Sessions, and especially the haunting samer flavor flawlessly blended in a are more interesting Beatles tunes to Dream Letter: Lim' in London 1968. creamy sauce with those perfectly lend her talents to than "If IFell." —Richard Lehnort drawn swirls. A lovely confection, if not It must be adaunting task to choose very nutritious. material from the wealth available. Weak songs aside, what's most miss- O'Connell in the past has shown herself ing is Lang the singer. Her voice here is up to it. She's said that awell-crafted used as just one more color in the song is like amodern-day prayer. But palette —fine for vocalists like Brian important as it is, craft is only the vessel. Ferry or Grace Jones, but criminal in As asinger, Matira O'Connell's talent the case of one with lang's expressive goes well beyond craft into inspiration; gifts. Less time recording and more would that more of the material on time writing on the next one —okay, Stories did the saine. —Michael Ross k.d.? —Michael Ross MAURA O'CONNELL: Stories 1laumbal 1INCD 1389 (Cl) only). Jerry Douglas, pux1.: Bil (sit) Vortidick, rug. TT: 4437 Craft is athing that has fallen out of favor and fashion, replaced by pure pas- sion, a desperate crying to be heard k.d. lane new All You Can Eat is alovely confec- above the din of the contemporary in- tion. if not very nutritious. formation overload. Oh, it works all right. Like ababy crying for its bottle, K.D. LANG: All You Can Eat it's impossible to ignore and hard to en- Warner Bros. 46034-1 (LP). -2 (Cl)). k.d. lang, Ben dure. But that's okay, because these days Matt Sharp & Cherielynn Westrich on their debut Mink. prods.: Mark Itaniaer. co-prod., nag. TI': album. The Return of the Rentals it's as if they 36:20 15 minutes is all you gee, no one has to endure it for long. never left. ingenue was atriumph of style over sub- Craft is more insidious. It seduces - - - — — — - - -- — stance. Its slight songs of love and desire rather than assaults, and holds up under THE RENTALS: Return of the Rentals were fleshed out by the luxurious long- greater and longer scrutiny. The beauti- Mavenck/Reprisc 46093-2 (a* Matt Slurp. Tom Grindey, prods., arm., mix; Tom Grindey, rug. TT: ing of lang's lush vocals, and Ben Mink's ful hand-built house seems to improve 37:02 brilliant arranging and production. But with age. only "Constant Craving" was a truly Maura O'Connell is aconnoisseur of Return of the Rentals, the debut album great tune. In fact, it was such aperfect craft: specifically, songcraft. As one of from Weczer member Matt "'This Is pop artifact that it raised the level of the that near-extinct breed of pop singers Not My Little Side Project" Sharp, is a entire project. who do not write their own material, find. Recorded, produced, and arranged All 'sin. Can Eat contains no tunes of she has to be. Possessed of a lovely entirely independently (at Poop Alley, such magnitude. Only "Maybe" even voice, she nevertheless is not one of LA) by Sharp and cohort Tom Grimley, comes close, with achorus that takes off those singers who can sing the Yellow who engineered and programmed hon- into the release that the rest of the Pages and make you weep. It is her in- est-to-God Moog synthesizers, the nice record craves. With all due respect to volvement and, yes, passion for the people at Madonna's hand-made record lang's PETA involvement, most of All songs she sings that make her special. label Maverick "got ahold of atape" lint Can Eat plays out like ashiny skin of For my money, A Real Ljli: Story of- (I'll bet), and the rest is history. The arrangements and production tricks in fered the highest percentage of songs new band even plans to record again. search of flesh and bone. that perfectly matched her style. Her Combining the sensibility of Ber- But what great arrangements and version of Shawn Colvin's "I Don't serkley-era bands like The Rubinoos production tricks they are. Mink and Know Why" surpassed Colvin's own, with a monstrously heavy hand on lang have honed their sound into amar- and her rescue from obscurity of Cock Moog synth even Rod Argent couldn't vel of low-tech texture. Like Brian Robin's "When Your Heart Is Weak" better, in sensibility Return qf the Rentals Ferry, they've created an intensely per- was brilliant. calls to mind nothing so much as sonal, unique sonic world. It's awanner Stories' version of Colvin's "Shotgun Jonathan Riclunan fronting ELO pro- world than Ferry's, one of acoustic Down the Avalanche" is ahigh point, duced by Ric Ocasek (who did not pro- stringed instruments (violin, viola, cello, even if this version merely equals the duce). Classy touches like layers of vio- harp, acoustic guitar) and low-tech key- original. John Gorka's "Blue Chalk," lin and female backup vocal harmonies boards (cheesy organ, Fender Rhodes and Tom Kimmel's and Buddy Mond- keep the top of the sandwich tasty as piano) instead of processed electric gui- lock's "Poetic Justice" tell just the kind the bottom. tars and synthesizers. of tales of love's complications and pain What you should know about The Layered Beatles-esque vocals ("Get that O'Connell's slightly gruff approach Rentals is that Sharp has met Madonna, Some") bump up against sampled fax enhances. she seems like adecent person, and they machines and slide guitar ("Acquiesce"), But even her obvious feeling for it did not talk about sex; no, Weezer did all immaculately recorded. The LP can't save "Ordinary Day"'s slice of not break up, they're closer than ever (orange vinyl) skipped on the first cut, diner life from falling on the wrong side before, just on hiatus; the eponymous and in general was far from an audio- of preciousness. Nor can her unques- "P" (as in "... anyone who's Friends of phile pressing, but the CD is like dessert tioned sincerity save us from the slight- P is down with me") is whoever or at afive-star restaurant: layers of gos- ness of "Rainmaker." And surely there whatever you want "P" to be; Grimm STEREOPHILE, FEBRUARY 1996 227 .