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© St. Petersburg Times, published October 7, 2001
MACY GRAY, THE ID (SONY) Macy Gray's debut album, On How Life Is, so rocked my world, I feared Gray would slip into the sophomore slump with her followup. Doesn't that always seem to happen? It's as if a new artist uses up all that creative juice on the debut, which he or she took years shaping, with no specter of celebrity haunting the process. Then -- boom! -- fame, fortune. The record label gives 'em a year to do it all again, and they peter out.
So, I was floored hearing The Id, jam-packed with everything the debut had -- and then some. Gray isn't one of these new-school R&B artists. She knows her soul and funk influences and wears them on her diaphanous, chiffon sleeves. (Go Sly Stone, go!)
Yet, Gray's sound is unique. She astounds with that quirky, evocative voice, as if Billie Holiday, Al Green and that kid Froggy from Little Rascals all chipped in chromosomes to create a diva.
Relating to a Psychopath kicks the door open funky-style with woozy Moog synthesizer and whinnying guitar. Gray's lyrics have never been more raw than on The Id. But rather than sounding like a potty mouth when Gray disses her men and their other ladies, she's candid, tough and knowing. The "share your freak with the rest of us" sentiment of Sexual Revolution is played up with a delicious disco vibe, so many strings you'll have visions of glittery silver balls dancing in your head.
Gray's no dummy, and lots of these songs pack smarts, emotion and wit. Or all three: Give Me All Your Lovin' or I Will Kill You. Others prove a time-tested, funky adage: Sometimes it feels so good just to shake your bootie. A+
-- GINA VIVINETTO, Times pop music critic
TORI AMOS, STRANGE LITTLE GIRLS (ATLANTIC) Mention Tori Amos and Eminem in the same breath, and you will baffle people. I promise. They won't comprehend the comparisons between the piano maven and the shock rapper.
Well, Amos, God bless her, is a total kook and an envelope pusher like Eminem, constantly bucking societal conventions. This time around she masterfully transforms classic songs sung by men into her own chilling compositions centering on graphic violence and sex. A simple album of cover songs would work well enough for most artists, but not Tori.
Instead, Strange Little Girls becomes a full-blown concept album, complete with photographs and stories of the characters Amos portrays. Sound pretentious? It's not.
Amos' daring results in a harrowingly personal album, as well as social commentary. Amos twists the meanings of the songs, exposing what she deems a misogynist sentiment in the music.
Especially alarming is Amos' version of Eminem's controversial '97 Bonnie & Clyde, detailing the fictional murder of his wife. Amos portrays the wife with a haunting spoken-word delivery of the nightmarish lyrics, complemented by a full orchestra with plucking violins.
Also musically sound, 10cc's I'm Not in Love, in Amos' hands, becomes a sinister trip-hop number. Joe Jackson's Real Men is rich with Amos' famous piano flourishes. The Beatles' Happiness Is a Warm Gun is an arresting 10-minute sonic fun house with warbly guitar and synthesizers. And Neil Young's Heart of Gold becomes a dance club-ready track, with Amos' vocals swooping in over manic synth-pop. A
-- BRIAN ORLOFF, Times correspondent
TOBY KEITH, PULL MY CHAIN (DREAMWORKS) Why did it take everybody so long to realize Toby Keith is one of the biggest talents in country music? The man had the most-played country song of the '90s, for goodness sake!
Better late than never, this year Keith finally got industry nods from the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association.
Forget about country sounding too pop. Keith's title cut, Pull My Chain, is pretty darn close to being a straight-ahead rock song as is Pick 'Em Up and Lay 'Em Down. Playing around with yet another genre, I Wanna Talk About Me with its lyric acrobatics is rap lite, a la Will Smith (Gettin' Jiggy Wit It).
With its pedal steel and toe-tapping appeal, I'm Not Talkin' About Tonight gets back to the kind of song Keith's country fans want. Keith may lose some of those diehard listeners with this CD, but he's going to be able to replace them with new fans who like his musical experiments.
Keith co-wrote nine of the album's songs and worked hard to entertain himself so he could entertain listeners. Many of the songs focus on simple themes, but the melody and instruments take them to higher ground. Even a song about items on someone's to-do list works in Keith's capable hands. B
-- PAMELA DAVIS, Times staff writer
TRACY BYRD, TEN ROUNDS (RCA) After a disappointing 1999 CD that spawned only one Top 10 hit, country singer Tracy Byrd is back in action with Ten Rounds. This time out he has loosened his traditional sound and mixed things up with lighter vocal touches and themes ranging from bad-boy attitude to romantic longing.
Byrd teams up with fellow Texan Mark Chesnutt on A Good Way to Get on My Bad Side and makes it known that the guys may like listening to Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Bocephus and George Jones but ". . . all that boy band crap/A little sissy in a cowboy hat ain't country."
Like newcomers Trick Pony did with Pour Me, Byrd proves there's still plenty of room in country for drinking songs. The CD's title song, Ten Rounds With Jose Cuervo (anybody see a TV commercial in Byrd's future?), is a fun mover and shaker with honky-tonk dance potential.
One of the album's highlights is the sophisticated Just Let Me Be in Love, a smooth love song complete with Spanish guitar. The tune is as far removed from Watermelon Crawl as he's probably ever going to get. Byrd lifts his voice an octave on Tryin' Not to Love You, a pop-influenced song that puts a spin on Byrd's usual sound.
This solid effort is marred by only one glaring misstep: a cover of Michael Murphy's Wildfire. In this case it's the song, not the singer, that's at fault. B+
-- P.D.
ZEMLINSKY: DER TRAUMGORGE (EMI CLASSICS). Though Alexander Zemlinsky (1871-1942) influenced an entire generation of younger composers, his music -- fanciful, hypnotic, episodic, quizzical and at times psychedelic -- was only rarely performed. It was a casualty, first of the politics of the music business, and then the Nazi Anschluss, which drove him to American shores.
The genesis of Der Traumgorge, which was commissioned by his friend Mahler (unmoved that Zemlinsky was his wife's former lover) is unusual: Zemlinsky went to extraordinary lengths to team up with a librettist, Leo Feld, to fashion a piecemeal story culled from works by several German men of letters. What emerged was a vague, dramatically incoherent story in three acts about the betrothed dreamer Jorg; his disillusioned fiance Grete; her braggadocio ex-lover Kaspar; Jorg's true love, the warm-hearted but socially unpopular Gertraude; an ethereal but imaginary Princess; and that old stalwart of theatrical cliches, a peasants' revolution.
When Mahler announced his resignation from the Vienna Opera, his replacement, suspicious of anyone boasting a relation with his predecessor, abruptly canceled the 1907 production of Die Traumgorge. It finally got its world premiere in Nuremberg in 1980.
Now James Conlon brings the full weight of his meticulous interpretive authority to a spectacular performance of this unjustly neglected musical (if not dramatic) masterpiece. David Kuebler's stentorian tenor offers a suave, inspired Jorg, while Iride Martinez and Patricia Racette are likewise persuasive as Gertraud and Grete. Only Susan Anthony's otherwise commendable Princess reveals a voice too thin for her role.
Conlon has left no detail unattended, no opportunity unexplored either for its textual meaning or compositional function. Zemlinsky may not be a household name, but this recording provides a most welcome survey of his exceptionally elegant music. A
-- JOHN BELL YOUNG, Times correspondent