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Spin Cycle is a biweekly roundup of the latest music releases selected by our editors. Shopper's guide: Best Places to Buy CDs. Hear sound files: download Windows Media Player. This edition: January 10 'I Am Sam' | 'Mark Twain' | Starsailor | Webb Pierce Tribute | Concrete Blonde |
   "I'm Looking Through You" (The Wallflowers) |
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Various artists "I Am Sam" (V2) Street date: 1.8.2002 |
This soundtrack to the film "I Am Sam" consists entirely of Beatles covers. The absence of songs by George Harrison is the least of its problems. For every desirable track among the album's 17--like Rufus Wainwright's lush "Across the Universe," or "Two of Us" performed by Aimee Mann and Michael Penn--many others mindlessly ape the originals, like Ben Harper's falsetto "Strawberry Fields Forever" and Eddie Vedder's mumbled "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away." This karaoke method may be at the request of the film's director, who reportedly resorted to covers when she couldn't get the originals. Several acts who don't ape the classic versions ape someone else instead. Grandaddy does a great indie-rock "Revolution," though it sounds like Pavement should be credited. On "Nowhere Man," a solo Paul Westerberg sounds like "Nebraska"-era Springsteen, rather than the leader of the Replacements, who once rocked with "Cruella De Ville" on a Disney-covers compilation. —Marc Weidenbaum |
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  "Hard Times" (Bobby Horton) |
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Various artists "Mark Twain: The Original Soundtrack Recording" (Columbia/Legacy) Street date: 11.6.2001 |
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Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns ("The Civil War," "Baseball," "Jazz") now tackles Mark Twain, author of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"; Burns' film will air on PBS in January. At its best, the soundtrack offers an acoustic portrait of American folk music, with a sprightly version of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," a stately rendition of "Sweet Betsy from Pike," and the fiddler's delight of "Shuckin' the Bush." Most of the melodies collected here--intended to function as an "emotional metronome," according to CD liner notes--would have been familiar to Twain. The contributions of two musicians, in particular, power the collection: pianist Jacqueline Schwab and multi-instrumentalist Bobby Horton. Among 29 tracks on one CD are four Twain monologues by actor Kevin Conway. While the spoken-word segments add variety, on repeated listens the monologues detract from the mood evoked by the music. —Ellen Fagg |
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  "Good Souls" |
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Starsailor "Love Is Here" (Capitol) Street date: 1.8.2002 |
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The debut album from Starsailor would go unnoticed in the States if it weren't for the searing vocals of frontman James Walsh and a feel-good first single, "Good Souls." Already a smash in its homeland, the Wigan, England-based band is seeking the fortune here that sound-alike peers Coldplay have found. Starsailor possesses a similar formula: Emotive lyrics, sensitive lad-ness, keen acoustic tunesmithing and a great single. Yet the band, while heavy on charm, is light in its ability to demonstrate any diversity in its songs. The 11 tracks comprising "Love Is Here" could be strummed seamlessly from start to finish and you'd only notice pitch changes. But the album's saving grace is Walsh's heavenly voice. His delivery of the nearly a cappella "Coming Down," the tender title track and the uplifting "Good Souls" ("Thank goodness for the good souls/That make life better") begs to be heard. —Scott Henkemeyer |
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 "If You Were Me" (Dwight Yoakam) |
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Various artists "Caught in the Webb: A Tribute to the Legendary Webb Pierce" (Audium) Street date: 1.8.2002 |
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The under-known '50s country crooner is justly paid tribute here, along with the brilliant songwriters he worked with, particularly Mel Tillis. Most of the tracks feature the same studio-tight backing band. The thing is, the band got to do overdubs and the singers didn't, so the music ends up as sort of a coliseum in which the vocals stand naked. No one really tanks, but as with many tribute albums, the listener can't help but note the peaks and valleys. The Del McCoury Band and BR5-49 recorded as their own units, without the session players, and deliver standout performances. And to hear Dale Watson on the opening hillbilly rave-up, "In the Jailhouse Now," is to suspect that his lack of major American success is rooted in a Music Row conspiracy, as there's not a singer in Nashville that he can't smoke out of the room. —James Woster |
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  "When I Was a Fool" |
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Concrete Blonde "Group Therapy" (Manifesto) Street date: 1.15.2002 |
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After an eight-year hiatus, original Concrete Blonde members Johnette Napolitano, Jim Mankey and Harry Rushakoff have reunited for "Group Therapy." And though it's no "Bloodletting," the band's 1990 magnum opus, it does make for a satisfying reminder of that masterpiece. Revisiting Blonde's distinctive style by blending New Orleans grooves and spaghetti-Western soundtrack themes with an L.A. post-punk feel, "Therapy" sets itself apart with seductive Latin influences. As in the past, Napolitano's self-possessed yet vulnerable vocals define the band's sound; she hurdles from breathy reciting to top-of-the-lungs wailing. While earlier Blonde songs were often story-oriented, these sparsely written lyrics come across as Napolitano's personal journal. Tracks such as "Take Me Home" and "When I Was a Fool" are introspective without being brooding: "I drink and I think how I don't even miss/My glorious past or the lips that I've kissed." This is an album to take along for a late-night drive on a deserted highway. —Randi Schmelzer |
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Previous Spin Cycles: Special Box Set Edition: KISS, Simon & Garfunkel, Miles Davis, Grateful Dead, History of Black Music, Cat Stevens, Billie Holiday and Thelonious Monk. Nov. 15: Michael Jackson, Prince, Natalie Merchant, Shelby Lynne and McCoy Tyner. Nov. 1: Lenny Kravitz, Dave Matthews Band, Bush, 'Harry Potter' Soundtrack and Jad Fair and Daniel Johnston. Oct. 18: Charlotte Church, John Mellencamp, New Order, Death Cab for Cutie and Dan Bern. Oct. 4: Elton John, Garbage, Spiritualized, tribute to Hank Williams and the Strokes. Sep. 20: Bob Dylan, Tori Amos, Ryan Adams, Diana Krall and Charlie Hunter. Have a comment or question? Send a message to the editor: Don Harvey. |
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