Word: albums
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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There are three kinds of tracks in an Adam Sandler album. The universally funny tracks, those that appeal to the more immature and those that are funny only if you giggle when you hear the term "erector set." In Sandler's new album, half of the skits/songs fall into the lattermost category, and most of the other tracks occupy the second. While there are a couple of exceptions, including an entertaining but overly long midget referee sketch, the trouble with the skits is that Sandler believes there's no such thing as carrying a gag too far, even...
...journey the album depicts parallels Reznor's own rocky one. The mind-whammy of sudden celebrity, the devastating 1997 death of the grandmother who raised him in his hometown of Mercer, Pa., and the overwhelming pressure to come up with another hit all converged to push Reznor into a quicksand of depression. "I was in a bad place," he recalls. "I couldn't work. I couldn't look in the mirror." Seldom listening to radio, tuning in to MTV "only to remind myself not what to do," he shut himself off from the world. For weeks he avoided the studio...
...Fragile has very little fat on it, and in the age of the Backstreet Boys, it courageously dares to not pander to radio. The album has an organic feel, with little of the machine-like velocity and crushing density of Spiral. Reznor leaves breaks in the sonic wall this time, allowing the songs to breathe. He drives home a subtle message of uplift by filling the open spaces with soft, surprising textures rarely found in rock: cellos, violins, a ukulele here and there, and a tinkling piano--many of those played by Reznor himself, who also does most...
...around in the dark side has revealed light. Not religion exactly, but spirituality. "I was in a spiritually vacant zone," he says, "and I rounded a corner. I believe there's a purpose and a karma that's real. If it's right for you, embrace it." Embrace the album too, if you dare; but be careful, it's fragile...
RAPPY BIRTHDAY Hip-hop is celebrating its 20th anniversary (Sugar Hill Gang's album Rapper's Delight was released this month in 1979). Now that hip-hop has been around for two decades, a generation gap has developed between old-school and new-school rap. How can you tell them apart? Answer: Product placement...