Hip, Now, and Happening:

Music Reviews by William Harris

Stuff your stocking with merry music

    With the strong stench of over commercialization in the air, you really can't help noticing that Christmas time is here again.  The time has once more arrived to open your wallets as wide as you can possibly manage and spend, spend, spend...on someone besides yourself.

    And, hey, as long as you're buying gifts, perhaps you should check out this, my second annual list of possible musical gifts for the holiday season.

    As soon as December 25th is spitting distance away, the record companies begin their annual scramble to release box sets and greatest-hits compilations.  After all, it's the time of year when people are crazy enough to buy anything...even, say, a 4-CD set by the Bee Gees (if you can imagine such a thing)...if that's what Junior wants.  (1)  Well, there's a lot to choose from on the box set front:  new collections by Chicago, Jeff Beck, Aerosmith, the Carpenters, Barbra Streisand, the Clash, and T. Rex.   Frankly, I'm looking forward to receiving the Monkees box set.  4 CDs of pure, unbridled ecstacy.  It's gonna be choice, to say the very least.   (2)  And on the subject of some choice greatest-hits collections, topping my list as the best is the one by the Pet Shop Boys.  It's not the definitive singles collection it claims to be, owing to the glaring omission of "How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously?," by there's not a bad song on it...including the two new cuts.  Other smash hit collections to look out for:  the Pogues, Paul Young, Tina Turner, and Maxi Priest.   (3)  Plus, if you're rich, there's an import disc just out called The Best of R.E.M..  It doesn't have anything that's not on the group's albums, but it's still a bit better than their domestic best-of disc, Eponymous.   (4)

    I suppose we should hit on a few other other hip, new albums in stores now, eh?

    Although it's the utterly trendy thing to like right now, I must be honest and tell you that Nevermind, the sophomore effort from Nirvana, really is quite good.  And, yes, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" kicks some serious...well, you know.  Just be sure to check out their first album, too.  Yes, they really do have another album besides this one.  (5)

    Remember that crazy little pop song, "The One And Only," that was a recent hit?  It was by some teeny-bop looking guy named Chesney Hawkes.  Looking at him, you immediately figure he's barely a step above the New Kids.  In fact, though, his album, The One And Only, is excellent.  John Wesley Harding, whom I frequently rave about, co-wrote half of the songs, and Nik Kershaw wrote another two.  It does have a song co-written by Desmond Child, but nobody's perfect.  Well worth checking out, believe it or not.   (6)

    U2 have finally released Achtung, Baby.  And, yes, I know, Bono sounds totally unlike himself on "The Fly."  But the album's really killer.  I've heard it a couple of times, and it's highly diverse.  Frankly, I'm still partial to "Mysterious Ways," but it's still a little too early to call, I think.   (7)

    Although I'm not the biggest fan of rap music in the world, I can't help but admit that the new Public Enemy album, Apocalypse '91...The Enemy Strikes Back, is pretty damned incredible.  Of course, the two big buying points are the single, "Can't Truss It," and the remake of "Bring Da Noize" with added help from Anthrax, but it's excellent as a whole, also.  (8)

    And although it's been out for some time now, I'd like to throw in a bit of hype for the latest Crowded House album, Woodface.  After having seen them in concert recently, I've been reminded that the album is sheer excellence.  Check it out...for sure.   (9)

    Dozens of other new releases abound as well, including new albums from the following:  Genesis, Enya, Lisa Stansfield, Simply Red, My Bloody Valentine, Erasure, Teenage Fanclub, Neil Diamond.  And, of course, a zillion others.  The G'N'R albums are still worth picking up, too, you know.   (10)

    There is, of course, Dangerous, by Michael Jackson.  Or Too Legit To Quit, by Hammer.  Both, I'm sure, are all fine and well in their own little ways.  Michael's "Black Or White" is a pleasant enough ditty, but, if you were to ask my general opinion, I'd probably instinctually write both his and Hammer's albums off as crap.  But, you know, that's me.  I'm like that.   (11)

    But the new Barry Manilow?  The one that consists of nothing but his versions of Broadway show tunes?  

    Choice, I'm sure.  I haven't actually heard it, but, to my way of thinking, the man can do no wrong.   (12)

 (1)  "Junior" got the box set the following year, if memory serves.  The funny thing is, you would've thought that I'd've owned it long before...but I don't think I actually did.

(2)  I did indeed receive the box set for Christmas that year, and I played it incessantly, discovering quite a few songs by the group that I'd never before heard.  To this day, Disc 2 of the set (which, for the record, is entitled Listen To The Band) could easily make it onto my list of Desert Island Discs.

(3)  I don't have any idea why I thought anyone would care about Maxi Priest putting out a best-of.  I hyped the Pogues for a bit of British flair, I mentioned Paul Young for the '80s factor, and Tina Turner...well, she's Tina Turner, she's got street cred.  But Maxi Priest?  No idea what I was thinking.

(4)  When I first went back and read this comment about Eponymous vs. The Best of R.E.M., I thought, "Was I just being pretenious and praising the import solely because it was an import?"  Actually, no.  Comparing the track listings, The Best of R.E.M. is a much better picture of the band's years on I.R.S.; Eponymous has the obvious singles, plus a couple of rarities and alternate mixes to sucker in the completists.  It worked, too...dammit.

(5)  I have a strong suspicion that, at the time I wrote this column, I didn't even own Bleach, Nirvana's debut album...but my friends Robby Barber and Corine Long had hyped the band to me for some time, so I was very much aware of it.  I've always hated people who discover a band a few albums into their career and presume that the band didn't exist until they discovered them, so I probably just wanted to make sure that folks were aware that, no, Nevermind was NOT their debut album.

(6)  I'm gonna chalk this up to being so completely enamoured of the single that I didn't really notice that the rest of the album wasn't nearly as good.  The two Nik Kershaw songs, "The One And Only" and "One World," are by far the best tracks.  I wonder how much money John Wesley Harding made off the disc...

(7)  Judging by my choice of phrase, I probably didn't own Achtung Baby at the time I wrote this...but I'd been working at a record store and had certainly heard it more than a few times.  Best guess:  the only song titles I knew were the singles, and "Mysterious Ways" was no doubt getting airplay at the time.  Later, I'd obviously come to realize that "One" was timeless, but "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses"  is probably my favorite song on the album.

(8)  Five words:  talking out of my ass.  I did (and still do) love "Bring Da Noize," but I traded the CD away not terribly long after writing the review, so calling it "pretty damned incredible" was definitely hyperbole in action.  Who knows?  Maybe I really did like it at the time.  But I must've really moved on quickly...

(9)  Great show.  School of Fish opened.  Tim Finn was not in Crowded House's touring line-up, however, despite being on the album.

(10)  What a desperately eclectic selection of new releases!  Referencing the Guns 'N' Roses albums was done because I'd reviewed the Use Your Illusion discs a month or two prior to this column.  I remember raving about them at the time, but, in retrospect, the patches of brilliance were definitely surrounded by a fair amount of dreck.  Still, there's one really solid album to be found amongst those two Illusions.

(11)  This is just me being a holier-than-thou, too-cool-for-the-mainstream jackass.  Not that I was necessarily wrong about Hammer, you understand...but my comments were solely based on the fact that he and Michael Jackson were too popular and therefore suspect.

 (12)  I don't really have an excuse for this.  I think I'd decided to wear my enjoyment of Barry Manilow like a badge of courage.  Still...praising an unheard album of Broadway show tunes by the man?  Jesus Christ, you'd think I was trying to out myself.  Not that there's anything wrong with that...unless, like myself, you aren't actually gay.  This could well explain why I didn't do any dating whilst at Averett...