Metallica Load (Elektra) Thus far, this album has been reviewed more often on the basis of the bandmembers’ new grunge-junkie haircuts and the act’s decision to headline the worst Lollapalooza bill imaginable than it has on the merits of the music itself. But even if you exclude the aforementioned factors…
The Cranberries To the Faithful Departed (Island) There’s a fine line between a distinctive voice and an annoying voice, and Dolores O’Riordan is on the wrong side of that line. Following in the footsteps of prime-time Stevie Nicks, whose singing recalls the bleating of a herd of sheep in an…
The Buckets The Buckets (Slow River) Charlie Chesterman Studebakersfield (Slow River) With the Nashville establishment in a creative funk of epic proportions (for proof, check out Shania Twain), independent labels are stepping into the void. Slow River, a tiny company out of Marblehead, Massachusetts, is among the cheekier players in…
Terry Allen Human Remains (Sugar Hill) Allen, a country songwriter and Lubbock native who’s earned critical acclaim and practically no real money, reassures fans that he won’t trade his credibility for commercial success with this album’s very first line: He barks, “Hey, I don’t need no chickenshit businessman tellin’ me…
Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks Orange Crate Art (Warner Bros.) Part two of Brian Wilson’s latest comeback can’t help but fall short of the expectations it raises. That’s no surprise: The surviving fragments of Smile, the unreleased 1967 Beach Boys album that marked Wilson’s first collaboration with Parks, don’t…
Meat Puppets No Joke! (London) For the Meat Puppets, the key has always been striking the right balance. When the Kirkwood brothers, Curt and Cris, and drummer Derrick Bostrom allow their music and words to drift on a patient narcotic breeze, their tunes are positively addictive–but when they rev up…
Brian Wilson I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times (MCA) In his liner notes, producer Don Was writes, “When we started to mess around in the studio, it became clear that was capable of making a record every bit as complex and beautiful as Pet Sounds whenever he felt like…
Henry Threadgill Makin’ a Move (Columbia) That Threadgill–a jazz-based saxophonist whose work with the trio Air and a variety of bands that have borne his name has ranged from the indescribably beautiful to the merely gorgeous–keeps landing on major labels is a credit to his perseverance. Clearly, he’s not in…
Po’ Broke ‘N Lonely? Forbidden Vibe (Big Beat/Atlantic) Sure, the music of Boyz II Men is fixated on sex–but it’s sex of a sanitized, airbrushed kind that most of us know about only from watching movies like The Blue Lagoon. Po’ Broke ‘N Lonely?, by contrast, recognizes that it’s possible…
Christie Front Drive Christie Front Drive (Caulfield) There are an oodle of pop-core bands slugging it out in the indie underworld right now, but nary a one gets to the euphoric heart of the punk-pop aesthetic quite like Denver’s Christie Front Drive. On this, their debut album, guitarist Eric Richter…
Throwing Muses University (Sire/Warner Bros.) Kristin Hersh is the type of influential artist who’s never made a dime. To wit: Throwing Muses laid the groundwork for virtually every female-led alternative combo that emerged during the past decade or so, including the Breeders and Belly (the act that made Hersh’s stepsister–and…
Slick Rick Behind Bars (Def Jam) Rick James Bustin’ Out: The Best of Rick James (Motown) With the Snoop Doggy Dogg trial looming and accused multiple murderer O.J. Simpson presently getting more press than he ever did for packing a pigskin, it’s no surprise that jailbirds everywhere have begun to…
Todd Snider Songs for the Daily Planet (MCA) Country A&R guys are certainly feeling their oats these days. How else to explain the signing of Snider, an often jubilant busker who sounds no more country than, say, Loudon Wainwright III? “My Generation (Part 2),” Planet’s opening track, is indicative of…
Nirvana MTV Unplugged in New York (DGC) Too much is being made of this, and for reasons that are rather hard to fathom: I mean, I can’t be the only person in America to have caught this performance during one of the 10,000 or so times it’s been aired since…
Various Artists Woodstock ’94 (A&M) Didn’t I read about this on a Pepsi twelve-pack?–Michael Roberts Sade The Best of Sade (Epic) The lukewarm smooch tracks from this babe probably couldn’t even get a rise from the inmates at Denver County Jail.–John Jesitus Collective Soul Hints, Allegations and Things Left Unsaid…
Soul Coughing Ruby Vroom (Slash/Warner Bros.) If you had any doubt that lead vocalist M. Doughty used to review music (for the New York Press), check out “Sugar Free Jazz,” in which he needles acid-jazz trendies with the line “Put your fake goatee on” over a beat that probably wouldn’t…
R.E.M. Monster (Warner Bros.) Anyone who assumed, after perusing the ink already spilled over this, that Monster would sound like a less accessible version of Metal Machine Music can be forgiven for being somewhat underwhelmed by the reputed noisiness of the twelve ditties contained herein. “Star 69,” five numbers into…
Coolio It Takes a Thief (Tommy Boy) The old school strikes back. Coolio’s bio sounds plenty contemporary–he’s reportedly a former SoCal crack addict–but the occasional hardcore trappings heard on his debut disc are concessions to the marketplace, not its raison d’etre. “Fantastic Voyage,” the single you’ve heard booming from every…
Michael Hill’s Blues Mob Bloodlines (Alligator) In blues circles, Michael Hill is being lauded as a musical revolutionary, and given how resistant to change most of the genre’s practitioners are, maybe he is. This young guitarist is no James “Blood” Ulmer (he’s clearly interested in selling a few records), but…
The Velvet Underground Live MCMXCIII (Sire/Warner Bros.) Big Star Columbia: Live at Missouri University 5/25/93 (Zoo) The double-record set 1969 Velvet Underground Live, released in 1974, has gotten reams of critical praise over the years, in part because most reviewers have neglected to mention one important thing: It sounds terrible…
