CD Reviews - July 1996
Peter Gabriel
So
1986
I originally bought this after hearing "In your eyes". I just
couldn't get enough of that song. Sure, I'd heard "Big TIme" and
"Sledgehammer" on the radio alot before, but those songs just to
work unless you hear them with the rest of the album. Gabriel has
a penchant for powerful lyrics, and here he managed to thorugh
some outward environmentalism, pure love, slef-esteem building and
more all in one. "Don't give up" could just about make it on a
church youth CD. It's an excellent song about keeping going even
when the going gets really tough and it seems like there is no
more hope left. Even "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time" eventually
grow on you.
Mission: Impossible
Music from and inspired by the motion picture
1996
This would have been much better if they would have left off the
'inspired by' part. The three excerpts from the Danny Elfman
score are great action-adventure musical faire. U2 also performs
will in their version of the theme to Mission: Impossibe, and the
Cranberries' Dream just sounds like something you'd hear sitting
down at a bar after doing something important. The rest of the
songs are very forgettable. I guess drawing your inspiration from
a second rate movie gives you second rate music.
U2
Mysterious Ways: CD Single
1991
Mysterious Ways is a song so good, it's almost impossible to go
wrong. The ethereal remixes on the single add a nice mysteriuos
edge to the song, while the Solar Plexus mix gives it a nice
powerful, danceable feel (very similar to what they played in
concert.)
Independence Day
Soundtrack by David Arnold
1996
I was afraid they'd pull something like they did for Mission:
Impossible with this one. (ID4 did have REM's great "It's the end
of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)" along with another
song, so it might have been possible.) Luckily, they gave us the
actual score. This is the first David Arnold score, and it's a
good one. He seems to be influenced by the great John William's
Star Wars adventure scores. Thus he delivers a quality action
score with a touch of space and patriotism, along with a reurring
theme that I even found myself humming as I was leaving the
theatre.
Rush
Roll the Bones
1991
Roll the Bones is a fatalistic classic from the 90s. Rush go all
out, even experimenting with RAP on the title song. It's just
goofy enough to work. "You bet Your Life" has the great
background line: "anarchist reactionary running-dog revisionist;
hindu muslim catholic creation/evolutionist; rational romantic
mystic cynical idealist; minimal expressionist post-modern neo-
symbolist...." On "Heresy" they mone about "all those precious
wated years Who will pay?"On Dreamline, they ponder being "only
immortal for a limited time" All through, it keeps with the basic
theme of taking chances. Is it fate or is it a metter of your
decisions, or is it a mixture of both? You are left to think. To
be sure, Rush has added some of their most listenable music,
complete with a great instrumental piece.
Police, The
Every Breath You Take: The Classics
1995
Wow! They've relreleased a new 'digiatlly remastered' version of
the classic police songs. Finally we get the original version of
"Don't Stand So Close To Me" (But just in case you got hooked on
the remix, that's here too) Also, one other new mix is included.
Otherwise its the same as the previous greatest hits release.
The cover is also redone, and this time around its much more
readable thatn the strange yellow, red, and black mix. As for the
music, its's the classic police stuff. Starting from the hollow
"roxanne", it progresses up through "don't stand so close to me",
"King of Pain", and "every breath you take". If you like Sting or
the Police, this is a must have. Through the 14 tracks, you can
here the evolution of this key 80s band.
Clueless
Soundtrack
1995
Like the movie, the soundtrack opens with the Muffs' great "Kids
in America" Quickly afterwards, it mellows out with "The Ghost In
You" by Counting Crows and "Fake Plastic Trees" by Radiohead, with
the teen anthem, "All the Young Dudes" by World Party and a few
other forgetable songs in between. After a little more progress,
we pass by a really awful Bestie Boys song, and a ska party piece
"Where'd You Go?" by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Surpergrass
contributes their neuveaux-Beatle, very British sounding "Alright"
(Why on earth was this video included at the end of the Clueless
video - these have to be some of the ugliest guys in music.) The
Cd ends with Jill Sobule's "Supermodel", another great
materialistic anthem. This soundtrack works best with the music.
The songs echo the 90s 'pseudo-deep' hollow materialism. They
songs that work the best are the ones that realize that they are
nothing more than hollow teen fodder, like the first and last
songs. Whent hey try to get serious they just bog done with
fakeness as you realize they're not antything near it.