12 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, December 10, 1996
Material Girl makes news
with kid, 'Evita' soundtrack
Newsday
Madonna won't allow her daughter,
Lour'des, to watch TV when she's older.
The child is "not going online!"
Madonna insists. "No!"
She will be raised Catholic, or so it
seems.
Mother and daughter, now living in
Los Angeles, will probably settle some-
where outside New York City, but "not
the -amptons."
The latest news on the Madonna
front comes in an interview that appears
in the January issue of Redbook, which
goes on sale next week and shows the
new mother on the cover in a hot pink
lace coat, her shoulder-length blond
hair streaked with brown. Although the
piece is timed to help promote the
release later this month of Madonna's
new film, "Evita," her choice of the
middlebrow Redbook to talk about
motherhood and child-rearing suggests
a striking departure from her vampish
past, at least for now.
Madonna says she has no plans to
retire. She will record a new album next
year, but is on maternity leave for now.
On Lourdes' future education: "I
don't want her to go to school with a
bunch of rich kids. And I don't want her
to go to an all-white school."
On whom she turns to for motherly
advice: her sister Melanie Henry, a
musician's manager who has a 6-year-
old son and was with her when Lourdes
was born Oct. 14, and Rosie
O'Donnell, who has an adopted son and
knows about car seats and diapers.
O'Donnell is "a nuts-and-bolts kind of
a girl," Madonna said. "I like that."
On religion: Lourdes will "certainly
know about Catholicism. The Bible is
an interesting book to read. I want my
daughter to read it."
On Carlos Leon, the unmarried
father of Lourdes: "I don't think mar-
riage is a guarantee of anything. I also
don't think that it's my obligation to
explain my relationship to people. It's
not a conventional one, but I'm very
happy with it."
The no-TV rule comes from
Madonna's father, Tony Ciccone. She
says "to be plopped in front of a televi-
sion instead of being read to or talked to
... is a huge mistake."
The no-online rule is her own: "If she
(Lourdes) wants to talk to people, she
can invite them over. The people who
like going online best are people who
can't sustain a relationship for more
than five minutes.'
Stone Temple Pilots and Local H hit Detroit
Wetland is back in action as the Stone Temple Pilots bring their "Tiny Music
... Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop" tour to our own Palace at Auburn Hills
with Local H. After a well-publicized drug problem and a critically acclaimed
new album, critics say the tour isn't as successful due to the time the band
has spent away from music-making. See for yourself at 7:30 p.m. at the
Palace. Tickets are still available for $25 at (810) 645-6666.
RECORDS
Continued from Page 9
Various Artists
Evita - The Complete Motion
Picture Music Soundtrack
Warner Bros.
The product of nearly 500 hours of
recording, this two-disc soundtrack
showcases the diversity and strength of
the main characters' talents.
Unfortunately, the interpretation of the
music by the performers occasionally
falls short.
The main characters of the movie -
Madonna, Antonio Banderas and
Jonathon Pryce - are the highlights of
this work. Madonna shows all the facets
of her voice, from her beautiful contra-
alto recitative in "Don't Cry for Me
Argentina" to her songbird-esque solo
in "The Actress Hasn't Learned the
Lines." The variety of her part as Eva
Peron even requires her to sing with a
poppy sound that is reminiscent of her
earlier days as the "material girl"
A problem that has plagued
Madonna for her entire career creeps up
on her a few times in this soundtrack:
she occasionally falls slightly off key.
But, all in all, her work is excellent.
Most of her parts are in the upper range
of her voice - an area she does not
sing with often. Months of voice
lessons successfully improved the
power of her voice in that range.
Antonio Banderas, in the role of Ch6,
sings with great strength and beauty
throughout the work - his accent con-
tributing favorably to the flair of his
role. "The Lady's Got Potential" - a
rock'n'roll song that Banderas pulls off
without a hitch - showcases the
breadth of his voice well.
Jonathon Pryce sings his role as Juan
Peron in a very fatherly voice that fits
the emotions of his role. His voice
sounds rich and powerful when he sings
in the baritone range but somewhat
strained when forced higher, as in the
song "A New Argentina"-- an unfortu-
nate limitation to the versatility needed
in his role.
In some ways, this interpretation of
L 1
I
I
Andrew Lloyd Webber's music is curi-
ous. For instance, "Rainbow Tour"
comes off sounding a little like a coun-
try song and several of the songs simply
lack the intensity that you would hope
the musicians would have brought from
the live performance.
The chorus performs well most of the
time but occasionally, the main charac-
ters must come to their rescue. In "And
the Money Kept Rolling In," the chorus
performs without strength, sounding
weak and tinny. Fortunately, Banderas'
beautiful tenor sings high above them
- preventing the collapse of the song.
One of the best parts of the sound-
track is the new single written for the
movie. "You Must Love Me" follows
"Your Little Body's Slowly Breaking
Down" - it couldn't be in a better
place. The compassion and emotion of
the first song carry on well to the next,*
providing one of the most beautiful
transitions in the entire production.
The most important part of the musi-
cal, on stage or screen, is the convic-
tion with which the charac-
ters sing. The entire dia-
logue is sung and ther
artists do an excellent
job of capturing
Webber's genius.
This soundtrack is a
very faithful repro-
duction of the live pro-
duction and deserves a
listening.
- Jack Schillaci
Loudon Wainwright 1ll
Grown Man
Virgin
The fad in album covers these days
seems to be to show a cute picture of the
artist as a child. But guitarist Loudon
Wainwright III has little else in common
with Everclear, or even Matthew Sweet
- he is an honest-to-goodness folk
singer, part of the older generation of
folk singers who came of age in the late
'60s. Early on in his career, Wainwright
gained considerable attention for his
deliberately tasteless lyrics and humor,
culminating in a 1973 Top 20 hit, "Dead
Skunk," which has since become a Dr.
Demento Show favorite. After a couple
more rock-oriented albums in the late
'70s, he has since maintained a lower
profile and refocused on introspective
folk and country. "Grown Man," his first
release in three years, finds him treading
a middle ground between his earlier nov-
elty folk and his more recent sentimen-
tality-laced country pop.
Musically, Wainwright is at his best
armed with just his voice and a guitar.
He conjures up surreal, almost psyche-
delic acoustic moods on upbeat tunes
like "That Hospital," "Cobwebs" and
"The End has Begun," and ballads like
"A Year" and "Dreaming," the latter of
which wouldn't sound out of place on a
modern rock section with a grittier
arrangement. But like so many other folk
musicians, he feels the need to clutter it
up sometimes, and that is what eventual-
ly leads to this album's weak points.
Nevertheless, the duds can be pro-
grammed out, and "Grown Man" can
thus become a landmark statement of a
voice from an innocent past trying to
find relevance and meaning in today's
more complicated present.
- Mark Feldman
Alex Reece
So Far
Quango Records
What does the term
"drum-n-bass" mean to
you? Well, it means
releasing one of the,
best electronic dance
albums this year for
Alex Reece (who is
generally regarded as
the drum-n-bass guru).
Drum-n-bass fuses tech-
no and dub that develops at
very fast beats (140 bpm usually)
including trancey keyboards and heavy
bass. This premier DJ delivers his debut
album "So Far," a fabulous collection of
drum-n-bass tracks along with some
intervals of jazz and techno. Singles on
"So Far" have dazzled club-goers in
Europe and now the United States gets
a chance to dance along to these tracks.
This 10-track album starts with
Reece's biggest hit, "Feel the Sunshine
(Original Mix)." This track includes
vocals by Deborah Anderson, who
sounds eerily reminiscent of Bjork, and
the synthesized beats carry Anderson's
vocals throughout the track. The next
track, "Jazz Master (Original Mix)," is
the prize track on this album. While this
track may not be described as jazz due
to its break-beat patterns, they combine
with the synthesized horns to create a
fantastic blend of up-tempo and laid-
back grooves simultaneously. Another
of Reece's big singles in Europe,
"Candles," is the second track with
vocals (this time by Carmen). This track
heavily boosts up the bass and offers up
a trip-hop feel in the same vein of
something by Portishead.
In an electronic music scene where
acts such as Prodigy, = Chemical
Brothers, Meat Beat Manifesto, Moby
and Orbital have established their own
distinctive sounds to produce fantastic
dance tracks, Reece has easily placed
himself amongst these acts with this
album. With this debut album, the
future looks promising
So far, so good.
Various Artists
Safe and Sound
Big Rig / Mercury
It's sad that a compilation like "Safe
and Sound" had to be made in the first
place. When two receptionists at a
women's health clinic in the Boston
suburb of Brookline, Mass., were Lur-
dered in December 1994, musician(
from the local Boston scene too:it
upon themselves to make sure tragedes-
like that wouldn't happen again. LodaI
rock heroes along with fledgling bads
performed at several concerts in an
event called "Safe and Sound" benefit
ing nonprofit organizations that prkfe
health care, education and safety to
years later, the release of the "Safe ad
Sound" benefit compilation acts as a
natural extension of those concerts.
Musically, the tracks on the compila
tion range from acoustic pop to punk:
and ska --a true testament to the diver-
sity of the Boston music scene. Tracks
by Lou Barlow's Deluxx Folk
Implosion and the Mighty Miginy
Bosstones can be seen next to the lItes
of Tracy Bonham and Aimee Mann.
The collection of songs and artistion
"Safe and Sound" may seem random-at
first, but the disc flows surprisingly
well thanks to the careful ordering of
songs on the compilation.
While some of the tracks on "Safe
and Sound" are direct responses to the
murders, tracks like Belly's "Think
About Your Troubles" Letters to Cle's
"You Dirty Rat" and a live versiot oft
Morphine's "Radar" gain new mea E.g
in the context of the compilatian
Tracks by Juliana Hatfield ("Waves")
and Fuzzy ("Severe") highlight the
more complex aspects of those normal-
ly poppy artists and in a way, mirror the
complexity of the subject matter behind
"Safe and Sound"
More sobering than depressing, most
of the tracks on "Safe and Sound"
would be worth a listen even if they
weren't on the compilation. Only the
cause behind "Safe and Sound" and a
sense of a musical community binds
them together on one disc: There really
must be something in the New England
water for that area to produce so man
bands worthy of praise.
- Victoria SalipaR&
Wesley Willis
Feel the Power
American
Buses. People. Bands. Whupping
animals' asses. "Rock over London,
rock over Chicago, (corporate endorse-
ment)." The preceding has been the sum
and substance of lyrics of Wesley
Willis' album "Feel the Power."
Well, the man is a schizophrenic, so
his obsessive reiteration of the above
themes is at least understandable. His:
voice is an uncontrolled crackling thing:
when it tries to be melodious, and is
super-stereotypically spoken word in
the spoken word portions of his songs.
Both styles are strangely engaging.
He has one song structure. He uses it
over and over. Just like a real band. Hi
structure involves a spoken word verse
a chorus (the song's title four times),
another spoken verse, the chorus, a long
instrumental interlude, a final spoken
verse, the chorus and "Rock over
London, rock over Chicago" with a
concluding advertising jingle. It's like
for Alex Reece.
- Philip Son
Pryce and Madonna star in "Evita."
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