Audio Files

By GINA VIVINETTO and JANET K. KEELER

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 5, 2001

OF POP, PAP AND P. DIDDY

'N SYNC, CELEBRITY (JIVE) 'N Sync's fans are in for a shock with Celebrity, the latest from the act we all know as the "boy band" that makes prepubescent hearts swoon.

Celebrity is aggressive, it's adventurous, and it signals a new era for the quintet. This is the album that will garner 'N Sync a new audience, thanks to the avant garde treatments of producer BT, best known as an innovative creator of electronica and dance music. BT's touch brightens the hit Pop, with all its staccato beats and vocal edits. That song -- in fact most of the album -- was co-written by members Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez.

While the lyrics are hardly complex, they are 'N Sync's most introspective. The perils of fame, the frustration of being pigeonholed as a teen pop band, being used and other dicey themes color Celebrity.

Squelchy synthesizers and dizzying electronica sounds make Celebrity's danceable material shine. Of course, no 'N Sync disc is complete without a sappy ballad or two. But the album's gritty, old school R&B vibe recalls vintage Jackson 5 and Stevie Wonder, who plays guest harmonica on Something Like You.

Celebrity loses its luster toward its end, when songs start sounding too similar and formulaic. But, much of the album indicates 'N Sync may be the first boy band to grow up. B

-- GINA VIVINETTO, Times pop music critic

IGGY POP, BEAT EM UP (VIRGIN) Beat Em Up finds punk godfather Iggy Pop back in form, ranting, raving and sounding more Stoogey than we've heard him in years. After the solemn -- some say silly -- Avenue B, his 1999 release, Pop is again screaming about how society stinks and everyone surrounding him is an idiot, or, in this case, a jerk.

So, naturally, a lot of Beat Em Up is plain silly. Go for the Throat. Weasels. It's All S--. Well, nobody rants better than Pop, but, you start to thinking: This kvetching is alluring from someone who's 20 and rolling around in peanut butter and broken glass, sure. When the guy is 54? Dude, find some Zoloft.

Pop fares well with the noirish, arty stuff recalling his 1970s heydey. Talking Snake is slithering and surreal, letting you know Pop's more than a knee-jerking rabble rouser. B

-- G.V.

DIDDY & THE BAD BOY FAMILY, THE SAGA CONTINUES . . . (BMG) Poor Puffy, or P. Diddy, or whomever. First, he's grieving over his buddy Biggie's death, and Mase drops from his label to go find God. Then, all that nonsense with the New York club shooting and the grueling trial. Then -- boom -- J.Lo dumps him.

But, you can't keep a music mogul like Sean Combs down. P. Diddy still found time to churn out another album chock full o' zesty samples from songs we already love. The Saga Continues features raps by the Bad Boy collective, future stars such as Black Rob, G-Dep and Mark Curry, as well as the tried and true: Faith Evans and Eightball.

Wanna laugh? Check out ol' P. Diddy again trying to rap on Lonely. Yo, P, it's called a beat. Try to find it.

The Saga Continues is more of what P. Diddy does best: snakey grooves, riffs snagged from classic tunes and good friends rhyming and boasting. That may be enough for listeners who are happy the Bad Boys' motto is "We Won't Stop." C

-- G.V.

WILLA FORD, WILLA WAS HERE (LAVA) Don't hate Willa Ford's Willa Was Here because she used to date a Backstreet Boy. Hate it because it doesn't bring anything new to your ears. If you own Christina, Mandy, Jennifer, Britney or Jessica, you've heard Willa.

Poor Willa. Villified at 20 all over the Internet because she dated and dissed BSB Nick Carter. Now she has released a slick CD that will make it big on MTV's TRL but fade quicker than you can say "whasssup." Her brand of electronica is very danceable but, ultimately, forgettable.

There's some Donna Summer moaning on Ooh, Ooh; some Christina Aguilera-cum-Mariah Carey note scaling on Tender and a little J.Lo hip-hop on Did Ya' Understand That. Even the first vocal note of I Wanna Be Bad sounds like Britney Spears' Baby One More Time.

The real shame here is that the agile-voiced Willa Ford, who has songwriting credits on nine of 11 tracks and who sings most her own background vocals, is being marketed in the same old mold. Long blond hair, skimpy clothes and sexy, sexy songs. On Tired, she rails against manufactured pop music. Isn't that ironic. C

-- JANET K. KEELER, Times staff writer

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