The Michigan Daily - Monday, November 27, 1989 - Page 1t
Michelle Shocked
Captain Swing
Mercury
* On her last record, Michelle
Shocked's soul was as bare as the
East Texas plains that she sang
about. On her latest release, how-
ever, Shocked has hidden behind the
mask of self-conscious hipness. The
revealingly personal songs that dom-
inated Short Sharp Shocked have
given way to ones more concerned
with cleverness than with emotion.
Shocked has always threatened to
drift in this direction because of the
witty turns of phrases that form the
crux of her songwriting. On Short
Sharp Shocked, these quips were in-
sightful and touching, not just hu-
morous. Unfortunately, on Captain
Swing, her lyrics are little more than
cute verbal chicanery. Luckily,
songs like the moving portrait of the
homeless, "Street Corner Ambas-
sador," and the demystifying "Looks
Like Mona Lisa," rescue the record
from an amateurish Rickie Lee Jones
style exercise in lounge lizard cool-
ness.
Although he had as much to do
with her new persona as did Michelle
Shocked herself, pro-
ducer/collaborator Pete Anderson has
once again proven that an arranger
.can be more than sympathetic; he
can actually make the artist. Ander-
son's arrangements create the mood
of the songs perfectly, and in some
cases push them much further than
they would have gone with conven-
tional backup. The powerful horn
section and the tumultuous but eco-
nomical guitar solo which he plays
on "Sleep Keeps Me Awake" turn a
fairly banal set of lyrics into one of
*the album's high points. Anderson
shows why he was the showstopper
at Dwight Yoakam concerts with his
scorching guitar work on the rocka-
billy romp, "(Don't You Mess
With) My Little Sister." But the al-
bum's centerpiece is the beautifully
arranged beatnik jazz piece, "Street
Corner Ambassador." Domenic Gen-
ova's upright bass and a keyboard
part reminiscent of a Milt Thckson
7vibraphone riff are marvelously
evocative, not just hep.
Hipness is not a bad thing when
it is backed up with honesty and
emotional commitment. Like the
quote on the back cover says,
"Swing is a feeling... Everything
else is just style." On Captain
Swing, Michelle Shocked is nothing
.. ,but style.
-Pete Shapiro
The Voices
The Voices
MCA Records
Six years after their creation, the
band The Voices has finally been
signed by a major label and has re-
leased its first album, The Voices.
The group's use of their own
name as the album title sums up the
band's originality. Their songs are
wrought with overused references to
Satan, heaven and God and infantile
rhymes. Lyrics like, "Let it fall
when you're pinned to the wall/ Let
it fall when you got nothing at all,"
on "Let It Fall," and "Come on
down; lay your hands on me/ Come
on down; set me free/ Minister to
me," on "Minister To Me" are just
about all this album has to offer.
(They did sneak in one good line, "I
don't know which one's worse, Sa-
tan or the church," on "Midnight
Train," one of their multitude of
songs containg the recurrent "Satan,
God, heaven and me" theme, but this
is clearly the album's only excep-
tion.)
It seems as though the band
chose its lead singer by drawing
straws. I'm not sure who won, but
it's obvious that the band lost. The
best songs on the album - not re-
ally good, just not as bad as the
others -are the ones where the mu-
sic is so loud that Peter Kenvin's
voice is drowned out or where Ken-
vin spares us and decides not to sing
but suffices to speak the lyrics in-
stead. This is accomplished most ef-
fectively on the strategically posi-
tioned "Falling of the Rain," the al-
bum's final track. The tune consists
of soft acoustic guitar, a light touch
of piano and keyboards, and vocal re-
straint on Kenvin's part. As it is po-
sitioned at the end of the album, the
song leaves you with a good feeling
upon the album's completion, but
you can't help but recall the pain it
took in getting through the previous
nine tracks in order to reach that
point. The obvious conclusion is
that "Falling of the Rain" is not
good enough to make listening to
the beginning of the album worth it.
Musically the band is somewhat
talented. Todd Hoffman demonstrates
dexterity on the 8-string bass, and
David Inglish is a talented key-
boardist when they allow him to
play at an audible level. Randy
Willert is somewhat indiscriminate
on the skins, but Tommy Andrews
and Peter Kenvin can definitely
pound on their guitars. The solution
is simple: get someone else to pen
the music and release the next album
as an instrumental. -Kim Yaged
F UT URE
Continued from page 10
completed Back To The Future, Part
III, there is no suprise, only disap-
pointment and a touch of anger.
What a cheap shot to pull on mil-
lions of paying moviegoers who
have now been brainwashed into
paying again to see Part III this
Young M.C.
Principal's Office
Island
G: Maybe this wouldn't be so gruel-
ing if it wasn't built on sampling...
F: Are you sure of that? The credits
on back thank Matt Dike, one of the
Dust brothers, for arrangements.
G: Yeah, it's hard to say because of
the cubist time loops in there. The
pub-shakin' piano lines swing upon
each other back to back to back.
F: The end is the beginning.
G: But that's okay, because it's way
funkier than "Bust A Move." The
structure is better made to hit you
over the head a few times.
F: He's not gonna crossover with
this, that's for sure. The standard for
"pop" rap is that smarmy guitar-
based thing, in standard form.
G: So what is "Principal's Office"
about? Is it like "You Must Learn,"
where an African-American rebels
against being force-fed a different
culture than his own?
F: Actually, no. Young MC is no
revolutionary. He's not even a rebel.
There's no inner meaning here. He's
like Big Daddy Kane in that he has
no cause to stand for, no origin to
live off of. Only more so. While
Chuck D uses his personality and
lyrical content to build an identity,
Young MC is frankly superficial.
Which is why he might cross over,
after all.
G: But such is pop...
-Forrest Green III
Uncle Green
You
DB Records
Hey You! You is the third release
from Georgia-based band Uncle
Green. Playing pop music in the tra-
dition of Squeeze, XTC, and the
Smithereens, going all the way back
to the Beatles, the band has come up
with a catchy, varied album, if not
exactly shockingly original, with
several outstanding songs. Fans of
this type of music in particular
should definitely check it out.
Uncle Green has two capable
songwriters in guitarist/vocalists Jeff
Jensen and Matt Brown, who com-
posed the album's 13 songs.
Bassist/keyboardist Bill Decker and
drummer Pete McDade complete the
lineup. Although the band's sound is
largely upbeat, often an element of
darkness lies underneath, as in "He's
the Man," an R.E.M.ish rocker that
offers a pointed look at salvation.
Similarly, in "At Least I've Got
You," Jensen tells us how every-
thing is going down the tubes but
coming summer. This holiday sea-
son, beware of that Grinch who
robs, cheats, and steals from your
wallets and hearts, but I guess he's
just trying to make ends meet like
the rest of us. Sorry, Steve, Happy
Holidays.
BACK TO THE FUTURE, PART II
is playing at Showcase Cinemas.
Souled American, which opened for Camper Van Beethoven's Ann Arbor show a little while ago, gets off to a
great start on side one of Flubber. Side two, though, is slower than molasses in January.
"At least I've got you/ 'cause with-
out you/ I've got nothing to do,"
over gradually intensifying backing.
The theme of the uncertainty and
ambiguity of life recurs throughout
the album. In "Terrified," Jensen
searches for a guideline or clue to the
future, while Brown's
"Vulnerability" comments on the
fragility and insecurity of life. If an
answer to the questions raised is to
be found on You, it can be found in
"A Word of Advice," one of the al-
bum's musical and lyrical high-
lights. "Advice" is a paean to the
imperfection that defines humanity.
"Kiss an error/ and tell them you
care/ 'cause its smart to be wary but,
Jesus, it gets you nowhere."
A few of the album's songs are
not very memorable, and the title
track is ruined by a dumb call-and-re-
sponse chorus. But that shouldn't
stop you from checking out You.
Uncle Green is a tight, talented, gui-
tar-based band in a field with a lot of
competition. With this album, they
effectively show that Beatlesque pop
can sound fresh more than 20 years
later.
-Gregg Bierman
Souled American
Flubber
Rough Trade
Relax. Take a load off your feet.
Sit down in your favorite chair, find
some place to put your feet up and
sink into the most comfortable sit-
ting position. Breathe deeply. You
are now ready to listen to Souled
American.
On first listen this album seems
a product of a typical boring coun-.
try-folk revivalist band with no di-
rection save slowing tempo almost
to a halt as the album progresses.
Then you listen again and again.
And you grow slowly attached to the
complexity and depth of layers of
stringed instruments (mostly guitar:
acoustic six and 12 strings, electric,
and mandolin), accordion, harmon-
ica, and unobtrusive drums. Using
country, folk, blues, rock, and a bit
of Cajun for flair this band covers
some of the many genres of Ameri-
can heartland music. From romp-
stompers to never-ending, repetitive
slow tunes, Souled American covers
and incorporates it a lot but fails to
keep the good stuff going.
The album starts off strongly.
Once you get into the slower-paced
groove of reflecting on the world go-
ing round rather than getting caught
up in its hectic pace, the whole
rhythm has you dancing in your
chair. The twangy, almost spoken
vocals and the intricate instrumenta-
tion combined with the whole laid-
back habit they have of making each
note perfect and repeating it so you
remember works well throughout the
first side. Jams reminiscent of the
best parts of Dylan and, say, the
Band, suck you into this simpler
step. As the side progresses the
tempo picks up, highlighted best
during "Drop in the Bucket," a hoo-
tenanny of different kinds of guitars
and styles of picking them playing
off one another which slides after a
beat into the other best song on this
side, "Heywire," which continues the
foot-tapping but adds the bonus of-A
drum fill. If only the album would
continue on this positive pace...
Instead side two moves much
more slowly. There is just a slight
difference between reflecting and dy-
ing, and Souled American crosses
that line. After their cover of Johri
Fehey's "Cupa Cowfee," a moving
instrumental in which percussion
and extra noise makers rattle off each.
other and the guitars, the album
sinks into a muck. Their interesting
habit of not really defining where
cuts end does not work when the
pace dies and all the songs start to
sound the same. They blend to-
gether to become repetitious and bor-
ing. "Over the Hill," "Zillion," and
"Why You Are" just wail on and t
repeated notes last forever. The lead
singer's voice also becomes increas-
ingly whiny, overriding any remain-
ing beauty of layered instrumenta-
tion.
Whatever damage the second side
does, it can't make you forget the
greatness of the first. A band such as
this brings to light the good parts of
music usually forgotten, but should
not muck about in self-indulgel
shuffling songs only the most pa:
tient listener can digest or staf
awake for.
-Annette Petrusso
Drexel Burnham
TamBert
Incorporated
Corporate Finance Department
Presentation for Financial Analyst Position
INTRODUCTORY SYSTEM
NAD 7020e
" M4A's.
Regular
Price
~478 ° ;;;
RrF
NOW39900
Ei
Wednesday, November 29, 1989
Michigan Union Pendleton Room
5:00 pm.
V
UNION
ARTS AND PROGRAMMING PRESENTS
HOWARD WHEELER
j EWELRY SALE
MONDAY- SATURDAY, NOV.27-DEC.2
10OAM-5PM
MICHIGAN UNION MALL
Interested students are encouraged to attend and to speak
with representatives of Drexel Burnham Lambert
about the position of Financial Analyst.
r