Music Reviews: CD

(This review originally appeared in Issue 5/6, Winter 1995/96.)Joe Meek was a lonely British eccentric producer/engineer who played with electronic gizmos in the studio to create kitsch filled teenage classics like “Telstar” by the Tornadoes, which those of you from the boomer generation remember as the song which introduced us to “the future” and to the sound of “outer space.”The stuff collected here is wonderful in its campy early 60s awfulness, but it also reveals... Read More

(This review originally appeared in Issue 7, Spring 1996.)Even if this fascinating, eclectic set had nothing whatsoever to do with The Grateful Dead, in fact even if you’re not a “Deadhead” it’s worth picking up both for the mix of music and the outstanding sound from Paul Stubblebine, not to mention R. Crumb’s cover art. If you are a Grateful Dead fan, you don’t want to be without this compilation.Long time Dead writer Blair Jackson twists these seemingly disparate... Read More

(This review originally appeared in Issue 7, Spring 1996.)It was only a matter of time before an alternative to “alternative” music’s dreary sound would emerge, and over the past few months it has—in the form of Britpop, with bands like Oasis, Pulp and Supergrass gaining not just “underground” popularity, but major chart action—something the last British wave, the “Manchester sound,” never achieved.Of all the bands leading the new British pop invasion, the one I find... Read More

(This review originally appeared in Issue 7, Spring 1996.)Joni Mitchell may have written “The Circle Game,” but it took Cassandra Wilson to grab pop by the throat and drag it around in one of the widest, deepest grooves of an unlikely circle you’ll ever hear, reconfiguring it as simmering, steamy jazz/blues. If you start this disc on the third track, “Solomon Sang”—a Wilson original—you might even be fooled into thinking it was Joni in her most recent smoky... Read More

(This review, written by Carl E. Baugher, originally appeared in Issue 5/6, Winter 1995/96.)It’s taken him some 20 years or so but Bruce Springsteen has finally delivered his masterpiece. Make no mistake: he’s done a ton of good work over the years. But, this is the album he’s been working towards his whole career. And there’s not a single rock song on it! Here’s evidence beyond a shadow of a doubt that the lineage which runs through Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan... Read More

(This review, written by Steve Guttenberg, originally appeared in Issue 5/6, Winter 1995/96.)Is Mose Allison the coolest man alive? Do “cool” people still use that word? Whatever the jargon, Mose Allison defined the whole concept. This groovy 2CD set covers a great deal of ground: the years 1957-1990; 47 tracks from six different labels. This music doesn’t fit easily into any one category—a lot of jazz, plenty of blues, definitely rock, a bit of country—so its appeal... Read More

"This project is dedicated to the memories of all the other voices no longer traversing our earthbound radio airwaves...we will sing your songs often, with great pride..."

So begin the liner notes to this west Texas-bred folk singer's fifteenth album, and sequel to 1993's highly regarded "OtherVoices/Other Rooms" (Elektra 61464-2), though this new disc betters it with greater diversity of style (solo-duet-chorus), song, and performers as well as sheer beauty of production.