Cree Summer: Street Faerie : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Cree Summer is a twenty-nine-year-old singer-songwriter who grew up on a Canadian Indian reservation and went on to play a character on the NBC sitcom A Different World. Produced by Lenny Kravitz, working at the very top of his game, her debut is one mean blend of rock structure and R&B grace. On neohippie delicacies like "Revelation Sunshine," "Soul Sister" and -- remember this title -- "Miss Moon," Summer and Kravitz mix melody and rhythm and subtle ornamental touches like studio geniuses; they're so far in the pocket, they destroy the whole damn pool table. Summer, like solo-period Stevie Nicks, will write an entire song about a dying leaf ("Fall") -- and Kravitz, with his highbrow command of acoustics, will insist that a well-considered series of new rock epiphanies accompany it. Because Summer (like Nicks) can whip her raspy voice around music with the authority and power of a great matador, you forgive a lot of her pretensions. Street Faerie, to cite one accurately titled tune, is "Deliciously Down." (RS 809)

JAMES HUNTER