44 Page 12-The Michigan Daily-Monday, December 11, 1989 Chet Baker Let's Get Lost: The Best of Chet Baker Sings Pacific Jazz Guys, this record brings out the woman in you; or rather, it will make the two halves of your androgynous self sigh for each other; but then again, it may just arouse the primal need to suckle at your mother's breast. At the very least, this record will get under your skin and dissolve your gender. Let's Get Lost is not the soundtrack to Bruce Weber's fetishizing documentary but a compilation of vocal recordings from the 1950s. Chet wraps his larynx around some of the finest American standards by the likes of the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, Cahn and Styne. Chet purifies these songs to ex- tract their cold, sad essences. "It's like being sweet talked by the void," noted critic Jim Hoberman. Chet's voice is empty. He sounds as if he's lost all hope, all purpose in life. Chet's persona is supine and passive in the face of cruel fate. The razor to the wrist isn't an op- tion; all he does is slowly drown in honey, and it's completely beguiling. Every obses- sive, pathetic, and twisted love affair is dwelled upon. "They're writing songs of love/ But not for me./ More clouds of grey/ Than any Russian play could guarantee," coos Chet on the album's pice de ta resis- tance "But Not For Me." He's a Romantic, reciting his confessions with the angst of Goethe's Werther. On the first side of the record, Chet sings slow, brooding ballads to his lover. His androgynous, innocent voice seems to beg the central question, "Why must I be a teenager in love?" Ornette Coleman once remarked of Chet, "Have you ever heard someone who couldn't sing, but did something to you emotion- ally." His voice sounds like the soft breaths of his trumpet playing. And though he doesn't have the technique of Sinatra singing "My Funny Valentine," his version is more affecting and eerie. Even when he sings "optimistic" songs like "Look For The Sil- ver Lining" and "Daybreak" (inspired by Ni- etzsche's book?), there's still an overwhelm- ing sense of despair. The aptly titled Let's Get Lost is a suit- able placebo for solitude and romantic deriva- tion. Angst and the bending of genre and gender have rarely been so captivating. --Nabeel Zuberi Rush Presto Atlantic "Don't ask me/ I'm just improvising," pleads front-man Geddy Lee on the title track of Presto, the Canadian super-trio Rush's 16th and newest album. It's hardly a sufficient excuse, though, for the artistic indecision behind the group's least impressive record of the closing decade. At a point where these celebrated rockers should have come up with a bold new stroke - having closed the third chapter in their stylistic evolution with last year's live A Show of Hands album and video, and now debuting on a new record label after 15 years with Polygram - Presto instead wavers miserably between an ill-advised return to the now-outdated hard-rock riffs of 1980's Moving Pictures, and a continuation of the urgently modern direction charted on recent albums by bassist/synth-man Lee's fluid melodic instincts. Presto 's clever title (as well as the al- bum's amusing cover art) seems at first somewhat promising - suggesting a revival of the live spontaneity which had begun to suffocate onstage lately within the pre-pro- grammed constraints of Lee's burgeoning keyboard sequences. Those cinematic figures had built the framework of an expansive, fu- turistic minimalism which set off 1986's Power Windows and 1987's Hold See RECORDS, page 13 Not the soundtrack to the film, Let's Get Lostfocuses on the intriguing voice of the trumpeter Chet Baker. ROSES Continued from page 10 The ability of Douglas and Turner to keep an audience glued to a story is mind-boggling. Barbara, at the end of her rope, asks Oliver for a divorce. Dumbfounded, he demands,. "You owe me a reason that makes sense." Her eyes narrowed, her voice low and hateful, she replies, "When I look at you, I want to smash your face in." He taunts her in masculine fashion and she responds with a right cross that sends him to the floor. The film becomes uncomfortably bitter as it progresses. The harsh na- ture of the humor is almost not funny, yet the audience continues to laugh at such a tragic relationship. In divorce proceedings, the Roses cannot compromise on who receives their palatial mansion, so through a clause in the law, he moves back in, and they draw lines of his side and her side. Predictably, a total war breaks out. He runs over her cat so she locks him in the sauna. He ruins her dinner party so she destroys his car. Although in the end the film be- comes silly, it is no less powerful. The War of the Roses is a angry film, slapping the face of a divorce culture. Throughout the film, lawyer DeVito tells his story of the Roses to a prospective client and when he reaches the end, he offers the man a chance to go home and reconcile his differences with his wife. After hear- ing this horror story, the client's out the door. The film is also a criticism of marriage itself, depicting it not as an institution of love and happiness but of competition and scorn. Amazingly enough, it all works. Comedy, social criticism, drama, in- novative story telling, incredibly well-honed acting, and DeVito's di- rection make this film one of the most creative motion pictures in re- cent years. The War of the Roses is a blunt film, a tragic comedy more than anything else. It's not afraid to be disgusting and appalling. Plain and simple, it's honest, true to life, and after this performance, the new Hepburn and Tracy have a long mar- riage in film ahead of them. THE WAR OF THE ROSES is play- ing at Briarwood Mall and Show- case Cinemas. I d " bi 4 ti - ' S ' REVIEWS Continued from page 10 sion of meaning-loaded oohs and aahs. A Marie Antoinette mask with a gargantuan hairstyle primped itself as various possibly dangerous li- aisons were initiated. In the comic but poignant "Body Parts with Sto- ries," students and masks spoke about their anatomical hangups: "I've got this terrible throat," said someone; another woman bemoaned her breast size; and another dwelt on the angst caused by a double chin. Drawing on the tradition of camp, "Mermaid and Coral Reef Singers" incorporated the touching "Mer- maid's Song," which sounded like a meeting between the Andrews'Sis- ters and Esther Williams. Economical in gesture, move- ment and word, Haunted Houses worked as a smart, funny, and fitting expression for the gorgeous masks on show, and it showed that the any cient art/craft of mask making still has an aesthetic relevance. -Nabeel Zuberi Express yourself in Daily Arts Call 763-0379 YOU GIVE US YOUR TEXTBOOKS. * ATTENTION * People who value learning, education and personal growth Now Open in the Heart of Downtown VALE FLOAT CENTER Stress Reduction - Mental Focus 208 S. 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