Luscious Jackson: Electric Honey : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

On the first half of their third album -- and their first without keyboardist Vivian Trimble -- these brainy New Yorkers make snottiness sound sweet. Songs like "Nervous Breakthrough," "Ladyfingers" and "Christine" glide along on seemingly effortless craft, achieving the zippiness of old AM-radio hits. "Alien Lover" brings on a little Sugarhill-era soft rapping, and "Summer Daze" salutes the Tom Tom Club. Luscious Jackson avoid gravity or grandeur like the plague, longing instead for states of pop lightheadedness informed by semiobscure fanzines and trends. When they misstep on the second half, though - on "Fantastic Fabulous," for example, a dreadful Deborah Harry rumination where she speaks on producer Tony Visconti's answering machine, or the tart "Space Diva," which a remix might save -- the band just sounds dated and trebly. Electric Honey is a transitional album: Half of it insists that Luscious Jackson know about a lot of cool pop. On the other half, they make it. (RS 816-817)

JAMES HUNTER