10cc Greatest Hits And More
Rachal Langwith
I wanted to make it a real rock Christmas by pretending the worldconsists entirely of superstars, which would have meant replacingFaithfull, Green, Lloyd, and Wreckless Eric with Pendergrass, PinkFloyd, No Nukes, and Led Zep. But those last biggies weresimply four double-LPs too many (No Nukes is a triple, so LedZep counts). As it is you will find 10 of the big fat double-uglymothers below, including five in Additional Consumer News, devoted asis my custom to Yuletide product. Actually, this is a good crop--tworecommended live doubles and several excellent best-ofs as well as theusual pigs and turkeys. And the four small fry I stuck in will allmake better Christmas gifts than any of the four I passed up. Soho-ho-ho to you.
THE EAGLES: The Long Run (Asylum) This isn't ascountry-rocky as you might expect--these are pros who adapt to thetimes, and they make the music tough. I actually enjoy maybe half ofthese songs until I come into contact with the smug, sentimentalwoman-haters who are doing the singing. I mean, these guys think punksare cynical and anti-life? Guys who put down "the king of Hollywood"because his dick isn't as big as John David Souther's?C PLUS
MARIANNE FAITHFULL: Broken English (Island) Apunk-disco fusion so uncompromised it will probably scare away any onewho doesn't already admire both genres. Not a perfect record, Iadmit. The lyrics are maddeningly offhand and inconsistent--"Why d'yado what you said?/Why d'ya let her suck your cock?" is a greatbeginning, but "Ahh do me a favor/Don't put me in the dark" is aterrible rhyme (and not the only one, either). Still, I findFaithfull worth listening to even when she's sloppy, or maybe becauseshe's sloppy, like Dylan when he's good. The music's harshest accountof a woman in the world. A MINUS[Later]
FLEETWOOD MAC: Tusk (Warner Bros.) A million bucks iswhat I call obsessive production, but for once it meanssomething. This is like reggae, or Eno--not only don't LindseyBuckingham's swelling edges and dynamic separations get in the way ofthe music, they're inextricable from the music, or maybe theyare the music. The passionate dissociation of the mix isentirely appropriate to an ensemble in which the three principals haveall but disappeared (vocally) from each other's work. But onlyBuckingham is attuned enough to get exciting music out of a sound sospare and subtle it reveals the limits of Christine McVie's simplicityand shows Stevie Nicks up for the mooncalf she's always been. Also, itdoesn't make for very good background noise. B PLUS
FOREIGNER: Head Games (Atlantic) This isn't as soddenas you might expect--these are pros who adapt to the times, and theyspeed the music up. I actually enjoy a few of these songs until I comeinto contact with the smug, stupid woman-haters who are doing thesinging. I mean, these guys think punks are cynical and anti-life?Guys who complain that the world is all madness and lies and thenrhyme "science" and "appliance" without intending a joke? C
ARETHA FRANKLIN: La Diva (Atlantic) Blame what'swrong with this record on the late trite Van McCoy, one of the mosttasteless arrangers ever to produce an LP. What saves it is that McCoydidn't control half of these songs--arrangements by Richard Gibbs andArthur Jenkins (rhythm only) and Zulema Cusseaux and Skip Scarborough(rhythm plus orchestration) provide frequent relief. Arethacontributes two sisterly originals, which are really fine, and oneloverly original, which isn't. Because McCoy keeps intruding she nevergets a flow going. But there haven't been so many good cuts on one ofher albums since 1974. B
FUNKADELIC: Uncle Jam Wants You (Warner Bros.) Thisis fairly wonderful through the first cut on side two, but in a fairlyredundant way. Bernie Worrell's high synthesizer vamps sometimes seemlike annoying clichs these days, and not even Philippe Wynne canprovide the marginal variety that puts good groove music over thetop-maybe because he sounds like a high synthesizerhimself. B PLUS
PETER GREEN: In the Skies (Sail) For a supposedresident of Cloud Cuckoo Land, Fleetwood Mac's original hitmaker isdoing all right-this solo comeback is a lot solider than number threefrom Bob Welch (featuring "Future Games" as blast from the past),number two from Danny Kirwan (blonde on the cover), or number one fromJeremy Spencer (now apparently unborn-again, though six out of sevensongs pivot on the word "love" and the eternal one is graced withsyndrums). Green's new music goes all the way back to Then PlayOn, but it's a lot more confident-simple guitar excursions with aLatin lilt, like Carlos Santana with a sense of form (or limits). Andit makes for very good background noise. B PLUS[Later]
MILLIE JACKSON: Live and Uncensored(Polydor) Millie was made for live albums, as the rap-and-beltformat of her studio work suggests, and the drama here, with itsraunchy audience interplay, is at least as natural as anything she'sever devised for vinyl. Her timing keeps getting sharper, her voicekeeps getting bigger, the songs amount to a best-of, and you also geta monologue about soap operas and the "Phuck U Symphony." Certainlyher best since the Caught Up diptych, and probably definitive.A MINUS
JEFFERSON STARSHIP: Freedom at PointZero (Grunt) Hawkwind-goes-commercial leads off one side,Foreigner-hurries-home the other; both cuts are catchy, both sexisttripe. The rest of the album is a familiar muddle of fixations: spacetravel, good-time music, the deluge, the possession of prettygirls. Personal to Mickey Thomas: ain't nobody gonna boogie on themoons of Saturn. C MINUS
RICHARD LLOYD: Alchemy (Elektra) Lloyd really has hispop down, and this record never fails to cheer me when it comes on-thesongwriting and guitar textures are consistently tuneful andaffecting. I don't mind that he always sings off-key, either--part ofthe charm of his pop is how loose it is. But the voice is sowacked-out that even if you'd never seen Lloyd lurching around a stageor matching magic with Tom Verlaine you'd sense that where for theShoes or the Beat teen romance is a formal stricture, for him it's anevasion--he's just not telling us what he knows. B PLUS
LOU REED: The Bells (Arista) Lou is as sarcastic asever--the lead cut is called "Stupid Man," and in a typically acidrhyme he links "capricious" and "death wish." But due in part to themusic's jazzy edge and warmly traditional rock and roll base (specialthanks to Marty Fogel on saxophone) he also sounds. . . well-rounded, more than on Street Hassle. Thejokes seem generous, the bitterness empathetic, the pain outfront, thetenderness more than a fleeting mood. And the cuts that don'twork-there are at least three or four-seem like thoughtfulexperiments, or simple failures, rather than throwaways. I haven'tfound him so likable since The Velvet Underground.B PLUS
THE ROSE (Atlantic) The usual soundtrack alibis don'tapply to a Paul Rothchild production utilizing studio-certifiedmusicians and a dozen tunesmiths hacking out rock songs to order. Infact, all that distinguishes this collection of nine Bette Midlerperformances from, say, your usual backup-goes-solo bid is that it wasrecorded live--for "feel," I guess. Although it is true that except forthe off-color "Love Me with a Feeling" the high points are themonologue on side one and a prolonged is fanfare. C
THE WHO: The Kids Are Alright (MCA) I prefer theoriginals, but this isn't a bad sampler. All of the songs are good,many are classics, and the relative roughness of performance has itsattractions even if the relative roughness of sound doesn't (most ofthem are from live dates never intended for vinyl). One thing I'd liketo know, though--if he's so "vital," how come 12 of the 15 Townsendcompositions are from the '60s? B
STEVIE WONDER: Stevie Wonder's Journey Through the SecretLife of Plants (Tamla) Like most great popular composers,Wonder is an appalling "serious" one. With their one-worldinstrumental flourishes and other sound effects, the presumablysynthesized "orchestral" passages that dominate the first two sidesare like bad (!) David Amram at their best (!) and some justifiablyanonymous Hollywood hack at their worst. (Major exception: "RaceBabbling," especially when it glances a presumably synthesized hornriff off presumably synthesized voices and ostinatos.) And only two ofthe four songs on side three, which defenders of this album admire,are worth of Key of Life. But on side four Wonder's indomitableopen-heartedness finally breaks through the mawk. "A Seed's a Star andTree Medley" is even more foolish philosophically than most of therest of the album, but its lan makes Stevie's vitalism palpable, sothat even the presumably synthesized orchestral passages which wrapthings up sound ardently schmaltzy instead of depressinglyschlocky. Still, next time I hope he aimslower. B MINUS
WRECKLESS ERIC: The Whole Wide World (Stiff) Like theOnly Ones' Special View, Eric's U.S. debut sifts the duds outof two years worth of U.K. singles and LPs to arrive at astylistically unified compilation album--though the 13 tracks listseven different producers, they cohere, because Eric hasn't had timeto outgrow his own impulses. The voice mewls and scratches like a catin a broom closet, but the melodies get out, and the lyrics are a lotless hapless than they pretend to be: beneath the girl-shy fool lurksan ironic paranoid of devastating subtlety. A MINUS
NEIL YOUNG: Live Rust (Reprise) John Piccarellathinks this is the great Neil Young album, Greil Marcus thinks it's awaste, and they're both right. The two discs are probably moreimpressive cut for cut than Decade, but without offering onesong Young fans don't already own. I prefer the studio versions of theacoustic stuff on side one for their intimacy and touch. But I'm sureI'll play the knockdown finale--"Like a Hurricane," "Hey Hey, My My,"and "Tonight's the Night," all in their wildest (and best) recordedinterpretations--whenever I want to hear Neil rock out.A MINUS
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