SOUND CHECK.Lauryn Hill/``The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill'' (RuffHouse/Columbia) The doe-eyed Hill was featured performer on the Fugees' Grammy-winning smash, ``The Score,'' on which she crooned the ubiquitous cover of Roberta Flack's ``Killing Me Softly.'' Now comes her engaging and self-assured solo opus, one of the best releases of the year and a must-hear for anyone curious about the state of r&b in 1998. The album makes forays into hip-hop with cuts like ``Doo Wop (That Thing),'' reggaefied grooves on album-opener ``Lost Ones'' and the gorgeous ``To Zion'' featuring Carlos Santana. Warm and sensitive as a singer, Hill is a groundbreaker as producer, too. Three and a half stars - Fred Shuster Tony Rich Project/``Birdseye'' (LaFace/Arista) There are hits aplenty a·plen·ty adj. In plentiful supply; abundant: "There were warning signs aplenty for their candidates as well" Michael Gelb. here, notably the Prince-ish ``Silly Man,'' the sultry, even more Prince-ish ``Cool Like That'' and the Babyface redux Refers to being brought back, revived or restored. From the Latin "reducere." ``If You're an Angel.'' In fact, any track on Rich's sophomore effort could find its way onto the singles chart. The sound is an extension of Rich's superb debut, ``Words,'' with many of the tracks echoing his hit ``Nobody Knows'' and its slowly clacking conga undertow and supple bass lines. But not much of the record achieves the smoking quality of the Project's live performances. Rich's multilayered vocals (pretty impassioned, too) and marimba marimba: see xylophone. marimba Xylophone with resonators under each bar. The original African instrument uses tuned calabash resonators. In Mexico and Central America, where it was brought by African slaves, the wooden bars may be affixed to a and acoustic guitar touches are welcome, but sometimes they detract from the heat of the moment. Two and a half stars - Ben Wener Orange County Register Elliott Smith/``XO'' (DreamWorks) A student of classic songwriting who is comfortable appropriating Beach Boys harmonies and Beatles-like bridges, Smith works familiar elements until they're twisted beyond recognition. And like XTC's Andy Partridge - who he resembles on the lilting ``Baby Britain'' - Smith teases sprawling, improbably long-winded melodies from the most ordinary settings. The result is music that's at once dense and airy and almost dazzling enough to distract from the emotional turmoil buried deep within. Almost. Three and a half stars - Tom Moon Philadelphia Inquirer Soundtrack/``Dance With Me: Music From the Motion Picture'' (Sony Music Soundtrax) When it concentrates on dance music, this multiculti sound track is tremendous: It opens with Sergio Mendes' mesmerizing mes·mer·ize tr.v. mes·mer·ized, mes·mer·iz·ing, mes·mer·iz·es 1. To spellbind; enthrall: "He could mesmerize an audience by the sheer force of his presence" Afro-Brazilian chant ``Magalenha'' and includes a crisp Miami dance number from Albita, several vintage salsa hits and a thunderbolt from the Puerto Rican hybrid group Dark Latin Groove. But because ``Dance With Me'' has crossover dreams, it tries to appeal to star Vanessa Williams' more mainstream following as well, and that's the trouble: Williams' duet with fast-rising Puerto Rican singer Chayanne, ``You Are My Home,'' is an all-too-familiar belter belter Noun Slang an outstanding person or event: a belter of a match ballad, and there are similarly tepid productions from Jon Secada and Ana Gabriel. Two and a half stars - T.M. Dale Watson and his Lone Stars/``The Truckin' Sessions'' (Island) Watson has always served up nothing but unadulterated un·a·dul·ter·at·ed adj. 1. Not mingled or diluted with extraneous matter; pure. See Synonyms at pure. 2. Out-and-out; utter: the unadulterated truth. country, and that's what the Texas honky-tonker delivers again on his fourth album, which revolves around that time-honored staple, the truck-driving song. As he writes in the liner notes, Watson has never been a trucker, but he spends most of his year on the road touring, and his songs ring with the authenticity of experience, whether he's looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a caffeine pick-me-up, aching to see his young daughter or waiting to get a flat fixed. Watson keeps the mood lighter than on his previous albums, and that's just fine. ``The Truckin' Sessions'' is one enjoyable ride and reaffirms Watson's place as a staunch standard-bearer of pure country. Three and a half stars - Nick Cristiano Philadelphia Inquirer The Knack/``Zoom'' (Rhino) The Knack is back. Don't all rush down to the record store at once. Though the Knack was among the least worthy of its fellow power-pop bands to sell millions of albums, those albums weren't inherently bad, and neither is this comeback CD. In fact, Doug Fieger, Berton Averre and the gang sound even more like early Nazz than they managed to sound the first time around - except that Fieger (or is it Averre) can no longer hit the high notes that this music calls for. ``In Blue Tonight,'' ``Ambition'' and ``Love Is All There Is'' are zippy, jangly adj. 1. like the discordant ringing of nonmusical metallic objects striking together; sounding with a jangle ; as, a custodian with a jangly set of keys s>. Adj. 1. pop-rockers the likes of which radio could definitely use more, and almost every song on the disc shows the care that a dozen or so years off will bring to a project. But you can't help feeling that this version of the Knack is just as shallow as the first - and just as likely to damage the very cause they claim to champion. Two stars - Rick Shefchik St. Paul Pioneer Press
The St. Paul Pioneer Press is a newspaper based in St. Paul, Minnesota, primarily serving the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Randy Scruggs/``Crown of Jewels'' (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. ) Scruggs is the son of famed banjo banjo, stringed musical instrument, with a body resembling a tambourine. The banjo consists of a hoop over which a skin membrane is stretched; it has a long, often fretted neck and four to nine strings, which are plucked with a pick or the fingers. player Earl Scruggs, who joins his guitar-playing son and fellow string ace Jerry Douglas on a hot-picking version of Earl's ``Lonesome lone·some adj. 1. a. Dejected because of a lack of companionship. See Synonyms at alone. b. Producing such dejection: a lonesome hour at the bar. 2. Ruben.'' That instrumental and a couple of others - the traditional ``A Soldier's Joy'' with Vince Gill, which builds masterfully from somber folk to twangy rock, and an elegiac el·e·gi·ac adj. 1. Of, relating to, or involving elegy or mourning or expressing sorrow for that which is irrecoverably past: an elegiac lament for youthful ideals. 2. take on Joni Mitchell's ``Both Sides Now'' - are among the highlights of this star-studded effort. Two and a half stars - N.C. Trisha Yearwood/``Where Your Road Leads'' (MCA MCA in full Music Corporation of America Entertainment conglomerate. It was founded in Chicago in 1924 by Jules Stein as a talent agency. In the 1960s it bought Decca Records and Universal Pictures, and today it produces films, music, and television shows. Nashville) Give Yearwood credit: She's coming off ``How Do I Live,'' the highest-profile hit of her career, and instead of filling her sixth studio album with 11 clones of the Cher-like melodrama - something that would have been rewarded commercially - Yearwood refrains from coasting. ``Where Your Road Leads'' finds a maturing artist grappling with complex adult emotions in a largely country setting. That said, despite some exquisite moments (the sultry ballad, ``Never Let You Go Again,'' the sly ``That Ain't the Way I Heard It'' and the spiritual title track co-written by Desmond Child), ``Where Your Road Leads'' is a slight letdown when compared to her previous two albums. The material isn't always up to her uncommonly high standards, and a trio of ballads on the CD's latter half throws its pace off. Two stars - Howard Cohen cohen or kohen (Hebrew: “priest”) Jewish priest descended from Zadok (a descendant of Aaron), priest at the First Temple of Jerusalem. The biblical priesthood was hereditary and male. Miami Herald CAPTION(S): 3 Photos PHOTO (1) On ``XO,'' Elliott Smith uses familiar harmonies to make new, unfamiliar music. (2 --3) no caption (CD covers) |
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