February 1989 73

V less cynical). Generally more mature than the simple pop of Any Trouble, most of these songs are well worth hearing (best: "This Tender Trap"), though some are a little lifeless (worst: "I Wonder What Went Wrong"). Two CD -only tracks- the jaunty "Lost at Sea" and the lyricless filler of "Farewell Note"-are culled from the British LP version. Andrew Nash SAM PHILLIPS: The Indescribable Wow. T Bone Burnett, prod. Virgin America 90919-1. (Do This is a smart woman who believes in something, knows what she wants, is un- afraid to take major chances ... andis not a candidate for anything. Well, perhaps she's a reform candidate for top of the pops in an era of safe, calculated singles. Entering music several years ago through her church as Leslie Phillips, she made two obscure records and then began to lose or break faith with the modern Christian music business. Certainly no one could have mistaken her for Amy Grant on 1987's spare and compelling The Turning, an unheralded folk -pop effort with fellow adventurer T Bone Moving from Word to Virgin, from Leslie to Sam, and from a "Christian con- text" to the world, Phillips has kept T Bone and crew, turned up the electricity and surface snap, and delivered The Inde- scribable Wow, one of the very best records of 1988. It's chock-full of dazzlingly Phillips:Beatlesque pop with lyrics, melodies, and hooks of the first order arranged and executed pop songs redolent of the '60s-not just in instrumentation print like crazy. I count a minimum of five enduring the first day of school ("Four (comping harpsichord, electric sitar, or-hits here (given adequate promotion and Eyes"). The first two are undercut by the gan of both the drone and the "Incenseappropriate video support), including the career -long obsession with the vagaries of and Peppermints" varieties, even reversecool acoustic kiss -off "Out of Time" as race and class that have yielded some tape), but in a willingness to experiment, well as "What Do I Do," all gorgeous suf- of Newman's most complicated work. A to push farther, that just hasn't been heard fused longing girded by Van Dyke Parks's pained detail like "Drinkin' rye whiskey much since those hybrid, halcyon days. postmodern Shirelles string arrangement. from a flask in the back seat/Tryin' to do Her attractive, flexible voice can project Get The Indescribable Wow before it like the Gentiles do" (from "Dixie Flyer") smoky intimacy on "Flame," an acoustic gets you. Jeff Nesin lights up the awkwardness and newfound samba reminiscent of "And I Love Her," strangeness that the now -grown-up narra- or echoed stridency on "Remorse," RANDY NEWMAN: Land of Dreams. tor felt at the time and, judging by the another Beatlesque track-out of "She's Mark Knopfler, James Newton How- wobbly tone of his voice, still feels today. a Woman" by Ram-about a Brazilian ard, Tommy Lipuma, and Jeff Lynne, Most of the rest of the grab bag of ma- matricide/mass murder ... she readstheprods. Reprise 25773-1. mo terial here rises or falls according to either news today, oh boy! As these flattering On Randy Newman's first album of songs the law of averages or Newman's ability to resonances might indicate, Phillips is ain nearly five years, the most interesting stay awake throughout the entire song. Of deft lyricist, a sophisticated and resource- and surprising character he conjures up is the three love songs that finish off Side 1, ful melodist, and a daring, intuitive master none other than himself 40 years ago, or so only `mad News from Home," with its bit- of pop hooks and structure. it would seem. The first three tracks incor- ter repetition of "You said you love me but Most of all, the artfully conceived and porate childhood memories both remem- I know you lied," has anything more to deployed backing vocals (all hers) and the bered and revised to create specifically ob- say beyond the empty romanticism best dense and rich playing of T Bone's team served scenes about moving to New left to a lesser songwriter. The assembled are focused entirely on the essential 21/2 - Orleans during the Second World War cast of Reagan -era jerks and dispossessed minute mission: the effective imprinting of ("Dixie Flyer"), moving back to Los An- on Side 2 seems more impressive taken as a Sam's songs on the listener. And they im- geles ("New Orleans Wins the War"), and (Continued on page 77) FEBRUARY 1989 73.

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