BORING...BORING!                            GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT

By Maximillien de Lafayette

Photo: Ann Hampton Callaway.

It is not enough to count on your fame to cash on your CD. True, celebrity status sells records. But, quality is to be preserved, originality to metamorphose and warmth to emanate from your songs. Unfortunately, it did NOT happen for many recording artists this year. Among those singers who bored me to death are Ann Hampton Callaway, especially when she sings  "Let the Saints Come Marching". Her CD "Who Can See The Blue The Same Again?" is a great disappointment, keep it on the dusty shelves.
Photo: Cover of  "Here, There and Everywhere" by Andrea Marcovicci.

Marcovicci failed to maintain her vocal quality in her last 2 released CDs. What happened to this diva? I wish Marcovicci would go back and listen to her "Live From London". That CD was monumental.

Photo: "Live From London" by Andrea Marcovicci was stunning and monumental. But what is happening to Marcovicci's talent now? She just lost it.

In addition to her failure in delivering the quality expected from a grande dame of the American cabaret, Marcovicci adopted this nonchalant attitude "laisser aller". This could and would explain the reason why her appearances schedule is getting minimal.

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Point to ponder while contemplating Sheryl Crow's new Wildflower CD: will a bad review earn a set of tread marks on my back? Time to run. Don't be deceived into thinking that big rock on Crow's finger courtesy of fiancé Lance Armstrong will result in a giddy album of love songs. Instead, this disc is downbeat and downright boring. Crow is 43 now, beyond the point where all you wanna do is have some fun. She's brooding over the big issues of life, love, loyalty and mortality, and that's more than understandable. It's just harder to make that into engaging pop-rock tunes, and that's Crow's strength, where she beat the odds to become very successful in a style that's no longer fashionable. Here, you slog through seven earnest, mid-tempo songs until there's a sign of life: Live it Up has Crow urging someone to not let life pass them by, and it has the disc's strongest hook and quickest pace. Always on Your Side is the best of the rest, a stately ballad that benefits from stripping the music down. Otherwise, the production is simultaneously busy and rather anonymous, unwisely emphasizing Crow's thin vocals. Perhaps Wildflower has a few seeds that will take time to grow. Pass the fertilizer, though.-Reviewer: David Baudder

Paul McCartney
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (Capitol)

Is Chaos and Creation in the Backyard the album Paul McCartney fans have been waiting for him to make? Not quite. While it has much more edge than most of McCartney's usual lighthearted pap, it doesn't dive into the darker recesses explored by his former bandmate John Lennon. That said, Chaos and Creation is a good album, picking up in some ways where 2001's Driving Rain, McCartney's last collection of original songs, left off. Chaos and Creation is much more restrained than Driving Rain, and in that regard has more in common with McCartney's early 1970s records. Hearkening back to his first solo album, 1970's McCartney, Paul wrote all the songs and played most of the instruments on his latest. Aided by Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, McCartney does show some emotional depth and vulnerability, which is usually hidden behind his aging mop-top facade. At the Mercy includes the very un-McCartney-esque line of "Sometimes my head is hanging low, but it's time to get on with the show.... I can think of nothing more to say." He sings of loss and friendship in How Kind of You and sadness and sorrow in Too Much Rain. Even with his darker side poking through, McCartney can't totally divorce himself from songs like English Tea. The catchy tune will burrow into your cerebral cortex, but your lyrical sense will cringe at lines like, "Do you know the game croquet, peradventure we might play, very gay, hip hooray." But as he approaches 64, Chaos and Creation gives McCartney fans another reason to still need him. Fans can only hope it's the sign of even better things to come. -Reviewer: Scott Bauder

Extraordinary Machine
Fiona Apple (Epic)

Fiona Apple's long-overdue third album, Extraordinary Machine, doesn't match up to the more minimalist unfinished version that was leaked on the Internet months ago. But on its own merits, Extraordinary Machine is a good album and properly returns one of the most talented singers on the planet to the spotlight. Apple and her handlers handed over the production reins to Mike Elizondo after Jon Brion took a swipe and failed to impress someone, somewhere, in a suit. It's unfortunate for those who appreciate giving Apple room to shine, instead of saddling her with production room bluster. Red Red Red is an exceptional song about a relationship slowly changing, and the quest for emotional harmony without compromising individual identity. It's a slow-paced track, but infused with fire behind Apple's soulful voice. She's never sounded better vocally. However, Elizondo took the sting out of many of the tracks. He botched the steamy song O' Sailor by adding some corny background vocals where none were needed. And he took the energy out Please Please Please, a punchy potential hit now stuck with a lot of drum cymbals work and less of the whimsical staccato pace that made the leaked version shine. This is still good music mind you, but it's been better. The leaked album sounded like a bunch of talented youngsters snuck into an abandoned orchestra pit and made some beautiful music when no adults were around to give them "direction." The official release sounds like an annoying kid with Pro Tools tagged along.- Reviewer: Ron Haris

Z
My Morning Jacket (ATO/RCA Records)

Jim James sings on the opening track of My Morning Jacket's solid new album, Z, "We are the innovators, they are the imitators." But are they? My Morning Jacket, who usually perform barefoot and headbang with their long brown hair, plays a '00s kind of southern rock -- what you might call a leaner, smarter Lynyrd Skynyrd. They aren't going to wow you with new ideas, but they'll rock just the same. The real difference of Z from My Morning Jacket's three prior albums is that the reverb, which typically draws out James's voice, has been tampered down. It's a welcome change from the previously suffocating, pristine vocals. It's immediately noticed on the first song, Wordless Chorus -- a striking, organ driven, soft groove that, true to title, has a chorus of only "ahhh." It sounds unlike anything My Morning Jacket has done before -- James even throws in some high, Michael Jackson-esque shrieks at the end. The other standout is Off the Record -- which is really three songs in one: a James Bond theme, an Elvis Costello single and a Portishead outro. The three parts, surprisingly, all work together to make a hell of a tune. My Morning Jacket still finds room for some reverb-soaked vocals and headbanging anthem (Anytime), but the band are easy to parody for such self-conscious rocking. Instead, they should keep the co-producer of Z -- John Leckie -- and stick to their new, more straightforward sound. -Reviewer: J. Cole

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