The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, June 19, 1985 - Page 9
Records
(Continued from Page 8)
riginal.
Because X is tied to the new music
cene, this record will probably get
umped in with recent cow-punk
eleases like Jason and the Scorchers,
"harley Pickett and the Eggs, and
whoever else the label is tossed onto.
Don't be fooled. Poor Little Critter
the Road is a Country and Western
cord. It's also a mighty good time.
leer drinkin' music. References to
uinea pigs. More beer. Barnyard
nimals. It's ahoot.
-John Logie
-
r
Byrne begins: She was lying in the
grass/And she could hear the
highway breathing.
On "Stay Up Late," the band rever-
ts back to the raw intensity of closet
classics such as "Psycho Killer" and
"New Feeling." Bassist Tina
Weymouth's hungry droning backs
Byrne as he humorously hums about
the trials and tribulations of child
rearing. The child is a cute little nip-
per with "little pee pee" and "little
toes," but the singer sarcastically
laments: Little baby goes ha! (all
night long) I know you want to
leave me.
talking Heads- As notea earnier, tnougn nsi o
g Hso much an album full of the cerebral
ittle Creatures (Sire) tinkering that we had hitherto en-
Talking Heads frontman David joyed. Indeed, Creatures has a more
lyrne looks like the kind of kid conservative, but no less creative
veryone used to beat the tar out of in rock foundation. "Road to Nowhere"
gde school. But with an as yet and "And She Was" offer. a steady,
drivaled blend of unique sounds and throbbing drum beat with the rat-a-
yllables, this curious man with the tat-tat of a halftime marching band.
rame of a drink-stirrer has risen The latter even sizzles with a searing
bove that rap time and again. guitar flurry as the cut fades - quite a
Since the four New York-based switch for contemporary music's
eads popped up in that short, awk- cutest computer jocks.
ard, post-punk, pre-new wave period The band even temporarily
n the late '70s, the record-buying registers in the Elvis Costello school
ublic has slowly warmed to their of silly but nice country warbling in
usic. And now, the band members Creatures of Love, a funny ballad that
e celebrities, lauded by everyone explains, tongue-in-cheek, the lofty
m the New York Times to the Can- premise of creation: Little Creature
es Film Festival. of love/With two arms and two
Probably for the same reason that legs/From a moment of Hot on the heels of winning over film critics with 'Stop Making Sense' the T
any young Turks grow up to be ac- passion/Now they cover the bed. Creatures,' a starker, poppier, back-to-basics effort.
ountants, the Talking Heads have Like the album's cover, which
gun to kick back and settle in. Gone, features the kind of heavy sketches deadpans: I knew a girl/She was a gritty vivacity of these progressive
or the most part, are the days of that could have been molded by some real macho man. Yep. pioneers.
nazzy African interplay, quirky elec- European surrealistic artist or a four- In earlier albums it was clear that
ronic wizardry, and the ig tortoise th grader from Sterling Heights, this what, say, Bruce Springsteen was to -Ned Zeman
uit. Enter some tight melodies, a cut is typical of the way in which Byr- the Working Man, the Talking Heads
mattering of pop sensibility, a half- ne walks the hazy line between were to the Thinking Man. In a sense,
esting, but nonetheless horrid corps childish fun and brainy weightiness. this remains true on Creatures. In ad- Darol Anger/Barbara Higibe
f paisley suits that would wreak Only these Heads could get away dition, however, we have a Quartet-Live At Montreux
oc on any prom. The result is the with "The Lady Don't Mind," rejuvenated band, one in which Byr-
ost complete and listenable album arguably the album's finest offering. ne's tweaking tones have range and (Windham Hill)
et from America's most fascinating Replete with Tower of Powerish hor- richness. The vocal mix offers a New Windham Hill ensemble, fronted
and. ns, this gem at once speaks modestly shining array of chortles and moans. by violinist Anger and pianist Higbie,
"And She Was," is a slick, bouncy of a Little boat that floats on a river The band even dishes out a healthy who earlier collaborated on the label's
ittle dance tune that's about as per- while later hitting us with a patented portion of laughable "bleep, bleeps" Tideline album. Buoyant, lukewarm
ectly radio-oriented as any Byrne- Byrne quip: I'm not lost but I don't during "Lady Won't Mind." folk-jazz with a trace of Carribean ac-
cribed verse will ever be. Yet despite know where I am. And in With Little Creatures, the Talking centing. Very pleasant to daydream to,
its obvious musical merit, one has to "Television Man," a thrashing Heads are indeed making a successful though despite exotic titles like
wonder if this band isn't walking the celebration of Steve Scales' heated foray into the outer fringes of main- "Egypt," the pieces aren't particularly
commercial plank. Fear not. In the percussion, in a fiery exchange bet- stream music. Thankfully, though, we evocative; however, they hold up better
idst of this happy, rambunctious hit, ween Byrne and his chorus, the latter aren't losing the color, exuberance or than similar efforts by Shadowfax and
Uneven humor and heart of ice confound
(continued fromPage8) breezy pace which makes the joke thematic territory about greed and tragic/camp conclusion that isn't
Brooklyn brogue and oafish manners, work the first half hour or so, and the destructive seductivity of power, nearly as ironic as it is cheaply
hough it's at complete odds with Tur- Nicholson and Turner, if at stylistic but fail to come up with anything manipulative.
er's performance, which is odds, at least have their comic timing more revelatory than the same old The idea probably would work well
omically poised, but too full of down pat. Even if their romance isn't jaded-American-dream scenario on paper, and probably did in Richard
enuine warmth and even innocence viable, it has a snappy, laughable we've grown accustomed to in any old Condon's original novel-if his co-
to match Nicholson's purely tongue- twist. gangster film. adaptation is at all similar to the
heek shenanigans. Nicholson and Huston's stylizing helps gloss over a Huston, throughout his career a original. On film it's a little hard to
l1rner seem to be thinking in con- lot of the conceptual uneveness. craftsman whose work has never been distance yourself from the charac-
pletely different directions, Nicholson Huston is, afterall, the director who known for warmth or affectionate ters, particularly when Huston him-
heading for absurd irony, Turner cut his teeth on The Maltese Falcon, characterization, is even more distant self plays Charley and Irene's initial
taking a more classic screwball ap- and sharpened them on Asphalt from his characters here, if not fling with a lighthearted, at times
proach. Jungle, so he's perfectly at home in outright contemptuous of them. The beguiling, good naturedness. On top of
Though the film starts out with an the gangster genre. The film is bulk of the film is populated by this, the grossly miscast Turner can't
inclination toward the latter, par- tailored to the old '40s grotesque charactypes, from the or won't tone down her inherent warm
ticularly in aping the joke of seasoned melodrama/thriller suit, bathed in a cadaverous godfather Don Carrado presence to Huston's cold absurdist
killers being all gushy puppydogs un- monochromatic glow of golden bron- (William Hickey) to Charley's vam- vision, which has no space for a
derneath, it steers more and more for ze, shot through a soft lens, and pirish ex-flame Maerose (Angelica character with a touch of sympathy.
i former angle, alternating between draped in a gorgeously neo-romantic Huston). Prizzi's Honor is a interestingly
guine sentimentality and cold score by veteran Alex North. As for Irene and Charley's roman- twisted idea that works far better in
brutality as Charley and Irene gun But for all the gloss, Prizzi's Honor ce, the initial charming twist of sweet theory than it does in action, and in
down victims with one breath and has a heart of ice. Huston and screen- and sour turns quickly rancid as it the end seems like a shabby, perver-
pause to play kissyface the next. writers Richard Condon and Janet becomes apparent Huston is going to se, one-gag joke carried on too long
Huston carries the picture at a swift, Roach poke through some murky take his characters toward a for its own good.
talking Heads have released 'Little
Scott Cossu. Like all Windham Hill
products it is recorded with pristine
perfection, and packaged in slick,
greeting card-like style.
-Byron L. Bull
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