1992'S Crop of Music Below Par October 13 ' *
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1992's Crop of Music Below Par October 13 ' *. .. By Deborah A. Levinson scathing. "Diet Pill" recounts the frustration of the average housewife, with L7 snarling, "The diet pill sually, I spend a lot of money on music. In is wearing off ... Calgon can't take me away." to a grandjurys charge of mur'- 1992, however, I didn't buy much - These women scream about how there's always der at hs araignment in : something I attribute not just to my finan- "one more thing that I can't take /I one more thing desex. Superior Cout. He is " cially draining purchase of a CD player, and I'm gonna break" in "One More Thing" and helm without bail. but also to the dearth of really worthwhile music growl "You bring out the monster in me" in last year. REM came out with Automatic for the "Monster." They're never afraid to ask for what People, which was good enough to make up for they want. Many women are going to find Bricks Out of Time, but not good enough to buy. Sin6ad are Heavy a liberating album, in more ways than October 13- O'Connor's Am I Not Your Girl? consisted of little one. more than perfunctory readings of old standards The three main candidates for (and a pitiful version of a pitiful song, "Don't Cry XTC -- Nonsuch. I have been an XTC fan vice president spar in a debate for Me, Argentina"). WFNX persisted in playing since a friend and I discovered Go 2, the band's mindless, soulless dance music from one-hit won- undistinguished second album, with its enticing, marked by strong rhetoric. ders when they might have sold that same air time self-referential cover design. I've followed the to something more interesting, say, more ads for band's career through flings with 1960s psyche- skiing resorts. delia as the Dukes of Stratosphear, to Skylarking's October 14 That doesn't mean that there wasn't anything Sgt. Pepper feel, and now to Nonsuch. worth listening to last year. Following is a list of my i have heard her sing. Listen to "The Mind of XTC started out as four nervous, edgy new- Jo"eph D. IDonI n and Alfredo seven favorites, starting with what I consider the Love," where muted guitar and strings sway like wavers and over time, has evolved into a trio that two best recordings from male and female vocalists. island palms, and Lang croons about a self- pays more homage to the Beatles than to Bauhaus. Veiez are arraigned in Middle- destructive love affair, "Surely help will arrive Nonsuch delivers 17 songs of shimmering pop that sex Superir Court and held :- Sugar - Copper Blue. Sometimes you can tell soon / and cure these self-induced wounds / Why belie the often-biting political lyrics. Colin Mould- without bail. Both plead rmt. how good an album is by how much it annoys the hurt yourself, Kathryn?" There's also the jaunty, ing's "The Smartest Monkeys" sounds like a rela- guilty to charges of murder ad. guy in the next office. If laying out 1,000 pages of coy "Miss Chatelaine" - "Just a kiss /just a kiss / tively standard pop song until you listen to the an automobile shop manual didn't drive this guy I have words: armed robbery. lived just for this / I can't explain why I've . become i Miss Chatelaine." Lang's strongest suit, however, is her sweet, Well man created the cardboardbox smoky voice. She can wrap her voice around a to sleep in it song and draw the subtlest emotions from it, seem- And man converted the newspaper ingly without effort. I would be happy listening to to a blanket ·Thr:ee people- two of t :.st' : .- her sing nursery rhymes. Wellyou have to admit that he's .. Even if you think you'll miss Lang's quirky come a long way derntos, alr robbe at :npo·nt country music, if you're as much in love with her Since swinging about in the trees. incredible voice as I am, you'll need to buy Ingenue. Likewise with Andy Partridge's "Books are Burning" - "Books are burning / In the still air/ Other notable recordings of 1992, in no partic- And you know where they bum books / People are O tober 19 ular order: next," and his song about politicians, "Ugly The Cavedogs - Soul Martini. The only way Underneath." Soul Martini wouldn't have made it onto this list is Softer, more pastoral songs like "Humble Ann F, Frlealaender Ph D 4 , a if the Cavedogs had omitted "3oy in a Plastic Daisy," "My Bird Performs," and "Holly up on noted economist and the first- Bubble," clearly one of the best singles of the Poppy," balance the political ones. There's a cer- year. It has swirling female dean at MIT, dies at the -- guitars, a driving drum beat, tain formal elegance to Nonsuch, evinced in the and paranoid lyrics like "I'm happy living like a e f 54 after *.batting-rsanm cover art, a map of Surrey, England in 1611, and boy in a plastic bubble/ No one to wake me from for several years. in the type, a Caslon with wobbly, uneven letters the dead / I close the hatch on what I only guess is designed to look like hand-set type. This gracefil- nuts, the fact that i spent many an afternoon play- trouble / and pull the sheets above my head." The ness lulls the listener, making Nonsuch sound ing "Helpless" and "Hoover Dam" over and over first time I heard it, I couldn't believe how good it harmless, when in fact it's XTC's most political O:ictobr 20 i through the thin plaster walls surely did. was. album - and its best since Skylarking. I couldn't help it, though. Copper Blue is so The Cavedogs, like Marshall Crenshaw, are ' * * * Tria heiarigs. begi in a sexual good that I played it almost every day for a period masters of the pure pop song, relying on clever of about two months. I'm still not tired of it; in Arrested harassment Suit fied by! Marina lyrics and killer hooks. This gives them a singular Development -- 3 Years, 5 Months fact, I can hardly wait for Sugar's next release, due niche in the relentlessly "alternative" Boston rock & 2 Days in the Life of... Generally, I don't like A .Efruar SM '92 agahist fro.. out sometime in March. Since I was a big fan of scene - you'll never confuse the Cavedogs with rap music. I remember listening to Run-DMC in feS essoof Management Oabt Hiusker Dii, the band Sugar-singer Bob Mould led O-Positive or Tribe. They also have a singular way r.BiOtTn and M. t the suitte before starting a solo career, I was expecting to with song titles and subjects, like "Tarzan and His rioquim Con-act, admti c-: like Sugar a lot. I will frankly admit that occasion- Arrowheads," "Love Grenade," and "Boy in the Erulkar dcairis thea ptrane ally on Copper Blue (and especially in concert), Plastic Bubble," the latter inspired by the John kissed her against he ifts -S Sugar sounds like a low-rent Huisker Dii - but my Travolta movie. ral-tmes a thart dMITin attitude is that a little Hiisker is better than none at responsible for hs actionsuandfc all. Peter Gabriel - Us. I never thought that Peter o failing tobprperly hane An: From the ferocious chords of "The Act We Gabriel could produce an album of the caliber of intemral complaint she- made. Act," to the Byrds-y jangling guitars of "If I Can't 1984's So. Us, however, is that album. More emo- Change Your Mind." Copper Blue never lets up. tionally rich than So, it has the same lyrical conm- Mould has always been a loud but melodic gui- plexity and musical intensity that are Gabriel's tarist in a way Metallica can only dream about signature. October 21- imitating, and Sugar's range of fast and slow Many of Us's songs are drawn from Gabriel's songs allows him to merge the vastly different experiences in group therapy, which he participat- 4Sueress and/or Honeslit I sounds he achieved on solo albums Workbook and Black Sheets of Rain. ed in after his divorce, and later, his breakup with Here, Out There," an ahInstitte Rosanna Arquette. As if Sugar's music weren't enough to like. "Digging in the Dirt," the first coiloquium on academic hon- there's also Mould's lyrics, as in this passage from single, is specifically about psychotherapy: "i'm digging estys,receives mixted reviews., "Hoover Dam": in the dirt / To find the places I got hurt." Other songs explore closed-off romantic relation- Students describe the panelists ships ("Come Talk to Me") or emotional neediness t Standing on the edge high school, and I like Neneh Cherry ... but the as ' Oo far removed andi the ("Love to be Loved" and "Kiss that Frog"). discuttssion as "unfocusedp Of the Hoover Dam last CD I expected to purchase this year was *'Suxess and H~retl I 'mn on the centerline As in So, where a dance song ("Sledgeham- Arrested Development's debut - not just because Right between two states of mind mer") and a slow love song ("In Your Eyes") were it's mostly rap music, but because MTV loved it. And if the wind from the traffic the standouts, on Uis, there's "Steam," a lusty tune Then I heard "Tennessee" while driving in a Should blow me away in the spirit of"Sledgehammer," right down to the friend's car and realized that Arrested Develop- same thinly veiled sexual innuendo, and the ment is anything but the typical MTV bubble-gum The MhT Safety Office rules that From this altitude remarkably beautiful "Blood of Eden." Sin6ad rap group.