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9 items by Jim Farber

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  The One | ALBUM REVIEW

  Buying an Elton John album these days is like investing in a mutual fund: You won't get a huge payoff, but you probably won't get burned either. As with recent portfolios offered by bankable rockers Rod Stewart...

  January 29, 1997 12:00 AM ET
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  All This Useless Beauty | ALBUM REVIEW

  Writing songs for other performers brings out the best in Elvis Costello. On his latest work, Costello "covers" tunes he's penned for other artists, including the British folk singer June Tabor and ex-Byrd Roger McGuinn. Surprisingly, what...

  May 30, 1996 12:00 AM ET
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  The Stones Got Tape if You Want It | ARTICLE

  Would you like to see the Rolling Stones on Shindig in 1965 watching a performance by their hero Howlin' Wolf? A version of...

  February 8, 1990 12:00 PM ET
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  One Night Of Sin | ALBUM REVIEW

  It's been years since anyone expected greatness from a Joe Cocker album. True believers have come to rate Cocker's albums on a bell curve, getting by on the relative terseness of Sheffield Steel or the promising punch...

  October 19, 1989 12:00 AM ET
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  Rank | ALBUM REVIEW

  Rank, a concert album from the late, great Smiths, offers the liveliest postmortem imaginable. Rather than being an exploitative rehash, it realizes the greatest goal of a live album, namely, to offer a full reinterpretation of a...

  November 17, 1988 12:00 AM ET
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  Blow up Your Video | ALBUM REVIEW

  It's time the world stopped thinking of AC/DC as just a heavy-metal band. For thirteen albums now, Angus and Malcolm Young have been crafting the kind of guitar riffs any Who-style rock & roll band would kill...

  April 7, 1988 12:00 AM ET
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  Louder Than Bombs | ALBUM REVIEW

  Morrissey is modern pop's most creative masochist. From the start, the Smiths' singer and lyricist knew how to turn self-loathing into a virtue — by redeeming it with humor. Now after three U.S. albums establishing that M.O.,...

  May 21, 1987 12:00 AM ET
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  Good Music | ALBUM REVIEW

  On a Joan Jett album, the pop touches should always be kept to a minimum. In the ideal mix, most of the melody should come from hooky but rock-hard riffs, without much frill on top. Jett's earlier...

  November 20, 1986 12:00 AM ET
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  Landing On Water | ALBUM REVIEW

  After a series of musical one-night stands, Neil Young is finally getting serious again. His previous three albums were just dalliances — in electronic (Trans), rockabilly (Everybody's Rockin') and country (Old Ways) music — none of which...

  September 25, 1986 12:00 AM ET