Word: albums
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...dream of old jazz clubs and big bands. But somehow Nascimento's tribute to the era still sounds like a cheap imitation, complete with anachronistic R&B beats and some off-key harmonies. It's hard to believe he won a Grammy in 1997 for Best World Music Album. "Crooner" might work for a millennium party in Rio de Janeiro, Nascimento's hometown, where versions of "Beat It" may be hard to come by, but if you're looking for jazz standards for your own New Year's bash, stick with the originals...
...combination of various sound bites from selected episodes, as well as a rendition of the song performed by Lisa Kudrow (as Phoebe Buffay), bolstered by the vocals of The Pretenders. The song in itself emanates hilarity, but is an odd addition to a collection of teen rock. The album concludes with a performance of "I'll Be There for You" by rapper thor-el, by far the most out-of-place track on the album. All in all, a bad combination--songs that mostly sound alike and a few oddballs that stick out like a pair of sore thumbs...
...seen the Dave Matthews band on the road and wondered who the opening act was, then Bela Fleck and the Flecktones' new album is worth a listen. Spanning nine years, the album features highlights from the band's eight previous releases. The Flecktones fuse jazz, funk and bluegrass into an eclectic mix of musical virtuosity that escapes the confines of any genre, using sounds ignored in mainstream rock, including Bela Fleck's Grammy-winning banjo skills and Future Man's synthaxe drumitar, a sort of percussion guitar that changes from rhythm to lead. Victor Wooten, arguably the best bass player...
...reflects the band's growth as they have learned to combine their unconventional instruments, Greatest Hits is surprisingly cohesive. Unfortunately, "Communication" (from 1997's Left of Cool), featuring Dave Matthews' vocals, is an obvious attempt to recruit Matthews' fans, and doesn't fit with this otherwise purely instrumental album. Nonetheless, the album's two previously unreleased tracks, "Shocktime" and "Road House Blues," are melodic and Wooten's wizardry in the two alone make the album worth the money...
Listening to Rainbow, Mariah Carey's seventh album, it's clear that the best reason to rock this New Year's will be to celebrate the end of the Mariah decade. Her record sales throughout the '90s have grown to rival those of Elvis and the Beatles, and to many ears the Mariah sound has grown indistinguishable from the endless cosmetics aisles and multiplexes of our postmodern world. But there's no pot of gold at the end of Rainbow. The album strips that sound down to its purest form, cleverly obfuscating Mariah's predictably smarmy lyrics with sonorous mumblings...