Fine Young Cannibals' 1986 debut album was heady but erratic – fine, rough pop ("Johnny Come Home") and a tremendous cover of Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds" bumping against filler so obvious that side two could have been called Album Helper. But after three years of assorted side projects (guitarist Andy Cox and bassist David Steele did some soundtrack work and released a passable house-m...

Once every 25,000 or so record releases, a voice comes along that leaves listeners speechless. Such a voice belongs to one Roland Gift, the twenty-three-year-old lead singer of Fine Young Cannibals. Neither a chesty soul screamer nor a throaty, sleek crooner, Gift purrs and moans with such casual authority that the ten songs on Fine Young Cannibals seem more like a culmination than a...