Audio Files

By GINA VIVINETTO, ROBERT FRIEDMAN, BRIAN ORLOFF, PAMELA DAVIS and JOHN FLEMING

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 18, 2001

LLAMA FARMERS, EL TOPPO (BEGGARS BANQUET) I'll eat my hat come December if Llama Farmers' El Toppo isn't on my Best of 2001 list. I can't get this out of my stereo long enough to give any other disc a try.

Llama Farmers craft guitar-based alt pop with such emotion and insight, well, imagine my surprise when I learned that all four members are barely into their 20s. Formed five years ago when they met in high school -- well, two band members are brother and sister -- the quartet hails from Greenwich, England. But don't think: Ah, Britpop. No, Llama Farmers sound nothing like Blur or Oasis or Travis. Or the Beatles. They sound like no one else.

From the title cut on, each song is earnest, hungry, filled with emotion. On second thought, it makes sense that these four only recently dabbled in adolescence; this music is filled with vulnerability and passion, even the fun stuff, the tunes about hooking up with your crush, together with eating fudge or getting drunk and listening to Marvin Gaye.

The perfect Snow White is a case in point. It starts with Jennie Simpson's hypnotic bass and the woozy, sing-songy proclamation of "I'm gonna tell everyone about you." Infused by guitarist Bernie Simpson's manic rave-up, the song twists and turns, pulling us through motions. Now Bernie sings, then Sis again, then Bernie. It's exhausting. Or is it invigorating? Snow White, like much of El Toppo, sounds like how it feels to be a teenager stumbling, reckless, through love. Grade: A.

- GINA VIVINETTO, Times staff writer

RODNEY CROWELL, THE HOUSTON KID (Sugar Hill) Rodney Crowell, the Nick Lowe of Nashville, has been one of our finest songwriters for more than two decades. A man could die content if he never wrote anything but Ain't Livin' Long Like This and Till I Gain Control Again. But in recent years, Crowell has had a tendency to settle for the merely clever instead of striving for the sincere and profound.

Not so with The Houston Kid, a more seamless and honest piece of work than Crowell seemed to have left in him. As the title implies, these are the semi-autobiographical stories of a white-trash kid who grew up on "the other side of Houston in a two-room shack."

This, of course, is dangerous territory. One man's nostalgia is another man's soporific. But Crowell consistently avoids the treacly, the trite, the pretentious and the self-indulgent. Song after song delivers razor-sharp description and genuine emotion, from the unforgettable taste of "them cherry cokes down at the Princess drive-in" to the dead eyes of a battered wife who happened to be his mother.

The words never get in the way of the music, and the production is especially crisp. At the perfect moment, we are graced with a thrilling cameo from the closest human approximation of the voice of God: Crowell's former father-in-law, Johnny Cash, with an updated version of I Walk the Line.

Crowell always was an impressive craftsman even when he was merely clever. The Houston Kid is the fully realized work of a mature artist. Grade: A-

- ROBERT FRIEDMAN, Times staff writer

PIZZICATO FIVE, THE FIFTH RELEASE FROM MATADOR (MATADOR RECORDS) If Tokyo Disney is still open and operating, then pronto, somebody must give Pizzicato Five a call. Especially if Disney is in need of some new tunes to creep into the heads of parkgoers and take their brains hostage with a euphoric, be-boppy sound.

On their new album, the creatively titled The Fifth Release From Matador, the Japanese duo has crafted a sound perfect for a day in a Disneyesque labyrinth of joy. Pizzicato's happy music will captivate you and stay for a good day or two. Take it every hour on the hour.

And I think that is the point.

In the face of the present music scene -- one bland, blah pop group after another -- it's refreshing to listen to an album that does not take itself so seriously. Hey, Pizzacato 5 knows its music is silly, and what does it have to hide? The fact that singer Maki Nominya gets her vocal groove on in Japanese (and sometimes French)? Totally beside the point.

The Fifth Release From Matador has such broad appeal that everyone from your kid sister to your grandma will bop to the beat. So what if it sounds like the theme song to The Price Is Right, or any other game show for that matter? Come on down. You won't be sorry. Grade: A

- BRIAN ORLOFF, Times correspondent

DONNY OSMOND, THIS IS THE MOMENT (DECCA BROADWAY) -- Hey, Donny. Two questions:

1. Is your new CD, This is the Moment, an audition for the touring company of Seussical?

2. Did you sing a duet with Rosie O'Donnell just to cement an appearance on her TV show? (If the answer is yes, we forgive you.)

Thanks to VH1's Behind the Music, many of us now know that Donny Osmond was once in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. So it should be no big surprise that he has chosen to honor musical theater with his latest CD.

But for some reason, he sings two songs from the struggling Seussical production. Feels like he's dropping a hint.

The other 11 selections include a tune from the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, The Beautiful Game, which is still playing to audiences in England.

It's good to know that Osmond, a '70s teen idol, hasn't given up his craft. In fact, the Backstreet Boys should kick out A.J. and slip in Donny. He still has his looks, and the pipes are as strong as ever.

But it's a little disappointing that Vanessa Williams and Rosie O'Donnell were the best duet partners he could come up with on a CD full of Broadway tunes. Why not Heather Headley (Lion King, Aida)? Maybe singing with Osmond isn't something one considers a good career move.

Still, his collaboration with Williams on Not While I'm Around is one of the stronger selections on the CD.

I can't say the same for O'Donnell, who really has no business singing on anyone's CD. Ever.

Many of these Broadway songs are perfectly suited to Osmond, both musically and lyrically. Seasons of Love from Rent, No Matter What from Whistle Down the Wind and Immortality from Saturday Night Fever (the musical, not the movie) are great fits. Someone really should have put the brakes on his singing Luck Be a Lady.

It's a painful listen.

The trouble with this CD is that once it's over, there's nothing on it that makes you want to press the backward arrow on the player and listen again. It's an admirable effort from an adequate singer, but there's nothing that will make you want to give Osmond a standing ovation when it's over. Grade: C

- PAMELA DAVIS, Times staff writer

MELINDA WAGNER: FLUTE CONCERTO; POUL RUDERS: CONCERTO IN PIECES (BRIDGE) -- Melinda Wagner and Poul Ruders are not household names, not even to the extent that other, somewhat more renowned contemporary composers such as Aaron Jay Kernis or Michael Torke are, at least in the United States. But judging from this enterprising CD, released last year, Wagner and Ruders are writing music that symphony orchestras ought to be playing more often.

Wagner, who is from Philadelphia, did win the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for music for her Concerto for Flute, Strings and Percussion, which receives its premiere recording here by flutist Paul Lustig Dunkel with the Westchester Philharmonic, Mark Mandarano conducting. Cast in the conventional three movements, it is a superb piece, modeled on Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, with the same nice balance between mildly atonal astringency and sweetness. The meditative middle movement is especially lovely, with some eerie string effects, and Dunkel's dexterous play holds it all together. The concerto showcases the tone colors of the flute in exceptional fashion.

Danish composer Ruders is better known internationally, since his new opera The Handmaid's Tale (based on the Margaret Atwood novel) has been widely hailed. Like Wagner's concerto, his Concerto in Pieces is inspired by an earlier work, in his case by Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, which was, in turn, an homage to Purcell.

Ruder's concerto for orchestra, a theme and variations on the witches' chorus from Dido and Aeneas, is simply spectacular. It is stuffed with catchy little solos for alto sax, harp, muted trumpet and tuba, among others. The BBC Symphony Orchestra, with Andrew Davis conducting, gives it a wild ride, dashing through the 10 movements with tremendous flair and rhythmic drive.

The CD also includes interviews with the composers. Grade: A

- JOHN FLEMING, Times performing arts critic

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