeter with his six-piece Cuban band. The undemanding Cuban fare is supplemented by three pop standards, ``Georgia on My Mind,'' ``My Love'' and ``Saving All My Love.'' Two and one half stars - G.W. Pink/``Can't Take Me Home'' (LaFace/Arista) The latest r&b/pop singer to emerge from hitmaker L.A. Reid's wildly successful LaFace stable, Pink offers a surefire mix of r&b, pop and dance, taking cues from labelmates TLC TLC total lung capacity; thin-layer chromatography. TLC abbr. 1. thin-layer chromatography 2. . Lead single ``There You Go'' finds the pink-haired chanteuse chan·teuse n. A woman singer, especially a nightclub singer. [French, feminine of chanteur, singer, from chanter, to sing; see chant.] laying down the law to a straying lover over a herky-jerky rhythm track courtesy of currently hot producer Kevin ``She'kspere'' Briggs. ``Can't Take Me Home,'' currently rising in the albums chart, is going to be a steady summer seller. Three stars - F.S. Tony Joe White/``One Hot July'' (Mercury/Hip-O) Bayou rocker White's first new release to be distributed in the U.S. since 1983 is a plain treat and for those who have been following the Swamp Fox's career since ``Polk Salad Annie'' and ``Rainy Night in Georgia,'' it's cause for celebration. Recorded in four nights in a studio in rural Bogalusa, La., ``One Hot July'' contains blues-drenched, rockin' tales of various backwoods characters as well as reflective ballads about life and love. Nobody puts a song across like White, and his cracked vocals on the moving ``Cold Fingers'' and ``Across from Midnight'' can prompt shivers. Aside from his crooning, White is a brilliant guitarist in the J.J. Cale/Mark Knopfler mode whose heartfelt picking on a battered Stratocaster has the power to inspire. Four stars - F.S. Galactic/``Late for the Future'' (Capricorn) New Orleans' Galactic draws on the Crescent City funk lineage set in stone by the Meters and Neville Brothers. On its latest disc, the second-line sextet goes for a more adventurous and complex sound than was apparent on the band's first two releases. The aggressive ``Late for the Future'' veers into spacey spac·ey adj. Slang Variant of spacy. Adj. 1. spacey - stupefied by (or as if by) some narcotic drug spaced-out, spacy unconventional - not conventional or conformist; "unconventional life styles" soul on ``Century City'' and funk-meets- free-jazz on the instrumental ``Two Clowns.'' Guests include baritone saxophonist Roger Lewis of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is a New Orleans, Louisiana, brass band. The ensemble was established in 1977 by Benny Jones together with members of the Tornado Brass Band. The Dirty Dozen revolutionized the New Orleans brass band style by incorporating funk and bebop into the and singer Theresa Andersson. Galactic appears May 25 at the House of Blues House of Blues (HOB) is a chain of music halls and restaurants founded in 1992 by Hard Rock Cafe founder Isaac Tigrett and his friend and investor Dan Aykroyd. It is a home for live music and southern-inspired cuisine, whose clubs celebrate African-American culture, specifically . Three and one half stars - F.S. CAPTION(S): 7 photos Photo: (1) no caption (Hanson) (2 -- 7) no caption (CD covers) |
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