8 -The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, December 9, 1997 Hypnotic, dreamy pop grows on Ivy's listeners 'Diddy Kong Racing'-. drives users' addiction Ivy Apartment Life Atlantic Adam Schlesinger has been a rather busy man over the past 1 1/2 years. The talented Ivy bassist is not only the Ivy bassist, but he is also the talented guitarist and song- writer for pop up-and-comers, Fountains of Wayne. Schlesinger is also the talented musician who wrote the Oscar-nominated title track for the Tom Hanks film "That Thing You Do!" r And Schlesinger is also the talented co- founder of Mercury's Scratchie Records, along with Smashing' Pumpkins' James Iha and D'Arcy Wretzky. Adam Schelsinger is talented. But despite all of his merits, Schlesinger is only one-third of the rea- son why Ivy's second release "Apartment Life" is as irresistible as it is. Guitarist Andy Chase and Paris-born vocalist Dominique Durand are the other members responsible for creating Ivy's sophisticated blend of hypnotic dreamy pop, so rich with gourmet ambience that it warrants its own shelf in today's supermarket of radio-friendly specials. Each of the 12 songs on "Apartment Life" has its share of surprise chord progressions and piercing melodic hooks that alone put most other bands' musi- cal ingenuity to shame. But none of the songs even reach their potential until Durand's vocals fill in the warm nooks and crannys with her smooth and seduc- tive French accent. Not only does she physically epit- omize an ideal female lead singer, but her European elocution is so alluring that it even leaves your CD player smoldering with desire. A more textured offering than the band's full-length debut "Realistic," "Apartment Life" showcases an Ivy with even more musical depth. Strings and horns enhance several of the songs, most notably on the trumpet-driven "This Is The Day" and the though-pro- voking "Baker" - the latter of which would not be out of place on an early Burt Bacharach album. First single "The Best Thing" introduces the album with a combination of noisy guitar tones and single note solos as Durand tells the story of newly confident woman on-the-go: "She's reformed ... she's moving fast / she's a superstar. She's getting high / she covers up her scars I It's the best thing she's ever had." in conjunction with the album's title, the bulk of the material on "Apartment Life" deals with the cos- mopolitan hustle and bustle of big-city relationships. The listener becomes intrigued while following the search for freshly sparked love on "I've Got A Feeling;' and later develops a sonic inferiority com- plex on the distorted rocker "You Don't Know Anything" as Durand scolds, "By now there's nothing left to say, I just opened your letters! I know you're only human but I expect something better /You let me down again and drove me to the end / and its so strange the way you've changed." Such subtle lyrical poise adds yet another dynamic dimension to Ivy's multi-faceted appeal. The best overall combination of all things Ivy falls into place on "Get Out Of The City,' as a fuzzy guitar riff quick- ly meanders across a crisp and clear wall of drums and ath- letic base. This gem is a theme song for anyone who has ever been caught in traffic on a steamy July afternoon. If you haven't yet been won over by Ivy's chiming and detached aura, more of Dominique's tantalizing inflec- tion can be heard on the closing salvos "Quick, Painless and Easy" and the fey "Back In Our Town." If it's not blatantly clear by now, Ivy has the capacity to melt the most steely of hearts, as well as peak the intellectual interest of the most tight-laced sophisticates. Ivy will definitely grow on you. - Brian Cohen Ivy offers hypnotic, dreamy pop on "Apartment Life." a fairly painful experience of listening to the separate and incomplete tracks. Very frustrating. The impetus behind this project seems to be twofold. First is the possibility of having more than two sound sources. The second reason behind this seems to be involved with the principle of randomness involved with starting multiple CD players. The sounds will interact differently in subtle ways when- ever they are played, which means both that listeners are somehow involved in making what they hear and that it is an ever-changing piece of music. The ultimate effect is impressively more complicated and subtle than previous output of the Flaming Lips, although that may be a side effect of the discrete nature of the parts of the songs. Many of the individual elements are quite like score pieces, and the combined tracks tend to be lovely yet strong. Many melodic vocals and delicate instruments combine with harsh vocals and lead guitars to make sonic salads on songs like "The Train Runs Over the Camel But is Derailed by the Gnat." But then there are the especially irksome experi- ments, like "How Will We Know?" which are largely ultra-high and ultra-low frequency sounds that can give you a headache among other things. The band's sense of humor is still around though, since it still has songs like "The Big Ol' Bug is the New Baby Now." Well, this album is annoying in its user require- ments for the complete experience, but it is reasonably good once it's all combined. The Flaming Lips should have probably just put it all together on tape, but if it won't, then you should spend the time doing it. - Ted Watts The Flaming Lips Z aireeka Warner Bros. *** Some people try way too much to be cool. "Zaireeka" is four CDs at a cost of about two CDs. Unfortunately, "Zaireeka" is only one album worth of songs. Not that there are a bunch of puff songs contained within the album. No, it's much more insidious than that. There are eight tracks on each CD, but each track is meant to be played simultaneously with the corre- sponding track on each of the other three CDs. You have to either put a whole lot of effort into hearing the CDs together or else you have to deal with By Chris Henry For the Daily It's December, which means that term papers are due and finals are just around the corner. So, with all these serious deadlines before heading home for Christmas, why is my mind preoc- cupied with how to beat a giant walrus in a race down an _ _ _ icy slope, while avoiding obstacles like trees, rocks and menacing snowballs? The reason is simple - Nintendo addiction. It's a disease that has been known to cause sore thumbs, low GPAs and headaches from long hours of staring at a flashing televi- sion screen. There is no rehab. The only way to beat it is to go cold turkey. But if "Diddy Kong Racing" is indicative of the direction in which video games are going, kicking the Nintendo habit is going to be awfully hard. "Diddy Kong Racing" has all of the same elements that made "Mario Kart 64" such a success. It has the cute characters from other popular Nintendo games (Diddy Kong is Donkey Kong's companion in "Donkey Kong Country"), a grand- prix format, which allows one or more players to race on any given track, and special weapons that you can use to bomb racers in front of and behind you. The game, which runs on a 96- megabit cart, features graphics that are far superior to those in "Mario Kart 64;' has more races to run and cool new racing vehicles, including a plane and a hovercraft. It also includes an ultra-fun one- player adventure mode that blends the racing style of "Mario Kart 64" with the free-roaming style of "Super Mario 64." When you put these two elements together, it creates a game that will make you spend hours feeding your addiction. The adventure mode is the most fun part of the game. Unlike "Mario Kart 64," which could get pretty bor- ing when played solo, the format of "Diddy Kong" allows you to go to any of the four worlds in the game and race in any of the five races with- in them. Once you win a race, Taj, a banished Iir genie, gives you a magic balloon. The more balloons you get, the more worlds you can enter. But you don't only get to race other racers. If you collect all the balloo in one world, you become eligibl race the boss of that world. You can prove your true racing mettle against a k in dly -red dinosaur, a--won- derful walrus andl Didd Kong an octopus. acing If you can De t **** them, youtl be Nintendo 64 closer to fighting Wizpig, the a'd guy who cast a spell over all friendly inhabitants of the mountati kingdom. "Diddy Kong Racing" forces you to become a master of every race in the game. The game finds clever ways of testing your mastery, like making you beat all of the races again even after you've beaten the boss of a world. But the second time around, yo must win while at the same time c lect eight coins scattered over fhe course. In order to beat some of the races, you literally have to run a perfect race. The frustration you feel at another player's victory after hours of play will only make your eventual first- place finish more enjoyable. Mix the incredible graphics, fast animation and smooth play control of "Did Kong Racing:" and you can kiss gr school goodbye. Since the adventure mode is byfar the most addictive and fun part about the game, it's too bad that I cannot s y the same thing about the multi-player mode. The races are so fast-paced and detailed that the split-screen format makes it very hard to see where you are going. Plus, the races in the multi-play mode can only be run if you ha gotten to them in the adventure mode first, which means that if you stink at the game, you can only. race against your friends on four differ- ent tracks. Nevertheless, the impotenceof the multi-player format doesn't diminish the overall fun factor of this.,game. Whether or not you have finals com- ing up, "Diddy Kong Racing" guaranteed to provide hours addictive and entertaining game play. .. " EI Se p presents: 9pm) Happy Holidays from JOBS!!! Winter Term Apply now at the Law Library - non-Law Students SLaw Students * .1 . Students Apply in person: Room 8-180 in the Law Library's underground addition, 8-noon and I ., Monday through Friday. AA/ROE Friday, Dec. 12, 1997 (after Live at the JAVA HOUSE HOLiDAY BLOWOUT POIGNANT PLECOSTOMUS " .Cyo i don't know then you're late already!" r ..r'-. ' " -Stuart Bogey, " Transmission"I? FithI special funk-groove guests: AIXELSYD