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Written by Gregg Shapiro
Jun 30, 2011
Britney Spears performs July 9 at Milwaukee’s Marcus Amphitheater. – Photo: Courtesy
Sade performs Aug. 5-7 at the United Center in Chicago. – Photo: Gabriel Coutu Dumont
Britney Spears
Blame her parents, who pimped her out. Or blame the Disney machinery that molded her. Britney Spears has been making headlines, most of them not music-related or flattering, since her debut.
Spears’ latest disc “Femme Fatale” cements her status as a product of studio wizardry rather than actual performance skills. From the selection of songwriting-by-committee compositions (including the pseudo disco of “Till the World Ends,” the faux-urban suggestiveness of “Inside Out” and “How I Roll”) to the lifeless and robotic vocals (will.i.am’s “Big Fat Bass,” for example), “Femme Fatale” is fatally flawed.
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez will do anything for our respect. Whether she’s taking a stab at being a fashion icon, a serious actress or a judge on an over-rated TV talent show, she wants nothing more than to be valued for her talents. Whatever they may be.
And that’s what makes her recording career so puzzling. Does she really need (or want) to be a singer? Look no further than her unlovable new album “Love?” for the answers.
When Cher was strutting her stuff – in rocker chick or disco diva drag – well into her 40s and 50s, she came off as timeless. J Lo just sounds tampered with and tired. Buried under a production as slick and shiny as the CD booklet and as gauzy as the photos, Lopez gives her most phoned-in performance to date.
Check it out on the vocoder programmed “Good Hit,” the un-hip hip-hop of “I’m Into You” (featuring the over-exposed Lil Wayne), the silly Latin disco of “Papi,” the generic dance of “Invading My Mind” and “Villain.” Lopez does manage to crawl out from under the rubble on “Until It Beats No More” and “Starting Over.”
Lady Gaga
Let’s be honest, gays, Gaga let us down.
Not that her unflagging support of the community isn’t welcome and appreciated. After all, what did Britney ever do for us aside from appearing on an episode of “Will & Grace”?
But Lady Gaga’s well-oiled hype machine blew more than a little bit of smoke up our asses. “Born This Way” – or could that be born again? – stalls shortly out of the gate. “Marry the Night” is an energetic club anthem complete with Gaga’s trademark stutter. But the title cut suffers from sounding too familiar (“Express Yourself,” anyone?), in spite of its uplifting message.
In “Judas,” Gaga cannibalizes herself. “Americano,” “Hair” (rhymes with “prayer”), “Bloody Mary,” “Heavy Metal Lover,” “Electric Chapel” and Yoü and I” contain distracting and less-than-subtle religious references.
Still, songs such as “Bad Kids” and “Government Hooker” hold promise for what is yet to come from Our Lady of Gaga.
Sade
When Sade’s domestic debut “Diamond Life” arrived in 1984, it was clear that Madonna was no longer the only one-named wonder winning over music lovers. On the strength of hit songs such as “Your Love Is King,” “Smooth Operator” and “Hang on to Your Love,” Sade sparkled and dazzled listeners with the promise of more. These treasures and others are all found on the splendid new double-disc compilation “The Ultimate Collection.”
For the most part, Sade didn’t disappoint following her auspicious debut. She kept the strong songs coming with “The Sweetest Taboo” and “Never as Good as The First Time” from 1985’s aptly titled “Promise.” Her 1988 release “Paradise” featured “Stronger Than Pride” and “No Ordinary Love.” Then there was 1992’s “Love Deluxe.”
Eight years passed before Sade returned in 2000 with the Bob Marley-esque “By Your Side” from “Lovers Rock.” And then it was another 10 years before her next studio disc, “Soldier of Love,” whose title track was possibly her most daring musical departure.
In addition to the nine aforementioned selections, “The Ultimate Collection” contains 19 more cuts, such as the unexpected Thin Lizzy cover “Still In Love With You” and a dreadful remix of “The Moon and the Sky,” with the unnecessary Jay-Z, making this her most thorough anthology to date.
Lucinda Williams
Country rock survivor Lucinda Williams is nothing if not prolific. Since her groundbreaking 1998 comeback disc “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road,” she’s recorded five more studio albums, including her latest “Blessed.” She’s never taken more than a few years off between releases.
The Williams of “Passionate Kisses” fame is probably a thing of the past. The closest we get to something almost upbeat occurs on fourth song of “Blessed” – “Seeing Black.” For the most part this is a somber if occasionally uplifting CD, as you can hear on the exquisite album closer “Kiss Like Your Kiss,” as well as “I Don’t Know How You’re Livin’,” “Born to Be Loved” and “Convince Me.”
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull has long struck a balance between being an interpreter of other people’s songs and a performer of her own compositions. Over the course of almost 20 studio recordings and 45 years, Faithfull has achieved legendary status.
Faithfull’s latest disc “Horses and High Heels” maintains her standing. Produced by Hal Willner, who worked with Faithfull on previous discs, the 13 songs on “Horses and High Heels” won’t disappoint for their sheer diversity and for the way Faithfull makes herself at home in whatever setting she’s working.
Co-written originals such as “Eternity” and “Prussian Blue” rank among her best achievements as a songwriter. Faithfull’s renditions of Jackie Lomax’s “No Reasons” (which has more than a subtle suggestion of the Rolling Stones), Lesley Duncan’s “Love Song” and Allen Toussaint’s “Back in Baby’s Arms” (on which guest backing vocalist Jenni Muldaur also shines brightly) find her at the peak of her interpretive skills.
PJ Harvey
“Let England Shake,” PJ Harvey’s musical homage to her motherland, is one of the most riveting but unsettling albums of the year. There is blood and gore and death everywhere. Soldiers fall “like lumps of meat” while flesh quivers “in the heat” in “The Words that Maketh Murder.” The xylophone in the title track might almost distract you from the “fountain of death” and end of England’s “dancing days.” The brassy charge, a war cry if ever there was one, woven into the fabric of “The Glorious Land” is strangely exhilarating. But the chanting and Mellotron in “England” only serve to call attention to the people who “stagnate with time.”
And yet, it’s hard to turn away, especially from “Bitter Branches” and the stunning “Hanging in the Wire.”
Avril Lavigne
On “Goodbye Lullaby,” her fourth album and first in four years, prefab skate-pop chick Avril Lavigne sounds like she’s trying to distance herself from the snarling brat of her previous discs. After all, she is a 27-year-old divorcee. So a song such as “Wish You Were Here,” perhaps the most mature track on the disc, sounds like the most adult recording she’s ever made.
But that doesn’t last long, because in “Smile” she sings about being a “crazy bitch,” blacking out and waking up with a new tattoo. She gets serious again on “Everybody Hurts” (not the R.E.M. song of the same name), as well as “Not Enough.” And that’s pretty much how it goes, a serious-to-silly seesaw.
