Word: albums
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Harry Shearer, the comedian, writer, actor (This Is Spinal Tap) and ubiquitous voice on The Simpsons, ventures into political satire in his new album, Songs of the Bushmen (Courgette Records). The CD takes musical potshots at Administration figures ranging from Condi Rice to Karl Rove, but what has got at least some people upset is its cover: the President with a bone through his nose, an image that prompted radio and billboard powerhouse Clear Channel to ban billboard ads for the album. Shearer talked with TIME's Richard Zoglin about the controversy, the state of political satire and the chances...
...inverse relation to its own global significance. I observed this firsthand growing up in the world's most Abbaricious country, Australia. In 1976, 54% of my compatriots watched the local TV special The Best of Abba. That's as many of them as watched the moon landing. The album of the same name is still Australia's best-selling ever...
...easier to revive the things that were reviled the first time. The Beatles and Shakespeare need no comeback and thus have less nostalgia value. But Abba has been making these incursions into American culture (Muriel's Wedding! The Gold album!) for 35 years. That persistence suggests the band offers an appeal beyond the obvious one of watching unathletic people in white catsuits and platform boots. Why the cultural valence...
What They're in French First Lady Carla Bruni might blame hubby Nicolas Sarkozy for the lukewarm reviews of her latest folk-pop album, Comme Si Rien N'Etait (As If Nothing Happened). Though nearly half a million people logged on to the chanteuse's website before the much hyped July 11 release, sales are slow, and 55% of French voters think Sarkozy is merely using his wife to boost his image. With lyrics like "my lord, my darling, my orgy" (which presumably refer to Sarkozy)--that's quite an image indeed...
...very ambivalent to their own musical roots even now," he says, "it seems like it belongs to the past backwardness." His Ethiopiques project has been slowly building a following among western audiences. So far there have been 23 CDs as well as an award-winning Very Best of ... album while Jim Jarmusch used a couple of Mulatu Astatqé songs to great "What IS that?" effect on the soundtrack of his film Broken Flowers. Will this new series of concerts heralds a Buena Vista Social Club kind of renaissance for Ethiopian music? Perhaps. But just as important, says Falceto...