The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 9, 1998 - 19 JNDIE QUEEN PHAIRER THAN MOST Medeski, Martin & Wood, oh my! In the recording industry, there tend to be a lot of negative connota- tions associated with the term "long awaited." More often than not it is an indication that an album might be over-produced and bloated, if not altogether insignificant. Liz Phair has a high mark to match too. Her debut album "Exile in Guyville", released in 1992, will *ost likely be remembered as one of the great masterpieces of the '90s indie rock world. Paving the way for less intelli- gent, although more commercially successful acts, such as Alanis Morrisette and Meredith Brooks, "Exile..." patented Phair's direct-as- nails approach to subjects such as sex and relationships. One might observe e direct line between Phair's "Fuck d Run" and Morrisette's "You Oughtta Know." But with her first full length release since 1994's bland sopho- Medeski Martin and Wood is not a band that rests on its laurels. Though it gained popularity by attracting the post-Grateful Dead jam band crowd with the extremely danceable grooves of its last album, 1996's "Shack-man," MMW refuses to become trapped within a formula. Thus, the instrumental trio's new set, "Combustication," explores a more experimental sound, to sometimes fantastic results. While the album is MMW's first for the classic jazz label, Blue Note Records, the tracks find the keyboard, drum, and bass combo looking toward Med Md, wa Combustication Blue-Note Records Reviewed by Daily Arts Writer Rob Mitchum the future of music, not the past. Indeed, the opening track is one of three col- laborations with turntable wizard DJ Logic, who playfully scratches his arsenal of noises around John experiments, the result is not always successful; Logic's contributions are sometimes more of a distraction than an improvement. But when it works, like in the gentle build-up at the cen- ter of "Start-Stop," the outcome is exhilarating. Outside of the DJ tracks, MMW continues to explore by injecting healthy doses of avant-garde jazz into many of the songs. Medeski insti- gates this exploration by relying less on his trusty Hammond B3 and clar- inet, instead adding atmospheric tex- tures through synthesizers and Rhodes electric piano. This switch allows Martin to take center stage on much of the album, carrying the jams along with complex polyrhythms and unique percussion tools. The apex of this sound and the centerpiece of the album is the nine-minute "Latin Shuffle," where Martin unexpectedly accelerates and decelerates the beat beneath Wood's funky bass line, while Medeski pounds out a spastic, dissonant piano solo. Other experiments like the spo- ken-word collaboration "Whatever Happened to Gus" and the church organ reading of Sly Stone's (or is that Toyota's) "Everyday People" are less successful, but the album is nice- ly balanced with tunes reflecting the MMW of past albums. The playful organ and funky bass of "Hey-Hee-Hi-Ho" and "Coconut Boogaloo" are sure to keep the prep school hippies dancing through the night. But let those hippies beware: "Combustication" is not as danceable or instantly accessible as "Shack-man." By means of a willingness to expni- ment, Medeski Martin and Wood send a musical message to their audience: don't just dance ... listen. Uz Phair Whitechocolate- spaceegg Matador Records Reviewed by Daily Arts Writer Stephen Gertz more slump-ish "Whip-Smart," Liz Phair has graced us a hum-dinger of an album that combines her trademark witty and intro- spective lyri- cism with a more sophisti- Where on her past records, Phair often let her songs' catchiness take a back seat to the lyrics, a highly devel- oped pop sense finds its way into most of the tracks on "Whitechocolatespaceegg". Coupled with the more well-cal- culated song structures is a less liter- al and more oblique lyrical tech- nique. And although the bash 'em over- the-head brashness of Phair's past records does find its way into a few new numbers, such as "Johnny Feelgood" ("I never realized I was so dirty and dry/ till he knocked me down/ and started dragging me around/ in the back of his convertible car/ ... and I liked it"), most of the the album expresses a sense of long- ing and delicacy, quite possibly byproducts of Phair's recent transi- tion into motherhood. While "Whitechocolatespaceegg" most likely will not make as many waves in the music world as "Exile in Guyville," it is just as good for dif- ferent reasons. By fusing brilliant harmonies with more sophisticated subject matter, Phair has escalated her career into the realm of Joan Baez and Paul Simon in terms of poetic quality. Hipper than the Lillith ladies and smarter than Alanis, she has regained her spot as rock's coolest big sister. Medeski's organ riffing, while bassist Chris Wood and drummer Billy Martin provide the beats. Like most i I cated sense of melody and pop-craft. The album opener/title track, "Big Tall Man," "Uncle Alvarez," "Only Son", "Fantasize" (which fea- tures all of R.E.M., sans Michael tipe), and, especially, the single olyester Bride" are among the most tuneful tracks that Phair has ever recorded. Welcome to Breaking Records, a weekly collection of reviews of the music industry s new releases written especiallyfor you by the Daily Arts Music staff Lookfor Breaking Records every Tuesday in Daily Arts. 0 Ifyou missed a week of Breaking Records, check out the Daily's archives online at http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily BreakingRecords Star Stem **** - Classic - Excellent - Good ** - Fair * - Poor No stars - Don't Bother I- Sophomore effort sounds s'well ----------- A Maxwell, in his relatively short music career, has been oompared to everyone from Marvin Gaye to Prince in his ;oneg one-man crusade to resurrect good old sensual, pi 1 soul music. And on his sophomore effort, "Embrya," Maxwell proves ith his new soul sound that he is an old soul indeed. Weaving dreamlike beats and grooves around classic swoon-inducing I'll-stop-the-world- and-melt-with-you lyrics, "Embrya" brilliantly and melodically proves what Maxwell's 1995 relationship- Maxwell concept album "Urban Hang Suite" suggested - that Maxwell is monoga- '* Embrya mous ... monogamous to the sweet Columbia Records sounds of soul. Reviewed y But all of this musical sweetness Daily Arts Writer seems to have has gone to Maxwell's Bryan lark head, judging by his newfound taste in punctuation -- Maxwell seems to have found the colon left unused since Terence Trent D'Arby last wished me to love a wishing well. With titles like "I'm You: You Are Me and We Are You" and the even more cumbersome 'Eachhoureachsecondeachminuteeachday: Of My Life," M ~xwell comes off as more than a touch pretentious as he s convincingly coming on to his lady and ladies every- where. __ ;>::, Me to you: Ditch the heady pretense and stick with the silky smooth soul voodoo (such as the funky Stevie Wonder-meets-Duran Duran concoction "Luxury: Cococure" or the swirling, seductive "Submerge: TitWe Become the Sun") that you do so damn well. Griffin's ablaze with hot new recording After the small-scale, Ark-level success of the acoustic angel routine perfected on her debut, "Living with Ghosts," Patty Griffin's quiet delivery and tortured inner demons seem to have been exorcised forever. rnaybe they were just scared off by all the amps and feed- That's not all you might find on Griffin's follow-up "Flaming Red," as the album is chock-full of diverse rock nuts, from the kicking and screaming of the title track, to the sensi- tive balladry of the album-closing "Peter Pan." Alternately urban-chic (dabbling in electronic beats, which often seem out of Patty Griffin place) and country-fried (trying an accordion and slide guitar on for size), Flaming Red "Flaming Red" remains coherent A&M Records through Griffin's pop sensibility and Reviewed by compelling, story-driven songs. Daily Arts Writer Songs such as the kooky teenage sui- Bryan tak cide tale "Tony" and thc gorgeous sym- pathy-for-the-poor-little-rich-Onassis- girl ditty "Christina," exemplify Griffin's talents as a storyteller unrecognized by VH1. But Griffin also has a talent for letting down her hair and, as she reminds you on the lazy, catchy "One Big Love," she rarely forgets the lawn chair. fffn, the formerly furious folkie, actually relaxes enough to'Wuce you on numbers like the breathy torch song "Go i~i 4-Ik 1140 south university (above goodtbme charleys), AA mon.-thurs.: 9:00a-10:00p sundays E ta!r !LOyDI 0 ri. & sat.: 9:0a-1 1:0p 11:00-8:00p DAR - d a Y T n OLFU. A 'W mbu- -q , U .sP. & T m Off ~a. M= ag r dLM 1898 sny Mu usc En rtam Now." Plugged-in and turned-out, the new Patty Griffin and her "Flaming Red" have crafted a solid pop/rock foundation to build a bigger career upon. She's no longer living with her ghosts, she's set them ablaze and danced on their ashes.