Tom Tom Club: The Good, The Bad and The Funky : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Tom Tom Club's strength has always been its limitation: This is a band led by its rhythm section. With their nu-funk classics "Wordy Rappinghood" and "Genius of Love," Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth -- formerly of Talking Heads -- laid down grooves sampled by everyone from Grandmaster Flash to Mariah Carey. But otherwise, the worthy tunes have been few and far between, and the duo's breathy vocals have often been monotonous. Happily, that's not the case on their first album in eight years: Frantz and Weymouth have teamed up with a melting pot of songwriting, vocal and instrumental talent, who have supplied offbeat but on-point, ever-changing flavors. Charles Pettigrew, of Charles and Eddie's "Would I Lie to You?" fame, spins his sweet soul falsetto across the serene reggae of "Let There Be Love" and two other slinky jams, while Toots Hibbert of Toots and the Maytals brings some authentic Jamaican spice to "She's Dangerous." These funky Heads are fresher than ever. (RS 850)

BARRY WALTERS