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Wildest Dreams
Even if she is in great shape, a woman in her late 50s has to be a class act to get away with wearing a microminiskirt, as Tina Turner does on the cover of her latest album. Fortunately, Turner's flawless legs are not the only assets she's kept intact. On Wildest Dreams, her first collection […]
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Mercury Falling
With 1993's Ten Summoner's Tales, Sting willfully soiled his hard-earned reputation as pop music's poster boy for existential depression. Tales was his most lighthearted effort since his early days with the Police, and it seduced many who had otherwise found his solo work too solemn or ponderous. But for all its breezy wit and craftsmanship, […]
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Looking East
With the death knell tolling for classic rock, some of our most beloved dinosaurs may begin resorting to desperate and potentially embarrassing measures to seem hip. But not Jackson Browne, bless his heart. He even looks the same as he did 20 years ago: same modified pageboy hairdo, same soulful puppy-dog eyes that drive a […]
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Mirror Blue
Richard Thompson's superb new album, Mirror Blue, boasts no bold forays or shocking twists, only the same fervid but stringently unsentimental writing and musicianship that has always distinguished this seminal folk rocker's best work. Like Rumor and Sigh (1991), Blue sounds contemporary without self-consciously striving to be hip. Fitting warm Celtic textures into taut arrangements, […]
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Luck Of The Draw
It would be perfectly reasonable to expect a bliss-drenched feel-good album from Bonnie Raitt at this point in her life and career. After nearly twenty years as a critics' and musicians' favorite, she finally earned commercial success and industry recognition in 1989 with Nick of Time, and after overcoming a series of personal hardships, she […]
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Hourglass
With his soul-searching eyes and mellow, nurturing baritone, James Taylor was the antithesis of feral hard-rock '70s Romeos such as Robert Plant. But make no mistake — Taylor's opus, Sweet Baby James was cranked up in more parked cars than was Led Zeppelin IV. And as young singer/songwriters from Joshua Kadison to Eddie Vedder continue […]
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Ultra
It ain't easy being an '80s icon. When the very name of your band inspires memories of Ronald Reagan and Martha Quinn, it's almost impossible to remain relevant — unless you're not afraid to explore new terrain and take artistic risks. While U2, for instance, have done this partly by incorporating electronic effects into their […]
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Nine Lives
The song titles and lyrics on their new album may suggest otherwise, but there are at least a few clichés that the guys in Aerosmith can't be bothered with — "aging gracefully," for instance. On Nine Lives, the band's first studio effort since 1993's Get a Grip — and its first on Columbia Records since […]
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Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me
This is a highlight of the Batman Forever soundtrack: U2 have cooked up a clamorous, darkly sensual ditty. These days it's not enough for a movie to boast a high-profile cast or a hip director. To really generate juice, the film has to feature songs performed by artists who are guaranteed heavy rotation on MTV. […]
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Wildflowers
It's easy to take Tom Petty for granted. Among his generation of heartland-rock heroes he's conspicuous for not having cultivated a clear public persona. Neither a blue-collar poet like Bruce Springsteen nor an outspoken maverick like Neil Young, Petty is most familiar to us in the dryly goofy, self-effacing guises he adopts in his videos […]
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