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# 1's
Mariah Carey's #1's is as much a time capsule of '90s pop and R&B as a record of one woman's chart toppers: the disc chronicles a shift from the sweet, nearly '50s-style "Vision of Love" to more recent hip-hop-lite grooves featuring heavy input from Puffy Combs ("Honey"), Jermaine Dupri ("Sweetheart"), and O.D.B. ("Fantasy"). Some hit, some miss, but all feature the fluttery swoops that Carey substitutes for expression of feeling. Depth is beside the point, but few of these tracks are even fun. Still, after eight years, there seems to be no stopping her, and this album will hardly break her streak of successes. Click here for more information or to order this CD.
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Back On Top
Back on Top kicks off on an unpromising note with a generic blues shuffle, "Goin' Down Geneva," that belies the album's cocky title. Van Morrison quickly redeems himself, however, with a set otherwise closer in its balance of rave-up and reverie to his beloved early-'70s classics than much of his '90s output. "Philosophers Stone" is yet another position paper on the Belfast bard's art ("My job is turning lead into gold"), but it's welcome for its relative absence of complaint. Elsewhere, he revisits familiar themes of survival ("Back on Top"), celebrity's price ("New Biography"), and mortality ("Precious Time") in midtempo anthems laudable for deceptively buoyant tempos and crisp ensemble work. Vocally, his signature mix of rasp and croon proves as ripe as ever. Click here for more information or to order this CD.
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Believe
Cher's recording career has long taken a back seat to her acting pursuits, but with Believe she's back with a vengeance as a throbbing disco diva. Although no fewer than five producers with dance pedigrees are along for the project (including Todd Terry, Junior Vasquez of Madonna fame, and Rob Dickins, who helped resurrect Rod Stewart's ailing career), this is by no means a dance album in the '90s trip-hop sense of the term. Rather, it's a tour de force that summons mid-'70s images of strobe-lighted dance floors, sequined miniskirts, and writhing bodies. In "Power," Cher wails, "Ain't nothing changed much through the years." Not a bad thing in this case, since Cher's star was still rising in the steamy '70s and '80s with a string of hits that included the disco gem "Take Me Home" and the haunting "If I Could Turn Back Time." Although not blessed with much vocal range, Cher knows how to work a song with her trademark sultry, slightly ironic delivery. And she's certainly in fine form on the masterful title track, which is marred only by the intrusive, anachronistic wah-wah vocal effect. Click here for more information or to order this CD.
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Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
Lucinda Williams makes this whole music thing seem so simple: Write in plain language about the people and places that crowd your memory; add subtle flavors of a mandolin here, a Dobro there, perhaps an accordion or slide guitar; above all, sing as honestly and naturally as you can. Of course, it took her six years to achieve this simplicity, an amazing achievement considering the number of knobs that were turned. Her exquisite voice moans and groans and slips and slides--she delivers a polished tone in a coarse manner. On the superb "Concrete and Barbed Wire," soft acoustic guitars are punctuated by electric slide, accordion, mandolin, and Steve Earle's harmony. Williams's deeply personal stories are matched with bluesy rumbles, raunchy grooves, and plaintive whispers. The entire Deep South is reduced to a sleepy small town filled with ex-lovers, dive bars, and endless gravel roads. Click here for more information or to order this CD.
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Dark Side Of The Moon
Dark Side of the Moon, originally released in 1973, is one of those albums that is discovered anew by each generation of rock listeners. This complex, often psychedelic music works very well because Pink Floyd doesn't rush anything; the songs are mainly slow to mid-tempo, with attention paid throughout to musical texture and mood. The sound effects on songs like "On the Run," "Time" and especially "Money" (with sampled sounds of clinking coins and cash registers turned into rhythmic accompaniment) are impressive, especially when we remember that 1973 was before the advent of digital recording techniques. This is probably Pink Floyd's best-known work, and it's an excellent place to start if you're new to the band. Click here for more information or to order this CD.
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Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George
Michael
Bathroom escapades aside, there's no denying that George Michael has been responsible for some of the biggest party jams of the '80s and '90s. Have you ever noticed what happens to a room when "Faith" erupts from the speakers? Aside from the funk-fueled "Fastlove," the material from his most recent album, Older, is well and truly overshadowed here by the megahits from days gone by. The first disc starts off slow, with "Careless Whisper" and his remake of "I Can't Make You Love Me" the only real high points among otherwise bland ballads. It's disc 2 that exudes the essence of Michael, with "Fastlove," "Too Funky," and "Freedom 90" providing a nonstop dance-athon, and "I Want Your Sex" and "Faith" picking up the slack. The package also includes his rather unexciting (but hugely popular) duets with Queen and Elton John, his perfect pop pairing with Aretha Franklin, and two new tracks. Set aside some serious time for this one, folks. The hits don't stop. Click here for more information or to order this CD.
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Let's Talk About Love [ENHANCED CD]
Dion has released a lot of music in the last four years, which in lesser talents could generate a "got the last one, don't need this" yawn from the public. Every conceivable base is covered here--"Tell Me" is the iconic pop adult smash, "Treat Her Like a Lady" has sewn up Contemporary Hits Radio, and there are a half-dozen others to keep the party going till 1999. The inclusion of the theme song to Titanic ("My Heart Will Go On") proves that nothing is likely to scuttle the unsinkable Ms. Dion. Click here for more information or to order this CD.
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